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

After our Oscar break, we're back to The Bob Dylan Top 125 Countdown. Let's get on with it!

At #72 we find Jokerman, the opening track to his 1983 album, Infidels. Produced by Mark Knopfler and Dylan himself, Infidels is seen as his return to secular music, following a conversion to Christianity, three evangelical, gospel records and a subsequent return to a less religious lifestyle. Though he has never abandoned religious imagery, Infidels gained much attention for its focus on more personal themes of love and loss, in addition to commentary on the environment and geopolitics. Christopher Connelly of Rolling Stone called those gospel albums just prior to Infidels "lifeless", and saw Infidels as making Bob Dylan's career viable again. According to Connelly and others, Infidels is Dylan's best poetic and melodic work since Blood on the Tracks.

Jokerman contains its share of Biblical references. The lyrics also reference populists who are overly concerned with the superficial ("Michelangelo indeed could've carved out your features") and more about action than thinking through the complexities ("fools rush in where angels fear to tread"). A number of critics have called Jokerman a sly political protest, addressed to an antichrist-like figure, a "manipulator of crowds … a dream twister."

Chris Martin of Coldplay said: I got into Bob Dylan when I was 16. I'd heard the myth, "Oh, Bob Dylan, he can't sing." But at this point, half the CDs I own are Dylan albums. About once a year, I'll spend a month listening to Dylan and nothing else.

I discovered Infidels after I saw the video for Jokerman. It had Italian paintings and religious imagery. I'd thought I was a massive Dylan fan, but Jokerman was a shock: "How can this guy have a song that comes from this other world, and it's still so brilliant?" Mark Knopfler and Mick Taylor on guitars. And Sly and Robbie brought that reggae vibe. The song feels 87 minutes long, like dinner finally came around and they stopped rolling tape. I spend eight weeks writing two lines.

I don't think about who this Jokerman is – whether it's God, Satan or Dylan himself. The beauty is in the mystery. I love the lines "The book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy/The law of the jungle and the sea are your only teachers." And the chorus, with that "oh-oh-oh" chant out of tune – the only other person who can get away with singing like that is Jay Z, on D.O.A. It sounds effortless in the best possible way.

At #71, Queen Jane Approximately is a song from Bob Dylan's 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited. It was released as a single as the B-side to One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later) in January 1966. It has also been covered by several artists, including The Grateful Dead and The Four Seasons. In a 2005 poll of artists reported in Mojo, Queen Jane Approximately was listed as the #70 all time Bob Dylan song.

Joan Baez once referred to Highway 61 Revisited as a "bunch of crap." She may have been commenting on the raucous sound; she may also have been thinking of this song, a takedown of a woman cloistered by beauty and privilege. "Queen Jane" goes from caustic ("When all the clowns that you have commissioned have died in battle or in vain") to tender ("Won't you come see me, Queen Jane?"), and the music is some of the most elegant on Highway. Is the song about Baez? Maybe. When a journalist asked him about the queen's identity, Dylan shot back, "Queen Jane is a man."

Queen Jane Approximately

Here's a live version from 1993:

Finally for today, at #70, When I Paint My Masterpiece was written and recorded during sessions in spring 1971 at Blue Rock Studios in New York City and produced by Leon Russell. The same sessions produced single Watching the River Flow.

When I Paint My Masterpiece

Probably the most inspired song ever written about the life of a superstar on the road, Dylan's studio version surfaced in late 1971 among the unreleased material on Greatest Hits Vol. II. The track lays gospel piano chords under a lament about awaiting inspiration in between gigs, aimless wandering, fame-related hassles and "a date with Botticelli's niece." The definitive version was recorded live with the Band on New Year's Eve 1971 and released on the Band's Rock of Ages. "Sailin' round the world in a dirty gondola," he hollered, "oh, to be back in the land of Coca-Cola!" wringing more emotion out of a brand name than anyone before or since.

Now, let's move on to the weekly statistics. Not much happened this week; the total visits were more or less the same as last week, the United States kept increasing their lead over the others, Greece and Russia kept underperforming, while Cyprus, Belgium, and Canada show promise.

The full Top 10 is as follows:

1. the United States

2. France

3. Greece

4. Germany

5. the United Kingdom

6. Cyprus

7. the United Arab Emirates

8. Italy

9. Belgium

10. Canada

Here are the other countries that graced us with their presence this week (alphabetically): Afghanistan, Angola, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Colombia, Finland, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Libya, Mexico, Namibia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam. Happy to have you all!

In the all-time Top 10, everybody held on to their positions. The two newcomers, the Netherlands and Brazil, are however underperforming, and are in real danger of being replaced by Top 10 veterans Cyprus and Canada. Here's the all-time Top 10:

1. the United States = 49.9%

2. Greece = 9.6%

3. Germany = 7.9%

4. France = 7.0%

5. Russia = 5.2%

6. the United Kingdom = 3.2%

7. Italy = 1.13%

8. the United Arab Emirates = 1.11%

9. the Netherlands = 0.75%

10. Brazil = 0.68%

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