Posted on

My Gen X Playlist: Like a Rolling Stone – Bob Dylan

Scroll down to see more content
Daily writing prompt
What personal belongings do you hold most dear?
View all responses

I don’t know why I held on to my CDs. I don’t even have a CD player anymore to listen to them. I boxed them up and had them in storage over a fifteen years ago and only picked them up recently because of this blog. The other day I was going through my CDs and when I found a song I liked, searched for it on YouTube. That makes no sense.

I don’t know if I can go as far as to say that I’m sentimental about them. I do know that I’m not ready to part with them just yet. I’m thinking about picking up a portable discman CD player, though. I was surprised they still make them. Maybe there are others out there like me with boxes of CDs collecting dust waiting to be played.

I was searching for songs for today and found a Bob Dylan cover of Sentimental Journey. I thought, Whoa. That sounds like an interesting take. It turns out it was kind of strange and I couldn’t listen to the entire song. I understand having a wide spectrum of work, but this was unnecessary and a little painful. I needed to mouthwash the taste, so I listened to some classic Dylan – Like a Rolling Stone. Yeah, that’s more like it, Bob. Do more of that. Not that other thing.

I played this song for a few friends. None of them liked it. Clearly I need new friends.

– YouTube comment by whatisthedill

I was just three months shy of 16 years old in July of 1965, when this song reached the charts. My sister is 13 months older, and we’d ride around in my dads 63 Pontiac Catalina singing this song along with the AM radio at the top of our lungs. Now we’re both old, but this song is STILL great, and brings back a lot of bitter sweet memories. Dylan is truly one of a kind.

– YouTube comment by allenpolk2681

Dylan’s original draft of the song’s lyrics were written on four sheets of headed note paper from the Roger Smith Hotel in Washington, DC. The quartet of handwritten pages fetched over $2 million at Sothebys New York in June 2014, setting a new price record for a popular music manuscript. The previous record was John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics for the 1967 Beatles track “A Day In The Life,” which cost $1.2 million.

– Songfacts

OK. If I owned the original draft of this song, yes, I’d hold it dear. There are 2 million reasons to. Well, make that 2 million and one. It would also be a very cool collectible to have.

–

For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?
People'd call, say, "Beware doll, you're bound to fall"
You thought they were all kiddin' you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin' out
Now you don't talk so loud
Now you don't seem so proud
About having to be scrounging for your next meal

How does it feel?
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
And nobody's ever taught you how to live out on the street
And now you're gonna have to get used to it
You said you'd never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say do you want to make a deal?

How does it feel?
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
A complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns
When they all did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discover that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal

How does it feel?
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

Princess on the steeple and all the pretty people
They're all drinkin', thinkin' that they got it made
Exchanging all precious gifts
But you'd better take your diamond ring, you'd better pawn it babe
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used
Go to him now, he calls you, you can't refuse
When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

25 thoughts on “My Gen X Playlist: Like a Rolling Stone – Bob Dylan”

  1. I’ll admit I like the song, but I like it much better when The Rolling Stones sing it. Bob’s songs to me usually sound better when someone else performs them.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

      1. One of the few where I don’t mind his signing is “Lay Lady Lay”. Mostly because he doesn’t sound like him lol
        But yeah, I agree. I need to be in the mood for Bob.

        Liked by 1 person

      1. I only have a sony discman at this point. but i think i can play them through my apple “USB Super Drive,” although whether that will still
        work with my current laptop is anyone’s guess.

        Liked by 1 person

  3. No, I think we donated ours too. We also have a huge bookshelf full of DVDs. My husband started to transfer them to a computer hard drive, but it was a big project. We still have our DVD player, so sometimes we’ll watch an old movie and enjoy no commercials!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  4. good grief, the sentimental journey is … didn’t get past the first couple lines. i have my cds as well. streaming is incredibly inconvenient but is also transient in a way physical media is not. i’ll keep looking through them periodically to see if there are any i am ready to let go of. but i’m keeping my cds and albums for now.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. of course i meant streaming is incredibly CONVENIENT. freudian slip i suppose.

        my son puts up with my love of listening to an entire album from start to finish but regards it as some kind of anachronism from neanderthal
        times. but hey i know how to listen to music like a REAL fan.

        Liked by 1 person

  5. I have a small “boombox” (they still sell them at BestBuy, etc). It plays CDs, but also has an antenna and gets radio stations. It has a cord, but can be operated with batteries only. So I consider it a disaster supply (when the power goes out etc)I can still listen to music and search the radio for updates. Plus it plays the few CDs I still have!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. My hubs just sold most of his CDs. He has been schlepping them around for years and like you has no way to play them. I think he kept a few, but not long ago he sold most of them to a record store here in town.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  7. Haha…I couldn’t listen to the first song either! It was too slow and not really sentimental!
    I have a CD player. I bought it from Best Buy back when I bought and watched all the CDs/movies of “The Twilight Saga” 😂 I’m glad I gave all those CDs away and kept the CD player. Not my genre of movies anymore. 🙈

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. That is so funny. My girlfriend has been trying to get me to toss my CD’s and I keep digging my heels in. They have nostalgic value for sure. So what if we don’t have a cd player?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  9. A classic one indeed, good choice. I too am hanging on to many CDs, rarely ever playing them. Vinyl seems much more worthwhile keeping as I loved the experience of an LP, and of course the full-size cover art and the liner notes.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment