The past week I’ve been on a non stop Bob Dylan train. The sun’s finally coming out here in Limerick and I wanna drive around, walk around and sit around at home with Dylan soothing my ears with his vocal prowess and beauty. Doesn’t Bob Dylan have such a powerful, unique and other passionate tone to his voice. I’ve been rotating through my regular music heroes too some Warren Zevon, Rolling Stones, the band and a little bit of these guys carries me through the days and nights. So here’s my top 10 songs I’ve played in the last week!
- Just like a woman by Bob Dylan
- Desperados under the Eaves by Warren Zevon
- Baby talk by Mick Flannery & Susan O Neill
- Unforgettable by Nat King Cole
- Soul man by Sam & Dave
- Brutal by Olivia Rodrigo
- Lay Lady Lay by Magnet
- The French Inhaler by Warren Zevon
- In the summertime by Bob Dylan
- The ghost song by Jim Morris on & the doors
If you’ve never heard of the wonderful talent that is Ireland own Susan O Neill. She is an up and coming talent and her voice is so beautiful. She has the ability to tell such a story with her lyrics and the way she sings is so gripping and Unforgettable. I’m excited to see her live and listen to her on stage, I predict big things for this singer. I absolutely love her style and abilities she’s a true talent and definitely definitely worth checking out.
Anything here you like, don’t like or haven’t heard of let me know about it. I’m always looking to grow my music catalogue and knowledge. I love a song that tells a story and a great voice to guide me through it. What are you guys listening to these days? I’ve got an eclectic and very random shuffle play list of 700 songs on Spotify so the highs and lows are always fun.
I think it's interesting 
You should pop by my page – Yesterday I posted a ton of dylan vids. I also got really crazy into a rap artist a few weeks ago… I love music, all types of music. Three and Four days ago I was listening to Dylan’s 30th on constant repeat and ended up posting, but the last two days, I’ve been really into Metallica and Tchaikovsky – usually on a rotation. Queen and Nirvana, White Snake and Whitney Houston. Also, Phantom of the Opera v. Tom McDonald. I don’t know – it’s like opposites are really clicking for me right now. If you have any good opposites, I’d be really interested.
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Oh I’ll definitely check out some of those videos you poster that sounds great! That’s such an eclectic mix of music right there WOW! Lots of originality right there now I’m not sure if any of these you’d enjoy or they’re good opposites but I always enjoy listening to Bob Dylan, The GREAT Warren Zevon, The band, the Stones some movie soundtracks too like the blue danube by Johanna Strauss, Pietro Mascagni Cavalleria rusticana.
I also like to throw in a little bit of Frazey Ford, some good new Irish music too baby talk and chain reaction by Mick Flannery and Susan O Neill, the song blackbooks by Nils Lofgren.
I hope there’s some stuff in there you enjoy and thanks for the great comments it was really fun replying and answering back
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Most of my conversations on here take place in comments. You’re more than welcome to join in the fun!
I have to check those acts out. I know some of them… but not all of them.
I like all types of music, always have. But opposites are really getting me. Last night, before I decided to use up all my hot spot bandwidth on catching up on the Olympics a little and then getting lost in the rabbit hole that is youtube, it was The Rat Pack and weird al yankovic. No, I do not have any idea why. It just was LOL At work was Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen (they were sort of on the one side) and the other was Boy George. I honestly can’t explain it. But my tastes are all over the place. Always have been. So I’m excited to see your suggestions!
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I started listening to some of the music you recommended.
I was listening to Warren Zevon, and I didn’t recognize the name, but the voice, most certainly. I think he alternates between sounding like Tom Waits and Dylan.You def have a type.
“Werewolves of London” has been in my brain soundtrack since I heard it as a child. I just never knew who sang it. “Keep me in your heart” sounds like Lay Lady Lay. A specific version that I can’t place – which album I mean. It could be my tone deafness, but I could swear I heard a version of Lay Lady Lay that sounds JUST like this. But the original fits too. I’ve listened to a few others and he actually sounds like a friend of mine.
I know Blue Danube by Johann Strausee, and I have always loved it. I have also heard Cavalleria Rusticana before. I did not know the name of it because my uncle played it for me. He had a sound proofed room in his house that was for him and his records before his divorce. Whenever we went over there, he would drag me into the room and turn the music up full blast and try to knock me out of the room with the volume. a) because he could and his wife didn’t flip out, b) I was the only other one that would listen to “classical” music with him because I’ve always loved it. Something I can’t understand since I really am tone deaf. But I love it to this day. Cavalleria Rusticana is beautiful.
Frazey Ford is actually not someone I heard of before but she reminds me of Dolly Parton for some reason.
