While searching Burning Wood for something I thought I might have written about before, I found a post from January 2 of 2019- "Favorite Songs #1."
Apparently, our friend Randy asked if I had ever written specifically about my favorite songs and at the time, I hadn't dedicated any posts to those all-timers. It appears that I continued this series through March of 2019, and stopped at #7. Well, 39 months later, and not particularly inspired by anything happening currently, music or otherwise, here is entry #8.
"Most Of The Time" is not unlike "Mississippi."
Here's some of what I had written about the latter:
You would think choosing one song written by Bob Dylan as your very
favorite would be a difficult task. But it wasn't, not for me. There are
days when I think "Mississippi" is the single greatest song ever
written. Every line in every verse, both ambiguous and dead on personal,
hits me hard. These are words from a genius that remove any doubt about
his genius. Add a melody that is both upbeat and melancholy and you
have a true masterpiece in both storytelling and record making.
"Most Of The Time" can be just as ambiguous---is it one or any lost love?---but the central theme and cadence is similar to "Mississippi." Dylan bares his soul, taking stock, as if he was his own motivational speaker.
He is his own pillar of strength...until he isn't.
"I'm okay...maybe."
"Only one thing I did wrong
Stayed in Mississippi a day too long"
"Most of the time..."
Dylan doesn't have one, but two aces in the hole.
It's a brilliant trick.
Here is the rest of my "Mississippi" entry because I think it applies to "Most Of The Time," as well"
Maybe on
the surface, "Mississippi" feels less important than "Hard Rain" or
"Blowin' In The Wind," but I don't think anyone can say with any
honesty, that they cannot relate to each and every line, either once or
still. You may have to change a name, vehicle or town, but that's the
beauty of the song, "Mississippi" is anywhere and nowhere. It's
everywhere for everyone. And I think "Most Of The Time" is, too.
I'm clear focused all around
Most of the time
I can keep both feet on the ground
I can follow the path
I can read the signs
Stay right with it
I can handle whatever
I stumble upon
I don't even notice
She's gone
Most of the time
Most of the time
I wouldn't change it if i could
I can't make it all match up
I can hold my own
Right down to the bone
And I don't even think
About her
Most of the time
My head is on straight
Most of the time
I'm strong enough not to hate
I don't build up illusion
'Till it makes me sick
I ain't afraid of confusion
No matter how thick
I can smile in the face
Of mankind
Don't even remember
What her lips felt like on mine
Most of the time
Most of the time
She ain't even in my mind
I wouldn't know her if i saw her
She's that far behind
Most of the time
I can't even be sure
If she was ever with me
Or if I was ever with her
Most of the time
I'm halfway content
Most of the time
I know exactly where it all went
I don't cheat on myself
I don't run and hide
Hide from the feelings
That are buried inside
I don't compromise
And I don't pretend
I don't even care
If i ever see her again
Most of the time
8 comments:
Neither is a favorite for me, although I agree with everything you wrote. They just don't involve me as SONGS. Musically they kinda drag. I wouldn't choose them to sing at an open mic or even karaoke, and I don't think anyone would want to hear them.
But much respect to you, Sal, for putting such a list out there; I tried but couldn't. Much easier to criticize.
Mr. Jones
100 years from now people will still be amazed at Dylan's songwriting.
100 years from now books will still be constantly written about him.
100 years from now Dylan will still on the road with The Never-ending Tour! (The ticket prices will still be way too high!)
Doctored Captain Al
Both Most of the Time and Mississippi are among my favorite Dylan tunes, along with Jokerman and a too many others. I think of these in the same way as Sweet Thing from Van Morrison. I rarely want to play a song twice in the same day, but for these I can make an exception.
- Paul in DK
Right on, Sal.
And it says so much that I could go on in the same way about the power and magic of so many of his tunes and we'd both be right.
I get obsessed with Up To Me (and he didn't even put it on an album) and still think Tangled Up In Blue encompasses everything anyone's ever had to say about a relationship, "a Picasso painting of a love affair, where you see the end in the beginning and the beginning in the end" and how each subsequent re-write adds depth and insight.
I often think of how the same person could write arguably the greatest love songs (including your two), the greatest religious songs of devotion (I pick Every Grain Of Sand), the greatest political songs, the greatest outlaw country ballads, and the astonishing singularity that is It's All Right Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) and still keep 'em coming with heartbreak expressed so perfectly in songs like Love Sick, the ache of a long life lived now reckoning with mortality in such songs as Not Dark Yet, and STILL, almost offhandedly, be the guy who wrote All Along The Watchtower, Like A Rolling Stone, and Knockin' On Heaven's Door.
The culture itself is built on his bedrock, ingrained to such a degree so many don't even realize.
I'm a music first, lyrics second, listener. Musically I prefer "Most of the Time". It also has one of my favorite lines - "Most of the time I'm halfway content." However, Mississippi feels more important and much deeper lyrically, so I'd give it the nod in that respect. Both are in the top 10 of my Dylan faves.
Glad to see this series resurrected, Sal. And returning with a Dylan song is a nice treat.
Regarding Mississippi, the song didn't make much of an impression on me until the Tell Tale Signs bootleg came out and opened with the Time Out of Mind version. Played as a folk blues, it really knocked me out. Like you, it became one of my favorite Dylan songs (nothing's been able to replace Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues, though some have come close).
Mr. Jones, give that version a try--maybe the same thing will happen to you.
Bill
It's about time! I've been waiting three years and six months for this! I second all the positive comments and Zippy said what I would have said about how you could get this deep and obsessed with so many Dylan songs. "Tangled Up in Blue" is anyone else's stone cold masterpiece and just one of dozens of Dylan masterpieces. Now I can look forward to your favorite song #9 in September of 2025. (Wait till then and it will be a delayed punchline that will have me rolling on the floor, laughing.)
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