Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues by Bob Dylan

I suppose I am like most fans of music. We grow familiar with certain artists and music types as we grow older and that is what we listen to the most. I think, however, that I do a better job than most in at least trying to be open to new music. Of course some of the new music I discover is very old, still it qualifies as new to me. My recent discovery of John Prine certainly falls into that area.

For me something became apparent the other day as I was listening to my always on the Satellite Radio Outlaw Country. Bob Dylan is amazing. Bob Dylan was amazing. There is no comparison to this incredibly gifted songwriter. I will admit that the voice perhaps has to be considered an acquired test. The voice however, certainly in the sixties, was not bad and there are lists of singers that were not great technical singers.

This song, it is not the best song Dylan did. What makes it so great however is that it is still great. Dylan wrote so many great songs in that era between 62 and 66 that it is hard to keep track of them all. This song from Highway 61, just one of many great songs on that album and certainly overshadowed by Highway 61 and Like a Rolling Stone is underrated. I might not have not heard it for years and yet when out of the blue I heard it in the truck I just said to myself Wow.

We cannot try so hard to embrace the new that we forget what is amazing in our roots. Bob Dylan was and is the greatest songwriter in the rock era. If you are a Dylan fan then you can come up with scores of characters in his songs that you remember. I had a friend in college who had a party where everyone was supposed to come as a Dylan character. Of course many people were lazy and came with tambourines but how many singers could you have a party and attempt that with their songs.

God is God and no one should compare a mortal with God. But perhaps someday in the future we can say of a singer that we think is amazing and say they are Dylan like. That will be the ultimate compliment.