Best Bob Dylan album.

My analysis of the Dylan records I am familiar with is as follows:

Freewheelin' Bob Dylan: There are some good songs on this record but I appreciate it more for the idea of what it is. I enjoy listening to a song like "Talkin World War III Blues" but the rest of them (Bob Dylan's Dream, Bob Dylan's Blues etc.) are pretty overheard ideas that keep their brilliance up to about 250 listens. I really like "Girl From the North Country", and "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" as my favorites from this one.

Another Side of Bob Dylan: This record shows a less serious side (all Iiii reallyyyy wanna dooooOOOOOoo is baby be friends with you) and less in love side of Dylan as he begins to develop his skill of tongue in cheek anti-love songs about women such as "It Ain't Me Babe" (a cousin to something like "Just Like A Woman" or "Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I Go Mine)" from Blonde on Blone). Also, the songs start sounding less like folk standards i.e. Spanish Harlem Incident vs. Bob Dylan's Blues. Then we have a generically structured song brought to life by Dylan's goofy sort of charm, and the name escapes me, but it's the one about going to a farm and claiming to be a doctor and etc. This idea reoccurs on Bringing it All Back Home with the other song that follows the same structure whose name also escapes me. This is my favorite acoustic album of Dylan's to listen to these days since the songs and their structures aren't so familiar as Freewheelin'.

Bringing It All Back Home: The electric songs are good, but as it is first foray into the field of rock'n'roll (or whatever he would have you call it), the songs are a bit repetitive and hold interest for maybe 400 listens. The acoustic songs, however, are some of Dylan's best poetic moments with "Gates of Eden", "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)", and of course "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "It's All Over Now Baby Blue".

Highway 61 Revisited: Here Dylan has perfected that electrification of classic folk and blues structure, and made it his own. I love every song on this album, from beginning to end. Desolation Row at the end just shows Dylan's mastery of the folk craft. The song is over 9 minutes long, yet I am never ready for it to end.

Blonde on Blonde: I did not like this record at first. I thought it sounded silly. This is because Dylan is so incredibly more aware of himself, just as always in his progression of albums. His vowels are sometimes hilariously elongated and exaggerated in what Dylan believes is a proper imitation of his own style. After awhile I grew to love this album more than any of them (except Highway 61, probably). Dylan has mastered the electric folk band craft even further with what almost plays like a sort of concept album. I get the feeling of a certain story from beginning to end, though the record contains many stories. My favorite tracks are "Stuck Inside of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again", "Visions of Johanna" and "Fourth Time Around" (whose melody is infamously copped in a particular tune of Lennon's).

John Wesley Harding - This record sounds exactly like what it is: Dylan picking himself up and dusting himself off after an ultimate crash (In 1967, at the peak of his self-destructive, highly successful career, he was in a motorcycle crash and disappeared for a little while. JWH was the first record recorded after). The songs are mostly played on acoustic guitar, and oftentimes I completely forget there is a band playing the whole time. Dylan's awareness of himself comes across to me as a little less creative lyrically than his older work, considering some of the predictable rhymes he uses. In the older record, dylan rhyming four lines at the end with all words that end in "and" (stand, band, hand, grand) was brilliantly simple. Now, it sounds a little bit forced and like he is trying too hard. I have not listened to this record nearly as much as the others, but I like it and value it as a Dylan record.

These are all the Dylan records I own. I plan on collecting at least most of them, though I fear many of them lack the brilliant qualities of certain ones I have come to favor.
You see, Bob Dylan was sort of like a new Pink Floyd for me. I have discussed his music a lot with two of my good friends who are way into Dylan. At this stage in my life, Dylan is the biggest musical obsession since Pink Floyd. He has inspired me to write a lot more songs, just as Floyd did, but almost moreso, as much of his work shows brilliance in simplicity of style (Which is one way so many people try to imitate and fall short. Their simplicity lacks the brilliance).

Everyone knows Blood On the Tracks is the best one in my opinion.

I have that record but I have only listened to it about 5 times and do not have a whole lot to say about it.

Hrm.

Yeah I realize the discrepancy. I didn't want to include Blood on the Tracks in the long post because I have so little to say about it. I haven't quite "gotten" it yet. A friend of mine said to listen to it when I have a serious relationship go south, which hasn't happened since I bought the record. Although this did happen when I first heard Blonde on Blonde, which is how I grew to love the record so much.