Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
60 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must-own, November 10, 2001
Biograph is more than just a retrospective; it is essential for any Dylanophile. While it indeeds collects the majority of the essential tracks in Dylan's canon (Rolling Stone, Heaven's Door, Watchtower, I Want You, Blowin' In The Wind, etc.), classic album tracks (To Ramona, The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll, etc.), live and alternate take offerings (Visions, I Don't Believe You, It's All Over, etc.), and the best of the latter day tracks (Gotta Serve Somebody, Groom, Every Grain of Sand, etc.), what makes this set an essential for the hard-core (other than the revealing sequencing, which puts a whole new light on the material, and the deluxe packaging) is the generous smattering of previously unreleased material. Absolutely first-rate songs such as Percy's Song, Caribbean Wind, and Up To Me stand up well to his officialy released canon. This, along with Volumes 1-3 of The Bootleg Series, show that Dylan throws away tracks that any other artist would kill to have written. This release was so good, in fact, that it set the standard (and the pattern) for all box sets to come. It stands as a good primer for those new to Dylan, and also as an essential addition to the catalog of the fan who already has everything else.
|
|
|
37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Dylan compilation, September 18, 2003
Hopefully, a second box set will come out someday, perhaps when Dylan retires (if he ever does) that spans Infidels to his last release, whatever that will be. Until then, we have the best Dylan compilation out there.I'm not joking. Not only do you get an excellent 3.5 hours of his best work, best outtakes, and best alternate versions, but an excellent booklet that gives a good biography of Dylan's career up to 1985. Don't forget the track-by-track retrospective Dylan gives on each song represented, but he gives a lot of commentary on his career in a very revealing interview with Cameron Crowe exclusively for the box set. This compilation is NOT sloppy. In fact, the arrangement of the tracks is quite clever.
The first few songs on Disc One are Dylan's sweetest love songs (including a cover of Baby Let Me Follow You Down). This was how he started his career with 1962's Bob Dylan. Then we progress to his best protest anthems, (Blowin' in the Wind, Masters of War, and the excellent unreleased Percy's Song) surrealism (Tombstone Blues...Subterranean Homesick Blues, Visions of Johanna) then some of his most lonesome and sad songs, including outtakes from his Blood on the Tracks period, then songs of desire (notice the song titles BABY I'M IN THE MOOD FOR YOU, I WANNA BE YOUR LOVER, I WANT YOU) then his spiritual songs (I Believe in You, Gotta Serve Somebody, Solid Rock) You have everything on here you'll really need. I definitely wouldn't stop here though. Other essentials would include Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde, and Blood on the Tracks.
|
|
|
34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An essential compilation for every fan, December 7, 2005
The three-CD Biograph is probably not the best place to start if you're new to Bob Dylan, but it is a really great set that any serious fan needs to own. Biograph is both an excellent summary of Dylan's musical career (the first twenty years of it, at least) and an assortment of excellent rare and obscure tracks. Supreme classics like Blowin' in the Wind, Like a Rolling Stone, Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Tangled Up In Blue, Mr. Tambourine Man, Just Like A Woman and Subterranean Homesick Blues are here representing some of Dylan's finest recorded work to see commercial release. There are tons of very good lesser-known songs as well. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight, the excellent closing track from Dylan's John Wesley Harding album is one of Dylan's finest country love songs. Mixed-Up Confusion from 1962 was actually Dylan's first song with electric guitars and a backing band. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll is very highly regarded by Dylan fans as a beautiful, somber eulogy/protest song but remains largely unknown or forgotten to the general populace. To Ramona is one of Dylan's most beautiful and eloquent love songs (and it does have a lot of competition there). Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window is a single from 1965 that faded into obscurity by not appearing on an LP until Biograph in 1985. Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power) is a hidden classic from Dylan's underrated 1978 album, Street Legal. Just listen to this song and see if it doesn't give you goosebumps.
However, there's much more still. Numerous excellent tracks which did not see commercial release are here for your enjoyment. Songs such as I'll Keep It With Mine, Percy's Song, Lay Down Your Weary Tune, Abandoned Love, Caribbean Wind, Up To Me, and I Wanna Be Your Lover are as good as anything on Dylan's studio albums. You will also hear alternate versions of familiar favorites, some in the studio and some live, such as I Don't Believe You, Visions of Johanna, It's All Over Now Baby Blue, Isis, Romance in Durango, I Shall Be Released, Forever Young, and All Along the Watchtower.
Another reason is to pick it up is for two key tracks: Positively 4th Street and Knockin' on Heaven's Door. Positively 4th Street is a Dylan classic, released as a non-album single in 1965, the only album it was available on was Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits. Knockin' On Heaven's Door is a classic from 1973 that has seen many cover versions, notably from Eric Clapton and Guns N' Roses. The only album it appears on is the soundtrack to Sam Peckinpah's film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid in which the song originally appeared. So you get both of these great songs in one place without having to buy the otherwise unnecessary Greatest Hits or Pat Garrett soundtrack. These two songs are nearly worth the price of the set.
The sound quality on the CDs is excellent, provided you get the 1997 re-release which was remastered for highest fidelity. The 1997 version is in a double-CD case as opposed to the bigger box set format of the original release. In addition to the excellent music there are thorough and informative liner notes by Cameron Crowe which give a look at Dylan's discography and notes for every single song as well as recording and release dates. That's something of very high value to geeks like me. There are lots of pretty pictures of Mr. Dylan too.
I think I've given you ample reasons to buy this box set. If you consider yourself any kind of Bob Dylan fan and you don't have Biograph, get it right now! Stop reading this extraordinarily well-written, very helpful review and go buy this set. If this box has you itching for more Dylan outtakes and rarities, then by all means proceed to The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare and Unreleased) for even more delectable unreleased goodness.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
Bob Dylan: "The 'Queen of the Folksingers,' that would have to be Joan Baez... The sight of her made me high. All that and there was her voice. A voice that drove out bad spirits. It was like she'd come down from another planet." Read more musical excerpts from Chronicles, Vol. 1 on our Music You Should Hear page.
Interact With Your Music: Discover, listen to, and buy new music, all from the pages of SPIN's digital edition, free to Amazon customers.
~ The Band
~ Bob Dylan
~ Bob Dylan
by Bob Dylan 
