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 – this page
- Dylan songs of the 1970s
- Dylan songs of the 1980s
- Dylan songs of the 1990s
- Dylan songs of the 21st century
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)
- When I got troubles (blues but with hope for the future… maybe)
- I got a new girl (love, but maybe she’s twotiming me)
- One eyed jacks (blues?)
1961
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.
- Song to Woodie (Travelling on, remembering those who have gone before)
- Talkin New York (Talking blues, humour)
- Talking Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues.(Talking blues, humour)
- Talkin Folk Lore Centre Blues (Talking blues, humour)
- Talkin Hava Negeilah blues (Talking blues, humour)
- Man on the street (Tragedy of life, the lack of humanity in urban communities)
- Hard times in New York Town (satire on urban life)
- On Wisconsin (lyrics only, date within the year not certain)
- I was young when I left home (tragedy of the lonesome traveller)
1962
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.
- Ballad for a friend (Blues; Death)
- Poor Boy Blues (Blues)
- Rambling Gambling Willie (Moving on, gambling)
- Standing on the highway (Blues)
- Talkin’ John Birch Society Blues (Right wing protest)
- Death of Emmett Till (social commentary: racism)
- The Ballad of Donald White (social commentary)
- Let me die in my footsteps (anti-nuclear war; stand up and be proud)
- Blowing in the wind (It’s not the world, it’s the way you see the world)
- Corrina Corrina (Lost love)
- Honey just allow me one more chance (Lost love)
- Rocks and Gravel (lost love, moving on)
- Quit your Lowdown Ways (do the right thing)
- Baby I’m in the mood for you (Absolute desire)
- Down the Highway (Lost love, Song of Leaving)
- Bob Dylan’s Blues (Comedy)
- Tomorrow is a long time (Lost love)
- Ain’t gonna grieve (civil rights)
- Long Ago Far Away (nothing has changed)
- Long Time Gone (moving on)
- Hard Rain’s a gonna fall (War protest)
- Ballad of Hollis Brown (Rural protest)
- John Brown (War protest)
- Don’t think twice (Song of Leaving)
- Mixed up confusion (Rock n roller is confused)
- I’d hate to be you on that dreadful day (Bob gets the ship ready to come in)
- Paths of Victory. (The future will be fine)
- Train A Travellin’ (Stand up and protest about what’s going on around you)
- Walking Down the Line (keep on moving on)
- Ye Playboys and Playgirls (Stand up and change the world)
- Oxford Town (Racism Protest)
- I shall be free (comic talking blues)
- Kingsport Town (lost love, moving on)
- Hero Blues (beware when your girlfriend loves you because you are famous)
- The Ballad of the Gliding Swan (Life throws up every surprise, but life goes on)
- 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.
- Masters of War (War protest)
- Girl from the North Country (Lost Love)
- Boots of Spanish Leather (Song of Leaving)
- Bob Dylan’s Dream (Lost love)
- Farewell (a song of leaving)
- Talkin Devil (talking blues, the Devil is real)
- All over you (comedy alternative to talking blues)
- Going back to Rome (there is something about Italy)
- Only a Hobo (moving on)
- Ramblin Down Thru the World (moving on)
- Who killed Davey Moore? (Boxing, Inequality)
- Dusty Old Fairgrounds (keep on moving)
- Walls of Red Wing (Protest: life is a matter of chance)
- New Orleans Rag (aka Bob Dylan’s New Orleans Rag) (Humour; life is chance)
- You’ve been hiding too long. (Our leaders have betrayed the ideals of our country)
- Seven Curses (Absolute betrayal of justice)
- With God on our Side (Protest)
- Talking World War III Blues (Protest, surrealism)
- Only a pawn in their game (Social commentary, protest)
- Eternal Circle (Nothing changes)
- North Country Blues (Rural protest)
- Gypsy Lou (Art, Protest)
- Troubled and I Don’t Know Why (everything is wrong)
- When the ship comes in (Protest)
- The Times they are a-Changing (Protest)
- Percy’s Song (The failure of justice)
- The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll (Protest, racism)
- Lay Down your Weary Tune (the natural world is superior to anything mankind can make)
- One too many mornings (Song of Leaving)
- 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.
