Customer Reviews

Biograph (3 Cds in Double Jewel Case)

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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.

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.

By any measure, Bob Dylan is one of the two to three most crucial figures in the creation of modern rock and popular music. It wouldn't be too simplistic to say that rock as we eventually came to know it was the result of the meshing of the way Chuck Berry wrote music and Bob Dylan wrote lyrics. For several years, I told friends that I was going to write a book about the way music changed when Dylan released the most important single in the history of rock: "Like a Rolling Stone." Otis Redding heard it and felt compelled to write something more "meaningful" than his prior compositions, and "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" resulted. Sam Cooke responded to it by attempting to deepen his lyrics, and penned "A Change is Gonna Come." Lennon and McCartney, Jagger and Richards, and Pete Townshend responded to the challenge by writing more complex and lyrically sophisticated songs. After Dylan, absolutely no one could ignore lyrics. (The book, by the way, was eventually written by someone vastly more qualified than I am: Greil Marcus, in his 2005 book BOB DYLAN: AT THE CROSSROADS, a book on my Summer 2005 reading list.)

This boxed set provides a magnificent overview of Dylan's work, but is also significant for being arguably the first great boxed set to appear after the CD format appeared. It was the first such set to blend both previously unreleased cuts (such as his famous 1966 London solo recording of "Visions of Johanna"), hard-to-find singles (such as "Positively 4th Street," previously only on the BOB DYLAN'S GREATEST HITS album, which was otherwise useless for those who owned all of Dylan's albums), overlooked songs from neglected albums (most notably the stunning "Every Grain of Sand," from his Christian album SAVED), as well as a couple of handfuls of hits. Because Dylan has been the most prolific musical figure of the rock era, it is impossible to do anything approaching a comprehensive collection (unless one would to do a 25-CD boxed set), so this box represents merely a taste, but a very good taste it is. Of how many artists could it be said that a 3-CD set represented only an introduction? It is instructive that one of the Beatles in an interview (I believe it was George Harrison) was asked whether he thought the Beatles would be listened to five hundred years from now. He replied that he didn't know, that the only contemporary artist he was certain would still be familiar would be Bob Dylan.

The cuts on the albums are arranged non-chronologically, which seems to bother some listeners, and I can understand their reasoning. But musically I think arranging the songs by contrast and variation probably results in easier listening. Also, so ordering the songs results in unexpected insights. For instance, it is generally thought (on the whole, quite correctly) that Dylan wrote most of his good music in the sixties, rebounded in the mid-seventies to produce a couple of stunning albums (including the amazing BLOOD ON THE TRACKS), suffered a permanent decline only occasionally interrupted by gems like EMPIRE BURLESQUE in 1985 and TIME OUT OF MIND in 1997. But BIOGRAPH showed that Dylan had written songs after BLOOD ON THE TRACKS that could stand up to his best sixties and seventies work. If BIOGRAPH doesn't change one's mind about the primacy of the earlier work, it helps make one less dismissive of the later.

Dylan's output has been so massive that arguing that this or that song should have been put in rather than another. My only complaint is instead of the version of "Isis" from DESIRE, they included a previously unreleased version that lacked all of the subtlety and charm of the original. It does serve to illustrate how dramatically Dylan will perform his songs. Still, whenever I hear this "Isis" I end up pulling out DESIRE and listen to that one instead.

For reasons I won't go into, I have owned both the original 1985 release of BIOGRAPH and the 1997 repackaging. The latter is greatly to be preferred because they upgraded the recordings for the re-release. If you compare CDs from the respective sets, the quality of the more recent set is obvious.

