This Bob Dylan song is stark and relentless -- nearly seven minutes of intensity and tension brought home with just voice and guitar. The words, meanwhile, might well represent an oblique personal history, from adolescence through marriage to religious conversion: whatever they were about, they reduced Patti Smith to tears on first hearing. Changing of the Guards (1978) Street Legal delivered fans a shock: Dylan fronting a large band, with female backing singers to the fore. These are the best Bob Dylan songs ever, ranked in order of musical importance. Bob Dylan is often acclaimed as the greatest songwriter ever; it's no surprise that he's in the top two on Ranker's list of greatest songwriters. 50. An alternate list, in no particular order (because that's too hard) of the actual 50 greatest Dylan songs:.