Far Out Magazine revisits Bob Dylan's extraordinary run of albums in the 1960s and highlights which two songs from the period Lou Reed considered his best. Reed, who idolised Dylan and cited him as a formative influence on his own approach to lyrics with the Velvet Underground, singled these tracks out as the finest of Dylan's most prolific and inventive decade, one in which he released nine albums, several of which are regularly ranked among the greatest of all time.

Reed named "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and "It's Alright Ma" as his favourites, praising how both songs broke from conventional song structure, unfolding almost like rap with free-flowing verses that avoid a traditional chorus. He noted that Dylan was one of the only songwriters whose lyrics were worth listening to closely, a view shaped by hearing Dylan as he was starting out with the Velvet Underground. The article also touches on Dylan's own reflections on his creative process during that era, describing his early songwriting as almost mystical and comparing his experience to that described by songwriter Hoagy Carmichael.