Susan O’Neill sounds like Amy Winehouse. I really like her voice. And I like the version of Baby Voice with the orchestra.
Nils sounds a little like Neil Young. Maybe it’s the way he pronounces the words – his voice isn’t quite so… whiny. But then he has an accent on some words that Young doesn’t have. I’m not sure what it is, but he reminds me of him in Blackbooks.
And I have to say, that I see your enjoyment of lyrics with this selection. You really like good lyrics. There’s a song that I like they lyrics, although they’re strange. Flogging Molly’s “Devil’s Dance Floor.” My favorite line is in the beginning, he says “her eyes were the color of insanity,” I don’t know why but that has always been a beautiful image in my head. And I like the upbeat sound of it. And “nothing ever came from a life that is a simple one” is from the same song.
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Yeah I absolutely adore Warren Zevon I’d have loved a chance to see him perform. I think Bob Dylan is the best but Warren Zevon is definitely my favourite. He’s got a catalogue of songs that are so rich in their lyrics and he does tell a story which yeah that’s my favourite part of music. The hurricane by Dylan is amazing to me it’s an 8 minute run down of society, racism and the imprisonment of an innocent man.
The main place I found classical music was through films. I heard the blue danube in 2001 a space Odyssey and Cavalleria Rusticana in the opening of Raging Bull and the end of Godfather part III. That set up at your uncles sounds like an incredible experience to listen to music, I’d have loved that kind of set up during the pandemic to be honest haha.
I’m so glad you enjoyed the music I recommended, I’m off tomorrow and I plan on sitting down, relaxing and listening to all of the music and singers you’ve told me about. It’s always exciting to find some new stuff!
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It’s funny, I hated Hurricane for a long time. Well, not hated, disliked, and if it was any other singer/songwriter I probably would have loved it. The music just didn’t work for me, and the lyrics never grabbed me – I would listen and zone out part way through. It was like that for years. It wasn’t the subject because he has several songs about similar things, all of which I loved. There was just something that didn’t click for me.
Then one day a few years ago, I was in a YouTube black hole. Did you ever fall into one and instead of having your mouse lined up for the next song on the suggestions, you just got into what you were listening to, head back, eyes closed, practically overwhelmed? Well, it was a dylan song, live, with that beautiful gravel in his voice. The last strains of the music were dying down and by the time I remembered that I was watching YouTube and not listening to an album it auto played the next one. I didn’t even look. Just kept my head back and kept listening. I had never heard the song before. Except I had, many times. It was a different version. It was all similar but his voice was in that whinier stage with the deeper gravel just starting to kick in. His mumbling had increased 90 fold, and the music was altered to best suit his new voice. I was enraptured. The lyrics were really amazing, although there were parts I simply didn’t understand what he said (either it was completely indecipherable even for me, or the word it sounded like he said didn’t quite fit so I knew I was mishearing it). Everything else was amazing lyrically and the music had transported me. Listened to the whole song, mouse at the ready over the video. As soon as it was done, I clicked the mouse to pause the video so I could get some information. Realized it was Hurricane and thought “no way”. Tried listening to the original again but zoned out immediately (I still can’t understand that response!) Decided then that the song was something that was best heard live and gave up any hope of likin the original.
Last year, about a month after my mom died, the night I submitted my two weeks I was driving home. Forgot I had it on my phone because it never plays. It came on. I was in a reverie thinking about my mom, what came next all of that lyrics caught my attention. I listened to them the whole way through and thought it was an AMAZING song. Replayed it twice on the drive home from that job that day. Figure it out but can no longer remember which it was, there’s a line that would lose my attention. The song before and after that line kept it hard, but that line would lose it. Now the lines all keep me. And it’s another amazing song by Dylan about racism, society contorting to support that racism, and the ugly underbelly of the justice system where the miscarriage of justice is the norm.
That’s the thing about Dylan – you don’t have to love every song he creates. Just appreciate the fact he has so many, and know that some day, quite randomly, you will fall in love with one you didn’t actually like at first. That’s part of his magic.
For Warren Zevon, I liked what I heard, but the same 2 songs came up on the general search for me. They weren’t even different versions, just the videos were different. Can you recommend a few songs for me to specifically listen to?
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Yeah I get it it’s a long song I’ve definitely had people tell me it’s not even close to their favourite Dylan song but it’s one of the first songs I heard of his and I always thought it was incredible.
Sometimes a song really can become different when you’re going through a change or something happens in your life. I’ve definitely had the same experience with Dylan I remember I didn’t care for Jokerman, Sara or Visions of Johanna for years then suddenly over the last year or so they’re some of my favourites now. That really is part of his magic.