As an introduction to THE singer-songwriter of the rock era, Bob Dylan's "Biograph" is hard to beat. It lays waste to previous "hits" packages by providing an exciting and varied overview of Dylan's brilliance as both a composer and performer. Whether protesting society's injustices in "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are A Changin'," chronicalling the course of a love affair in "You're a Big Girl Now," professing a belief in the divine as in "Solid Rock" and "Every Grain of Sand," or just being inscrutably brilliant as in a previously unreleased live rendition of "Visions of Johanna," Dylan's songwriting genius is simply unrivaled in any genre of music. For those who already own most of the official releases from Dylan's Columbia catalogue, the real treat here are the previously unreleased recordings, such as the breathtaking "Up to Me" (an outtake from 1974's "Blood on the Tracks") and the superb "Abandoned Love" (leftover from 1976's "Desire"), all of which prove that the scraps from the man's table are often every bit as tasty as the main meal.

I had the pleasure of seeing Bob Dylan in concert last year, and while I wasn't familar with the songs he played, I was very impressed.

That being said I decided I wanted to have some Dylan to listen to at home. I thought about getting the three Greatest Hits album, but decided to go with this box set instead. It's been a great listening experience.

Of course you'll get the well know songs, "Lay Lady Lay", The Times They Are A-Changin'", Blowin' in the Wind", "Subterranean Homesick Blues", "Mr. Tamborine Man", "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", among others.

The true gems are the unreleased and B-sides. Not sure why they've been left off the albums, but they're genuine Bob Dylan. Great music and great lyrics are his trademarks and this box set holds true to that premise.

A large (almost the size of the box) booklet comes with the set. It features plenty of color pictures and backgroud information. There are also yellow pages with detailed notes (and Dylan quotes) about every song on the album. A nice touch.

A great sampler for the casual fan. Enjoy.

This is a fantastic box set that every true Dylan fan should own. It covers the period from 1961 to 1981, and has 53 digitally remastered songs, including a whopping 21 rare and unreleased recordings. The 36 page booklet contains rare photographs and an in-depth, informative, exclusive interview. Also includes 5 separate pages, on which each song is given at least a paragraph, often more, of interesting information about it.

Listening to this set, it is so hard to understand why the unreleased songs, were previously unreleased. They really are just as good, in some cases better, than some songs that were released. But never mind...we get them all here, thankfully. This set is a treasure trove of musical gems. Highly recommended.

How to make a Bob Dylan box set...well, you could put out one with about a dozen CDs and you'd still be told that somebody's favorite song was missing.
But the compilers at Columbia have doen a good job solving this rather impossible task. 1985's "Biograph" wasn't the first ever career-spanning rock box set (the late, great Buddy Holly was honored with that in 1979), but it was the most important by far, establishing the format and sparking new interest in Bob Dylan whose career was in decline at the time.

Unlike many box sets, this one actually offers something to both the casual and the dedicated fan. Most of Dylan's best-known songs are here, as well a terrific booklet, and a generous helping of unreleased songs, B-sides, alternates and demos. And almost everything gels, actually, making "Biograph" an excellent, if not definitive, summary of Bob Dylan's career from 1961-1985.
Many great songs are missing, of course, but with an artist as prolific as Bob Dylan that can't be helped. And the songs that are here are superb (with the exception of a handful that are merely very good).

This is an immensely varied compilation. The track list includes early acoustic numbers, electric rock songs, blues-rock, folk-rock, country-rock, and lovely ballads. And the rarities and previously unreleased songs aren't rejects or filler, most of them are in fact excellent, from the acoustic "Up To Me" and the surreal "Quinn The Eskimo" to the quirky, upbeat pop of "On A Night Like This" and "Heart Of Mine", and the gorgeous ballads "Lay Down Your Weary Tune" and "I'll Keep It With Mine".
Casual Dylan fans may well find that there are too many unfamiliar songs here, and they should probably start somewhere else...Dylan's original "Greatest Hits" album and the two-disc "More Greatest Hits" (AKA "Greatest Hits vol. 2") still provide the best introduction to Bob Dylan in his prime, much better than the more recent "Essential Bob Dylan". Or start by picking up Dylan's three best band-backed records, "Bringing It All Back Home", "Highway 61 Revisited", and "Blood On The Tracks".

