Customer Reviews

Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol. 3

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Many of the albums Bob Dylan released in the late 70s, 80s, and early 90s were not overwhelmingly successful, and much of the really good music included on those albums has been overlooked through the years. Released in 1994, just prior to Dylan's return to prominence, this Greatest Hits Volume 3 CD boasts a number of great songs that have never gotten the credit they deserve. It's an eclectic set of songs, boasting a variety of styles, but it is pure Bob Dylan.

I'm going to examine these songs in order by release date. The oldest song included here is the classic Knockin' on Heaven's Door from Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973). Planet Waves (1974) gives us Forever Young, an atypical but amazing, slow-paced, powerful Dylan song. Blood on the Tracks (1975), one of Dylan's most universally praised albums, gives us the CD's opening track, Tangled Up in Blue; this quintessential Dylan story-telling song really starts the album off with a bang. The song Hurricane from Desire (1976) is a long, incredible song about Rubin Carter, the prize-contending boxer wrongly charged with murder and imprisoned for nearly two decades in a racially charged case (a story which was dramatized in the feature film The Hurricane starring Denzel Washington in 2000)-this is one of Dylan's best songs ever. Changing of the Guards from Street Legal (1978) is a much different song, with backing vocals that give it a real gospel feel (although the lyrics make it unclear exactly what the song is about, at least to me). Next is Gotta Serve Somebody from Slow Train Coming (1979); this is a slow song that sounds a little hollow to my ears and is thus my least favorite song on the album. The 1980s are represented with five songs. The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar comes from Shot of Love (1981); I really like this uptempo track, but it is rather unusual and not the type of song you might expect on a Greatest Hits album. Jokerman dates back to Infidels (1983). Knocked Out Loaded (1986), regarded by some as Dylan's worst album, is well represented here with the amazing, long (11 minutes), and unforgettable song Brownsville Girl-this one is not to be missed. Down in the Groove (1988), another less successful album, makes what I consider a minor contribution here in the form of Silvio. Oh Mercy (1989) had one great song after another, and while I really like Ring Them Bells, I don't think it is the best song from that comeback album. The other three songs here are from the early 1990s. Under the Red Sky, from the strangely enjoyable yet often-criticized album of the same name (1990) is a weak edition to this collection, although I rather like the song in and of itself. The much-appreciated Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3 (1991) is well represented by the incredibly appealing Series of Dreams. Finally, there is Dignity, the only brand-new song included on this album; it's a great song, but it pales in comparison to most of the other songs collected here.

Featuring an amazingly diverse set of songs and sounds from America's greatest musician, this third volume of Dylan's greatest hits is just as good as the first two volumes chronicling his earlier work. In a sense, it is even more important because incredible songs such as Brownsville Girl have been wrongly overlooked due to their inclusion on badly-received albums and also because this volume basically covers almost two decades of Dylan's work. Those who thought Dylan peaked in the early 70s could not be more wrong, as this collection as well as his string of widely-acclaimed CDs in the years after 1994 prove in the strongest of terms.

'Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. 3' is a welcome disc for anyone who buys a lot of "greatest hits" CDs. More importantly, for those who have even a slight interest in Dylan, this package provides as comprehensive a look as you can get covering 25 years of Bob in a single disc. The songs range from 1973's "Knocking on Heaven's Door" to 1994's "Dignity." That's quite a span.

This is a good introduction to the second half (not an accurate term by any means) of Dylan's career, especially for those who may not wish to purchase the 3-disc 'Biograph' box set. Hardcore fans may quibble with some of the selections here. I certainly could have done without "Under the Red Sky." But, for the most part, this is a pretty good collection for the money. I do hope, though, that we won't have to wait 20 more years for Volume 4.

I sort of picked this CD out at random, hoping that it would be decent, and I'm glad I did to say the least. I had never heard the song Brownsville Girl before, and I was stunned when I first heard it. It goes in my book as a classic. It has both amazing lyrics, and an awesome sound to it. There were some other good tunes on the album too, but the album was worth buying for the song Brownsville Girl alone.

This is by far the greatest compilation of Bob Dylan songs that exists. I recommend it to any Bob Dylan fan or anybody who yet to experience the music of this great legand. While "silver and gold can't buy back the beat of a heart grown cold," they certainly can buy this cd! So please do, you will not be disappointed!

All the songs are great, but only a few of them are hits. And in his usual eccentric fashion, Bob Dylan skipped over some actual hit singles to make room for more obscure items which the casual fan (me, for example) might have missed. The record covers the years from 1973-1994, an era which began with one of Dylan's most beloved albums ("Blood and the Tracks") followed by some very weird stuff.

The hit singles would be "Tangled Up in Blue," "Hurricane," and "Gotta Serve Somebody." Also, this album has the original versions of two tunes which were massive hit singles as cover versions: "Forever Young" (covered by Rod Stewart), and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (covered by Guns N Roses.)