- Guess I’m doing fine (I’m hurting)
- Chimes of Freedom (Protest)
- Mr Tambourine Man (Surrealism; the way we see the world)
- I don’t believe you (She acts like we never have met) (Lost love)
- Spanish Harlem Incident (Love)
- Motorpsycho Nightmare (Humour)
- It ain’t me babe (Song of Farewell)
- Denise Denise (Taking a break, having a laugh)
- Mama you’ve been on my mind (Lost love)
- Ballad in Plain D (Lost love)
- Black Crow Blues (Blues, The sadness of lost love and moving on)
- I shall be free number 10 (Talking Blues; humour)
- To Ramona (Love)
- All I really want to do (Song of Farewell; Individualism)
- I’ll keep it with mine (Don’t follow leaders; individualism)
- My back pages (Individualism) See also Bob Dylan’s “My Back Pages”. He was so much older then.
- Gates of Eden (Protest, Individualism, A world that makes no sense)
- It’s all right ma – 2013 review (Protest; Individualism, A world that makes no sense) It’s all right ma – 2015 review
- If you’ve gotta go, go now (Song of Farewell; Individualism)
- 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.
- Farewell Angelina (Song of Farewell)
- Love is just a four letter word (Is love real?)
- Subterranean Homesick Blues (Beat Poetry as rock music)
- Outlaw Blues
- Love Minus Zero (Love)
- California (blues)
- She Belongs to Me (Love) See also “She Belongs to Me – the reinterpretation of Greek Mythology”
- It’s all over now baby blue (Song of Farewell)
- Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream (Beat poetry as rock music)
- On the Road Again
- Maggie’s Farm
- It takes a lot to laugh it takes a train to cry (aka Phantom Engineer)*see below
- Sitting on a barbed wire fence
- Like a Rolling Stone (Song of Disdain)
- Why do you have to be so frantic (Lunatic Princess).
- Tombstone Blues
- Desolation Row (Political protest; It’s not the world, it’s how you see the world)
- From a Buick 6 (I got this woman who does everything)
- Can you please crawl out your window? (Song of Disdain)
- Positively Fourth Street (Song of Disdain)
- Highway 61 Revisited (Blues)
- Just like Tom Thumb’s Blues
- Queen Jane Approximately
- Ballad of a thin man
- Jet Pilot
- Medicine Sunday
- I wanna be your lover
- Long distance operator (Panic because he can’t get through on the phone)
- Visions of Johanna (Mystical people in the half light)
*DYLAN AND IT TAKES A LOT TO LAUGH: the series
- Rocks and Gravel. The origin of “It takes a lot to laugh”
- It takes a lot to laugh it takes a train to cry. Dylan works out the Phantom Engineer
- It takes a lot to laugh it takes a train to cry. 50 Years on.
- Bob Dylan: Tell Woody, Andy, John Henry and Momma Mary that it takes a lot to laugh
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.
- Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
- “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands”. See also Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands
- Tell Me Momma
- Fourth Time Around
- Leopard skin pill-box hat
- One of us must know (sooner or later)
- She’s your lover now (disdain)
- Absolutely Sweet Marie
- Just like a woman
- Pledging my time
- Most likely you go your way and I’ll go mine
- Temporary Like Achilles
- Rainy Day Women
- Obviously Five Believers
- I want you
- Definitively Van Gough (hotel song)
- Don’t tell him. (hotel song)
- What kind of friend is this? (hotel song)
- If you want my love (hotel song)
- If I was a king (hotel song)
- I can’t leave her behind (hotel song)
- 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.
