Dylan songs of the 1960s

Dylan in Chronological Order of writing (not in the order of recording)

On this site there are reviews of Dylan’s compositions from all parts of his life, up to the most recent writings.  As part of this work I decided to put the songs in the order in which they were written, and this, to me, gives a huge additional insight into the way in which Dylan was working, year by year.

Additionally I am adding a short over view of each year, and a very brief comment on the “Highlight of the Year”.  These are of course totally personal reflections, but in case you have an interest they are being gathered together in the “Year by Year; Decade by Decade” file.

Finally I am trying to add a very basic couple of words description of each song’s category, which is helping me as I write the series on Dylan and the types (ie category) of songs he has written.

Here’s the index to the Chronology Series

Dylan songs of the 1960s…

Note – this page has been called Dylan songs of the 60s all the way through, but in December 2018 I realised we had at least one Dylan song from the 50s, so I am tacking it on here.

1959/60 (exact dates of these songs uncertain)

  1. When I got troubles (blues but with hope for the future… maybe)
  2. I got a new girl (love, but maybe she’s twotiming me)
  3. One eyed jacks (blues?)

1961

Dylan in 1961: The Overview

Highlight of the year:  Talking Bear Mountain – Dylan took an existing format and used it in a completely new way – not a bad move for a 20 year old.  But “Song to Woodie” although not original music is a profound way to start your career as a lyricist.

  1. Song to Woodie (Travelling on, remembering those who have gone before)
  2. Talkin New York  (Talking blues, humour)
  3. Talking Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues.(Talking blues, humour)
  4. Talkin Folk Lore Centre Blues (Talking blues, humour)
  5. Talkin Hava Negeilah blues (Talking blues, humour)
  6. Man on the street (Tragedy of life, the lack of humanity in urban communities)
  7. Hard times in New York Town (satire on urban life)
  8. On Wisconsin (lyrics only, date within the year not certain)
  9. I was young when I left home (tragedy of the lonesome traveller)

1962 

Dylan in 1962: The Overview

Highlight of the year: Ballad for a friend.  This little known blues song is utter perfection, using rhythm and lyrics to give the blues format a new twist and hold our attention totally throughout.

  1. Ballad for a friend (Blues; Death)
  2. Poor Boy Blues (Blues)
  3. Rambling Gambling Willie (Moving on, gambling)
  4. Standing on the highway (Blues)
  5. Talkin’ John Birch Society Blues (Right wing protest)
  6. Death of Emmett Till (social commentary: racism)
  7. The Ballad of Donald White (social commentary)
  8. Let me die in my footsteps (anti-nuclear war; stand up and be proud)
  9. Blowing in the wind  (It’s not the world, it’s the way you see the world)
  10. Corrina Corrina (Lost love)
  11. Honey just allow me one more chance (Lost love)
  12. Rocks and Gravel (lost love, moving on)
  13. Quit your Lowdown Ways (do the right thing)
  14. Baby I’m in the mood for you (Absolute desire)
  15. Down the Highway (Lost love, Song of Leaving)
  16. Bob Dylan’s Blues  (Comedy)
  17. Tomorrow is a long time (Lost love)
  18. Ain’t gonna grieve (civil rights)
  19. Long Ago Far Away (nothing has changed)
  20. Long Time Gone (moving on)
  21. Hard Rain’s a gonna fall (War protest)
  22. Ballad of Hollis Brown (Rural protest)
  23. John Brown (War protest)
  24. Don’t think twice (Song of Leaving)
  25. Mixed up confusion (Rock n roller is confused)
  26. I’d hate to be you on that dreadful day (Bob gets the ship ready to come in)
  27. Paths of Victory. (The future will be fine)
  28. Train A Travellin’  (Stand up and protest about what’s going on around you)
  29. Walking Down the Line (keep on moving on)
  30. Ye Playboys and Playgirls  (Stand up and change the world)
  31. Oxford Town (Racism Protest)
  32. I shall be free (comic talking blues)
  33. Kingsport Town (lost love, moving on)
  34. Hero Blues (beware when your girlfriend loves you because you are famous)
  35. The Ballad of the Gliding Swan (Life throws up every surprise, but life goes on)
  36. Whatcha Gonna Do? (How will you be placed at the second coming)

1963 

Dylan in 1963: the overview – Dylan the storyteller

Highlight of the year: When the Ship Comes In.  Part religious, part protest, this has all the vigour and vitality of change and reform that “Times they are a changing” (written soon after) doesn’t get close to with imagery that is utterly new within this type of music.