Oh I’d love to recommend some of my favourite songs of Warren Zevon
1. Desperados under the Eaves
2. Mohammad’s radio
3. Genius
4. Lawyers guns and money
5. Excitable boy
6. Carmelita
7. Night-time in the switching yard
8. The French inhaler
9. Let nothing come between you (2007 remaster)
10. Never too late for love
11. Detox mansion
12. The indifference of heaven
13. Mutineer
14. Searching for a heart
15. El Amor De mi vida
16. The Rosarita beach cafe
Just some of my favourites. There’s so much depth and diversity to a lot of these songs, I hope you enjoy some of them
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Well, that’s a list and half. I am at work and have no speakers so I’ll have to email them to myself LOL I will listen to them tonight. at least some of them.
I actually hated Dylan for a really long time. The first song was Positively 4th Street – totally the song to show a teenager that’s being bullied. And then a teenager with my particular personality where I wasn’t a big person on being a victim of the bullies, I’d go back at them and also had no problem fighting – Idiot Wind was the second song. They were my theme songs from about 13 to 15. Then I switched to HS and the bullies kinda went away, and it was less bullies and more… jerk boys. Idiot Wind still worked, as they all were idiots. Then it was Highway 61 because of slide whistle. I don’t know why. I still love that stupid whistle – it’s my ring tone LOL
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Oh please there’s no pressure because I still haven’t had a chance to listen to all your music recommendations just said I’d put down a few of my favourites is all 😁.
Oh wow no way you hated Dylan. Oh fuckin bullies and school I remember those days of moving to a new school after the parents messy separation. The last thing you want is the bully assholes getting their dogs in, teenagers fuckin suck. But hey you turned out to a great compassionate badass person so fuck em.
That’s your ringtone that’s fucking great I always thought that was such an unusual and great weird Dylan thing to toss in there. But when it works it works and that definitely worked, very cool ringtone. Mine is come and come and Get Your Love by Redbone, I heard it when I first saw guardians of the Galaxy. It was in 2014 and I was in Donegal and I haven’t changed it for 7 years that’s just my ringtone now and forever
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Well, fair enough. When I feel like using my brain to listen to new music I will LOL I have the list in my email now.
Yeah, there was a point in time that I hated his voice. I know, I’m not sure what the hell was happening. To me, he sounded like a cat with its intestines wrapped around barbed wire. Now, I still agree with that young me’s opinion but I LOOOOVEEEE that sound now. It’s beautiful.
We had not moved, I just went from a small school to a huge High School. There was emotional bullying in the smaller school, which wasn’t pleasant, but I only had issues when it invoved my friends. In HS there was…. a more hands on approach to bullying girls. By guys. I appreciate your description of me, but you didn’t know me back then. If you did, you would realize that the person you have gotten to know is a very tame badass compared. I don’t take any of that now, and I certaintly didn’t back then. You thought it was funny to make girls run away in shame crying, and they did. They wanted to try to make ME run away in shame and cry. No one ever saw me cry…. no matter how…. ugly it got. Not one tear towards those …. poeple. They would never seeme cry. At home, in a tub of epsom salts and a container of peroxide and q-tips there may have been a bit of crying, but I’d be damned if they ever saw it.
Still cry like a baby, but only when I’m home and alone. No one will ever see me cry because of them. EVER. I don’t know why. It’s just how I am. Luckily, now, when epsom salts are invoved in my life it’s because I pulled out my back doing something stupid like picking up something WAY too heavy and not because my knee may or may not be busted. I had an interesting younger life.
Yes, it has been for…. oh gee, my first smart phone. It’s the sound for all phone numbers not specifically set to something different. Years. I also have an alarm that is Springsteen’s Born in the USA, and I have Another Bag of Bricks (Flogging Molly) as a different alarm, Cher’s Gypsy Tramps and Thieves as a ringtone for my three best friends, Stones Satisfaction for my boss, Lollipop Kids for the office I work in, Metallica’s Die Die My Darling for my ex, Cabaret’s Money Money for all of the stupid alerts from your bank that something is wrong, Lou Reed for my parents, and Stones’ Paint it Black for my sisters, You can imagine how I like some of thos things and not others based on their songs LOL
I haven’t yet fiigured out how to change the WP sound on my app for when a comment comes in. I’ve been wanting to change it from that tinkle sound. Just don’t know to what yet.
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Well that’s true about Dylan’s voice he’s anything but a tenor that’s for sure haha. He’s an acquired taste really I think but there’s plenty of wisdom in his words.
Oh that’s a good way to De stress in fairness, a good soak in the bath is always a brilliant way to ease stress isn’t it.
