Bob Dylan's Greatest 50 Songs

Sketch of Bob Dylan based on 1961 portrait
(Michael Ochs Archives/Getty)

We watched A Complete Unknown last night. My wife had watched it earlier in the week and complained about earworms keeping her awake for the rest of the night. Unlike her, I know very few of the lyrics (your typical ludite).

With my 60s culture ignorance in mind I retrieved Bob Dylan's 636 songs and made a list of his 50 best songs with links to the lyrics (the ranking is the lyrical link).

The list was compiled from the following articles:

• 10 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs by Rolling Stone published 29 AUG 2019
• Bob Dylan’s 62 Greatest Songs of All Time, Ranked by Matt Mitchell for Paste Magazine published 6 JAN 2025
• Bob Dylan’s Greatest Songs: Chosen by Paul McCartney, Bono, Patti Smith, Nick Cave, Chris Martin and more! by MOJO published 20 JAN 2025
• Bob Dylan's 50 greatest songs – ranked! by Alexis Petridis for The Guardian published 9 APR 2020

Bob Dylan's Greatest Songs compiled from Rolling Stone, Paste, MOJO, Guardian
Rank	Song title	Released	[a]
1	Like a Rolling Stone	1965	21
2	Tangled Up in Blue	1975
3	Desolation Row	1965
4	Idiot Wind	1975
5	Visions of Johanna	1966
6	The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll	1964
7	All Along the Watchtower	1967
8	Ballad of a Thin Man	1965
9	I Shall Be Released	1971
10	I Threw It All Away	1969
11	Not Dark Yet	1997
12	Changing of the Guards	1978
13	Most of the Time	1989
14	Brownsville Girl	1986
15	Isis	1976
16	Blind Willie McTell	1991
17	Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands	1966
18	Just Like a Woman	1966
19	Subterranean Homesick Blues	1965	13
20	Girl from the North Country	1963	4
21	Every Grain of Sand	1981
22	Positively 4th Street	1967
23	Murder Most Foul	2020
24	Simple Twist of Fate	1975
25	Sign on the Window	1970
26	Jokerman	1983
27	My Back Pages	1964
28	Love Minus Zero/No Limit	1965
29	Went to See the Gypsy	1970
30	A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall	1963	6
31	Tears of Rage	1975
32	Queen Jane Approximately	1965
33	Standing in the Doorway	1997
34	It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)	1965
35	Mr. Tambourine Man	1965	2
36	Precious Angel	1979
37	Shot of Love	1981
38	Shelter from the Storm	1975
39	Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?	1985
40	Highway 61 Revisited	1965	1
41	Love Sick	1997
42	Abandoned Love	1985
43	Things Have Changed	2000
44	Masters of War	1963	11
45	Mississippi	2001
46	Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts	1975
47	Caribbean Wind	1985
48	Chimes of Freedom	1964
49	Buckets of Rain	1975
50	Hurricane	1976
	I Was Young When I Left Home	2005	3
	Don't Think Twice, It's All Right	1963	10
	Blowin' in the Wind	1963	12
	The Times They Are a-Changin'	1964	15
[b]	When the Ship Comes In	1964	16
	Maggie's Farm	1965	19
	It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry	1965	20
	It's All Over Now, Baby Blue	1965	22
[b]	Song to Woody	1962	23

NOTES:

[a] track in the A Complete Unknown (soundtrack)

[b] song appears in one of the 4 lists

Ranking was determined as follows:

• The number of times a song was included in one of the published lists was counted and put in descending order (i.e, the songs on all 4 lists were first, followed by those on 3 lists, etc)
• The sum of the song's rankings was computed and sorted in ascending order (Example: 
• Like a Rolling Stone and Tangled Up in Blue were on all 4 lists with ranking sums of 25 and 68 respectively.  Since Like a Rolling Stone had higher rankings on the list (a lower sum) it was ranked 1st.