  1. Masters of War (War protest)
  2. Girl from the North Country (Lost Love)
  3. Boots of Spanish Leather (Song of Leaving)
  4. Bob Dylan’s Dream (Lost love)
  5. Farewell (a song of leaving)
  6. Talkin Devil (talking blues, the Devil is real)
  7. All over you (comedy alternative to talking blues)
  8. Going back to Rome (there is something about Italy)
  9. Only a Hobo (moving on)
  10. Ramblin Down Thru the World (moving on)
  11. Who killed Davey Moore?  (Boxing, Inequality)
  12. Dusty Old Fairgrounds (keep on moving)
  13. Walls of Red Wing (Protest: life is a matter of chance)
  14. New Orleans Rag (aka Bob Dylan’s New Orleans Rag) (Humour; life is chance)
  15. You’ve been hiding too long. (Our leaders have betrayed the ideals of our country)
  16. Seven Curses (Absolute betrayal of justice)
  17. With God on our Side (Protest)
  18. Talking World War III Blues (Protest, surrealism)
  19. Only a pawn in their game  (Social commentary, protest)
  20. Eternal Circle (Nothing changes)
  21. North Country Blues (Rural protest)
  22. Gypsy Lou  (Art, Protest)
  23. Troubled and I Don’t Know Why (everything is wrong)
  24. When the ship comes in  (Protest)
  25. The Times they are a-Changing (Protest)
  26. Percy’s Song (The failure of justice)
  27. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll (Protest, racism)
  28. Lay Down your Weary Tune (the natural world is superior to anything mankind can make)
  29. One too many mornings (Song of Leaving)
  30. Restless Farewell (moving on)

1964 

Bob Dylan in 1964: the overview. Adding new themes.

Highlight of the year: It’s all right ma.   Line after line of indictment of the modern age delivered with such power and passion.  No one ever wrote a song like this before.

  1. Guess I’m doing fine (I’m hurting)
  2. Chimes of Freedom (Protest)
  3. Mr Tambourine Man (Surrealism; the way we see the world)
  4. I don’t believe you (She acts like we never have met) (Lost love)
  5. Spanish Harlem Incident (Love)
  6. Motorpsycho Nightmare  (Humour)
  7. It ain’t me babe (Song of Farewell)
  8. Denise Denise  (Taking a break, having a laugh)
  9. Mama you’ve been on my mind (Lost love)
  10. Ballad in Plain D  (Lost love)
  11. Black Crow Blues (Blues, The sadness of lost love and moving on)
  12. I shall be free number 10  (Talking Blues; humour)
  13. To Ramona (Love)
  14. All I really want to do (Song of Farewell; Individualism)
  15. I’ll keep it with mine (Don’t follow leaders; individualism)
  16. My back pages (Individualism)  See also Bob Dylan’s “My Back Pages”. He was so much older then.
  17. Gates of Eden (Protest, Individualism, A world that makes no sense)
  18. It’s all right ma – 2013 review (Protest; Individualism, A world that makes no sense)  It’s all right ma – 2015 review
  19. If you’ve gotta go, go now (Song of Farewell; Individualism)
  20. Jack o Diamonds (This song was evolved from the sleeve notes to the “Another Side” album and the date of writing those is uncertain).

1965

Bob Dylan in 1965: the year Dylan invented two totally new forms of music.

Highlight of the year: Impossible to choose.  “Subterranean” gave beat poetry a place in pop and rock, Love Minus Zero took love songs into the world of the unsayable, “Rolling Stone” created the songs of disdain, “Desolation Row” took political protest to a totally new level and “Johanna” took music into impressionism.

