The first Dylan album I bought was the bootleg series Vol 1-3 which was an amazing introduction to the music my favourite track on that boxset was the acoustic version of If You See Her,Say Hello which I thought was and still is one of the saddest songs ever written. It was only later when I got the original Blood On The Tracks did I realise how different was the album version.
There were of course many great tracks on the bootleg series which didn't make it to albums,for example,Blind Willie McTell and Series Of Dreams, to name just two,which showed the depth of Dylans genius.
After that I devoured Dylans back catalogue but I think Blood On The Tracks is still my favourite Dylan album

this.

I would say my favourite Dylan song is Up to Me.

Favourite album? Blood on the Tracks - New York Sessions.

Favourite memory? Seeing him on Camden High Street in 1993 and his signing an album for a kid who had bumped into him outside the Record and Tape Exchange after buying Blonde on Blonde.

was my first Dylan album. The year was 1965, it was his current release and I was still in high school. My dad said he couldn't sing.

Over the next year or two I worked my way back and mopped up the earlier 4 LPs using odd-job money, while trying to keep up with the new releases (and singles).

Since then I've bought (or been sent) every Dylan album on release.

It's been a long strange trip full of highlights and the odd disapointment.

Here's a Rolling Thunder version of an old favourite. Personally I don't think Bob has ever sung better than this.

Check out Bob's cheesy Valco Airline Guitar, seen here years before Jack White made them popular again.

Also note the guy behind Dylan (Steven Soles?) playing acoustic guitar - with a broken index finger!

is Don't fall apart on me tonight which is from Infidels but favourite album is Desire.

For next week. I´ve never been given more words and never found it harder to decide what to leave out.

Favourite song - Ballad Of A Thin Man. It was the song that made me understand what all the fuzz was about. Had been listening to a Greatest Hits I had been given by a friend´s dad on cassette. I thought it was okay, but didn´t get goose bumps. Then Ballad Of was in a BBC music doc called Dancing In The Street and the opening chords of a live version came on to me like a tidal wave. Dylan filmed by the piano, probably stoned out of his mind. You walk into a room... NOW I get it.

Favourite album - Time Out Of Mind. Released around the time of the above experience. I was nurturing a broken heart and was Love Sick. It helped. I did wish I´d never met her. Hearing Bob sing about it and knowing I wasn´t alone helped. When Highlands faded out after 17 glorious minutes I felt reborn. The line "I´m listening to Neil Young, I´ve gotta turn up the sound" still makes me smile.

I bump into my now lost friend´s dad occasionally. I should probably thank him.

Favourite track - Was "It Ain't Me Babe" for ages, until I saw the film I'm Not There last year. When "Blind Willie McTell" came on it was revelatory. A fantastic piece of music. Unfortunately the real version isn't on youtube. So you'll just have to listen to it another way.

but not forgetting Idiot Wind, and Bargepole also has a penchant for Changing of the Guard and Jokerman.

My overall favourite? "Bringing it All Back Home"

A very close second favourite? "Highway 61 Revisited"

The best of the early folksy/protest output? "Freewheelin Bob Dylan"

His greatest record of all time for lyrical genius? "Blood on the Tracks"

The one I seem to listen to a lot? "Bootleg Live 1966"

The one that I think is ever so slightly over rated? "Blonde on Blonde" - though, let me clear, its got some fine songs.

His worst? "Self Portrait". As Bob himself once said "If your gonna put a lot of crap on it, load it up"

The stuff that passes me by completely? most of the 80s output.

My personal favuourite of his later releases? "Love and Theft"

My personal favourite Bob quip to journalists? When he was asked what his songs were about he replied "about 5 mins, 7 mins, some are even 9 mins". noq for me, thats the mark of the man's genius.

So hard to pick a favourite song in the face of so many great ones. If I am permitted to overlook the "core" greats, I would suggest the following as worthy of investigation as lesser known Dylan greats:

Oxford Town - Freewheelin
Restless Farewell - Times They Are A Changin
Queen Jane Approximately - Highway 61 Revisited
I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine - John Wesley Harding
Tomorrow is a Long time - Greatest Hits Volume 2
Sign on the window - New Morning
George Jackson (acoustic) - b side of George Jackson single (not available on CD)
Never say goodbye - Planet Waves
Buckets of Rain - Blood on the tracks
Idiot Wind - Hard Rain (live version)
We Better Talk This Over - Street Legal
Pressing On - Saved
In the Summertime - Shot of Love
Trust Yourself - Empire Burleque
Handy Dandy - Under the Red Sky
Lone Pilgrim - World Gone Wrong

It seems Blood On Tracks is a favourite with quite a lot of the massive. I've not heard of the New York Sessions version of this album, mentioned by Patrick on this thread-a bootleg I presume Patrick?
There is still so much Dylan I don't yet own, but the posts above will be a useful guide, many thanks. Back to Blood On Tracks, has Dylan ever sounded in better voice than on this album?

on BBC4 last night and there was a performance of 'Blaad Of a Thin Man' from Newcastle 66 with Bobby stabbing at the piano with great ferocity with one hand waving free as he spat out the lyrics. Quite breathtaking footage

Not sure I could choose just one Dylan song but 'You're A Big Girl Now' has been on heavy rotation of late

And yes the BOTT NY Sessions tape bootleg is essential listening

Edinburgh Playhouse, 1995 or so. Bob starts on his acoustic set and gives it some harmonica, to be greeted with a shout of: "Gaun yersel Boab!"

