Every Bob Dylan Song? What?

Hello.

My name's Tony Ling, and this is my blog, Every Bob Dylan Song.

This blog will be dedicated to every David Bowie song. I think the blog title needs some work.

Okay, it's actually dedicated to every Bob Dylan song. That's right, I'm going to write about every Bob Dylan song ever recorded.* I'll be offering reviews, random thoughts, and maybe the occasional essay, covering everything from "Baby Let Me Follow You Down" to "Ain't Talkin'". There will be laughs, there will be tears, and there will be lots of misplaced punctuation and sentences with dashes in them. It'll be a hoot!**

*officially released - Bob's unofficial catalog rivals some major bands' official catalogs, so I think I'll be staying within the boundaries of reason.

**Disclaimer: may or may not be a hoot.

But this won't be the only content on EBDS - oh, no! I'll be writing longer-form pieces on other pieces of the Dylan puzzle - live albums, famous bootlegs, maybe even a book review here and there. I'll put up Youtube videos when there are good ones to be found, and mp3s when the awesome power of my words aren't enough to convey how awesome "Absolutely Sweet Marie" or something is. *** And I'll have the occasional guest writer to offer his/her thoughts, tell me how totally wrong/totally right I am about something, and (in the case of my pal and fellow Dylan worshipper Justin), totally outshine me in the writing department. In fact, Lord willing, Justin will be just as big a contributer to this site as I am, and therefore will get the chance to outshine me that much more. That bastard!****

***I'll stick to live mp3s as much as possible - no need to have the MPAA break down my door and smash my computer with a baseball bat.

****Sorry, Justin.

Why, you ask, am I taking on this monumental task? Excellent question. Uh...

Uh...

Look over there!

(runs)

(runs)

(comes running back, way out of breath)

Okay...okay...that was stupid. I actually ran away from my computer and out of my house, then came back to finish this blog post. But see - that's the dedication I have for this blog!

The real answer is that I'm about as big a Dylan fan as you can find, and have been for nearly a decade now. He's influenced the way I think about music, and considering how much I think about music, that's a REALLY big influence. And he's been the muse for what I consider some of my best writing about music (one of those pieces might find its way here when I feel like it - read: when I get lazy and decide to take a blog post off). This is, in as small and inconsequential a way as possible, my tribute to who I consider to be the greatest musician that ever lived.

Why have I decided to undertake this project at this point in my (currently turbulent) life? Well, there's actually an underlying current to the way I approach things, and it's this:

I suck at responsibility.

Not to get all dramatic or emo-ish on you, but I've known for a long time that the hardest thing for me to do is to stick with something. My hard drive is littered with unfinished screenplays, novels, short stories, and other writing-related detritus, constant reminders that the one semi-talent I believe I have is being seriously underutilized. I do write music reviews for an established website (www.treblezine.com - seriously, give them a look, there's some great shit on there), but that's an intermittent pursuit more than anything.

This blog, on the other hand, is not going to be intermittent. Once a week, I will be posting something here. And, let's face it - if I can't get myself worked up to write about my favorite entertainer ever, what CAN I get myself worked up for?

So let's see how this goes. Every Bob Dylan Song, as written about by me (and whoever I can scam into contributing). Enjoy!