Probably more so than any other popular music artist in history Bob Dylan has made people think of popular songs as a form of poetry. In fact; many people who couldn’t care less about actual poetry love to dissect every word of Dylan’s lyrics for hidden meanings.
The ultimate Dylan lyrics book is Lyrics: 1962-2001 which includes 610 pages of Dylan lyrics from his beginnings in the early 1960s all the way through 2001 (he has released a few more albums since then.)
Reading Dylan’s lyrics can be quite interesting but personally I prefer listening to them. After all Dylan isn’t a poet; he’s a songwriter and I think the musical component of his work is just as important as the lyrical component.
What follows are my picks for his ten most essential albums. I recommend buying all of these and also picking up the Dylan Mono Box Set (his first 8 albums in mono!)
The Ten Most Essential Dylan Albums
#01 – Blonde on Blonde (1966)
#02 – Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
#03 – Bringing It All Back Home (1965)
#04 – Blood on the Tracks (1975)
#05 – The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963)
#06 – Desire (1976)
#07 – John Wesley Harding (1967)
#08 – Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964)
#09 – The Times They Are A-Changin’ (1964)
#10 – Time Out of Mind (1997)