Woke Up This Morning, Feeling Blue

An hour-long Bob Dylan selection? Either a really great idea... or a really bad one. Still, when have I ever let a bad idea hold me back?

I'll be honest: Dylan failed to move me in my teens, my twenties, arguably a chunk of my thirties. He was just "that guy" that everyone held up as one of the greatest songwriters of all time. Oh, and for a brief period, a Travelling Wilbury.

But the slow creep began, way back with a cassette compilation from my friend, featuring Desolation Row in all it's 11-minute glory. I got into The Byrds in the 1990s, which meant absorbing Dylan's music by an osmosis-like process (Bobmosis?) Buying music magazines inevitably meant even more Bobness via countless cover mount CDs and cover versions.

When I finally relented, I think Highway 61 Revisited was the first Bob Dylan album that I acquired. And of course it's brilliant. Over the years, I've sporadically added to the collection, even cheated by getting the 2007 Dylan 3CD anthology for something like eight quid brand new from Fopp in Bristol.

For all that though, I still know next to nothing about Bob Dylan and his music. So, there was a degree of trepidation in approaching a Dylan Dubhed selection, not least because I also had the grand ambition of wanting to include at least one of his songs from the past 7 decades. 

The 1960s and 1970s choices were the hardest, mainly as that's the greatest density of Dylan songs that I own. Into the 21st Century and approaching the present day, it became slightly easier as I usually had either one album or a handful of songs to pick from.

The end result spans 1964 to 2020, taking in singles, outtakes, cover versions, album deep cuts, but mainly ploughing a downtempo, bluesy groove. 

Earlier this week, Swiss Adam wrote a fascinating piece on 1984's Jokerman (which you can find here), with the brilliant line about parent album Infidels, "it's 80s Dylan and must be approached with caution". 

I've heeded that advice, so just a couple of appearances here from the Eighties: Everything Is Broken from Oh Mercy (1989) and Emotionally Yours, which appeared on 1985's Empire Burlesque. The lovely alternate take of the song featured in this selection came from a Mojo magazine freebie last year, entitled 14 Hidden Gems From The Bootleg Series 1963-1997.

The 14-song selection is mostly half-and-half, 8 from the 20th Century, 6 from the 21st. Many of Dylan's greatest albums are criminally missed off, but I like this whirlwind tour of the outskirts. A fool's errand perhaps, but I'm okay with that.

Enjoy!

1) Forever Young ('Slow' Album Version ft. The Band) (1974)

2) Meet Me In The Morning (1975)

3) Positively 4th Street (1965)

4) Long And Wasted Years (2012)

5) All I Really Want To Do (1964)

6) Blood In My Eyes (1993)

7) Crossing The Rubicon (2020)

8) 900 Miles From My Home (Cover of traditional song) (ft. The Band) (1967)

9) Not Dark Yet (1997)

10) Let It Be Me (Cover of Gilbert Bécaud / The Everly Brothers) (1970)

11) Everything Is Broken (1989)

12) When The Deal Goes Down (2006)

13) Emotionally Yours (Alternate Take) (1985)

14) Po' Boy (2001)

1964: Another Side Of Bob Dylan: 5

1965: Positively 4th Street EP: 3

1970: Self Portrait: 10

1974: Planet Waves: 1

1975: Blood On The Tracks: 2

1989: Oh Mercy: 11

1993: World Gone Wrong: 6

1997: Time Out Of Mind: 9

2001: "Love And Theft": 14

2006: Modern Times: 12

2012: Tempest: 4

2014: The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: 8

2020: Rough And Rowdy Ways: 7

2021: Springtime In New York: The Bootleg Series Vol. 16: 1980-1985: 13

Woke Up This Morning, Feeling Blue (59:19) (KF) (Mega)