- Down on the bottom (New Basement Tapes)
- Married to My Hack(New Basement Tapes)
- Kansas City (New Basement Tapes)
- Spanish Mary (New Basement Tapes)
- Liberty Street (New Basement Tapes)
- Nothing To It (New Basement Tapes)
- Golden Tom Silver Judas (New Basement Tapes)
- When I get my hands on you (New Basement Tapes)
- Duncan and Jimmy (New Basement Tapes)
- Florida Key (New Basement Tapes)
- Hidee Hidee Ho #11/#16 (New Basement Tapes)
- Lost on the River # 12 & #20 (New Basement Tapes)
- Stranger (New Basement Tapes)
- Card Shark (New Basement Tapes)
- Quick like a flash (New Basement Tapes)
- Diamond Ring (New Basement Tapes)
- The Whistle is Blowing (New Basement Tapes)
- Touchy Situation – seemingly an extra from the NBT series
- Six Months in Kansas City (Liberty Street)(NBT)
- Santa Cruz: NBT song not on the NBT album.
- Matthew Met Mary – another NBT song not on the album
- Edge of the Ocean
- One for the road
- Roll on Train
- Under control
- I’m guilty of loving you
- I’m a fool for you
- See you later Allen Ginsberg (1 and 2).
- Tiny Montgomery
- Big Dog
- I’m Your Teenage Prayer
- One’s Man’s Loss
- Lock your door
- Baby wont you be my baby
- Try me little girl
- I can’t make it alone
- Don’t you try me now
- Million dollar bash
- Yeah heavy and a bottle of bread
- Please Mrs Henry
- Lo and behold
- Crash on the Levee
- Dress it up, Better have it all
- I’m not there (lost love, regret)
- You ain’t going nowhere
- This Wheel’s on Fire
- I shall be released
- Too Much of Nothing
- Tears of rage
- Quinn the Eskimo – The Mighty Quinn (surreal characters)
- Open the Door Homer
- Nothing was delivered
- Sign on the cross
- Sante Fe
- Odds and Ends
- Clothes line saga
- I’m alright (note: the dating of this song is just a guess).
- Apple Suckling Tree
- Get your rocks off
- Silent Weekend
- Don’t ya tell Henry
- Going to Acapulco
- Bourbon Street
- My Woman She’s a Leavin’.
- Mary Lou I love You Too
- What’s it gonna be when it comes up?
- It’s the flight of the Bumblebee
- All you have to do is dream
- Wild Wolf
- Gonna Get You Now
- Two dollars and 99 cents*
- Jelly Bean*
- Any Time*
- Down by the station*
- That’s the breaks*
- Pretty Mary*
- The King of France*
- She’s on my mind again*. Note 56 & 57 are reviewed in the same article
- On a rainy afternoon* Note this is not the same as the 1966 song of the same title
- I can’t come in with a broken heart*
- Next time on the Highway*
- Northern Claim*
- Love is only mine*
- Bring it on home* Note “Bring it on home”, “The Spanish Song” and “The Hidden Song are all reviewed in the same article
- The Spanish Song* – see “Bring it on home” above
- The Hidden Song** – see “Bring it on home” above
- The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
- Drifter’s Escape (There is no cause and effect)
- I dreamed I Saw St Augustine
- All along the watch tower
- John Wesley Harding
- As I Went out one Morning
- I am a lonesome hobo
- I pity the poor Immigrant
- The Wicked Messenger
- Dear Landlord
- I’ll be your baby tonight (original) I’ll be your baby tonight (second thoughts)
- 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.
1969
- 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
- Minstrel Boy
- I threw it all away
- I don’t want to do it
- I’d have you anytime
- To be alone with you
- One more night
- Peggy Day
- Country Pie
- Tell me it isn’t true
- Tonight I’ll be Staying Here With You
- Wanted Man
- Champaign Illinois
- Ballad of Easy Rider
- 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).