ModBod quartet Track 2

chauncey · **Joined:** Wed January 28th, 2009, 15:52 GMT **Posts:** 50

Another hands down winner for me: Mississippi.

Now I know Bennyboy doesn’t approve and cannot appreciate the impressionistic swirl of the song, but nonetheless it’s one of Dylan’s key achievements since the good old days. Lines that build intensely on top of each other, just outstanding. The L&T version is my favourite, although I wouldn’t want to be without the TTS versions.

Dirt Road Blues goes back to when Dylan could put the 12 bar blues out without people snoring. I’m surprised this wasn’t played live. Spirit finds Dylan in good voice, and is probably my 4th favourite song on Modern Times. Whilst Life is Hard finds Dylan straining to hit the notes and the listener straining to find the point.

TooM 1
L&T 1
MT 0
TTL 0

smoke

I predict Mississippi by a landslide on this one.

delvis_crasho

This one's actually tough for me because I adore "Dirt Road Blues" and "Life Is Hard."

smoke

I do too, but neither is a Mississippi in the canon.

GuillemTM

1. Mississippi
2. Spirit on the water
3. Life is hard
4. Dirt road blues

TOOM: 1+4=5
L&T: 1+4=5
MT: 3+2=5
TTL: 2+3=5

P. Pittsburgh Joe · **Joined:** Sun March 22nd, 2009, 18:48 GMT **Posts:** 2094

"Mississippi." "Spirit on the Water" is a close second.

Untrodden Path

Dirt Road Blues, Mississippi, and Spirit On the Water are the three best "second songs on an album" in music history... nothing compares... even remotely. And to think, they're all Bob songs on successive albums... who'd have ever thought that was possible?!

Bennyboy

'Dirt Road Blues' is by far the best track, as it is at least listenable and contains the echoes of 60s and 70s Dylan. Nice concise metaphysical lyrics. Ironic that he chose never to do one of his best modern blues songs live. Stupid bastard.

'Missishitty' more like. The mad old goat completely dropped the ball when he jettisoned it off TooM. Way better in that incarnation than the broken-voiced durr durr duh duh L&T bollocks.

'Life Is Hard' is a pathetic paedo horror story and anyone enjoying it should report themselves immediately.

'Spit In The Water' makes me want to punch it in the neck after a couple of minutes. By the time Bob is wheezingly telling everyone "I'm 86 and can still tap dance", whole civilisations have come and gone

Russ333 · **Joined:** Wed March 30th, 2011, 21:03 GMT **Posts:** 305

Bennyboy wrote:

'Life Is Hard' is a pathetic paedo horror story and anyone enjoying it should report themselves immediately.

Not a big fan of this song on the album either but it works in the movie when Renee Zellweger sings it. Didn't get great reviews but I actually really liked it so imo worth checking out if you haven't seen it. It's available for instant viewing on Netflix.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1193507/

muleskinner_blues

Mississippi is the far away choice here, but I do like the others. I still think it is my favorite post-Desire song of his.

Of the remaining three, I really like Life Is Hard, though it doesn't seem to be very well received here, on the whole. I think I'd take it over Dirt Road Blues now, but I think Dirt Road Blues is probably the better song. No problems with Spirit On The Water, but it ends up fourth on my ranks for this group.

Expecting Rain

ModBod quartet Track 2

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