coffee grounds

Bobbing along

David Greenberg says something that often gets lost: Bob Dylan made great albums in the 1960s, and he's making great albums now.

For what it's worth, my top ten list of Bob Dylan albums. This is un-ordered, my top ten has been fairly stable over time, but the order would change frequently.

• Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
  
• Blood on the Tracks (1975)
  
• Desire (1976)
  
• Oh Mercy (1989)
  
• Time out of Mind (1997)
  
• Love and Theft (2001)
  
• Blonde on Blonde (1966)
  
• Bringing It All Back Home (1965)
  
• The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)
  
• Planet Waves (1974)
  

If you want eleven dollar bills I'll offer up Infidels as my 11th choice.

Best song: Desolation Row
Worst song: If Dogs Run Free.

All this is inspired by the release of No Direction Home. The album is great, the movie sounds awesome too. David Yaffe reviews the movie in Slate.

What's that album called?

Via one more cup of coffee a music recommendation: Martha Wainwright. Good stuff. Another English woman somewhat inspired by Dylan. Interesting genre that includes Thea Gilmore. Other suggestions welcome ...

Wainwright relates the following story about Bob Dylan:

Wainwright digs out Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan. A common choice, but her reason for choosing it is not so common. "Bob Dylan wanted to fuck me," she announces, casually. "He had seen me in New York once when I was wearing a low-cut dress and he called me up and asked to go out on a date. But he knew about my family and he said 'I bet you're pretty good, aren't you?' - he was talking about music - so I asked if he would consider having me open up for him on tour. I sent him a record and I never got a response. So I guess the answer is no."

Interesting, as on his latest tour Bob has been promoting the musical and perhaps other talents of Elana Fremerman, whose band opened for Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan last year. She's a good violinist at the very least. What else Bob sees in her we'll wait a while to find out ...

Anyway, apropos of Wainwright, Amazon won't tell you quite what the album is actually called.