Happy 70th Birthday, Bob Dylan - the world's greatest living artist!

Read the Rolling Stone Bob Dylan 70th Birthday tribute, which is really just a list of what RS considers to be the top 70 Dylan songs of all time - I posted my own list 2 days ago here. Unsurprisingly, there's general agreement about the greatest of the songs from the early period and universal agreement that the shot span of 4 years, from Another Side through Blond on Blond was the highlight of his career - most of the songs I mentioned were in the RS to 15, with one major exception, and the rest of the early songs I mentioned were at least in the top 70, though I'm surprised they overlooked the beautiful Love Minus Zero. About the mid-career and later Dylan - much less agreement. I have to say that for me, though I like his recent albums/concerts, no single song has changed my life the way so many earlier ones did. My picks from mid career were very different from those RS selected - though they did cite many that would have been on any longer list from me, notably the haunting Isis (thanks to Rivera's violin), ditto One More Cup of Coffee, and the wistful If You See Her, Say Hello. RS doesn't quite get why there are so few great Dylan covers. I have always felt that it has to do with the change he brought about in popular music: before him, songs were written for everyone, they had to be tuneful and catchy (Pareles gets this in his intro essay); Dylan's songs are personal and unique to him, while speaking to universal themes. To sing a Dylan song is like knowing/reciting a Keats sonnet: extremely beautiful and moving, but you're singing someone else's words, not yours.