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

It's Sunday, you know what that means, right? It's that time of the week when we count down Dylan's songs with their impossible-to-find videos and we also discuss the week's statistics. So, let's go.

At #51 in our Bob Dylan Top 125 countdown is a song from Oh Mercy (1989) called Ring Them Bells. It's one of Dylan's songs to feature spiritual overtones, invoking St. Peter, St. Catherine and a "Sweet Martha" who may or may not be the biblical Martha. It opens with the verse, "Ring them bells ye heathen/From the city that dreams/Ring them bells from the sanctuaries/'Cross the valleys and streams." Dylan manages to sound rousing and resigned at the same time. Unfortunately, the original version is unavailable for a listen (no surprise there), so here's a live version from Dublin, Ireland in 2000:

Now we've reached the Top 50. At #50 is a song from Desire (1976), called One More Cup of Coffee. On May 24th, 1975 (his 34th birthday), Dylan was visiting painter David Oppenheim in the South of France, and the two of them went to a gypsy festival. There, as Dylan later recounted, he "got mixed up with someone" and met a man who "had maybe 16 to 20 wives and over a hundred children." Dylan stayed for a week; as he left, he asked for a cup of coffee for the road. "I wasn't sure if I could say anything else, but it was dangerous territory," he claimed. That's a good story, anyway, and it might have been the germ of One More Cup of Coffee. The song is an eerie-sounding tribute to a woman with eyes "like two jewels in the sky" and a rich and powerful father. It's full of mysticism and made all the more powerful by the distinct vocals: Dylan's keening voice blends with spooked-angel backing from Emmylou Harris. The real gypsy gesture here, though, is Scarlet Rivera's haunting violin line.

The sound is not great here, still, it's the original:

This is a cover by The White Stripes:

Finally, at #49 is... Blowing In The Wind. The song that first branded Dylan a prophet asks nine questions and answers none. Dylan claimed it took only 10 minutes to knock out this meditation on humanity's inhumanity, a rewrite of the anti-slavery spiritual No More Auction Block. He also said it wasn’t a “protest song”. It seemed to be, in part, a warning against fans turning the singer into an icon but the importance of never losing the ability to question everything around you.

The version most people heard in 1963 wasn't Dylan's – it was Peter, Paul and Mary's cover, which hit #2 on the US chart.

Now to our weekly statistics. Martin Del Caprio from last week kept receiving an impressive number of visits, inching closer to the top story of the month, which is still the Minute Taker. Last week's statistics went perfectly well, and the playful story about songs naming actors was visited like gangbusters. Majola's story was greatly received. Lately, every story does well, which is soul-nourishing for me. The antidote to the minor burnout that I've been struggling against during the past couple of months.

As far as countries are concerned, this week's big winners were (again) the United Kingdom, France, and Belgium. Canada and Brazil also did well. Cyprus and the United Arab Emirates remained stable, Italy and the Netherlands suffered minor losses, while the United States, Greece, Germany, and Russia suffered bigger losses. Here are this week's Top 10 countries:

1. the United States

2. the United Kingdom

3. France

4. Greece

5. Belgium

6. Cyprus

7. Canada

8. the United Arab Emirates

9. Italy

10. Brazil

Here are the other countries that graced us with their presence since our last statistics (alphabetically): Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Czechia, El Salvador, Germany, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar (Burma), the Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Venezuela, and Vietnam. Happy to have you all!

As far as the all-time Top 10 is concerned: France consolidated its position at #3, while the United Kingdom needs another week like this one to overtake Russia at #5. Here's the all-time Top 10:

1. the United States = 50.9%

2. Greece = 8.9%

3. France = 6.5%

4. Germany = 5.8%

5. Russia = 4.8%

6. the United Kingdom = 4.5%

7. the United Arab Emirates = 1.04%

8. Italy = 0.98%

9. Cyprus = 0.85%

10. the Netherlands = 0.59%

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