Bob Dylan, explored

Thread · 13 songs

Songs about death

CardsMap

Mortality, from murder ballads to late reckonings.

  1. Start here

    1962Greenwich Village
    1 of 13

    Fixin’ to Die

    Bob Dylan

    Bukka White's blues of a man who knows he is dying, sung fiercely on his first album.

  2. ↓ the same year

    1962Greenwich Village
    2 of 13

    See That My Grave Is Kept Clean

    Bob Dylan

    Blind Lemon Jefferson's last request about his own grave, which closes his first album.

  3. ↓ 3 years later

    1965Going Electric
    3 of 13

    Desolation Row

    Highway 61 Revisited

    At over eleven minutes, it is the album's only acoustic track and its closer.

  4. ↓ the same year

    1965Going Electric
    4 of 13

    It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

    Bringing It All Back Home

    Running about seven and a half minutes, it is the longest song on the album.

  5. ↓ 28 years later

    1993Back to the Roots
    5 of 13

    Lone Pilgrim

    World Gone Wrong

    An old hymn in which a dead pilgrim speaks from his grave to comfort the living.

  6. ↓ 4 years later

    1997Late Renaissance
    6 of 13

    Not Dark Yet

    Time Out of Mind

    It was released as a single from the album and became one of its most praised songs.

  7. ↓ 4 years later

    2001Late Renaissance
    7 of 13

    High Water (For Charley Patton)

    "Love and Theft"

    It is dedicated to the Delta blues pioneer Charley Patton.

  8. ↓ 5 years later

    2006Late Renaissance
    8 of 13

    Ain’t Talkin’

    Modern Times

    At almost nine minutes it is the album's long, somber closer.

  9. ↓ the same year

    2006Late Renaissance
    9 of 13

    When the Deal Goes Down

    Modern Times

    A slow waltz in the style of the old crooner ballads.

  10. ↓ 14 years later

    2020Rough and Rowdy
    10 of 13

    False Prophet

    Rough and Rowdy Ways

    Released in May 2020, its music is built on Billy "The Kid" Emerson's 1954 Sun Records blues "If Lovin' Is Believing".

  11. ↓ the same year

    2020Rough and Rowdy
    11 of 13

    Goodbye Jimmy Reed

    Rough and Rowdy Ways

    It is a tribute to the Chicago blues singer and harmonica player Jimmy Reed.

  12. ↓ the same year

    2020Rough and Rowdy
    12 of 13

    I Contain Multitudes

    Rough and Rowdy Ways

    Its title comes from Walt Whitman's Song of Myself, and it was released as a single in April 2020.

  13. ↓ the same year

    2020Rough and Rowdy
    13 of 13

    My Own Version of You

    Rough and Rowdy Ways

    It imagines building a companion out of body parts, in the manner of Frankenstein.