Ultimate Set List Wednesday (June 1, 2011): Bob Dylan
In my spare time I imagine the perfect set list for my favorite bands/artists. They’re not just my favorite songs slapped together, but composed in an order that I think would be amazing.
This week I had the daunting task—in terms of the tasks middle class white people do—of tackling the 1000+ Dylan songs on my computer to find a reasonable amount to cram into one dream set list. I failed. It was hard enough to narrow it down to 40 songs and I couldn’t think of any I could really cut past that amount. So I decided to divide the songs into two dream shows.
Fortunately, I’ve been able to see Dylan live in the past. But, unfortunately, I saw Dylan live in the not so distant past. When I saw him, he stayed off to the side of stage pattering on his keyboard and grumbling the lines as if they were more like animal grunts than lyrics with ebbs and flows. He didn’t say hello, he didn’t say goodbye and there was to be no encore.
I wasn’t mad, however. Dylan has been playing live almost non-stop for the past 40 years; and if he played all his songs on a triangle next year, it wouldn’t diminish the fact that he is probably the single greatest songwriter of the 20th century and perhaps its best overall artist as well. He has a dozen+ albums that are gems and all the rest have a few studded in there. So, here’s a collection of not only my favorite Dylan songs, but my favorite version of that song.
*Vol. # = Corresponds to the Bootleg Series volume number.