There is no such thing as a definitive Bob Dylan-compilation, and three CDs wouldn't contain it if there was. And besides, the wonderful 70s albums "Blood On The Tracks" and "Desire" in particular are being short-changed, which is a shame.
But "Biograph" is still 3½ hours of some of Dylan's greatest songs, and the rarities and unreleased tracks makes it a must-have purchase even for the dedicated fan who already has all the hits.
4 3/4 stars.

This really got me into Dylan. I had 4 of his albums up to this point (Shot of Love, Infidels, Slow Train Coming, and Empire Burlesque), but this one was the jackpot. I bought everything I could get my hands on after this. This is a magnificent set, with beautifully remastered versions of his great songs, great outtakes (some better than the song he left on the album), and great alternate versions (I like the quieter version of You're a Big Girl Now here...it's so lovely, and not as angry as the studio version on Blood). Caribbean Wind, an outtake from the Shot of Love sessions, is here, and it's better than most of the songs on that album. Ditto with Up to Me, from the Blood sessions. Up to Me is a majestic song, and it's a shame it couldn't make in on Blood. Positively 4th Street makes it on this album, along with the magnificent Percy's Song. The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar appears here. It was an outtake from the Shot of Love sessions, but garnered some airplay as a B-side. Eventually, Shot of Love would be reissued with the song. And, of course, the great Dylan songs are here in abundance. The album came out in 1985, and it covered only up until the Shot of Love sessions. No tracks from Infidels or Empire made it here. The booklet and liner notes are really revealing, and Dylan shares his incredible intelligence with us all. I'd like to see a reissue of this with material from Infidels and beyond. The 80's was a terrible decade for Bob, but this fantastic set ALMOST compensates for bad albums he put out during that decade like Knocked Out Loaded, Dylan and the Dead, and Down in the Groove. This is the best Dylan compliation out there....

Twenty-three years into Dylan's career, this set arrives. This set not only stands as an important overview of Dylan's body of work up to that point, but it also established, along with Clapton's CROSSROADS set of 1988, the Box Set as a commercially viable release. It should be noted this predates the Clapton release by a full three years. Just as Dylan has founded so many other things in modern music, he also becomes among the first to release a Box Set (and gives one of the most successful examples of this type of musical publication).

That is the most important thing about Biograph. This sets the standard of what box sets should be, as AMG points out. Every facet that has become expected of box sets begins here, with key album tracks and a good dosage of rarities plus a few unreleased live tracks. Not every box set succeeds with these perimeters set about it (anyone remember THE DOORS BOX SET . . . I didn't think so). The liner notes are thorough, with some key essays and notes on each of the tracks by the man himself. There are a good helping of pictures as well scattered throughout the liner notes.

BIOGRAPH, however, gives us a clear portrait of what makes Dylan so great and makes a really good argument for Dylan getting the title of rock's greatest songwriter. The greatest thing about BIOGRAPH, however, is all the rare tracks that are included. One of BIOGRAPH's greatest strengths is all the rarities that are included. The rarities comprise 21 tracks of the 53 tracks, although there is one track from the Royal Albert Hall Concert that can now be found on BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. IV. Without these rarities, BIOGRAPH would lose much of its significance, because it is from the fact that much of the unreleased material stands so high in quality that respect for Dylan only doubles. This and the BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 1-3 make the statement that this man's outtakes are better than other people's officially released music. By making these tracks part of the key selections, more of Dylan's depth can be revealed.

For anyone looking to get into Dylan and they don't know where to start, this is the KEY place to begin their journey into this man's world of music and thought.

This is an excellent three CD retrospective of Bob Dylan's career (up to 1981). It features most of his most popular material, with enough rarities to make it interesting for die hard fans who already have all his albums. Enough talk, just get it, already.