By Tony Attwood
I don’t know if anyone else is enjoying this series of mine – either by agreeing with my choices, or picking out his/her own favourite song of a certain year. But they are all listed on this site in chronological order of writing – you can find the full lists by starting with 1980s index which is where we have got to. However, if you do create your own list and feel like sharing it you could always post it as a comment – or indeed write an article for the site (email Tony@schools.co.uk)_
What I have found, however, is that by running two series (this one on song of the year and the other on songs which for me became a life-changing experience) just how different my approaches to different songs at different times can be. The life-changing experiences are not always the songs I have carried with me in my list of Dylan’s greatest compositions, and vice versa. Which is a bit interesting – to me if no one else.
Anyway, here is my song of the year collection thus far…
- 1961. I was young when I left home
- 1962: Tomorrow is a long time
- 1963: Seven Curses
- 1964: Gates of Eden
- 1965: Visions of Johnanna
- 1966: One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)
- 1967 part 1: “Drifter’s Escape”
- 1967 part 2: I’m not there
- 1968: Bob stops but even so (Lay Lady Lay)
- 1969: I’ll have you any time
- 1970: Time passes slowly
- 1971: When I paint my Masterpiece, and Watching the River Flow
- 1972, Forever Young – preparing to open a minor door
- 1973: Amarillo and a back-up just in case.
- 1974: Idiot Wind
- 1975: Isis
- 1977: Journey through the dark heat
- 1978/9: When He Returns
- 1980: Yonder Comes Sin
- 1981: Angelina
And so to 1982 – and as I have noted elsehwere 1982 and 1983 are difficult in terms of exactly when Bob wrote specific songs, so in my accounts I have lumped the two years together as one, and from that I find it easy to nominate a song of the year which I deal with here, and a song (indeed a performance) that was for me an utter life changing experience which will turn up on this site shortly.
So I’ll leave that second category for now, and here just focus on my song of the year, although if you wish to dig deeper, all of Dylan’s compositions of the 1980s are set out in chronological order of composition here.
I have written about my song of this year before on this site (although not as part of a series), and it still shines out for me above all the rest: Blind Willie McTell. Now you will know Dylan’s version of course, but what I would like to offer here is a set of recordings that we found when reviewing the cover versions of that song.
As if the way of the internet one or two of the versions we chose for that series are now missing but there are enough cover examples here to give you the complete feeling of just what an impact this song had on seemingly everyone interested in performing the blues.
- The Covers We Missed: Blind Willie McTell – Part One (just click on the title)
- The Covers We Missed: Blind Willie McTell – Part Two
But there is also the notion of taking a song, which itself turned out to be an outtake from the album, about a blues singer, and it being turned into an absolute classic, not just in terms of Dylan but in terms of late 20th century blues, that is so overwhelming.
Who else has successfully done anything like this and had such an enormous driving impact with the result? I really don’t know. But I do know I am not enough of an expert on the blues of the Delta to be able to write a proper article about the singer or his music, so I will take the easy way out.
If you want to get an idea of what this amazing artist, McTell, was really about go to this link and start playing the music.
And if for some reason that does not work, just go onto Google and type in Blind Willie McTell recordings and I think you will quickly see why Dylan wrote the lines
Nobody can sing the blues Like Blind Willie McTell
I know those two lines sound just like a throw-away part of the song, but once you have started to listen to a variety of McTell’s music you will realise not only what a wonderful singer he was, but also why Bob singled him out.