And The Who By Numbers

I think that Blood on the Tracks should stay number one. It doesn't have the "wit" per se of BIABH or H61, but it still contains a sharpness and intelligence about it, plus it's much more personal than the others.

I think its just too limited. I agree with your post, but HW61R just has... so fucking much in it as an album... Its just unbeatable.

Desolation Row alone makes it worthy of the top ten, that's for sure. Do we have any specific criteria for this list, or is it more just general discussion?

Like I said before, I actually think BIABH is his best lyrically, though I prefer H61 and BOTT as albums.

I think it shows off almost every Dylan asset and it was his most influential lyrically as it was that album where he deliberately started to go surreal to annoy his folk fans who turned against him.

Which is pretty badass, as it is.

Is it possible to judge the lyrical influence of any given album?

yeah hmm... its Desolation and Rolling Stone that make me think H61..... .i probably prefer BIABH.

I agree on the influence thing, extremely hard to judge.

The way you would judge the lyrical influence of an album would be to determine what related to lyrics is done the first time on the album and how far that innovation spread.

I love all three, but in H61 I feel like he's being ridiculous just for the sake of being ridiculous, while in the other two his theatrics are far more grounded and coherent. Not sure if that would matter in this list, but for discussions sake its why lyrically I think BIABH and BOTT are without argument his best.

Also if this list were ever actually made the Into The Wild soundtrack could be on there. Obviously not much for influence, but not only are all the songs just lyrically really good, they capture the emotion of the story just about as well as you can capture the emotion of a story.

Just to get this discussion up and going again, here's a very rough draft of the top 10. What do you think?

1. Blood On The Tracks - Bob Dylan
2. Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen
3. Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan
4. The Dark Side Of The Moon - Pink Floyd (Roger Waters)
5. Late For The Sky - Jackson Browne
6. Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan
7. Songs Of Leonard Cohen - Leonard Cohen
8. After The Gold Rush - Neil Young
9. Rubber Soul - The Beatles (Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starr)
10. Imagine - John Lennon

Dylan shouldn't dominate the list too much. Obvisously he'll dominate it more than any other lyricist, but space should be made for as many lyricists as possible, seeing that the limited amount of objectiveness available for such a list means that the list will never be near "perfect" anyway... 2 top 3 albums seems a bit much...

A rough sketch i'd say something like:

1. Blood On The Tracks - Bob Dylan
2. Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen
3. Songs Of Leonard Cohen - Leonard Cohen
4. Late For The Sky - Jackson Browne
5. On The Beach - Neil Young
6. Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan
7. Dark Side Of The Moon - Roger Waters (Pink Floyd)
8. Who's Next - Pete Townshend (The Who)
9. The Doors - Jim Morrison (The Doors)
10. Imagine - John Lennon
11. Bringing It All Back Home - Bob Dylan
12. Blue - Joni Mitchell
13. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme - Paul Simon (Simon & Garfunkel)
14. Songs Of Love & Hate - Leonard Cohen
15. Darkness On The Edge Of Town - Bruce Springsteen
16. Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan
17. Armed Forces - Elvis Costello
18. Rust Never Sleeps - Neil Young
19. Rubber Soul - John Lennon/Paul McCartney (The Beatles)
20. Astral Weeks - Van Morrison

Astral Weeks should be top 20 for sure.

Also, no way are Harvest and ATGR NY's best albums lyrically. On the Beach and Rust Never Sleeps have way better lyrics.

I know that my being a Jackson Browne fan might make my ranking a bit subjective, but LFTS deserves top 3 more than TDSOTM. "Time" is not lyrically brilliant enough to carry an album that is half-instrumental, though it is genius. H61R should be top 5, but not top 3 (my bad). Regarding Neil Young albums, "Thrasher" alone makes RNS deserving of top 10, definitely Young's lyrical opus, but I haven't listened to OTB in ages, so you can have it both ways. I'd replace Who's Next and The Doors with Imagine and Blue in the top 10, too; and Astral Weeks should be top twenty. Glad to see Darkness... getting recognition here, though. Great album.