———-

Reviews of every song Bob Dylan has written

That’s reviews of 534 Dylan compositions of which we can find recordings

plus over 300 other articles about Bob Dylan.

This site has had over 950,000 page views in the past year.

The songs reviewed here have two things in common: we can find a recording of the song, and it appears either the lyrics or music or both were written by Bob Dylan.  If you know of any other song Dylan has composed of which there is a recording available somewhere, and can point us towards that, we’ll get onto it.  Just email Tony@schools.co.uk

The alphabetical list of all the songs reviewed on this site can be found here. It also lists some of the songs Dylan has recorded but which he did not write which we have not reviewed.   We’ve also put the songs in the order of composition – see the link to “Dylan songs of the 60s” etc in the links under the picture above.

Bob Dylan and Hank Snow

• LATEST:  Bob Dylan and Hank Snow (Part II)
• Bob Dylan and Hank Snow: Little Buddy, Drunkard’s Son, Moving On. (Dylan and Hank Snow Part 1)
• Thunder on the Mountain: it’s a cruel world in Bob Dylan’s song
• Bob Dylan and Geoffrey Chaucer: thunder on the mountain
• Bob Dylan’s Thunder on the Mountain: Heylin falls off a cliff, Bob keeps on keeping on
• Dylan deconstructed: He’s inside out, upside down, right side up

Bob and the political world

• The real politics of Bob Dylan

John Wesley Harding and the Drifters Escape

Jochen’s analysis of the song John Wesley Harding (to which I have appended the phrase “the argument against” for reasons which I hope will become clear) also introduces Thea Gilmore’s reinterpretation of Drifter’s Escape, which I have endlessly proposed as one of Dylan’s most important and least grasped songs.  So Jochen’s new analysis gives me a chance to push forward the “Drifter” thesis yet again.

• John Wesley Harding (1967). The argument against.
• John Wesley Harding: the meaning of the music and the lyrics
• The Drifter’s Escape: the meanings and the re-interpretation
• Deadwood and Deadman: Bob Dylan and post-modernism

7 DYLAN SONGS WE MISSED EARLIER 

We’ve been claiming to have reviewed every Dylan composition, but we have missed some.  Here they are.

• Street Rock: a Bob Dylan song? Does Dylan do rap? Does it matter?
• Sweet Amerillo by Bob Dylan, Donna Weiss or Old Crowe (choose two).
• The Love that Faded by Hank Williams and Bob Dylan.
• Jack o Diamonds; the metamorphosis of a song with some Bob Dylan therein
• The Ballad of the Gliding Swan Bob Dylan’s lost song, found.
• King of Kings: Bob Dylan’s instrumental written for Ronnie Wood.
• Steel Bars by Bob Dylan and Michael Bolton

Bob Dylan and Alchemy

• Bob Dylan And The Symbols Of Alchemy: Birds Of Pray
• Bob Dylan and the songs of Alchemy
• Bob Dylan and the symbols of Alchemy: but is he a Gnostic?

BOB DYLAN’S RITA MAE

• Rita May by Bob Dylan (1975). The argument for and against.
• Rita May by Bob Dylan and Jacques Levy.  The antidote to Joey or once more misguided

BOB DYLAN’S THEMES & SOURCES – latest additions

• Bob Dylan and Wilf Carter (and a certain amount of rye whiskey)
• Bob Dylan and Hank Snow: Little Buddy, Drunkard’s Son, Moving On.
• Bob Dylan’s “She Belongs To Me”: the reinterpretation of Greek mythology – with Joan Baez and the best ever live performance.
• Bob Dylan and the Golden Loom
• Bob Dylan: Lord Thomas, Lady Brown, Fair Eleanor, And The Tin Angel

Simple Twist of Fate: eternally different, eternally moving

• LATEST ARTICLE:  Simple Twist Of Fate: ambiguous, on the move, ever changing

Earlier commentaries…

• Simple twist of fate: a knife twists inside a simple song
• Prithee look back, there’s blood on the tracks
• Figurative Language in Blood on the Tracks
• Blake, Keats, And Spots Of Ink
• Bob Dylan Has His Blake 

BOB DYLAN AND GNOSTICISM

Latest article: Bob Dylan and the Symbols of Alchemy.  But is he a Gnostic?

Earlier articles in the series(in order of publication)

• Bob Dylan and Gnosticism The Starting Point
• Bob Dylan and Gnosticism: Johannine Visions
• Bob Dylan and Gnosticism: The Gospel of Mary Magdalene
• Bob Dylan and Christian Gnosticism
• Hebrew Gnosticism in Dylan’s song lyrics
• A frankly delivered Gnostic message: Dylan’s “Every grain of sand”

Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands 

• Bob Dylan’s Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands. (A song for Sara his wife).
• Bob Dylan’s “Sad Eyed Lady”. The sound of 3am captured as never before.
• Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands: at least I now know why
• Bob Dylan Paints his Masterpiece