My Favourite Bob Dylan Album

Announcing their favourite Bob Dylan album always brings about great controversy amongst music snobs. Some prefer the angry young man who points his finger like a gun at corruption and power, while others like the rock star circa '65 Dylan who didn't give a fuck if you hated rock music. Still others like the more mellow adult contemporary Dylan who has moved past his day of being an angry young man and just focuses on honing his trade. I prefer the first of these categories because I believe that it was when Dylan really hit his stride.

That being said, I have to say that the one Dylan album that has always stuck with me is The Times They are a Changin'. I honestly don't really care for the title track, not because it isn't a great song, but rather for the fact that it has become overused and hardly represents the true elegance of this album. Instead, I love tracks like "With God on Our Side," "Ballad of Hollis Brown," "Only a Pawn in their Game,", "Boots of Spanish Leather," "When the Ship Comes In," and (my favourite Dylan song ever) "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll". These songs were written when Dylan was at his most political and socially conscious point. They represent a great time in American history when people were really challenging the established beliefs of the day in the hopes of making a new America.

I don't want to wrap this up in sentimentality because I am not really a fan of how that era has been carved into a pop culture slogan for meaningless teenage rebellion. Instead, I like to think of the sixties in terms of this album and the many other great artists who pushed the envelope in terms of subject matter in their music in order to state what many others were already thinking.

Check out this video of Dylan of singing the beautiful "Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" Watch his face while singing this song and listen to the sincerity in his voice.


Then there's the unequivocally thoughtful "Only a Pawn in Their Game." A song written about the assassination of Civil Rights leader Medgar Evers. I can't even fathom how much this song would have pissed off those people who believe that some people should rule the world based on the colour of their skin. It speaks a truth too obvious to deny and too powerful to ignore.



Check this album out if you can. You will return to it for the rest of your life.

EDJ