Dylan's albums best to worst

[NardDog]

maybe a slightly more ambitious/daunting task than Weird Al but at least I didn't pick Zappa...if you haven't heard all of them go with what you know. Anyway here goes mine...(I'm only ranking the 32 studio albums...if you would like a list...here you go...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dylan_discography)


1. Highway 61 Revisited
2. Bringing It All Back Home
3. Blood On The Tracks
4. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
5. John Wesley Harding
6. Another Side Of Bob Dylan
7. Street Legal
8. Time Out Of Mind
9. The Times They Are A-Changin'
10. Slow Train Coming
11. Blonde On Blonde
12. Desire
13. Planet Waves
14. Bob Dylan
15. Shot Of Love
16. The Basement Tapes
17. Nashville Skyline
18. Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid
19. Love & Theft
20. Modern Times
21. Saved
22. World Gone Wrong
23. Good As I Been To You
24. Infidels
25. Oh Mercy
26. Self Portrait
27. Under The Red Sky
28. Empire Burlesque
29. Knocked Out Loaded
30. New Morning
31. Down In The Grove
32. Dylan


starting at 25 all these albums are pretty crappy but there are one or two decent-good songs

15-24 are average-good and I can usually listen to them with breaking things or projectile vomiting

1-14 are very good-essential...if you don't have any of these I recommend them highly


...my sleeper picks are Street Legal and I think John Wesley Harding is still generally under-appreciated...I still don't hear as much praise of this album as there should be...

[Mighty Jack]

Good list, I don't think I liked Planet Waves though.

My 10
1. Bringing It All Back Home
2. Highway 61 Revisited
3. Blonde on Blonde
4. John Wesley
5. Freewheelin'
6. Blood On The Tracks
7. Another Side Of Bob Dylan
8. Time Out of Mind
9. The Times They Are A-Changin'
10. Desire

[Trumpy's Magic Snout]

I've got every Dylan album, save Dylan which I've only ever seen a copy of on cassette and it was very overpriced, including all the live ones and the bootleg series that's been running the last two decades. To me if The Basement Tapes is allowed then they all should be too, and the second best of that was released, More Greatest Hits if I'm correct?, had something like six original songs on it so there's a case for it as well. The problem is it's been such a long time since I listened to any, so off the top of my head, the studio albums, subject to change:

1. Bringing It All Back Home
2. Highway 61 Revisited
3. Blood On The Tracks
4. "Love And Theft"
5. The Times They Are a-Changin'
6. Time Out Of Mind
7. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
8. Blonde On Blonde
9. Modern Times
10. Desire
11. Another Side Of Bob Dylan
12. The Basement Tapes
13. Oh Mercy
14. New Morning
15. John Wesley Harding
16. Slow Train Coming
17. Bob Dylan
18. Shot Of Love
19. World Gone Wrong
20. Nashville Skyline
21. Good As I Been To You
22. Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid
23. Street Legal
24. Infidels
25. Planet Waves
26. Under The Red Sky
27. Self Portrait
28. Saved
29. Down in The Groove
30. Knocked Out Loaded
31. Empire Burlesque

As I said I haven't heard 73's Dylan, but it's a covers album so I'm not going out of my way. It's pretty telling that it's the only one of his albums never to be re-released, according to Discogs anyway!

Pretty obvious Top 3 and it's pretty clear that I hate his mid-80's contractual obligation output. I think Oh Mercy and New Morning are very under-rated albums, whereas Planet Waves is one of his most over-rated.

Oh and I think it's pretty clear that I have absolutely loved the three albums he's made since '97. Of the three I actually rate "Love And Theft" as the best and it's one of my favourites by him.

[Phantom Engineer]

I don't know if there's a bigger Dylan fan here than me but just like MST eps I just can't make a definitive list. It could change from day to day.