OK< Time for FAVOURITE BOB DYLAN SINGLE!!!! poll.

"One of Us Must Know," mainly for the majesty of the production, and also because so many others will already vote for "Like a Rolling Stone" (which is probably the better single--I've never experienced "One of Us Must Know" in that way...but I love it, so it gets my vote). Don't think "Times They Are-a Changin'" is 1965, though...

"I Want You" is my #1, no contest.

"Leopard Skin.." of course.

"Well, I see you got a new boyfriend
You know, I never seen him before
Well, I saw you makin' love with him
You forgot to close the garage door"

yeah i was trying to formulate something about "one of us must know" - that it doesn't feel like a single. it's a better song than the other mid-'60s songs that came out on 45s, though.

plz no favourite leonard cohen single poll.

"I Threw it All Away" gets me everytime.

Changing Of The Guards is my favorite right now.

wow. is that really all the singles he's released?

i mean, the big issue here is "not a singles artist"...

can anyone really get behind ANY of these songs as a "single?" even the classic one, "like a rolling stone," was more about pushing the envelope of the medium if, in fact, it really resonated AS A 45 at all. do people really like it as a single more than they like things more classically suited to the format? i like 45s, personally, but "like a rolling stone" is a track on highway 61 revisited for me.

"hey jude" is comparable, i guess, but that resonated as a 45 by default because it wasn't on an album.

"Subterranean Homesick Blues" 'works' as a single in the way I think you're talking about Tim. (& has an iconic video even!) Others that do: Rainy Day Women (tho I hate it), I Want You, Lay Lady Lay, Blowin' in the Wind, Times They Are etc, Knockin on Heavens Door.

I think "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?" does too, kind of.

xp
I agree with you except in regards to "Like a Rolling Stone." Wasn't old enough to experience it that way myself, but I'm pretty sure it resonated very strongly as a radio event. Also, it made #2 on the charts, so it was played a lot, alongside all the other pop hits of the day. (The only really good chapter in the Greil Marcus book about this song is the chapter in which he describes all this--how it sounded on the radio, what the rest of the radio sounded like in comparison, etc.)

yeah, i'm making a distinction between radio event and single, though. i think the Zeitgeist with Dylan was to buy the album. so groke, even "subterranean homesick blues" doesn't feel much like a "single" to me! "positively 4th street" and "please crawl out your window" i can see.

a distinction between radio event and single

But what is the distinction? I don't follow.

that the single is a thing - a 45. i think "like a rolling stone" resonated more as a radio event and as an album track than as a 45.

I think "Subterranean" has grown into its single-ness though (thanks to the video, which is definitely a THING).

Also, when I was at school and all the older kids liked Dylan, there was a clear distinction between the Dylan they'd play as a single track and the stuff they'd play as part of its album ("Rainy Day Women" being the best example), so they were *using* tracks as singles.

just thinking in terms of the medium itself - the actual record. shangri-las hits work for me as 45 a-sides more than "like a rolling stone" does.

xp

Tim, don't get me wrong, in a way I consider 45s objects of worship, but I just don't see in the long run how the medium that a song is pressed on makes a big difference--or anyway, as big a difference as the medium it transmits on, which is radio--at least in terms of determining whether or not a song is a single. By that definition, I haven't experienced any 50s songs as singles, and very few 60s songs. And zero '90s or '00s music, come to think of it. What Groke says about how people *use* these songs makes more sense to me.

Speaking of using songs as singles - Tangled Up in Blue, best road song ever.

Rolling Stone.

Positively Positively.

"Maggie's Farm," since "Masters of War" is ineligible.

Was "Things Have Changed" not a single?

but the fact that the object exists is significant - for me, at least. i know people think of '90s and '00s radio songs as "singles," but the term, obviously, is just a holdover. i mean, certainly, as an object, the cd single was an abomination.

when i think of "like a rolling stone" being played on the radio in 1966, i think, "ok, the dj was playing the 45, but even in spite of the fact that it was a big hit, the song had more to do with the transition to album-oriented radio or whatever."

so i think i'll vote "positively 4th street" : D

come to think of it, it seems interesting to me that i've probably heard "positively 4th street" more or oldies radio than i have "like a rolling stone" or any of the others. i think that must have something to do with the fact that it's perceived more as a "single!"

