First, let’s just get something out of the way: I’m a massive Bob Marley fan. There’s never been a musician who I was so into for so long a period as Bob Marley – from my sophomore year of college until two or three years after I graduated, at least 75% of the music I listened to was Bob. I was addicted, and the only thing that could stop the bugs from crawling all over my skin was more Bob. Getting an iPod and having several friends with great and wide-ranging taste in music helped me move onto new things, but Bob’s still the top guy for me. We’re on a first-name-only basis. He calls me smitch, and I call him Bob.
At some point in college, though, I noticed that there were people who threw around the name “Bob” just as freely when they were referring to that other Bob. Someone would say “check out my awesome Bob poster” or “take a listen to this awesome Bob track” –- but they weren’t talking about Bob Marley at all. I became bewildered and disoriented. At one point, I blacked out for several days only to wake up under a pile of garbage on a barge floating down the Mississippi wearing nothing but a burlap sack and a top hat.
Eventually, I sobered up and began to realize (reluctantly, at first) there was enough room in the world for two Bobs… and that they should be eternally engaged in a battle for musical supremacy. I give you Bob vs. Bob.
Thanks to our good friend Tim, whom I met after college, I am now a huge fan of both Bobs Marley and Dylan, which is why this head-to-head battle is so epic. It’s like what would happen if a shark fought a gorilla… on top of a lion.
Anyway, here are the first two songs that came up on my “Bob vs. Bob” playlist (150+ total songs that include what are, in my view, the best that each Bob has to offer), which seemed to be as good a way as any to get things started.
“Acoustic Medley” by Bob Marley (from Songs of Freedom, Disc 2)
vs.
“Idiot Wind” by Bob Dylan (from The Bootleg Series, Volume 2)
It’s actually pretty amazing that these are the two songs that came up. Each features its respective Bob with an acoustic guitar, both are from box sets, both qualify as rare/unreleased tracks, and both are over eight minutes long. “Acoustic Medley” combines a ton of great songs and makes it sound like Bob was hanging out with a bunch of his friends and just jamming off the top of his head, and they happened to record it (always press record). The Dylan song here is the original acoustic –- and in my view, superior –- version of the fourth track off Blood on the Tracks, which is probably my favorite Dylan album. I never really liked the title/chorus – there’s something not very poetic about the word “idiot” – but the rest of the lyrics (a few of which were changed for the album version) are vintage Bobby D. Hey, I can’t help it if I’m lucky.
In a way, they’re both winners. In another, more accurate way, Bob Marley is the winner.
Spliff In Hand!! Get it? Ahh, Marley album art humor… Good times.