The Bob Dylan Top 125 Countdown & This Week's Statistics

Before talking about this week's amazing statistics, here are three more songs in our Bob Dylan Top 125 Countdown.

At #78 is a song that appears in two Dylan studio albums in two different versions. Girl from the North Country originally appeared in Bob's breakthrough album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963). Dylan re-recorded the song as a duet with Johnny Cash in February 1969. That recording became the opening track on Nashville Skyline. Let's see what Keith Richards has to say about the song:

"While the British Invasion was going on, Bob Dylan was the man who really pulled the American point of view back into focus. At the same time, he had been drawing on Anglo-Celtic Folk songs, and that's certainly true of Girl From the North Country. It's got all the elements of beautiful Folk writing without being pretentious.

In the lyrics and the melody, there is an absence of Bob's later cutting edge. There's none of that resentment. He recorded it again later with Johnny Cash, but I don't think it's a duo song. Bob got it right the first time.

In a way, I see Girl From the North Country, Boots of Spanish Leather and To Ramona as a trilogy. Is Ramona the girl from the north country? Is she the same chick who sends the boots of Spanish leather? There's some connection between them. Also, the guitar picking is almost the same lick in Boots of Spanish Leather and Girl From the North Country. It's like an extension of the same song.

Before he went electric and submitted himself to the discipline of a rhythm section, there was a beautiful flow in Bob's songs that you only get with just a voice and a guitar. He can float across a bar or let certain notes hang, and it doesn't matter because it all goes with the song.

He's the most prolific writer: I think he's written more songs than I've had hot dinners. So, Bob, just keep 'em coming! He's an inspiration to us all, because he's always trying to go somewhere new. I love the man – and I love that he rock & rolls too!"

Here's Dylan singing solo:

Here's Dylan & Cash, in a scene from the movie Silver Linings Playbook:

At #77 is the title song from Dylan's 1970 album, New Morning. A deceptively simple song, a wry take on country life and a celebration of new beginnings, this is Dylan at his most relaxed - a rare feel-good song in the Dylan canon.

This must be the day when all of my dreams come true

So happy just to be alive

Underneath the sky of blue

On this new morning with you.

Finally for today, at #76, here's a song that didn't appear on any album till the release of the 1985 box set compilation, Biograph.

Up to Me is one of the top-shelf songs that Dylan left off albums (in this case, Blood on the Tracks) for reasons known only to the man himself. It is reminiscent of Shelter From the Storm, both musically and in terms of its spare arrangement. Thematically, the song would have perfectly suited Blood on the Tracks, which was inspired by the dissolution of Dylan's marriage to Sara Lownds. It's possible that Up to Me was simply too personal for Dylan to release at the time. "And if we never meet again, baby, remember me," he sings in the song's last verse. "How my lone guitar played sweet for you that old-time melody." Of course, he denied that interpretation. "I don't think of myself as Bob Dylan," he told Cameron Crowe. "It's like Rimbaud said, 'I is another.'"

Up To Me

Now, let's move on to this week's statistics. Great news: the number of visits have increased by 461% this week compared to the last one. In other words, we've had almost 5 times as many visits this week compared to the last one. The main reason: George Michael's death. From the very first minute when the news broke, the visits to the George Michael 2-parter (especially part 2), as well as the ones for Wham!, went through the roof. The visitors came from practically all over the world - you will see that in a minute when all the visiting countries are saluted. The big winners were primarily Germany and France, then the United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, the Netherlands, Brazil and Poland. The United States', Greece's and Canada's visits did not increase proportionally, so they should be considered as minor losers. Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, and especially Russia are the major losers of the week. I wonder how many of the people that visited this week for the first time will remain as regular readers. My wish: all of them!

The full Top 10 is as follows:

1. the United States

2. France

3. Germany

4. the United Kingdom

5. Italy

6. Brazil

7. Greece

8. Australia

9. the Netherlands

10. Canada

10. Poland

Here are the other countries that graced us with their presence this week (alphabetically): Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Aruba, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Curaçao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Georgia, Ghana, Gibraltar, Guadeloupe, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Kenya, Kosovo, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Macedonia (FYROM), Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar (Burma), Namibia, Nepal, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Reunion, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe. Happy to have you all!

In the all-time Top 10, things went topsy-turvy. The United States and Greece still occupy Nos 1 & 2, but they lost a 3% share each. Germany easily flew past Russia and moved up a notch to #3, while France, overtaking both the United Kingdom and Russia, occupies #4 for the first time ever. One has to feel sorry for the United Kingdom: although it greatly increased its number of visits, it moved down a notch: this was mainly due to the fact that France had more than three time as many visits. Italy climbed up 3 notches, the UAE fell one, while Canada and Cyprus fell out of the ten, to be replaced by the Netherlands and Brazil. Here's the all-time Top 10:

1. the United States = 45.8%

2. Greece = 11.1%

3. Germany = 8.6%

4. France = 6.9%

5. Russia = 6.6%

6. the United Kingdom = 3.3%

7. Italy = 1.16%

8. the United Arab Emirates = 1.02%

9. the Netherlands = 0.89%

10. Brazil = 0.84%

That's all for today, folks. Till the next one!