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

Time to get back to our regular flow, after our Eurovision week. Time to resume The Bob Dylan Top 125 Countdown.

At #36 is Only a Pawn in Their Game. The song, included in the The Times They Are a-Changin' album of 1964, was written by Bob Dylan about the assassination of civil rights activist Medgar Evers. The song opens with the forensic and causal analysis of the death of Medgar Evers, following the bullet that "took his blood" back to the finger "that pulled the trigger to his name", the handle, the hand that held it, the eyes that took aim and, behind that, the man's brain - all in stunning imagery - but then immediately and breathtakingly swerves from being a straightforward protest song against the grotesque mistreatment of American blacks to being a song that excoriates those who manipulate the "poor white man" and who benefit from setting one population against another, saying "but he can't be blamed, he's only a pawn in their game".

Here it is:

Only a Pawn in Their Game

This is Dylan performing Only A Pawn In Their Game in front of 200,000 people in Washington, DC prior to Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech, on Aug. 28, 1963. The sound and picture are not perfect, but it's a historic moment:

At #35, there's Love Minus Zero/No Limit (read "Love Minus Zero over No Limit"), a song written by Bob Dylan for his fifth studio album Bringing It All Back Home (1965). The song was originally written as a tribute to Dylan's future wife Sara Lowndes. Its lyrics articulate Dylan's feelings for his lover, and how she brings a needed zen-like calm to his chaotic world. The song uses surreal imagery, some of which recalls Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" and the biblical Book of Daniel. The style of the lyrics is reminiscent of William Blake's poem, "The Sick Rose".

Here's take 3 of the song:

Love Minus Zero/No Limit

And here's a cover version by the Walker Brothers:

At #34 we find If Not for You. New Morning, released on October 19, 1970, opened with this lovely little country-rock tune. "I wrote the song thinking about my wife," Dylan said, and its lyrics are about domesticity and gratitude. Hearing the cockiest songwriter alive showing a little humility for a change is a treat.

George Harrison included the song in his awesome album All Things Must Pass, a month after Dylan's original had appeared:

The song at #33 is Forever Young (1974). Dylan recorded this folksy prayer twice with the Band – as a sparkling ballad version that closed Side One of Planet Waves, and a stomping country-rock take that kicked off Side Two. Lyrics like "May you have a strong foundation/When the winds of changes shift" are as universal and uplifting as Dylan has ever written; they also work as a blessing for a generation coming out of a post-Sixties cultural hangover. Dylan said he wrote it for his son Jesse; others see it as a nod to Neil Young, who scored a Number One hit in 1972 with Heart of Gold.

Here's the slow version:

... And here's the fast version:

Forever Young

The song at #32 is Not Dark Yet (1997). A few months before Dylan released 1997's Time Out of Mind, he was hospitalized with a severe heart infection that made him believe that he'd "be seeing Elvis soon." Not Dark Yet was finished long before this illness had set in, but the hauntingly beautiful song seemed to almost foretell it. Against Daniel Lanois' trademark swampy production, Dylan sings in the weary and weathered voice of a man facing the twilight of his life. "I was born here and I'll die here against my will," he sings. "I know it looks like I'm moving, but I'm standing still." Dylan had been recording death-obsessed songs since his very first album in 1962. Here, he was a road-weary 55, in the middle of his Never Ending Tour, and you can hear every one of those years in that voice.

Finally for today, at #31, another Dylan classic: I Shall Be Released. With its simple, evocative tale of a prisoner yearning for freedom, this rock hymn was part of a conscious effort by Dylan to move away from the sprawling imagery of his mid-Sixties masterpieces. "In '68 [Dylan told] ... me how he was writing shorter lines, with every line meaning something," Allen Ginsberg once said. "From that time came some of the stuff ... like I Shall Be Released. ... There was to be no wasted language." 

The Band recorded the first officially-released version of the song for their 1968 debut album, Music from Big Pink, with Richard Manuel singing lead vocals, and Rick Danko and Levon Helm harmonizing in the chorus.

Dylan recorded two primary versions. The first recording was made in collaboration with the Band during the "basement tapes" sessions in 1967, and eventually released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 in 1991. Dylan recorded the song a second time (with a significantly different arrangement and altered lyrics, produced by Leon Russell and accompanied by Happy Traum) in 1971, releasing this new version on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II. This is the second version:

I Shall Be Released

The song was also performed near the end of the Band's 1976 farewell concert, The Last Waltz (the movie depicting the concert was directed by Martin Scorsese). The Band were in wonderful company, which included Dylan himself, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Ringo Starr, Ronnie Wood, Van Morrison, Ronnie Hawkins, and Dr. John.

Now, to our current statistics that cover the last two weeks. The Eurovision week brought about changes: the United Kingdom and France are still going strong, but it was Russia that exploded, even though it didn't take part in Eurovision this year. In fact, Russia has overtaken Germany again and is currently 5th in the all-time list. There was a big drop of visits for the United States, which is understandable. There was also a small drop of visits for Greece, which is less understandable. Cyprus also did very well and has overtaken not only Italy, but the United Arab Emirates as well, and is currently 7th in the all-time list. Belgium and Australia also did well. Congrats to all! Here are this fortnight's Top 10 countries:

1. the United States

2. Russia

3. the United Kingdom

4. France

5. Greece

6. Cyprus

7. Belgium

8. Germany

9. the United Arab Emirates

10. Australia

Here are the other countries that graced us with their presence since our last statistics (alphabetically): Argentina, Austria, Barbados, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, Ghana, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Saint Lucia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Zambia. Happy to have you all!

And here's the all-time Top 10:

1. the United States = 48.6%

2. Greece = 8.4%

3. France = 7.5%

4. the United Kingdom = 5.7%

5. Russia = 5.0%

6. Germany = 4.9%

7. Cyprus = 0.99%

8. the United Arab Emirates = 0.97%

9. Italy = 0.88%

10. Belgium = 0.65%

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