  1. Farewell Angelina (Song of Farewell)
  2. Love is just a four letter word (Is love real?)
  3. Subterranean Homesick Blues (Beat Poetry as rock music)
  4. Outlaw Blues
  5. Love Minus Zero (Love)
  6. California (blues)
  7. She Belongs to Me (Love)  See also “She Belongs to Me – the reinterpretation of Greek Mythology”
  8. It’s all over now baby blue (Song of Farewell)
  9. Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream (Beat poetry as rock music)
  10. On the Road Again
  11. Maggie’s Farm
  12. It takes a lot to laugh it takes a train to cry (aka Phantom Engineer)*see below
  13. Sitting on a barbed wire fence
  14. Like a Rolling Stone (Song of Disdain)
  15. Why do you have to be so frantic (Lunatic Princess). 
  16. Tombstone Blues
  17. Desolation Row (Political protest; It’s not the world, it’s how you see the world)
  18. From a Buick 6 (I got this woman who does everything)
  19. Can you please crawl out your window? (Song of Disdain)
  20. Positively Fourth Street (Song of Disdain)
  21. Highway 61 Revisited (Blues)
  22. Just like Tom Thumb’s Blues
  23. Queen Jane Approximately
  24. Ballad of a thin man
  25. Jet Pilot
  26. Medicine Sunday
  27. I wanna be your lover
  28. Long distance operator (Panic because he can’t get through on the phone)
  29. Visions of Johanna (Mystical people in the half light)

*DYLAN AND IT TAKES A LOT TO LAUGH: the series

1966 

Dylan in 1966 the overview: writing songs while the band patiently waits

Highlight of the Year: One of us must know.   Not most people’s choice, indeed probably no one’s choice by mine, but this song takes one of the three fundamental themes of pop (lost love – the other two are love and dance) and gives it a totally new twist. A completely new way of saying farewell.

  1. Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
  2. “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands”.   See also  Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands
  3. Tell Me Momma
  4. Fourth Time Around
  5. Leopard skin pill-box hat
  6. One of us must know (sooner or later)
  7. She’s your lover now (disdain)
  8. Absolutely Sweet Marie
  9. Just like a woman
  10. Pledging my time
  11. Most likely you go your way and I’ll go mine
  12. Temporary Like Achilles
  13. Rainy Day Women
  14. Obviously Five Believers
  15. I want you
  16. Definitively Van Gough (hotel song)
  17. Don’t tell him. (hotel song)
  18. What kind of friend is this? (hotel song)
  19. If you want my love (hotel song)
  20. If I was a king (hotel song)
  21. I can’t leave her behind (hotel song)
  22. On a rainy afternoon (hotel song)

1967

Dylan in 1967: the overview.   A year of two, or maybe three halves.

Highlight of the year: Drifter’s Escape.  It has but one line of music, but takes the impressionism of Johanna into a totally new context at yet another level.  This world is not real.  This world makes no sense.  This world offers hope to the lost: the problem is finding the door.

In terms of the Basement Tapes songs, I am taking the comment on page 40 of the accompanying notes which says, “We’ve decided to place all the tracks in relatively chronological order based on Garth Hudson’s numbering system. A bonus disc was added for the tracks that are of historic importance but have very poor sonic quality.”

Because most of the time I don’t have other information as to the time of recording the songs on the “bonus disc” [disc six] I can do no more than list the songs in the order that the appear on that disc.  To show that they may be completely out of sequence (although obviously taken from the Basement Tape period of recordings) I have marked them with an asterisk.

I must particularly acknowledge Pat Sludden’s help with this part of the sequence of Dylan’s songwriting, and indeed with his encouragement and support for the whole project.

We are currently adding the songs from the New Basement Tapes Collection (NBTC).  Since we have no indication of the order that these lyrics were written in I’m just listing them in the order we have them from the album.