By that definition, I haven't experienced any 50s songs as singles, and very few 60s songs.

See, I feel like I have because I know when I hear them that those songs were crafted as 45 a-sides and that's a big part of what those songs ARE.

When people were listening to radio back then, they were listening to the DISC jockey, right? - some guy in the studio playing records. So, I think listening to the radio back then was not just about the songs but also about the objects the disc jockey was playing.

And with Dylan, the whole idea obviously became entirely appalling. I don't want to divorce my perception of "Tight Connection to My Heart" from the fact that this hideous object was manufactured:

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/s72220.jpg

(image of "tight connection to my heart" PICTURE SLEEVE 45 has mysteriously disappeared)

You know, this is probably getting off track from the Dylan poll, but...

See, I feel like I have because I know when I hear them that those songs were crafted as 45 a-sides and that's a big part of what those songs ARE

But pressing the songs on 45 was merely a requirement, necessary to get your song on the radio (I would assume the producers of those songs were primarily thinking about what hooks would jump off the radio). Later, those requirements changed, but the end goals (transmitting your music to as many listeners as possible) did not. 45s were a means to an end. (I'd also add to what I said above that it's not just radio that determines singles, obviously, it's all sorts of different mediums, including nowadays chat boards and stuff.)

I don't much care for Dylan, but "Hurricane" is a wonderful song both musically and lyrically.

but you don't think that people's relationship with listening to music on the radio has to do with the objects themselves that are being played in the studio? like it was more fun to listen to radio back in the day because the disc jockey was an actual disc jockey and was playing records?

jack fm is interesting. a lot of their spots have to do with the studio - the "music monkey" is there playing tracks from cds. they depict it as an oppressive environment full of ugly artifacts related to the music industry ("an autographed copy of sting's dream of the blue turtles"), garbage, etc. on one spot, they were talking about the cd players which were "starting to smoke" from overuse and there was one mention about the trash in the room, i think, containing "a pile of bad cds" that were going to be put in the dumpster.

Hurricane

I honestly don't get where the disc jockey comes into this--it's not the same thing at all as what we were talking about. of course a listener's relationship to a person speaking on the other end of a radio is (or was) a big deal. But whether the disc jockeys were playing 45s or LP cuts or 8-tracks or CDs or mp3s... yeah, I think that's kind of irrelevant insofar as determining what makes a single. I think I'm just repeating myself.

but at least jack fm is engaging people in some sort of dynamic and perhaps progressive way with regard to their relationship with the actual station and what is going on in the studio when they listen to the radio. every other american radio station feels like a vacuum.

I've never given a second thought to which format DJs play songs off of, myself.

Though I do give thoughts to what formats *I* play songs of, and owning a 45 is much more likely to make a song feel "single-like" to me. Though hearing a song on the radio a lot can have much the same effect.

These days, living in New York and never driving anywhere, I almost never listen to the radio, and physical singles barely exist, so fewer songs hit me as singles than ever, in my life. I don't download, have no real interest in doing so, but since pretty much *any* song is available as a download, I can't imagine that, even if I did download, it would make much of a difference, singles-wise. So in 2007, I'm less excited about putting together a singles list than ever. Which is sad, and definitely a topic for further discussion.

At any rate, I'm going to vote for "Subterranean Homesick Blues." Though I'm pretty sure the only Dylan 45s I own are "Positively 4th Street" and "The Groom's Still Waiting At the Altar" (and whatever is on their flipsides.)

scott, i would just maintain that i think the appeal of radio in the '50s and '60s did have something to do with records, vinyl, 45s.

and not that it was even necessarily a very conscious thing for people (addressing chuck's comment about "not giving a second thought" to the matter)

my brain said "subt homesick blues," my heart said "maggie's farm." i went with my heart.

i hear both of them very much as singles, as entities, events, moments, self-contained experiences entirely separate from any album. then again, i think of almost all of my favorite dylan tunes that way.

the word "singles" just sticks out for me in that statement because i think when you're talking about "singles" you're talking about the object.

b-b-but i think of "i heard it thru the grapevine," to take one very obvious example, as a single, but i've never owned it that way, because i wasn't around at the time when it was readily available as such. does the fact that i merely heard it on the radio and own it on a marvin gaye comp disqualify me from personally considering it a single? i don't hear, or talk about, the object at all. i hear the song.

