I did say FAVES not BEST. Best is Highway 61 Revisited. no one doubts it. But I can't listen to it, I can't listen to his 1960's stuff. I've heard it too often. I can't hear Blood On the Tracks, an album I wore out when it was released. These are what I actually listen to.
1. The Bootleg Series Vol 1 – 3 – Makes the case for his 1980's output with three unreleased songs: "Blind Willie McTell", "Foot Of Pride". and the original "When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky". Though it may well be the 60's stuff, a different lyric "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train to Cry", "Like A Rolling Stone" as a waltz… stuff like that. Grade A+
2. The Genuine Bootleg Series – A real boot and a beaut. Does for the 70s what Vol 1 – 3 did for the 80s. Astonishing? "She's Your Lover Now". "New Danville Girl" "Signs On The Cross" original "Hurricane". "Farewell" cuts the version on this years Bootleg episode. Grade: A+
3. Love And Theft – Or is that Love And Death, it is to my generation what Bright Eye's I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning, is to Conor's. Grade: A+
4. Time Out Of Mind – Death and death, Dylan's return to unfettered greatness as a series of hard blues riffs. It wasn't dark… yet. Grade: A+
5. Oh Mercy – Yeah, i think Daniel Lanois fucked the production and where the hell was "Series Of Dreams"? . I don't care. grade: A+
6. John Wesley Harding – You know how I said I was sick of his 60s stuff? Not this one. Grade: A+
7. Shot Of Love – A great album filled with spirituals that only Dylan could've written. Here, the playing is a little generic. But, man, this is where his Born Again faith and his poetic abilities come together. OK -assume they are all A+s.
8. The Cash/Dylan Sessions – OK, another bootleg. But these outtakes and songs from Cash's TV show in 1969, find Dylan in fine, fine, fine voice (when he isn't out of tune) and Cash gravelly and taking the underbelly. Lots of Nashville Skyline, lots of Cash classics, a coupla country classics and some yodeling.
9. Self Portrait – The song and dance man in the wilderness. You can't get hear without going through there and it stands up excellent.
10. Down In The Groove – I have no idea what the kick against this album is. One of his greatest if only for "90 Miles An Hour Down A Dead End Street" and "Shenandoah".