So, yes, he's wrong. As, doubtless, I will be by the time the next post appears.

Bob is depthless, and the range of albums intimidating, but if you really have to narrow it down to one album then Rob is right, and it should be Highway 61 Revisited.

Blonde on Blonde is superb - but a double. With Highway 61 and Bringing it all back home it forms part of the holy trinity of mid-60's albums.

But you don't want to play them - you want to play "Blood on the tracks" - commonly referred to as "the divorce album" it is unstintingly superb, angry, and cathartic.

Don't fancy that ? then Desire, where we discover that Dylan is a superb spinner of tales ( he had some help from Jacques Levy though).

Not pure enough Dylan for you ? Then perhaps sir would like to try Street Legal, or New Morning, or.....or perhap sir is looking for something in more of a folky vein ? The eponymous Dylan may be ideal then - a cheeky mixture of standards and self penned, or The Freewheelin', or Blowin' in the wind - chock full of classics of protest, rage and love.

I would suggest not choosing Self Portrait. Some smart folk have rebranded it as a superb album of seminal americana. But they are wrong. It is a crock.

Blonde on Blonde

I'd also go for Blood on the Tracks.

And of the 'Holy Trinity', my preference would always be for Bringing It All Back Home. Highway 61 is ace but I always wince when I hear the comedy whistle on the title track.

Blood On The Tracks for a night like this. I love Highway, but I think there is more to discuss and think about on Blood.

I also absolutely love the Bob Dylan Xmas LP, but I think that's a bit niche.

.....Highway, Blonde, Tracks, yadda, yadda, yadda!

'Another Side of Bob Dylan'.
That'll get your group thinking.

1. It includes the only song that Dylan regrets writing ('Ballad In Plain D.').

2. It includes songs that the uninitiated have probably heard by others ('It Ain't Me Babe', 'All I Really Want To Do', 'My Back Pages') and a comedy song which is funny! ('Motorpsycho Nitemare').

3. No one will join in with pre-conceptions and arguments already made (unlike 'Blood On The Tracks' etc).

4. It's not political.

5. He's aged 23, he recorded it in one session, and he's sexy on the cover.

Both sides (assuming live albums are permitted).

Gives you everything you need. The acoustic first half, the Band-backed second half, the reverence, the rage and "play f**king loud". It's got everything that makes Dylan great, in a single package and with barely a duff moment.

It also ends on an absolute high, with that majestic version of "Like a Rolling Stone", the opening crash of which still gives me goosebumps on the thousandth listen.

Also, and this is important, all the songs are under 10 minutes long.

If you go with Blonde on Blonde (his best album), you'll close on Sad Eyed Lady..., which is knocking on for 12 minutes long and not a great way to end an event like this one, as great a song as it is. Ditto Highway... and Desolation Row.

Blood on the Tracks is a good shout too, but if you're going to go for 70s Dylan I'd throw a bit of a curveball and serve up Street Legal, which is ace and has had less exposure.

got to be.

Like Blood on the Tracks. Only better. With Hurricane.

You would see it had to be Blood on the Tracks (or possibly Modern Times!)

the wide eyed jagged thrill that went through me the first time I heard the first organ notes on 'Like a Rolling Stone'. It was a sensation I had rarely felt about music before and only fleetingly since.
On that basis I'd go for Highway 61.

of course.

Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou.

Blonde on Blonde - Best overall sound
Blood On The Tracks - Best lyrics
John Wesley Harding - Most stark
Highway 61 Revisited - A real departure
Desire - Just a great album

One of the religious trilogy? I'd go for Slow Train Coming and you'll get an idea where aul" Bob was then. If not it's got to be Blood On The Tracks.

...Nashville Skyline. Just saying....

You heard the man - Play it fookin' loud!

curse the fact that Positively 4th Street ain't on any of them.

Shot Of Love.

I suggest time out of mind

lovesick, not dark yet,the gravelly voice working to great effect with the songs and the presence of the recording, his references to the imminence of death,the proximity to his heart disease and late hit for others in make you feel my love

all good fodder for conversation

My favourite.
Side 1 is impossibly exciting.
Side 2 somehow surpasses it without using the crazed blues band on Side 1.

"Another Side..." is a great shout too. I used to love "Ballad in Plain D" when I were a nipper.

If all else fails, "Greatest Hits Vol. 2" - a more intriguing collection, with some nice curios on it.

"Oh Mercy "

The Man in the long black coat is great. And it has the added advantage that you can read about the making of the album in the Chronicles book.

I also recommend "Desire" too

I thought I'd get a few suggestions, but this is overwhelming. Thankyou one and all, it's very much appreciated, I will use your comments in a pre-amble, once I've worked out which one to play - I am going to listening to a lot of Bob over the coming weeks.

He has been at it for so long it's weird that "Blood on" is 37 yrs old and for me probably my favourite and now strangely enhanced by recently discovering Blood on the Tapes.

And yet, I will always remember Paul Gambaccini on Radio 1 introducing Like a R Stone as " simply the greatest rock & roll record ever made" and reminding me that, yes, he was probably right (with some competition from Strawberry Fields).So that takes us back to the first suggestion.

Problem is there is so much great stuff and the last 3 albums have all been excellent, in their, and his, own way

In the end, the plague touched us all.
Great opening line to accompanying album sleeve notes for BOT.
And, yes Blood on the Tapes well worthwhile hunting down too, I guess it's all on line these days, and can also be assembled from Biograph, and GBS.

Tell tale signs, typical of Dylan; the out takes and test takes are better than the stuff put out in the first place!

especially the classic track, Salad of a Bin Man

Highway has the advantage of being just an intoxicating smash of Bobness - fury, wordplay, majesty and lyricism beyond par ('the sweet pretty things are in bed now, of course") Blonde on Blonde is like that but even more so. Bringing it All Back Home has wit tenderness and poetry. Blood is the album that even proclaimed non-Bob people can handle - sound has not dated and his singing is at its most accessible. The songs are pretty immediate too. Freewheelin is folkie Bob I think at his peak while 40 years later Love and Theft has a contemporary but timeless sound that makes it a joy to listen to and has in Mississippi a song to rival any of his previous epic masterpieces. Singing is weirdly very listenable. But it's not better than Time Out Of Mind with the amazing Cold Irons Bound but I think it's too difficult a record for uninitiated. The above mentioned Live 1966 is a really good way of meeting Bob in his extraordinary range. Compelling stuff but not for the faint of heart.

Apart from one mention in passing, seriously, does nobody think that Freewheelin' is the best Dylan record? Really? It's just a lovely record. His singing is wonderful, his guitar picking never better, and the songs are superb - deep, silly, sombre, surreal, playful, bittersweet and very funny.

It certainly gets my vote as the most consistent Dylan LP.

I wouldn't pay any attention to the supporters of the Self Portrait LP...that's inverse snobbery. I bought it from Fopp about 10 years ago, and frankly could not believe my ears. I tried to imagine myself as a Dylan fan listening to this in real time, upon release. Ten seconds into "Let It Be Me" I would have known that the 60's had just dropped dead in front of me. It's an air-conditioned nightmare, that LP.

Go with Freewheelin', really, it's just the best. IMHO, naturally.

but I have a very soft and moist spot for Street Legal.

.....is advertising one such night and that pub is doing 'Blood On The Tracks'. Too predictable, I say, though don't do anything daft like 'Self Portrait' or 'Empire Burlesque'.