Songs By Bob Dylan
On The Acoustic

Abandoned Love was first recorded in 1975 and was intended for the "Desire" album, but was shelved for 10 years. It became a track for his 1985 album "Biograph".

The song was never a single release and there is only one known live performance of the song by Dylan which was in Greenwich Village in 1975 at The Bitter End Cafe.

Blind Willie McTell was written by Dylan about the blue artist from the 1920s known as Blind Willie McTell. The song was recorded in 1983 but not released until 1991 on the album "The Bootleg Series Vol 1-3".

The song was never released as a single.

Forever Young was written in 1966 about his son Jesse Dylan. The tracked appeared on the Planet Waves album in 1974. There were two versions of this song, a fast paced and a slow paced. Dylan recorded this song with The Band. Dylan played this on stage as a duet with Bruce Springsteen and he also performed the song on Letterman in 1993.

It was never released as a single in the US but a live version was released from a Tokyo live concert in 1978, but only to the European audiences.

Rod Stewart has a similar song but it is a different song. But he contacted Dylan and shared the royalties with him just to be on the safe side. Joan Baez also had a #13 hit with her cover in 1974. Louisa Johnson from the X-Factor TV show also released a version that made it to #9 in the UK.

There was also a book created by Paul Rogers with the lyrics and illustrations. The book is probably available online.

Gotta Serve Somebody is a track from Dylan's album "Slow Train Coming" which was released in 1979.

This track managed to make it to #24 in the US.

Jokerman was on of three tracks from the 1984 album "Infidels".

The track failed to chart anywhere.

Just Like A Woman is from the 1966 album entitled "Blonde On Blonde".

This track was released as a single and peaked at #28 in the US and #8 in Australia.

Knocking On Heavens Door was a #10 in the US, #14 in the UK and hit #9 in Ireland when it was released as a single in 1973.

The track is from the album "Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid".

Lay Lady Lay hit the airwaves in 1969 and hails from the album "Nashville Skyline". The song peaked at #7 in the US and was his last top hit in the US. The song hit #5 in the UK.

This song was supposed to be a soundtrack in the movie Midnight Cowboy which was a 1969 movie starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, but there was some delay getting the song over to the film producers so it missed a deadline. Bob Dylan said in a 1971 interview the song was written for Barbara Streisand.

Apparently after a 1960's gig, The Everly Brothers were looking for songs and Dylan sang this one to them. But they thought the song was too sexual and were not even sure if Dylan was pitching it to them, so they passed. They did record it 15 years later.

We've all the story of Kris Kristofferson working as a janitor at Columbia Studios in Nashville as a janitor. Well he was there that day during this recording and had to hold the cowbell and bongos for drummer Kenny Buttrey, who had the mic overhead. That explains why the drums sound a bit distant in comparison. I bet Kris never forgot that day made in history. It might surprise many to know that Charlie Daniels played guitar on this track.

Other version you may want to check out are by The Byrds, Ramblin Jack Elliott, Buddy Guy, Hoyt Axton, The Everly Brothers, Ministry, Minimal Compact, Pete Yorn, Magnet, Duran Duran, The Flaming Lips, Anthony Hamilton, Bob Andy, The Isly Brothers, Melanie, Lorrie Morgan, Malaria and Angelique Kidjo.

License To Kill, not to be confused with a Gladys Knight song of the same name, is a track from the 1983 album "Infidels".

The song was never released as a single.

Like A Rolling Stone was a single release from Dylan in 1965 and can be found on his album "Highway 61 Revisited".

This song was a #1 in the US and a top 10 in several other countries.

My Back Pages was first released back in 1964 from the album "Another Side Of Bob Dylan". It can also be found on "The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration" album from 1993.

The song does not appeared to have been released as a single. The song was never performed live by Dylan until 1988, almost 25 years after it was written.

Artists who have cover versions of this song include Keith Jarrett, The Ramones, The Nice, Steve Earle, Eric Johnson, The Hollies, The Box Tops, America, Jackson Browne, Po!, Joan Osnorne, Marshall Crenshaw, Anna Nalick, Dick Gaughan, La Mancha de Rolando and The Byrds. The 1967 version by The Byrds was their last US top 40 hit song.

Not Dark Yet was one of two singles from the 1998 album "Time Out Of Mind".  The song was released as a single but it did not chart anywhere.

According to Canadian record producer Daniel Lanois, the original version of this song was faster, but Dylan changed it into a Civil War ballad when it came time to record the song.

There is a music for this one recorded in memphis in 1997.

Artists who have covered this song that you may want to check out include Robyn Hitchcock, Barb Jungr, Julie Felix, Kristi Huke, Jimmy LaFave, Eric Clapton, Silversun Pickups, Trey Gunn, Ruby Amanfu, Allison Moorer, Calum Scott, Lucinda Williams, Tom Jones and Dave Gahan & Soulsavers.

You'll also find the song in film and TV including Wonder Boys, The Passion Of The Christ, Why We Fight, Masked And Anonymous, Life Itself, Californication, Knock Around Guys and Last Flag Flying.

Positively 4th Street was a 1965 hit for Bob Dylan from his Bob Dylan Greatest Hits album. The song made it to #1 in Canada, #7 in the US and a #9 in the UK. The songs title does not appear in the lyrics.

There has always been some discussion as to who exactly Dylan is talking about in the song. Some believe it was critics who didn't take him seriously at the beginning of his career. The song was recorded during the Highway 61 Revisited album session in July of 1965 but was not included on that album.  The song also appeared in a 2007 film by Todd Hayne's called I'm Not There.

Other versions of the song you may want to check out include covers by Living Voices, Johnny Rivers, The Byrds, Lucinda Williams, The Steorophonics, Violent Feemmes and Steve Wynn.

Shelter From The Storm was not released as a single in the US but spent 9 weeks on one of Billboards charts in 2007 and peaked at #22.

The song if from the album "Modern Times".

Sweetheart Like You was a single from the "Infidels" album of 1983-1984.

The song managed a #55 charting in the US.

Tangled Up In Blue was the only single from the 1975 album "Blood On The Tracks".

It managed to peak at #31 in the US.

The Times They Are A Changing was a single from1963 and hails from the album of the same name.

The song did peak at #9 in the UK but the it did not chart in the US.

Thunder On The Mountain was not released as a single in the US but peaked on one of the Billboard charts at #22 in 2007. It was a single in Europe.

The song hails from album "Modern Times".

With God On Our Side was first written and recorded back in 1964 for the album "The Times They Are A Changin". An extra verse was added to the song after the Vietnam War years later.

The song was never released as a single.

You Ain't Goin' Nowhere was written and first recorded by Dylan in 1967, but here never released the song as a single. It first appeared on his "Bob Dylan's  Greatest Hits Vol 11" album.

The Byrd's released a single of the song in 1968 and it reached #74 in the US aNd #45 in the UK.

You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go was never released as a single when it was recorded back in 1974.

It appears on the album "Blood On The Tracks".