  1. Down on the bottom (New Basement Tapes)
  2. Married to My Hack(New Basement Tapes)
  3. Kansas City (New Basement Tapes)
  4. Spanish Mary (New Basement Tapes)
  5. Liberty Street (New Basement Tapes)
  6. Nothing To It (New Basement Tapes)
  7. Golden Tom Silver Judas (New Basement Tapes)
  8. When I get my hands on you (New Basement Tapes)
  9. Duncan and Jimmy (New Basement Tapes)
  10. Florida Key (New Basement Tapes)
  11. Hidee Hidee Ho #11/#16 (New Basement Tapes)
  12. Lost on the River # 12 & #20 (New Basement Tapes)
  13. Stranger (New Basement Tapes)
  14. Card Shark (New Basement Tapes)
  15. Quick like a flash (New Basement Tapes)
  16. Diamond Ring (New Basement Tapes)
  17. The Whistle is Blowing (New Basement Tapes)
  18. Touchy Situation – seemingly an extra from the NBT series
  19. Six Months in Kansas City (Liberty Street)(NBT)
  20. Santa Cruz: NBT song  not on the NBT album.
  21. – another NBT song not on the album
  22. Edge of the Ocean
  23. One for the road
  24. Roll on Train
  25. Under control
  26. I’m guilty of loving you
  27. I’m a fool for you
  28. See you later Allen Ginsberg (1 and 2). 
  29. Tiny Montgomery
  30. Big Dog
  31. I’m Your Teenage Prayer
  32. One’s Man’s Loss
  33. Lock your door
  34. Baby wont you be my baby
  35. Try me little girl
  36. I can’t make it alone
  37. Don’t you try me now
  38. Million dollar bash
  39. Yeah heavy and a bottle of bread
  40. Please Mrs Henry
  41. Lo and behold
  42. Crash on the Levee
  43. Dress it up, Better have it all
  44. I’m not there (lost love, regret)
  45. You ain’t going nowhere
  46. This Wheel’s on Fire
  47. I shall be released
  48. Too Much of Nothing
  49. Tears of rage
  50. Quinn the Eskimo – The Mighty Quinn (surreal characters)
  51. Open the Door Homer
  52. Nothing was delivered
  53. Sign on the cross
  54. Sante Fe
  55. Odds and Ends
  56. Clothes line saga
  57. I’m alright (note: the dating of this song is just a guess).
  58. Apple Suckling Tree
  59. Get your rocks off
  60.  Silent Weekend
  61. Don’t ya tell Henry
  62. Going to Acapulco
  63. Bourbon Street
  64. My Woman She’s a Leavin’.
  65. Mary Lou I love You Too
  66. What’s it gonna be when it comes up?
  67. It’s the flight of the Bumblebee
  68. All you have to do is dream
  69. Wild Wolf
  70. Gonna Get You Now
  71. Two dollars and 99 cents*
  72. Jelly Bean*
  73. Any Time*
  74. Down by the station*
  75. That’s the breaks*
  76. Pretty Mary*
  77. The King of France*
  78. She’s on my mind again*. Note 56 & 57 are reviewed in the same article
  79. On a rainy afternoon* Note this is not the same as  the 1966 song of the same title
  80. I can’t come in with a broken heart*
  81. Next time on the Highway*
  82. Northern Claim*
  83. Love is only mine*
  84. Bring it on home* Note “Bring it on home”, “The Spanish Song” and “The Hidden Song are all reviewed in the same article
  85. The Spanish Song* – see “Bring it on home” above
  86. The Hidden Song** – see “Bring it on home” above
  87. The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
  88. Drifter’s Escape (There is no cause and effect)
  89. I dreamed I Saw St Augustine
  90. All along the watch tower
  91. John Wesley Harding
  92. As I Went out one Morning
  93. I am a lonesome hobo
  94. I pity the poor Immigrant
  95. The Wicked Messenger
  96. Dear Landlord
  97. I’ll be your baby tonight (original) I’ll be your baby tonight (second thoughts)
  98. Down along the cove

*Songs may not be in the order of composition – see above

**This song appears on the CD but is not listed in the accompanying documentation as being part of the CD.  Either they forgot or were trying to be funny.

1968 

Bob Dylan in 1968.   As his country pulls itself apart, Dylan takes a year out.

Highlight of the year: Dylan can stop.  And stop he did.  After over 100 songs in the past seven years, at a time when it looked as if everything from the arts to politics was changing forever, Dylan just stopped.

  1. Lay Lady Lay

1969 

  1.  Nowhere to go – co-written with George Harrison

Bob Dylan in 1969: everything is lovely

Highlight of the year: Dylan can change.  I can’t pick a song from the list of new compositions because nothing here matches what has gone before, and nothing really grabs me as original, new, or overwhelmingly beautiful.  But it was the experimentation with country music that brought Dylan back to songwriting.  Without that twist, he might never have written again.

Please note that the dating of Minstrel Boy is uncertain.  Musically I think it fits in 1969 but it is impossible to prove.  There is more about this in the review

  1. Minstrel Boy
  2. I threw it all away
  3. I don’t want to do it
  4. I’d have you anytime
  5. To be alone with you
  6. One more night
  7. Peggy Day
  8. Country Pie
  9. Tell me it isn’t true
  10. Tonight I’ll be Staying Here With You
  11. Wanted Man
  12. Champaign Illinois
  13. Ballad of Easy Rider
  14. Living the blues

Elsewhere on Untold Dylan

Index of all the songs on the site

Dylan’s opening lines: an index

How Dylan writes songs, and other articles.

The Bob Dylan Project is a jukebox of every Dylan song – and like Untold Dylan it is free.  I hope you enjoy that site too, as they have found us, and adopted us (so to speak).