'Blonde on Blonde', translated from English to Japanese and then back to English again.

Woman #12 of day of rain and 35
Pledge of my time
The range of vision of Johanna
Our one has known necessity without fail, (sooner or later)
I think that we want,
It is for the second time attached in movable device the Memphis blue having been attached
Hat of pill box of [hiyou] skin
Exactly, like the woman
Perhaps, your method it goes, I go my ones
The achilles corp way temporary
Absolutely sweet Marie
4th time
Clearly 5 believers
The woman who Of Lowlands is sad and is observed

My Desert Island, All-Time, Top 5 Bob Dylan Tracks

I was brought up in a Dylan-free house. My parents weren't against him, per se. They agreed he was an excellent lyricist, but they just couldn't stand his voice. As a good little kid I believed my parents were right about everything, both musically and otherwise. It was only somewhere between hearing them praise Alison Moyet and having John Miles 'Music' played to me under the impression that it was worthy of being my first and last love that I started to realise they could, on occasion, be wrong.

Eventually I came round to Dylan. Or, more accurately, as soon as I gave him a chance I came round to him. He is, as my parents always said, a masterful lyricist. But he is also, and I don't need to tell you this, a wonderful singer. In chronological order, my top five Dylan tracks:

1. The Times They Are A'Changin'
Simple, and perhaps a little obvious. But then I've never shyed away from the obvious just because it is so - usually they are deservedly cliched, and here we have a perfect example. I was given a DVD earlier this year of Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival between '63 and '65 and though this song never features on the film, the whole time I was watching I couldn't get it out of my head. It's a time captured, but it's also very much timeless. The other day I read about Obama planning to close Guantamano Bay, and again this song came to mind. It's been doing that a lot recently.

2. Rainy Day Women #12 and 35
Two of the songs on my list come from the fantastic 1966 album Blonde on Blonde - my favourite of Dylan's. There's something about the rompy rhythm and the less-than-sober cheers throughout the song that throws you into a moment. You feel like you're in a very modern cowboy saloon, or a non-traditional Irish pub. It's swaggering excellence, and all the more lovable for it.

3. I Want You
Again, Blonde on Blonde strikes. I don't know where I'd heard this song before I discovered Dylan, but something about it brought back a plethora of memories when I first head it. It still does, gladly, in the same way that the taste of passion fruit does - oddly, unexpectedly, but most welcome.

4. Handle With Care (w/The Traveling Wilburys)
Whilst at first Dylan's influence is not as obvious on the opening track to super-group The Traveling Wilburys' debut album - or at least not as obvious as that of his fellow bandmates, it is ultimately Dylan that makes the song so listenable. Sometimes it's hard to place who is who in the track - Harrison opens vocally, I think, with Orbison taking over for the chorus. Who does the bridge? I'm not sure. Who does the brilliant harmonica that sets the tone for the whole song? Oh, that I can help you with...

5. Most Of The Time
The most recent of my top five is, incidentally, the track that I first got into amongst Dylan's back catalogue. The reference in the title to Nick Hornby's 'High Fidelity' was done entirely because of my love for the book, though is fitting, considering the soundtrack to the film introduced me to this track. It's slow, heartfelt, and everything I couldn't say about love and the resulting moods. High Fidelity's soundtrack was a revelation to me when I first heard it - a change in the way I saw music. It introduced me to so many artists: The Beta Band, Love, The Velvet Underground, John Wesley Harding and - though I already was a firm fan of the artist - the genius of Stevie Wonder's 'I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)'. But the artist who got the most out of that album was Dylan. So thanks Nick Hornby, and thanks people behind that soundtrack. You did good. You did real good.

A brief look into Amazon.co.uk reviews that could quite possibly have been written by my father.

My father is, by all accounts, a remarkable man. He is remarkable in his complete and utter inability to correctly remember the choruses to even his most favourite songs. He is remarkable in his ability to cross the line without feeling any need to stop the joke, or the teasing. He is remarkable in the sheer volume of shades of grey to be found in his remarkably short hair. He can, on occasion, be a pretty remarkable photographer - the picture above is one I took of him which featured alongside one of his own pieces when it was published in The Times earlier this year. Perhaps most remarkable, however, is his ability to make some of the most controversial musical statements ever to grace this sweet Earth. Perhaps it is no wonder when I find reviews on Amazon such as the ones below - reviews that attempt to put shame upon some the most universally accepted artists of all time - that I wonder, even for a second, whether my father has defeated all his technical woes and contributed to the intermaweb...

On Radiohead's 'OK Computer':
'What sickk twisted mind wrote this album? The tracks are extremely dull and lifeless! I bought this album after seeing it at a very cheap price, £4 but actually found it to be worth -£4 and regret my stupid decision, who that is sane could like it? Refrain from buying I beg of you! 1/5

On Bob Dylan's 'Blonde on Blonde':
'if dylan was starting today he would not got past the x factor final''

On Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side Of The Moon':
'Nearly as over rated as My Chemical Romance.'

On The Velvet Underground and Nico's self-titled album:
'...in comparison to many albums released the same year, VERY conventional in musical terms.'

On Bette Midler's 'Experience The Divine: The Best Of Bette Midler':
'this album DEFINETELY deserves 5 stars!'

See, I think this is what I love about my dad more than anything else - whilst he didn't, as far as I know, write any of the above comments, he could well have, such is the predictability of his utter dadness. He's a remarkable man, and one who challenges me in so many ways (not least by putting on a home-made Musical Masterpieces CD in the car, one that features John Miles' 'Music' and a fair amount of Midler). I just wish I'd thought to write this two days ago, really...

Arthur Lee's Good-Time Sixties Pop

I love me a bit of Sixties summer pop, and Love, the long-forgotten band of Arthur Lee, will fill that slot nicely, regardless of whether or not they'd like being called pop. They are. I've got to admit though, like a lot of my musical discoveries of the last few years, my love for, um, Love stemmed from their featuring on a soundtrack. This time round it was the soundtrack to 2001 comedy, and All-Time Top 5 Film (No. 4) of mine, High Fidelity. I really must recommend the soundtrack to you, almost as highly as the film - so far it has introduced me to The Beta Band, The Thirteenth Floor Elevators, John Wesley Harding and, although I already thought of his music as regularly flawless, Stevie Wonder's track 'I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)'. So yeah, a great soundtrack. My favourite, even, beating the ever-popular Garden State for once.

So today's tracks are by Love. Two tracks that I love. By Love. They really couldn't have chosen a more awkward band name, could they? The first track is opener to their grandest album, 'Forever Changes', and is a lovely swooping summer track that keeps throbbing forward. The second track is the one from the 'High Fidelity' soundtrack, and my favourite love track - not unlike a Velvet Underground song, if the Velvet Underground were better vocally. Or Bob Dylan, if, you know, Bob Dylan was better vocally. Funnily enough, the soundtrack sandwiches Love between The Velvet Underground and Dylan, and though the Dylan song is one of his best vocally (Most Of The Time), Love still shines through. Which, you know, sounds like a song lyric in itself.

mp3: 'Alone Again Or' by Love
mp3: 'Always See Your Face' by Love

Buy Love
Buy High Fidelity