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

Hey dear friends! Sorry for yet another delay: I am currently in Paris and, even though I have my laptop and wi-fi with me, well, you know, Paris. In a few days I'll be back home and I hope to resume some sort of normalcy. Instead of yet another photo of Dylan, here's a photo of le jardin de Luxembourg in Paris that I shot myself (pun intended).

We start with the Dylan song that's found at #60 in our list: it's Percy's Song. Perhaps best known from Joan Baez's scene-stealing performance in Don't Look Back, Percy's Song was originally recorded for The Times They Are A-Changin' in 1963 but didn't make the final track list. Even so, this mournful lament stands up beside Dylan's finest work from that era. He sings in haunted tones of a friend who is on trial for manslaughter after a fatal car crash. "He ain't no criminal, and his crime it is none," the narrator protests, but his pleas to the judge for leniency are all in vain.

Dylan credits Paul Clayton for the song's "beautiful melody line." Remember that name, he's coming up soon.

Here's Dylan in a 1963 alternate take:

Here's Joan Baez:

Here are the Fairport Convention:

Here's Arlo Guthrie:

The song at #59 was written and recorded during the same recording sessions that Percy's Song was. This one did end up as one of the songs in The Times They Are A-Changin' album. One Too Many Mornings is an achingly pretty breakup song – and the rare tune where Dylan bid fare-thee-well without assigning any blame. It's as subdued a song as any in Dylan's catalog – just gentle acoustic picking, harmonica and a spare, resigned vocal. Likely another tune inspired by his relationship with Suze Rotolo, it comes off like a gentler version of Don't Think Twice, It's All Right. Dylan is leaving his bedroom, the street is ahead of him, when he looks back with a conciliatory goodbye: "You're right from your side/I'm right from mine." One Too Many Mornings proved ripe for revisiting, both by Dylan (whose electric version on his 1966 tour turned the gentle tune into something like punk rock) and by Johnny Cash, who recorded the song four times – twice with Dylan (in separate versions from the Nashville Skyline sessions), once with Waylon Jennings and once on his own.

Here's Dylan at the London BBC Studios, 1965-06-01:

Here's the electric version from the 1966 World Tour:

Here's Dylan with Johnny Cash:

Here are the Beau Brummels:

Here are The Association:

Here's a version by Draco Rosa:

Finally for today, at #58, there's a song recorded only a few months after the previous two, and included in Dylan's next album. My Back Pages was the sound of the greatest protest singer of the Sixties leaving politics behind – an alternately wistful and sneering ballad in which Dylan recalls his days as a political folkie and pokes fun at his former self-seriousness on the song's chorus: "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now." Dylan promised a break with the past by calling the LP Another Side of Bob Dylan. My Back Pages was his statement of intent. "There aren't any fingerpointing songs here," Dylan said of the album. "I don't want to write for people anymore. You know – be a spokesman."

This is a live version from Dylan:

The Byrds' 1967 version was released as a single; it was their last US Top 40 hit:

Here are The Hollies:

Here's the Keith Jarrett Trio:

Here are The Ramones:

Here are Wolfgang Niedecken & Anne de Wolff with the German version:

Here's Wolfgang Ambros with the Austrian version:

Here are The Magokoro Brothers with the Japanese version:

Now, let's move on to the weekly statistics, which this time actually cover two (or is it three?) weeks, but never mind. The fact that there were actually only a few new entries didn't stop people from visiting this blog, which is great; people had the chance to catch up. I realize that it's not easy for everybody to read 1500-4000 words every day, as well as listen to a dozen songs or two. It's not easy for me to proceed at such a rate either, so I think less new entries every week will be healthier for all of us. Certainly more than the last 2-3 weeks, but certainly less than the first 9 months. This week's Top 10 is a pleasant mixture of regulars and newcomers, from every corner of the world:

1. the United States

2. Greece

3. the United Kingdom

4. France

5. Canada

6. Brazil

7. Cyprus

8. Spain

8. Indonesia

10. the Netherlands

Here are the other countries that graced us with their presence since our last statistics (alphabetically): Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Barbados, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ghana, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Martinique, Mexico, Moldavia, Montenegro, Namibia, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Happy to have you all!

In the all-time Top 10, everybody kept their places, as expected. There were, however, winners and losers: the United States were the big winner, impressively increasing their percentage. Cyprus also had a small increase. Germany was among the losers with a small but not negligible drop. France, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, and the Netherlands experienced smaller drops. Greece and the United Kingdom remained stable. Here's the all-time Top 10:

1. the United States = 52.5%

2. Greece = 9.8%

3. Germany = 6.8%

4. France = 6.0%

5. Russia = 5.4%

6. the United Kingdom = 3.2%

7. the United Arab Emirates = 1.15%

8. Italy = 1.07%

9. Cyprus = 0.80%

10. the Netherlands = 0.66%

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