No llores, mi querida. The way is long but the end is near; soon you will be dancing the fandango. I present the results of the normblog poll on Bob Dylan's songs - first announced here, followed up with a reminder here and another one here, and then nagged beyond all endurance here.
There were 110 entries, and there were votes for 125 of Dylan's songs. Of these, 72 received only one or two votes each and don't appear below. (I'm happy to answer any email queries about favourites of yours which haven't made the cut.) For reasons that will be evident to you when you examine how things have crumbled voting-wise, I've gone for a top 21. It consists of those songs which obtained seven votes or more. But I've also listed the 32 titles which obtained between three and six votes. So you also have, in effect, a Bob Dylan top 50 - though, because of the tie at the bottom, it's 53.
As you will see, the top three Dylan songs are way out in front of the rest of the field. After that, it gets more bunched. I give the number of votes obtained by each title in brackets after its place number.
01 (33) - Like A Rolling Stone
02 (32) - Tangled Up In Blue
03 (24) - Visions Of Johanna
04 (18) - Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
05 (16) - Subterranean Homesick Blues
06 (15) - Hurricane
07 (14) - Idiot Wind
08 (13) - Mr Tambourine Man
09 (12) - All Along The Watchtower
09 (12) - Desolation Row
09 (12) - It's Alright, Ma
12 (11) - It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
13 (10) - A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
13 (10) - Lay Lady Lay
13 (10) - Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands
13 (10) - Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
17 (09) - Blind Willie McTell
17 (09) - I Want You
17 (09) - Love Minus Zero/No Limit
20 (08) - It Ain't Me, Babe
21 (07) - Simple Twist Of Fate
Songs receiving 6 votes (6) - Highway 61 Revisited; Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues; My Back Pages; Not Dark Yet; Positively 4th Street; The Times They Are A-Changin'.
Songs receiving 5 votes (5) - Ballad Of A Thin Man; Changing Of The Guards; If You See Her, Say Hello; Jokerman; Shelter From The Storm.
Songs receiving 4 votes (8) - Girl From The North Country; I Shall Be Released; Isis; Just Like A Woman; The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll; One More Cup Of Coffee; Queen Jane Approximately; Sara.
Songs receiving 3 votes (13) - Blowin' In The Wind; Boots Of Spanish Leather; Buckets Of Rain; Forever Young; Gates Of Eden; I And I; I'll Be Your Baby Tonight; It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry; Knockin' On Heaven's Door; Lovesick; Maggie's Farm; One Of Us Must Know; Tears Of Rage.
What else can I say? Listening again to this music - so as to make my own picks, or to remind myself of songs some of you had chosen and which I didn't remember well - I found the wealth and inventiveness of it just staggering. A compilation set of what's here wouldn't be bad.
Thanks to everyone who entered. Really, thanks. Without you all, these normblog polls... what would they be? Nothing. But be honest, don't you just love 'em? Or in the words of The Man:
The only thing I knew how to doA unique and towering genius.
Was to keep on keepin' on like a bird that flew...
Update at 3.45 PM. Blogger participants (if I've omitted you through not knowing that you're a blogger or through some other oversight, my apologies. Please let me know and I'll add a link to you):
John B, Chris Bertram, Stephen Bridge, Peter Briffa, Chris Brooke, Andrew Brown; Jeremy Brown, Scott Burgess, Anthony Cox, Jackie D, Michael Fisher, Peter Friedman, Duane Griffin, James Hamilton, Harry Hatchett, Mick Hartley, Paul Hodges, Emily Jones, Marcus Laughton, Armed Liberal, Hak Mao, Marc Mulholland, Jeremy Osner, Damian Penny, Roberto Piccoli, Seth Pipkin; Grant Rabenn, Richard Schwartz, Steve Silver, Nicholas Troester, Stuart Turner, Dave Weeden, Chris Young.
Update at 9.50 PM on April 10: see here for a late footnote.