Customer Reviews

Bob Dylan - Greatest Hits Box

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I can't help but go to this place, so you'll have to forive me ( or not...smile). But this collection of music is so spectacular, in my opinion, it is not only for those "new" to Bob Dylan and his music. It is for everyone world-wide even if one doesn't understand the words, (our Americanized English Language). I have no idea what it is - about this extraordinary soul but as someone said once - Dylan has you from the cradle to the grave. I only hope that Bob Dylan's life is as enriched as he makes our own. I do know this - but it's from my most limited experience. When the darkest of hours seem to harming and literally demoralizing us everyday-folks-out-there, a gifted soul emerges like Dylan and...well, it just "feels" like When The Saints Come Marching In. Bottomline: if you can afford it, this is worth every hard-earned cent and more.

Great collection, with Greatest Hits 1 2 and 3, plus the Live & Rare (which has some great tracks). All together for a great price.

Here they are, Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits: One, Two and Three. What a perfect way to start listening to Dylan.

Greatest Hits One - Thin Wild Mercury Music & More

Dylan had plenty of diehard fans when "Blonde on Blonde" came out. They ate that excellent record up. Then three months after its release, three months after a turbulent European tour, Dylan broke his neck in a motorcycle accident. Columbia released "Positively 4th Street" as a single, then came out with this record with "4th Street" on it. The record was monster huge and "4th Street" to my mind is one of the best songs Dylan has ever done.

I've heard it said that the bootlegs, "Great White Wonder" came out between "Blonde on Blonde" and "JWH", might not have been so huge, had Dylan still been recording. But his audience was so hungry for anything of his, that they snapped up this poor quality double album as fast as those underground guys could press `em up. They snapped up his "Greatest Hits" too, probably because it is a mighty fine collection. I know it gets a thumbs up from me.

Greatest Hits Two - Plenty Jewels and Gems

This Double Record was a shocker when it came out, because it not only had some of Dylan's Greatest hits, but it had plenty of new stuff as well, and some stuff that had been left behind. "Tomorrow is a Long Time," one of Dylan's best acoustic songs, heretofore unreleased, is presented here live, taken from the 1963 Town Hall Concert that Columbia never released, but should've (If anyone from CBS/Sony is reading this, Town Hall would make an excellent addition to the official Bootleg Series). Two other unreleased gems are the hard driving, hard rocking, "Watching the River Flow," produced by Leon Russell and the beyond superb "When I Paint My Masterpiece" also produced by Mr. Russell.

But in my opinion, the three jewels of this album are the songs recorded with banjo player Happy Traum, "I Shall Be Released", "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" and "Down in the Flood". Oh, wouldn't it have been great if Dylan would have reworked a whole albums worth of those songs he'd done down in that basement with the Band. Not that the "Basement Tapes" aren't good, they are excellent, but I sure do love they way he's done these three songs. I guess they just wetted our whistles for "Blood on the Tracks." The Bob Dylan we knew and loved was coming back.

This record is packed with plenty more gems, like "The Mighty Quinn," taken from the Isle of Wight show with Bob singing in his countryfied voice, "She Belongs to Me" from "Bringing it all Back Home", "If Not for you," from "New Morning," and lots more. Thumbs up from me for this one.

Greatest Hits Three - This Album Flows as if Dylan had a Plan

This, Dylan's third American Greatest Hits album, like the second has songs on it that had not come out before. "Dignity" and "Series of Dreams" both outtakes from "Oh Mercy" and excellent songs make their debut here. "The Groom's Still Waiting at the Alter" found on both "Shot of Love" and "Biograph" is here, sandwiched between "Changing of the Guard" and "Hurricane." "Groom" had been available in the past, but on one record that didn't do so well and on another that was very expensive. It was never a hit, in fact a lot of these songs were not really hits. It's almost as if Dylan took a gang of songs he really liked and put them together here. Well, if that's what he did, it works for me, because this is absolutely one of my favorite Dylan albums. You know, even with iTunes and iPods where it is so easy to play any group of songs in any order you want, I still like to listen to albums the way the artist intended. I still like to believe they had a plan when they put their work together. This album flows as if Dylan had a plan.