Bob Dylan

Paste's online version of the Dylan blurb I wrote for their best-living-songwriters issue back in '06 gets rid of the paragraph breaks, to the piece's detriment. So I'm reprinting here.

By the way, Dylan might well make my top ten but it was Paste who put him at the top. I'd probably have chosen Jagger-Richards (Paste's #12), or maybe Johansen-Thunders (not on their list). A still-living James Brown (#56, behind such titans as James Taylor, Sufjan Stevens, Ryan Adams, etc.) would have been in my top five and I'd have trouble defending my not ranking him number one (the designation being "best," not "favorite"). As for this decade, Timbaland and Collipark and Eminem and Simpson-Shanks-DioGuardi and Max Martin would all be contenders (none on the Paste list, of course), though for the last couple of years I'd say the spot is empty.

Whom would you guys choose?

( #1 Bob Dylan )

Lyrics meme

The return of the First Lines meme, my mp3 player set on shuffle. RULES: Identify the song and performer, no googling.

Song titles and other obvious spoilers are replaced with characters on TV detective shows. Hints are in italics. I predict the first to be guessed will be 12, 7, 5, 20, 3, and 4, in that order, unless Lex shows up early, in which case 3 will go in a second, and I hope he gets 8, 14, and 16, the last of which is one of my two favorite tracks on here (the other is 7). Xhuxk will have the best shots at 2 and 6 (unless Tim H. appears unexpectedly), Xhuxk and Dave may have shots at 18 and 19, and I'm counting on Hazel to come through on 17.

( first lines )