That’s a great idea with the separate ringtone for different people, I’m goanna try that with a few now😂. No satisfaction for the boss is a great and hilarious choice I love it haha.
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No, Dylan is amazing but I don’t think he’d be a great match for a duet with Andrea Bocelli, although I’d watch for sure. But, it’s about his words, not about his voice. Sometimes it take a minute for people to understand that the greatest voices do not have the greatest lyrics. The great lyrics are almost always associated with the acts with the strange and atypical voices. Like Warren Zevon. I listened to some of his music last night – well I tried to, but while waiting for the 1st suggested video to load on my phone, my finger tapped on his commercial free biography of his last three months hosted by Billy Bob Thornton. I was watching intently, vague aware I was supposed to be watching something else. But I honestly didn’t care enough to switch it. I stopped watching about 3/4 of the way through because it became impossible to watch – I was getting text messages and notifications from here all at once. It was cuttin out the sound each time, but i got snippets of almost all of his music. In all of it, he has a very nasal voice, and he sounds like Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, a friend of mine who used to perform and has the quiet intensity in his style that reminds me of Leonard Cohen. His songs are slow but packed with strong words. But his voice too is atypical and something one must be ready to expand their knowledge with. He’s not someone a teenager would pick up and say “gee this is amazing!” It’s something more enjoyable to those who have already been broken in by many acts that younger kids wouldn’t necessarily know – acts where the lead isn’t a great sounding voice but their lyrics are amazing. You have to want to hear the lyrics.
There are a few ways to destress, and a bath is just one. Cuddling on the couch with your dog is another – just petting the dog while they’re snugged against your chest. Their heat, mixed with the magical feeling of their fur can do wonders for a stressed body and mind. Or something insanely stupid like going outside as an adult and jumping in puddles. Something that makes you happy, but because you’re an adult you haven’t actually thought of it in a while. The best ones are those. You let your inner child out, tire yourself out with stupid laughter and energy you didn’t know you could muster, then crawling into a nice hot bath.
I thought it was. I set it back when I worked with Autism. Since then, I change the contact it’s associated with based on who my bosses are. TOTALLY worth it. Don’t forget to add the location you work at too. Sometimes the bosses are sneaky and call from the land-line and not just their cell phone LOL
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Yeah Dylan would be outgunned there in fairness. Yeah that’s exactly it with Zevon and I don’t know exactly what’s my fascination with the guy. There’s definitely pieces of Dylan, waits, Cohen and Tom Petty in there. He was great friends with Jackson Browne too and I always enjoy listening to them sing together as well.
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The fascination is clearly the lyrics. If you’re a dylan fan, you like lyrics and this guy had them. He really did.
I’ve heard Dylan cover Hallelujah by Cohen – it is somehow the worst cover ever and the best. It’s a very strange thing to hear.
I’ve always wanted to hear Cohen try to cover a Dylan song where he is the MOST whiny. See if he could pull it off. His version of Hallelujah was whiny as hell and that’s what made it both perfect and horrible at the same time. I would love to see what Cohen did with one of Dylans more…. Dylanesque songs. For a long time, I thought they should come out with another group – different from the Wilburys, but same concept. Dylan, Waits, Cohen, Petty, and someone that can actually carry a tune (Orbison’s role). I don’t know why, I always thought it should be MJ or Prince. I guess because I think it’s time to have a mix? I don’t know. But someone who sounds nothing like any of the others. I always liked the idea of MJ’s high voice, which is why I was thinking of prince. He has such a deep speaking voice you would think he would sound like Cohen, but his singing voice was higher. Then I thought “why all men?” yeah… it became a thing. I was redesigning the Willburys over and over again. It was fun, until half of the band I was putting together died, and then both of the good singers (if we were sticking to men only) died. Zevon would have been an interesting choice to add in for sure, since he sounds like all of them, but then again, if he sounds like all of them, you wouldn’t necessarily hear his voice…so that may be a bad choice.
I don’t know, you got me thinking about it again! LOL
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Yeah maybe our fascination with lyrics in songs let to the start of the blog or at least could’ve been a factor. The song feels more like a story or a journey than anything else.
Oh I didn’t know Dylan covered Hallelujah I gotta see what that’s like. Worst and the best has me curious now.
