Listing About

Forgot to mention in my first blog post that my novel War and Watermelon was released yesterday by Viking. It’s set in suburban NJ in the summer of ’69, and the main character, Brody (he’s 12) stays up nights listening to the Top 40 on WMCA and making his own lists of the best songs. I still do things like that sometimes.

For example:

A couple of weeks ago Rolling Stone devoted much of an issue to Bob Dylan in celebration of his 70th birthday. They also listed his 70 best songs. I did my own list of 50; our No.1’s were the same: Like a Rolling Stone. There was lots of other overlap. Can’t think of any other artist where I could even come up with 25 great songs. These are all gems, with the top 20 (or 30; heck I love them all) absolute classics. (For a great Dylan parody, take a look at Weird Al Yankovic’s "Bob" video on youtube.)

Here’s my list (3 of my top 5 are from “Blood on the Tracks”):

1 Like a Rolling Stone
2 Tangled Up in Blue
3 Mr. Tambourine Man
4 If You See Her, Say Hello
5 Idiot Wind
6 My Back Pages
7 Blowin’ in the Wind
8 Girl from the North Country
9 When the Ship Comes In
10 Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
11 Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts
12 I Shall be Released
13 Hurricane
14 Dignity
15 Forever Young
16 Jokerman
17 Shooting Star
18 The Times They Are A-Changing
19 Shelter from the Storm
20 Workingman’s Blues
21 If Not for You
22 Tombstone Blues
23 All Along the Watchtower
24 A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall
25 Most of the Time
26 You’re a Big Girl Now
27 Absolutely Sweet Marie
28 Simple Twist of Fate
29 Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
30 I’ll Remember You
31 Emotionally Yours
32 Lay Lady Lay
33 Positively 4th Street
34 Ring Them Bells
35 I Want You
36 Stuck Inside of Mobile
37 Highway 61
38 Boots of Spanish Leather
39 Make You Feel My Love
40 Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
41 Just Like a Woman
42 Seven Days
43 Black Diamond Bay
44 What Good Am I?
45 Series of Dreams
46 With God on Our Side
47 Tight Connection to My Heart
48 You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere
49 Not Dark Yet
50 Ballad of a Thin Man