I was flipping through the car radio Sunday afternoon when, surprisingly enough, I came upon “Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream” (this was on WUMB, the only radio station I know of that would ever play this song). I was stunned moments later to find that my navigator/co-pilot had never heard the song. That famous false start and Tom Wilson’s uncontrollable laughter (later nicked by Ryan Adams to kickstart Heartbreaker). Jabs at The Beatles and the counterculture bookending a leap over a hot dog stand. An alternative American history that serves, essentially, as a preamble to the state of the union that was and is Highway 61 Revisited. How could she not have heard this song?!

Well, the answer, of course, is that most normal people, even those who do actually listen to Bob Dylan, haven’t heard every song he’s ever released (along with some he hasn’t). Since I have now been reminded of this little fact, I have decided to compile a list of Dylan songs that every music fan should know but may not because they are hidden on albums that wouldn’t make most Top 100 (or 500 {or 1000}) Album lists. In response to someone telling me once that they had never heard a particular song (I think it was The Beatles’ “Revolution”), I said that it should be played in hospital nurseries so everyone is aware of it. I won’t be using such a lofty guideline here; instead, I’ll say you should, if you own an mp3 player, go to your online music store of choice and download these songs, as you may not want to make (and some of them may not be worthy of) the financial commitment to the whole album. In other words, these are essential songs on, for lack of a better term, non-essential albums.

(For the record, “Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream” will not appear on this list since it is from one of Bob’s essential albums, Bringing It All Back Home. I’m still not sure how that one could slip through the cracks.)

1. Song To Woody, Bob Dylan - Bob borrows a tune from a Woody Guthrie song to write a song to Woody Guthrie.  I wonder if he ever heard it.

2. Tomorrow Is A Long Time,  Greatest Hits, Volume 2 - a more straightforward companion to “Boots Of Spanish Leather.”

3. When I Paint My Masterpiece,  Greatest Hits, Volume 2 - Bob dodges lions and yearns for a Coke.

4. Tough Mama, Planet Waves - Every part of this song sounds like a chorus, but it doesn’t have one.  How do you do that?

5. Idiot Wind, Hard Rain - In case you couldn’t tell from the cover, Bob’s angry.

6. Senor (Tales of Yankee Power), Street Legal - “Son, this ain’t a dream no more, it’s the real thing.”

7. Solid Rock, Saved - Testify.

8. I and I, Infidels - Bob cobbles.

9. Tangled Up In Blue, Real Live - “Tangled” has been at least four great songs.

10. Dark Eyes, Empire Burlesque - written about a “call girl,” and “Poor wretch” according to Bob in Chronicles, Volume 1.

11. Abandoned Love, Biograph - An even better version exists that Bob performed after taking the stage from Ramblin’ Jack Elliot at The Bitter End.  This one will do, though.

12. Caribbean Wind, Biograph - One of several songs on this list that could embarrass most artists, given that Bob chose not to release it initially.

13. Up To Me, Biograph - left off of Blood On The Tracks, an album of mysterious decisions.

14. Man in the Long Black Coat, Oh Mercy - written in New Orleans after a man named Sun Pie gave him a WORLD’S GREATEST GRANDPA bumper sticker.  I’m not making this up: Bob might have.

15. Every Grain Of Sand, The Bootleg Series, Volume 3 - Bob on piano, dog on background vocals.

16. Blind Willie McTell, The Bootleg Series, Volume 3 - Bob borrows a tune from “St. James Infirmary” and warps it into a song to Blind Willie McTell.  Everyone should hear this.

I think that’s a fairly tidy list. I tried to be as discriminate as possible. I didn’t include songs that can be found on “Greatest Hits” or “Best of” collections, with the obvious exception of 2 and 3 on the list. Greatest Hits, Volume 2 is an odd collection: it came out in 1971 but includes mostly songs that were released prior to the original Greatest Hits, which had come out only four years earlier anyway. In addition, the double-album includes a couple of previously unreleased older recordings and a few new songs: “Tomorrow Is A Long Time” and “When I Paint My Masterpiece” are the best of those. Some may argue with my distinction of “essential” and “non-essential” (Isn’t Infidels essential? Is Modern Times truly essential?) Basically, if an album had three or more songs that I thought people should know, then, for the purposes of this list, I disregarded it and considered it worthy of full purchase for casual fans (with Biograph, a three-disc boxed set, being the exception here). All in all, I would say this post was non-essential.