October 19 – Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits (1967)

This was one of the $10 albums I found recently in a little consignment shop in Northport called Helga’s. I am now the proud owner of a Bob Dylan album that consists of the best known songs from his first seven records. While I was a little young to appreciate Dylan to his fullest back in those days, I could pick up on each song immediately, sort of. Funny thing about Bob Dylan is that you can be talking to a colleague at the office and telling her how the blog thing is going and/or how your previous trip out to The Island was, one or the other that led you to mention that you couldn’t remember which song “Rainy Day Women” was until the needle hit the recently purchased album and started playing the first song, which in your mind has always been “Everybody Must Get Stoned,” and simultaneously you and the colleague sing “I would not feel so all alone. Everybody must get stoned,” in fairly recognizable Bob Dylan voices – in a hallway – not even outside either of your offices, or the kitchen. I’ll bet money that this is not an uncommon occurrence.

Anyone can do a decent Bob Dylan imitation. I recommend starting with “Just Like A Woman,” just that phrase followed by “Yes she does,” before you go for the whole song. It’s kind of like how I learned to do Ethel Merman, not that there’s much of a call for a singular talent like that, but I started with the word “why” belting it out with vibrato and eventually burst into “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” though the word and the song are unrelated. I think we’ve discussed this before during one of the many posts that mentioned Ed Sullivan, another easy person to imitate.

Anyway, Mr. Zimmerman provided for a couple of very enjoyable workouts, which I’m sure was what he was going for all those decades ago when he wrote songs like “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Positively 4^th Street.”