Happy Birthday Bob Dylan

There's a great celebration about to take place on WFUV here in New York. To celebrate Bob Dylan's 65th birthday tomorrow, fans are voting for their 15 favorite Dylan songs and stating why. Each person gets three picks. Here were mine:

Girl of the North Country

Dylan's most touching song. For me, it's about the timelessness and persistence of innocent love, which somehow always manages to survive earthly constraints. The song brilliance is in the remoteness of the narrarator, who either can't bear to confront his past or does not want to spoil the memories -- and, really, what's the difference?

Watching the River Flow

So many of the things that drag us down are ephemeral. What could possibly capture this truth better than the image of the spokesman of the counter-culture sitting on a bank of sand and contemplating the relative permanence of a flowing river in the face of rising dissent over the transitory issues of the day.

Visions of Johanna

So vibrant and interesting upon each listening. The song strikes a unique balance between surrealism and realism. Great art makes the strange familiar and the familiar strange and there's no song in the Dylan cannon that accomplishes this better than VOJ.