As with Ben Folds, the presence of Bob Dylan on this list of desert island songs was a no-brainer, but the specific song was the struggle.
I was tempted to go with a track from one of Dylan’s early albums — specifically The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan or Bringing it all Back Home — because those are the records I devoured as a young teenager first discovering the Bard.
Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter died in his sleep on Easter Sunday, nearly 30 years after he was freed from prison.
Carter was incarcerated for 19 years for a murder he didn’t commit, after being convicted by an all-white jury based on the testimony of two criminals who later recanted.
Carter’s story was dramatized in the 1999 film Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington, and more memorably in Bob Dylan’s 1975 song of the same name, the opening track on Desire.
Today’s Random Weekend selection is the opening track of Bob Dylan’s Planet Waves.
Planet Waves came out after Self Portrait, New Morning and Dylan, three of the man’s least understood and appreciated albums. And it was followed up by Blood on the Tracks, The Basement Tapes and Desire, three of his best.
Here’s a track from a collection of early Bob Dylan demos, recorded in 1961 and ’62.
Given my current obsession with the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis, it’s hard not to hear a song like this in the context of that great film and the early Greenwich Village folk scene is captures.
Best Songs of 2013 – #11
Another Self Portrait, the latest installment of Bob Dylan’s great Bootleg Series, goes a long way toward redeeming Self Portrait, widely considered Dylan’s worst album.
Or at least it makes you wonder about the album Dylan might have released had he gone in a different direction.
Meet Me In Montauk 