Music lists
5 favourite Bob Dylan albums
OK no Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the Tracks, or the early 60s stuff – all of which of course I respect – but these are the albums I listen to most. Note that most recorded after Bob fell off his motorcycle, went to Nashville etc…:
John Wesley Harding
Basement Tapes (building up to full 4 cd A Tree with Roots bootleg compilation, from which the Tapes drawn)
Oh Mercy
Time out of Mind
Modern Times
With honourable mention to the recent excellent Together Through Life
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5 best covers
Wonderwall, Ryan Adams [Original – Oasis]
Powderfinger, Cowboy Junkies [Original – Neil Young]
Guns of Brixton, Nouvelle Vague [Original – The Clash]
My Funny Valentine, Miles Davis, in Cookin’ [Original - Rodgers & Hart]
Jealous Guy, Bryan Ferry [Original – John Lennon]
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Best live albums
The following are in my view not just the best live albums by each artist, they are – with the exception of Dylan – the best albums by each artist. The Leonard Cohen in particular manages finally to get the balance absolutely right between the asperity of his voice and the lushness of his arrangements, a balance that The Ladies’ Man has veered all over the place in the studio to achieve. Neil Young lets loose, as does Van; neither has ever been better. You can hear the microphone swinging around Daltrey’s head at ‘Leeds’ (actually some songs recorded elsewhere), dispelling all those dismal later concept albums like Tommy and Quadrophenia.
Live in London, Leonard Cohen
Ragged Glory, Neil Young
Too Late to Stop Now, Van Morrison
Live 1966: The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert [The Bootleg Series Vol.4], Bob Dylan
Live at Leeds, The Who