Top 10 Bob Dylan Songs

he's tangled up in blue welcome to watchmojo.com and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 Bob Dylan songs for this list we've chosen our entries based on a combination of the artists fan favorites and their most commercially successful songs [Music] number ten knockin on heaven's door part of the soundtrack for the Western Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid which Dylan even had a bit acting pardon this folk rock and gospel tune tells the story of a dying sheriff [Music] let's ask ABC do it peaking within the Billboard Hot 100 top 20 this simple but bitterly poetic melody has also inspired cover versions by Eric Clapton [Music] Guns'n'Roses you too and countless others [Music] number nine a hard rain's are gonna fall - fine one of his most episodic songs this 7 minute long entry from Dylan's breakthrough album seems at first to consist of a series of tales from a distant past so how I saw a black branch with blood that kept dripping but as the verses unfold the imagery becomes increasingly apocalyptic and begins to read more as a warning from the future indeed a month after the song's debut the u.s. became engulfed in the Cuban Missile Crisis making it perhaps a bit too on the mark [Music] number eight all along the watchtower there must be some way out of here did joe gergiolla see perhaps the most famous of his songs to become popularized by other artists kangin oh really Dylan's original version of all along the watchtower appeared on the John Wesley Harding album several months before Jimi Hendrix's electric cover [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] however Dylan's version is still a classic there are many among us who feel alive is brother Joe with his shrieking harmonica and some of the most impactful imagery of any of his songs so does not talk falsely now is getting laid [Music] like many Dylan tracks it has been called an anti-war statement but also like many of his songs you could never really prove you number seven mr. Tambourine Man with allusions to being numb and put under a spell this song is often considered a metaphor if a poetic one for a drug deal forest parts Dylan has gone on record saying that the folk number is actually about well a man who plays a tambourine take me disappearing it's abstract imagery allows for multiple and individual interpretations frozen leaves Hobbit fried food trees which is what makes it just as interesting nearly fifty years after its release Rita praises sorrow [Music] number six positively 4th Street [Music] released as a single the same year as landmark albums highway 61 revisited and bringing it all back home this is one everyone can relate to [Applause] [Music] at his best and bitterest Dylan laces into a superficial friend you know the kind that loves you when you're on top but is the first to disappear when things go south [Music] you even go so far as to sing rather [Music] that's pretty cold Bob [Music] number five subterranean homesick blues [Music] equally famous for its experimental music video which first appeared in da Pennebaker documentary don't look back his tracks he's Dylan cutting between issues of the times in his fevered savant-like style [Music] often but never easily imitated the song draws on scat and R&B influences to create something truly iconoclastic and has taught young people for generations just exactly what and whom to look out for [Music] number four tangled up in blue the 70s marked a departure from earlier protest hymns to a focus on the personal lives of his subjects he had a job in Santa Fe in an old hotel but he never did like it but you want to it just went to hell this blood on the track single captured the many twists and turns of two lives which become repeatedly entwine but all the way he was alone the past was close behind he see the lot of women but you know the stapler and were reticent to be labeled the voice of a generation tangled up in blue still hits on something undeniably universal we only think I knew how to do keep on keeping on as the baby boomers struggled to get a foothold in a new decade [Music] number three blowin in the wind [Music] go one of Dylan's most earnest and straightforward songs this one was released during the build-up to the Vietnam War and became a rallying cry of the anti-war movement throughout [Music] boy yeah always the contrarian Dylan insisted it was not a protest song [Music] [Applause] which was not a little ironic considering it's widely recognized as the most important protest song of all time [Music] as well as a valuable civil rights anthem [Music] Oh [Applause] number two the times they are a-changin gather round people Oh [Music] with escalation in Vietnam seemingly inevitable and the assassination of President Kennedy just months earlier Dylan's folk masterpiece is both a message of hope and a warning while imagery like wheels in motion indicate the change is indeed inevitable Dylan cautions that there will be consequences for those who stand in the way and dogs despair there's no 10 [Music] for the time T the struggle between old and new ways that defined so much of the decade was never more perfectly described the first one now will later be last [Applause] [Music] before we reveal our top pick here are a few honorable mentions [Music] the roots here comes a story of the hurricane the many authorities changes playing she walked up to me so gracefully and took my crown of thorns come in she said I'll give you shelter from the storm my name it ain't nothing I eat you means this big country I come from is called the Midwest [Music] number one like a rolling stone from the moment the first organ riff sounded everything changed lyrically derisive and as his early fans would claim an outright betrayal [Music] this song bridged the gap between folk and electric between idol and villain and between idealism and cynicism I think it was booed upon its first live performance seems like pure insanity now but the song represented Dylan's desire to keep growing as an artist even if it meant leaving behind those who held him dearest [Music] do you agree with our list which Dylan songs are closest to your heart [Music] for more iconic top 10s published every day be sure to subscribe to watchmojo.com [Music] [Applause] [Music]

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Keywords: bob dylan, music, songs, folk, rock, singer, songwriter, politics, guitar, gospel, acoustic, electric, like a rolling stone, highway 61 revisited, the times they are a-changin, blowin in the wind, tangled up in blue, subterranean homesick blues, top 10, best, Favorite

Id: BG8y0rRYjEI

Length: 13min 17sec (797 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 13 2014