Editor’s Note: From Albumism’s inception back in 2016, we’ve remained unabashedly and unequivocally passionate about our mission of celebrating the world's love affairs with albums past, present and future.
But while our devotion to the album as an art form has remained steadfast, as evidenced by our deepening repository of individual album tributes and reviews, we’ve admittedly seldom taken the opportunity to explicitly articulate our reverence for the virtues of artists’ complete album repertoires as a whole.
Hence why we’ve decided to showcase what we believe to be the most dynamic discographies of all time in this recurring series. In doing so, we hope to better understand the broader creative context within which our most beloved individual albums exist, while acknowledging the full breadth of their creators’ artistry, career arcs, and overall contributions to the ever-evolving musical landscape.
We hope you enjoy this series and be sure to check here periodically for the latest installments.
BOB DYLAN
Studio Albums: Bob Dylan (1962) | The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963) | The Times They Are a-Changin' (1964) | Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964) | Bringing It All Back Home (1965) | Highway 61 Revisited (1965) | Blonde on Blonde (1966) | John Wesley Harding (1967) | Nashville Skyline (1969) | Self Portrait (1970) | New Morning (1970) | Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) | Dylan (1973) | Planet Waves (1974) | Blood on the Tracks (1975) | The Basement Tapes (1975) | Desire (1976) | Street Legal (1978) | Slow Train Coming (1979) | Saved (1980) | Shot of Love (1981) | Infidels (1983) | Empire Burlesque (1985) | Knocked Out Loaded (1986) | Down in the Groove (1988) | Oh Mercy (1989) | Under the Red Sky (1990) | Good as I Been to You (1992) | World Gone Wrong (1993) | Time Out of Mind (1997) | "Love and Theft" (2001) | Modern Times (2006) | Together Through Life (2009) | Christmas in the Heart (2009) | Tempest (2012) | Shadows in the Night (2015) | Fallen Angels (2016) | Triplicate (2017) | Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020)
Even in his 80th year, Bob Dylan is making news and setting precedents. In December, Dylan sold his entire catalog—studio albums, live LPs, The Bootleg Series, all of it—to Universal Music for an amount estimated at more than $300 million. It’s the biggest acquisition of a singular artist's catalog ever, and he’s not the only one doing it. Speculation assumes the sale will secure his legacy and make him the money he lost since COVID-19 put a stop to his Never Ending Tour. Universal has licensing rights now and I assume this means we’ll be hearing his music in the coming years more than ever before.
Many of us spend an embarrassing amount of time listening to, collecting, debating, and awaiting additions to Dylan’s catalog. Beloved and contested, his records have been rock & roll canon for decades. Including this collection on our Greatest Discographies of All Time List is a no-brainer. Any artist recording over several decades is bound to have hits and misses, Dylan included, and you can always pick and choose from his folk beginnings to his trio of Christian records that brought us from the ‘70s into the ‘80s to later career comebacks that keep bringing him back...from 1975’s Blood On The Tracks, to 1997’s Time Out Of Mind, to the most recent, his thirty-ninth studio LP Rough And Rowdy Ways.
Even with countless hours of bootlegs and live recordings, Dylan still remains a mystery to fans and critics alike. But call me a purist: my favorite records are from his classic era: 1965’s Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited, and what I call the “I Can Do Whatever I Want Record”: John Wesley Harding from 1967. He’s full of surprises and I’ll always be looking for more.
Sarah’s 3 Favorite Bob Dylan Albums of All Time:
1. Bringing It All Back Home (1965)
2. Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
3. John Wesley Harding (1967)
VISIT Bob Dylan’s Official Store
LISTEN & WATCH: