History YMMV / BobDylan

** The Christian period is still very divisive among fans, but a few individual songs are now considered classic Dylan ("Gotta Serve Somebody", "Precious Angel", "I Believe In You", "Pressing On", "Every Grain of Sand").

** ''Bringing It All Back Home'': "Mr. Tambourine Man", followed by "Subterranean Homesick Blues", "Maggie's Farm", "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" and "She Belongs to Me".
** ''Highway 61 Revisited'': "Like a Rolling Stone".

** ''John Wesley Harding'': "All Along the Watchtower".
** ''Nashville Skyline'': "Girl from the North Country"'s duet version with ''Music/JohnnyCash'' and "Lay Lady Lay" (although, while popular, not really representative of Dylan's songwriting).

** ''Time out of Mind'': "Make You Feel My Love" and to a lesser extent "Not Dark Yet".

** ''Rough and Rowdy Ways'': "Goodbye Jimmy Reed", "I Contain Multitudes" and "Murder Most Foul".

** ''Another Side of Bob Dylan'': "It Ain't Me Babe" (and also "My Back Pages", courtesy of Music/TheByrds who CoveredUp).
** ''Bringing It All Back Home'': "Mr. Tambourine Man", followed by "Subterranean Homesick Blues", "Maggie's Farm" and "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue".

** ''Desire'': "Hurricane".

** ''Knocked Out Loaded'': "Brownsville Girl"
** ''Time Out of Mind'': "Make You Feel My Love" and to a lesser extent "Not Dark Yet".
** ''Rough and Rowdy Ways'': "Murder Most Foul"

** ''Bob Dylan'': "Song to Woody", his first notable original song. "House of the Risin' Sun", which Music/TheAnimals learned from this album, could also count.

** ''Blood on the Tracks'': "Tangled Up in Blue" and "Shelter from the Storm". Also "Simple Twist of Fate" is fairly well-known.

** ''Street-Legal'': "Changing of the Guards".

* AwardSnub: He's been a UsefulNotes/{{Grammy Award}}s darling since TheNineties, but before then his only win was Best Rock Vocal for "Gotta Serve Somebody" from ''Music/SlowTrainComing''. ''Music/TheFreewheelinBobDylan''? ''Music/Highway61Revisited''? ''Music/BlondeOnBlonde''? Zero nominations for ''any'' of them. ''Music/BloodOnTheTracks'' ''did'' win one... for Best Liner Notes.

* NightmareFuel: "The Ballad of Hollis Brown," start to finish.

** Some of his past tours have acquired unoffical fan nicknames, like the Alimony Tour[[note]]After he was forced to pay a big settlement to Sara Lowndes Dylan following their divorce, he went on a lengthy tour where he seemed to be trying to [[MoneyDearBoy increase his commercial appeal]] by playing mainly his Greatest Hits and adopting a Music/BruceSpringsteen-style band and stage demeanor[[/note]] in 1978 and the Musical Retrospective Tour[[note]]After refusing to play any of his older songs in his first two tours after becoming a Christian, he decided to sprinkle a few of them back into his set list. Naturally, this became a huge selling point, with radio ads promising the shows would be "a musical retrospective", when really they were still largely songs from his gospel albums[[/note]] in 1980.

* SignatureSong: Many, but "Like a Rolling Stone" is easily Dylan's most popular song, is his biggest international hit, and is overall considered as an absolute masterpiece. By album:

** ''The Times They Are a-Changin''': The title track.

** ''New Morning'': "The Man in Me", also thanks to its inclusion in ''The Big Lebowski'', and "If Not for You" (the latter also being CoveredUp by Music/GeorgeHarrison.

** ''Another Side of Bob Dylan'': "It Ain't Me Babe".

** ''Blonde on Blonde'': "I Want You", with "Just Like a Woman" and "Rainy Day Women" as runner-up songs. Notably, the first one is easily the one with more commercial appeal, and is more popular on streaming services, but "Just Like a Woman" is widely recognized as the better one and as more representative of him.

** ''Time Out of Mind'': "Make You Feel My Love".
** ''Side Tracks'': "Positively 4th Street".

** ''The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'': "Blowin' in the Wind", with "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" as a runner-up.

