Expecting Rain

A couple: The first thing I heard/watched was NDH. I started googling lyrics as I was watching because I was pretty smitten with everything I heard, but all of Hard Rain, Mr. Tambourine Man, It's Alright, Ma and Visions of Johanna. After it was over I also searched youtube to find Man of Constant Sorrow and watched that a gazillion times. Then the following day I listened to Blood On The Tracks and Idiot Wind was the nail in the coffin. I knew then that he would be my favorite songwriter and singer from henceforth even forevermore. If I had to single out one or two lines from those songs, it would have to be

The ghost of ’lectricity howls in the bones of her face

or

And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it
Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’
But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’

Those both about knocked me over.

"Oh how can I explain, it's so hard to get on" does it for me.

Though you might hear laughin’, spinnin’, swingin’ madly across the sun
It’s not aimed at anyone, it’s just escapin’ on the run
And but for the sky there are no fences facin’

I rented the greatest hits. Listened to them in order. thought he was okay then I really stopped and listened and i heard this beauty and my mouth dropped;

It is one of the most beautiful lines, ever.





I remember reading that it is your favorite, but I don't think I have read why. Would you mind sharing it again?



The line of hope.

^
yes, you can hear the smile in his voice.

I mentioned "it's alright ma" earlier, and though every line of that song is epic, I think the one that grabbed me the most and is still one of my favorite lines is "if my thought dreams could be seen, they'd probably put my head in a guillotine"...I heard that and said "yup, that's me".

"once upon a time..."

There's guns across the river about to pound you...

Still I wish there was somethin’ you would do or say
To try and make me change my mind and stay
We never did too much talkin’ anyway
So don’t think twice, it’s all right

The first time I can remember hearing him sing was Masters of War. My teacher played it in English class. It sounded so old and strange, like nothing I had heard before. Than I wanted to listen to Tomorrow Is a Long Time, because I loved Rod Stewart's version so much. But when I heard the Dylan original I did not like it at all.

Years later I saw a clip of Maggie's Farm from Hard Rain on VH1 classic and loved it. I went and bought Bringing it all Back Home immediately and was frustrated, because Maggie's Farm did not sound like what I had heard on television, haha.

Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall.
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood,
Cries out, "My God, they killed them all!"

I was like completely Bobified

"Visions of Johanna"

Some of its lines made me think "I really need to listen to what this guy has to say".

The alternate version kills me too. "Cries out, they killed my love!"

I gave her my heart but she wanted my soul

(the first of many many many many....)

Freewheelin' was the first record of his that I listened to in full, and my prior experience with his work was fairly limited. I remember the second verse of "Hard Rain" making my hair stand up -- it was a powerful enough experience that I still remember the exact day I listened to it. I'd never heard anything so strange and haunting and cryptic -- totally unlike anything I'd ever heard before both musically and lyrically. I remember the "I saw a black branch with blood that kept dripping" line having a particularly strong impact.

Hey!
Nice to see you again.

Ahhh somehow I forgot about, "God bless them, pretty woman, I wish they was mine. There breath is as sweet as the dew on the vine."

The last verse of One too many mornings

"It's a restless hungry feeling
That don't mean no one no good
When ev'rything I'm a-sayin'
You can say it just as good
You're right from your side,
I'm right from mine
We're both just too many mornings
An' a thousand miles behind."

One of the first Dylan albums I bought, in the mid 80s. After this lines I knew this is it.

The best part about Dylan is that despite having heard his songs God knows how many times, some lines STILL make me go "wow", like I've suddenly started seeing them in a new light, or perhaps never noticed them, though I'm very familiar with I guess 80% of his lyrics.

also this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn_fjQzQ ... plpp_video at 25 minutes or so where he sings "hunted like a crocodile"

also, great to see you again, dude! insightful comment as always

You too, mate, and Giada.

The lines that I'm crazy about right now are from "Something There Is About You":

"Thought I'd shaken the wonder and the phantoms of my youth
Rainy days on the Great Lakes, walking the hills of old Duluth"

I remember being fascinated by the opening lines of "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" when I first got into Dylan:

"When you’re lost in the rain in Juarez
And it’s Eastertime too"

I know I was amazed by the fact he could create such a vivid setting with so few words.

he's just the master

"you've got a lotta nerve, to say you are my friend"
mainly it was the way he sang it, the entire song. i've heard others ("stuck inside of mobile" the day before, but i didn't get it). 4th street was the first dylan song that really worked for me.

I love that part of "Something There Is About You" also. Good one.

I believe the very first Dylan song/recording that ever got my attention was "Grand Coulee Damn" from the 1968 Woody Guthrie tribute. It was the spring of 1975, on the new york radio station WNEW-FM and the DJ who played it was Pete Fornatele. I used to tape the radio for 45 minutes at a time and this was on one of my tapes and it really caught my ear. Even though it's not a Dylan composition, it left me wanting more. Coincidentally, Pete Foratele passed away today at age 66. I still have that tape somewhere.