I like Dylan when he's plain-spoken and all huggy, so I go with "If Not for You", despite its perhaps being a bit lightweight compared with the "epoch-defining", "best rock songs ever" nominees that surround it.

if you're hearing it as a "song," i'd just question why it's significant to maintain that you're also hearing it as a "single."

i mean, i understand - because it WAS a single, because it was a big hit. but you seem to be saying that you don't hear it as a single ("i hear it as a song") while at the same time saying that you do ("i hear it as a single").

xp Because hearing something as a single implies a connection with other people (for instance, radio listeners) (and TV viewers too -- though I also don't have cable nowadays, sigh) who hear the song separate from the album, and that's possible even if vinyl doesn't exist? (But I'd say it also implies the song somehow being *selected* as a single, which is why, to me, random album tracks on people's itunes don't really cut it.)

xhuxk said it better than i could have.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_(music)

There.

I think the "connection with other people" thing is kind of my main criteria for what is a single. And back to my original point--"Like a Rolling Stone" seems like it was just as big a deal as a single as it was an album cut, even if it hasn't necessarily survived that way. I always had the feeling that that was the very first time a lot of people even HEARD Dylan. Probably lots of people heard stuff about him before they heard him, is my guess--especially teenyboppers.

I'm not a huge fan of Dylan but "I Want You" is one of my all-time fave songs so that's my pick.

well someone could just say that when they hear "i heard it thru the grapevine," they hear the fact that it was a big radio hit. i don't mean to be pedantic on the semantic issue, but it's interesting that it came up in the context of dylan and whether people tend to hear "like a rolling stone" as a "single" as much as they hear "leader of the pack" as a "single."

yeah, scott, it sold a lot of copies, but it still feels to me, like i said before, that the real Zeitgeist with Dylan back then was more about buying the album.

"connections with other people" should certainly be the main criteria behind the pole, regardless of how you want to define 'single.' It's still the case that these are the tracks people are most likely to know, so it makes sense to include them and exclude other 'album tracks,' no?

No one has mentioned B-sides. Singles have B-sides, or at least they did back then.

"Times" charted in the UK in 1965. Watch one Don't Look Back.

I voted "Window" JUST BECAUSE.

It is hard to believe that "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat" was released as a single.

the same label that put out five moby grape singles at the same time

Was "Things Have Changed" not a single?

It had a video, so ..yeah.

oop, I mean Yeah it was a single

i was trying to find a good sleeper but then i just voted for "rolling stone"

"I Want You" has that incredible live version of "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" on the B-Side, so I vote for that.

It also should be pointed out that (according to the AMG) "Love Sick" was released as a CD single and (according to my collection) "Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum" was put out as promotional 45 single.

Hurricane is amazing. So, that.

Lately I play seventines and eighties Dylan far more often, and "Jokerman" grows more impressive with the years: the note-perfect usage of Sly & Robbie, the ease with which Dylan bites down on the polysyllabic words, the evocative words.

Also: how GREAT that opening line "Standing on the water, casting your bread" sounds with that bassline loping and throbbing behind it.

It's the song I put on mix CD's when I want to convince a non-believing friend of Dylan's greatness (which, as most of you know, is a near-impossible task). The intricate reggae lockstep matches the opaque-not-impenetable lyrics with crisp delivery.

"like a rolling stone" sounded GREAT on my transistor AM radio

as did the immortal "everybody must get stoned" even tho I was 8 y.o. and thought it was a biblical reference to st steven or something.

"knocking on heaven's door" is right up there too

Great sleeve for "Hurricane":

http://images.marketworks.com/hi/63/63213/r239.jpg

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

the sleeper here is "George Jackson", which is still (AFAIK) hard to find and thus has not been widely heard.

i voted for the oddly forgotten "rita may"

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

"George Jackson" did so well??

And my vote for "Jokerman" was not tabulated.

re the "singles" argument: I recently began writing a biweekly singles column. almost every single person I've told this to has automatically assumed I was writing an advice column about dating. another term bites the dust, maybe.

maybe you should do a dual-purpose fusion column. singles going steady?