** ''New Morning'': "The Man in Me", also thanks to its inclusion in ''The Big Lebowski'', and "If Not for You".

** ''Blood on the Tracks'': "Tangled Up in Blue" and more recently "Shelter from the Storm".

** ''Blood on the Tracks'': "Tangled Up in Blue" and to a lesser extent "Shelter from the Storm".

* SignatureAlbum: Although Bob Dylan has made acclaimed albums before and since, ''Music/Highway61Revisited'' is frequently seen as a major turning point of his career and the history of popular music as a whole. It was his first all-electric album, featured him fully combining folk lyricism and greater ideas with rock n' roll. The album itself is seen as a major influence on more ambitious albums ranging from ''Music/RubberSoul'', ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'', ''Music/PetSounds'', to ''Music/WhatsGoingOn''. It also featured "Like A Rolling Stone", considered not only his SignatureSong but frequently considered one of ''the'' greatest songs of all time.

* NightmareFuel: "The Ballad of Hollis Brown," [[AdultFear start to finish.]]

** Dylan's second Audience-Alienating Era—and probably his most infamous—was his 1979–1990 output. Dylan converted to Christianity and released three Christian-themed albums over the course of 1979–1981, [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks which alienated audiences]] even more than his GenreShift from rock to country with ''Music/NashvilleSkyline''[[note]]That said, the first of these albums, ''Music/SlowTrainComing'', [[VindicatedByHistory is better regarded now]][[/note]]. It didn't help that [[CanonDiscontinuity Dylan refused to play any of his pre-Christian songs]] for a while after converting. 1983's ''Infidels'' was more warmly received on the grounds of its Christian themes being less overt in favour of more personal themes, but ''Empire Burlesque'' retains a BrokenBase, and both ''Knocked Out Loaded'' and ''Down in the Groove'' were consecutively savaged by critics and sold poorly. It was not all doom and gloom, however, and ''Music/OhMercy'' was well-received as a comeback album that to this day is regarded as Dylan's best album of TheEighties. Unfortunately, that was followed by ''Under the Red Sky'' in 1990, which was seen as a disappointment in comparison and sold accordingly[[note]]In a 2006 interview, [[CreatorBacklash Dylan himself acknowledged that the complaints weren't unwarranted]], and explained that the album suffered from a TroubledProduction and ArtistDisillusionment on Dylan's part[[/note]]. After releasing two albums in the first half of TheNineties—consisting of covers of traditional FolkMusic that were nonetheless well-received—1997's ''Music/TimeOutOfMind'' was released, acclaimed and marked the beginning of a CareerResurrection for Dylan.

** Dylan's output from 1969–1973 had mixed reactions from fans at the time, though critics were generally kinder. ''Music/NashvilleSkyline'' was a GenreShift to CountryMusic (complete with soft crooning) after Dylan temporarily quit smoking, [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks much to the displeasure of Rock fans]]. His next album, ''Music/SelfPortrait'', consists mostly of covers, and unlike ''Nashville'' was coldly received by both fans and critics alike. ''Music/NewMorning'' and his soundtrack for ''Film/PatGarrettAndBillyTheKid''[[note]]the latter includes "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"[[/note]] managed to WinBackTheCrowd, but then came ''Dylan'', which consists of outtakes recorded for previous albums, was released by Creator/ColumbiaRecords without Dylan's permission and remains the most consistent contender for the worst album in his discography[[note]]However, since ''Dylan'' was released against, well, Dylan's wishes, this one was not his fault[[/note]]. This Audience-Alienating Era would come to an end with the release of 1974's ''Music/PlanetWaves'', which began a resurging of acclaimed albums (including ''Music/BloodOnTheTracks'', although ''Music/StreetLegal'' incited harsh reviews in America [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff but welcomed with open arms in Britain]]).

* ShockingSwerve: The last verse of "Black Diamond Bay".

* ''Side Tracks'': "Positively 4th Street".

** ''Blood on the Tracks'': "Tangled Up in Blue" and "Shelter from the Storm".

* SignatureSong: Many, but "Like a Rolling Stone" is easily Dylan's most popular song, and is overall considered as an absolute masterpiece. By album:

** ''Bringing It All Back Home'': "Mr. Tambourine Man", followed by "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue".

** ''New Morning'': "The Man in Me", also thanks to its inclusion in ''The Big Lebowski''.

* AwardSnub: He's been a Grammy darling since TheNineties, but before then his only win was Best Rock Vocal for "Gotta Serve Somebody" from ''Music/SlowTrainComing''. ''Music/TheFreewheelinBobDylan''? ''Music/Highway61Revisited''? ''Music/BlondeOnBlonde''? Zero nominations for ''any'' of them. ''Music/BloodOnTheTracks'' ''did'' win one... for Best Liner Notes.
** Ended when the campaign for a UsefulNotes/NobelPrizeInLiterature for Dylan's lyrics finally succeeded in 2016.