Bob Dylan at 70

Aficionados of Bob Dylan like to play a little mind game, either with themselves or other Dylan obsessives, concerning the ten greatest Bob Dylan songs of all time. As someone who proudly falls into this category of fanatical Dylanites, I can tell you it’s no easy game. If you love the Zimmerman then the permutations are endless. The pre-eminent wordsmith has a song for every occasion and every conceivable mood. As our moods change, so does our all time greatest top ten. There are variations to this game that can create for the contestant an even greater challenge place the top ten greatest Dylan hits in ascending order with the greatest of the greatest sitting majestically on the top, like a king on his throne, as Dylan might put it.

What is that one Dylan masterpiece that transcends all others, that one song that captivates the very essence of the man and our times? It a choice so formidable that every time you play the game, you know in the back of your mind that it is merely a dress rehearsal for the next, real, ultimate game. For to finally and definitively choose your all-time top ten, in ascending order, is to dishonour all those brilliant songs that miss the cut, and to further dishonour all those nine cherished masterpieces that are rejected in favour of the Dylan song of songs. And furthermore, to create a final top ten is dishonour all those Dylan songs that have yet to be written. Ah, the games that we play!

So much for the pre-amble. What is my top ten all time greats and what is my Dylan song of songs?

I have no intention of sharing something so intimate on the blogosphere, but I will reveal that one of the few Dylan songs that refers, all be it tangentially, to the sporting arena, is a strong contender for the crown. I refer of course to the Hurricane, not the snooker variety, but the Ruben Carter boxing legend, who one day could have been the champion of the world. Here is Dylan at his story telling best with a musical score to equal the passion of the tale. After an intensely introspective period, Dylan rediscovers the social world and produces a song that is both specific to the fate of Ruben Carter while at the very same time, inadvertently creating an anthem for all individual injustice, irrespective of geographical location and irrespective of historical setting.

o as a seventieth birthday tribute to a man who has produced songs that have formed the musical backdrop to so many ordinary lives, I give you two of my favourite verses of the Hurricane (with no intended disrespect to the other five hundred odd songs in the Dylan back catalogue)
Hurricane

Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
But he never liked to talk about it all that much
It’s my work he’d say and I do it for pay
And when it’s over I’d just as soon go on my way
Up to some paradise
Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
And ride a horse along a trail
But then they took him to the jailhouse
Where they tried to turn a man into a mouse.
Rubin Carter was falsely tried.
The crime was murder one, guess who testified.
Bellow and Bradley and they both baldly lied.
And the newspapers, they all came along for the ride.
How can the life of such a man
Be in the palm of some fool’s hand?
To see him obviously framed
Couldn’t help me feel ashamed to live in a land
Where justice is a game.

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