Oh if those guys had been in a group yeah that would be something else. The travelling Wilbury’s were one of the best, most talented groups of all time really. Yeah that would definitely be a great, unique mix of styles, tones and voices it’d have been a very interesting experiment at the very least. That’s true though it wouldn’t have to be just men imagine if Stevie Nicks, Joan Baez or Joni Mitchell had been thrown into the mix that’s be incredible too. It makes sense though why you’d be adding such a variety you had spoke of listening to songs and singers that were almost opposites recently. I know Zevon did record one song with Dylan and I think he went uncredited and only played harmonica on it. I know when Warren Zevon passed away a tribute album of all his big hits were covered by Dylan, Jackson Browne, the pixies, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Bob Thornton and Adam Sandler even did a fun version of Werewolves of London too. They added a fun new tone and style to his songs, sometimes the most random or unexpected choice to sing a cover is genius, sometimes haha.
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“Yeah maybe our fascination with lyrics in songs…The song feels more like a story or a journey than anything else.”
Have you ever listened to Harry Chapin? If not, you would love him. His lyrics really do tell a story.
“Worst and the best”
I have a recording of it on my phone. I’ll try to find it online and pop it on my blog to make it easier for you to find. And you will understand EXACTLY what I mean when I say it’s both the best and worst cover of all time.
Stevie Nicks I can see, but I say that the female should not be folk. Dylan has a history of folk and right now he’s going back to the crooner method, and that’s a little sleepier than folk, but it’s the same general feeling – if that make sense. So I thinking rock, soft, like a little of everything. But like I said, almost everyone in my previous plan has since passed on. So I have to create another supergruop. Although I am liking Stevie Nicks and Dylan together. That just seems to work in my head…I’m thinking someone hip hop and someone gospel. and you can’t end at four… so I have to think about it. Again, thank you for making me think about this. I had planned this imaginary group for like 2 years and finally gave it up like 10 years ago. Here I am, in the middle of it all again. Yay.
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Yeah oh cars in the cradle is such a beautiful and incredibly sad song. He had a beautiful voice too. But it’s mainly that song and a couple others I haven’t listened to much of his stuff in fairness.
Thanks for adding the Dylan cover it was really good, very different and very Dylan haha.
Yeah that makes sense they all kinda did team up at one stage or another, I love joni Mitchell in the last waltz. That’s a great concert documentary too, Scorsese the King of cinema and music documentaries too 🙌. Yeah maybe add in some Roberta flack she has a lot of soul in her voice. It’s fun to imagine some of these legendary voices singing together.
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He wrote Cats In the Cradle with his wife about his son. He wrote Tangled Up Puppet with this wife for his daughter. He was touring a lot at that point, and he felt they were growing up without him. If you want a few good story songs from him, I’d recommend these:
1) W*O*L*D
2)Taxi (and Taxi 2 which continues the first one, but I like Taxi better although I’m constantly told that the better one is the second)
3) Mr. Tanner
4) Flowers are Red
If you liked those, you’d finf more to like on your own.
The cover of Hallelujah is more Dylan than anything I think I’ve ever heard, which makes is completely amazing. But as I said before in another comment, it is one of the worst covers (as far as covers go) that one will ever hear. It is no Johnny Cash’s Hurt (by Nine Inch Nails). And it certainly isn’t as good as the Dylan songs covered in the 30th anniversary disk. Those are great covers. This is almost a horrible cover. But it’s so Dylan it’s absolutely AMAZING.
Scorsese did most of the movies about musicians at that point. I know that song and I don’t really like her voice on it there either. I’m not a fan of the women style of follk from that period. Probably one of the few that doesn’t even like joan Baez except in Diamond and Rust. There’s just something about the song that sits really well with me. I’m the only person I know that knows all the lyrics and loves it the way I do. Everyone else just thinks it’s a “good” song.
It is fun to think this stuff up, it’s one of the reasons I can get stuck on it for a while. And it’s super hard to do it now since his voice has changed so much over the years. Actually, I think the perfect opposite to his growling voice now would be Paul McCartney if you’re going with male or a female with a clear voice that’s beautiful but not too…. stylized. Like an Amy Whinehouse voice is too jazzy/blues style for a duet kind of of thing. More like a Barbara Streisand. Can’t say Celine or Christina because they like to practice their scales while singing. You just need a clear and beautiful voice that doesn’t need to put in too much flair for it to be great. Then the guy from White Stripes to add the musical element since his songs are always unique sounding – as is My Chemical Romance style. I think Dylan would be mad confused if we stuck in a rapper though – he wouldn’t know how to deal with the speed as that’s not his style – so maybe a rapper with slower tempo overall to his lyrics. So Eminem with his super fast rapping would be out. Optically I think Tom McDonald with his face full of tattoos standing next to Dylan and Streisand would be an awesome sight to see. Plus he’s a rapper and you can understand every single syllable. Simple and perfect sounds without much glitz and glam would be great to surround him.
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https://marladragon.wordpress.com/2021/08/03/hallelujah/
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