This amused me no end at the time and indeed to this day. And no, it wasn't me that shouted it.

But for me, it's Bringing It All Back Home, mostly because of Maggie's Farm and It's All Over Now Baby Blue.

That said, I love Highway 61 and Blood On The Tracks almost equally, and Blonde on Blonde contains Absolutely Sweet Marie, which I think is my favourite Dylan song.

I'm always happy to listen to Bob, although I'm not sure there's quite as much to him as the very most obsessive fans would claim. He's still great, though.

"Flowers on the hillside blooming crazy
Crickets talking back and forth in rhyme"

Amazing!

Song: Tangled Up In Blue
Album: Blonde On Blonde

But sitting here watching No Direction Home I'd say Mississipi, Changeing of The Guards and Lily Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts.

Actually, the version is on Biograph is even better.

Is this from your vinyl copy?!?!? if so I'm glad I went over to CDs in the mid 80s!

where they do things differently. Nowhere is this more evident than in the footage of disgruntled fans leaving Dylan's 1966 UK concerts in No Direction Home.

Some of the comments almost beggar belief - "Bob Dylan were a bastard in the second half" barks one gruff, northern punter, perplexingly. "Ditch the band" snaps another, his dissatisfaction typical of many others interviewed by filmmaker D.A.Pennebaker.

What's most noticeable about these grim-faced malcontents is how they look. In their tweed jackets and ties, mid-60s Dylan fans in the provinces seemed like they were dressed for a Trade Union meeting or perhaps a Young Farmers Association gathering rather than a rock concert. It would be a year or two before long hair and hip clothes became the norm at these events.

At this distance it's too easy to dismiss the sense of betrayal some of the fans felt at Dylan's conversion to electric music, however. As a 15 year-old schoolboy I attended the 1966 tour in Sheffield and luxuriated in the wall of sound we were confronted with in the second half. But had I been a few years old, who's to say I wouldn't have been lining up alongside the men in tweed to shout "Judas"?

Some songs:

1. Mixed-Up Confusion
2. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? (Jimi did a fab version on the BBC World Service introduced by Alexis Korner!)
3. To Ramona
4. I Don't Believe You (this 'didn't' get in one magazine's Top 100 Dylan songs.....erm.....OK, have it your way!)
5. John Wesley Harding

Favourite albums (absolute zilch from the dire 1980s, obviously):

1. Another Side of Bob Dylan (the only one I play with any regularity)
2. John Wesley Harding
3. Bob Dylan (debut album - Martin Carthy swears by it)

I have a soft spot for this track too.

Without doubt (imho)the greatest album of all time..the production on this album is very different from any of his previous albums,on the slow mellow tracks especially..on "Your a big girl now" the line "like a corkscrew to my heart,ever since we've been apart.." heart-rending and so melancholy,great when your in that sort of mood :)

My personal favourite album is 2001's 'Love and Theft'. It may be full of half-inched lyrics and tunes but it never fails to cheer me up.

Favourite song, currently, is 'Sign on the Window' from 'New Morning'

I was a very late convert, considering my age (b 1952). I came from a very conservative place (about 500 miles North of Hibbing, Minnesota). I was very straight. I loved the Beatles and the Stones and all the British Invasion guys, but Dylan, well, I hated his voice and didn't like the look of him. Whiney, dirty, beady little eyes.

I remember hearing "Rainy Day Women" on my Dad's car radio and I thought: "this person sounds scary. I feel very threatened by this music". A few years later when "Nashville Skyline" came out I remember thinking, "Oh, this isn't scary. And I like Johnny Cash. Yes, this Dylan guy is alright."

And I worked backwards into the scary stuff. Which I love now, of course. The first album is still stunning. I quoted Dylan in my wedding speech: I didn't give out his name but referred to him as "a Mid-Western mystic poet". "To Be Alone With You" is a stunning love song, very pure and sincere.

My first experience of heartbreak coincided with the release of "Blood On The Tracks". I literally could not listen to that album without weeping and shaking, so I didn't listen to it for many years. Every track a gem.

I listen to Bob every day. The last three albums are so rich and dense I barely feel that I've made a dent. Not to mention the damned Official bootlegs. Who has the time to listen properly? It's like a job. A terrific job.

Most recently, a friend made me a CD of that deleted "Dylan" album, the rehearsals that Columbia put out after Dylan jumped labels. It was vilified on release and I avoided it as any good Bobfan would. Well, it's mostly wonderful. His take on "Big Yellow Taxi" is hilarious and fun!

As for particular Dylan lines, the first one that pops into my mind is "let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late".

Here's one of my favourite. This song is still relevant today.

Current favourite - Farewell Angelina (bootleg series)
Overall favourite - Girl From the North Country
Best vocal performance - Moonshiner (bootleg series)
Best live song - It's Alright Ma
Most bitter track - Ballad in Plain D
Best lyrics - Desolation Row

He's wearing the same brown suede jacket on the cover of both Blonde On Blonde and John Wesley Harding

His best album is Bringing It All Back Home ... although BOTT is right up there.

The one I have never really got is The Basement Tapes - sounds a bit of a racket to me. As for favourite song - now that's a tough one - right now I'll plumb for Visions of Johanna