Meditations: 14 Week Plan

Recently a friend was complaining of fatigue and nightmares. After listening for a while I could see a reflection of my own control issues in her stories. I suggested that she learn to relax (I had a boss that asked me to be 'happy'. I was a bit taken aback by the abstract nature of her request. So I could see where asking my friend to 'relax' could be a bit frustrating.) We started talking about other, more tangible solutions. "Meditation" came up and she confessed that she had tried a number of times to 'get into' meditation. 

The resistance to meditation has decreased since 2014 when Dan Harris wrote 10% Happier (link to Dan's YouTube: Learn Meditation in 5 minutes)  but that doesn't mean it's 100% American.

I've had a hankering to "do meditation" for a number of years so I decided to make a plan.

(If you want to sidestep a convoluted exploration into meditation paths, go to Dan's YouTube or jump here. Another, more mindful alternative is The Dali Lama's Guide to Happiness,)

Depending on your religious beliefs, the word "meditation" brings to mind, either an implicit practice (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baha'I faith) or an explicit discipline (Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Jainism,  and Sikhism). If you practice secularism, over the last 10 years the "meditation" has been replaced with "mindfulness" and become a discipline stripped of religious connections. Being ecumenical, I've identified the following guides to get me started (I compiled lists from Goodreads, NYTimes, Amazon best sellers, an MSRB practitioner, and A Skeptic's Path to Enlightenment; analyzed the compilation; and identified the top 7):

Meditation guides
Reading	Affiliation	Author	Hrs
Zen Mind, Beginners Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice	Zen	Shunryu Suzuki	3.52
Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life	secularism	Jon Kabat-Zinn	6.08
Mindfulness in Plain English	Buddhism	Bhante Henepola Gunaratana	2.08
10% Happier	secularism/ Buddhism	Dan Harris	5.12
The Miracle of Mindfulness	Buddhism	Thich Nhat Hanh	2.8
Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation	Buddhism	Sharon Salzberg	4.48
How to Meditate: A Practical Guide to Making Friends with Your Mind	Buddhism	Pema Chödrön	3.68
Wikipedia articles
Meditaion Traditions (wiki)			0.3
Yoga (wiki)	Hindusim		0.7
Yoga Sutras	Hinduism	Patanjali	2
Satipatthana Sutta (wiki)	Buddhism		0.15
Dhyāna sutras (wiki)	Zen		0.15
Neiye (wiki)	Zen		1
Lectio Divina (wiki)	Christianity	Origen	0.15
Dhikr (wiki)	Islam		0.3
	Wikipedia articles subtotal		4.75
		TOTAL HOURS	32.51

14 weeks is 98 days, so reading 33 hours of material amounts to about 20 minutes a day over 14 weeks.

(Before we get into my plan, here's a heads up on some unwanted affects of meditation that may occur in 4.2% to 4.6% of people:

• feelings of being alienated from society
• trouble feeling comfortable in the world
• feeling that something is missing

In most cases these feelings were mild. In case you encounter these feelings, try reducing the frequency of your meditations; join a meditation group; seek guidance from a meditation practitioner or teacher.)

Here's my plan: the first 2 weeks are aimed at getting an overview of mediation, its history, and the ways that various belief systems practice it (If you're allergic to religion, I suggest that you start at week 7, 10% Happier. Dan Harris provides a refreshing, no nonsense approach to meditation that may inoculate you.); for weeks 3 through 8, read/listen to five books on meditation; in weeks 9-12 implement Sharon Salzberg's 28 day program; finally in weeks 13 and 14, make friends with my mind.

14 Weeks of Meditations
Week	Reading
1	Meditation Traditions (wiki)
1	Yoga (wiki)
1	Yoga Sutras
2	Satipatthana Sutta (wiki)
2	Dhyāna sutras (wiki)
2	Neiye (wiki)
2	Lectio Divina (wiki)
2	Dhikr (wiki)
3	Zen Mind, Beginners Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
4	Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
6	Mindfulness in Plain English
7	10% Happier
8	The Miracle of Mindfulness
9	Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation
10	Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation
11	Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation
12	Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation
13	How to Meditate: A Practical Guide to Making Friends with Your Mind
14	How to Meditate: A Practical Guide to Making Friends with Your Mind