Dylan could easily have found 9 better-known songs to fill put the album, even without going back before 1973 and/or mining the several live albums he put out in the 1970s and 1980s. But could he have found 9 better songs? Probably not--- but possibly. In any case, the 9 songs he did choose are all extremely interesting.

Good songs from Bob Dylan's most recent greatest hits package. Actually, the song choices could have been better in some instances. "Changing of the Guards" is a good song, but certainly not his best from the "Street Legal" album. It is also NOT the re-mastered version so the sound quality is inferior.

The only bad song on the album is probably one of only a few Bob Dylan songs I can confidently knock; "Under the Red Sky". Truly, a God awful song that is completely out of place with the rest of this great collection. I guess they wanted every Bob Dylan album represented so they included it. I've never heard the entire "Under the Red Sky" album, but it's chilling to think this is the "best" of the lot.

Having unloaded my complaints, I can now hark at how good the rest of the collection is. "Tangled up in Blue", "Hurricaine", "Forever Young", just to name a few of Bob's classics on this CD.

The great discovery for me was "Brownsville Girl". What a great song! I heard it years ago and it's been a while. I forgot how truly wonderful and colorful it is. The production of the song is a bit much, but deserves to be on the album.

Also, loved "Dignity", "Jokerman" and "Series of Dream".

Bob, I have a feeling it won't be too long before a fourth "greatest hits" package will be needed!

This is the last of the Bob Dylan Greatest Hits Series, and it is absolutely fabulous. It has some of Dylan's best work, including Tangled Up in Blue, Hurricane, Jokerman, Silvio, Brownsville Girl, Knockin' On Heaven's Door, and a new song Dignity. Those stand out to me, but I love all the tracks on this disc. I may appreciate some other songs more, but many of these songs, especially Tangled Up in Blue are essential to understand Dylan and appreciate his amazing songwriting talents. This is must have for anyone who likes music, and will make you want to buy all his other albums.

Compilations are always tricky things, and this is no exception. While his previous "Greatest Hits" discs are amazing (particularily volume 2, recently remastered), this one is a bit spotty.

My first problem is the sound, which bounces back and forth from clean to poor -- "changing of the guards" and "groom" both sound horribly flat compared to remastered versions availible only a short time after Volume 3 was released. The second is the song selection, which anyone could quibble about.

PLUSSES -- a new Brenden O'Brien mix of "Dignity," which is an Oh Mercy outtake which can also be found on the MTV Unplugged album and the Canadian/European "Best of Bob Dylan 2" in it's original Daniel Lanois form.

ALSO -- the non-cross fade version of "Series of Dreams," one of his best songs ever. Now if we could only get rid of those keyboard overdubs!

All this compilation does is illustrate how far his music slid downhill from the early 70s through the 80s until "Oh Mercy." Thank god for Daniel Lanois for kicking him in the pants and producing some of Bob's best albums since the 60s!

What the hell?!
Twenty-three years between "Greatest Hits, vol. II" and this album, and they put out a single-disc compilation that include "Silvio", "Brownsville Girl" and "Hurricane", but not "Every Grain Of Sand", "Sarah", "Romance In Durango", "Seeing The Real You At Last", "Oh Sister", "Idiot Wind", "Simple Twist Of Fate", or "One More Cup Of Coffee"?
Come on! It doesn't have "Every Grain Of Sand"!

Anyway, what is on here is obviously good, or even great, but what isn't is a scandal. "Greatest Hits vol. III" is supposed to cover 1971-1994, but it is obvious that Columbia Records have forgotten some of Dylan's best 70s material and included inferior latter-day songs instead, maybe in a misguided effort to span the period.
Let this album lie, and go get the twin peaks of "Blood On The Tracks" and "Desire". Or maybe all get three. But this one won't do by itself. It doesn't have "Every Grain Of Sand"! (You have to buy "Shot Of Love" to get that one...)
The compilers at Columbia should've done what Dylan himself did when putting together "Greatest Hits, vol. II" - put out a double album and chosen from singles and album tracks alike with regards to nothing but the quality of the music. That would have made a much, much stronger selection. And did I mention that "Every Grain Of Sand" is missing?!

I'll admit something; I own no Dylan studio album between Blonde on Blonde and Love & Theft but Blood On the Tracks (which is recommended to everybody out there, BTW). That's partially because I've heard that this is Dylan's worst period, other than occasionally-praised albums (the aforementioned BOTT, Desire, Oh Mercy), and partially because I've got this little sucker.
Yeah, Tangled Up in Blue is classic Dylan, but it doesn't take long before it loses steam with Changing of the Guard. Although I do like how Changing hearkens back to the old days of streams of barely-connected images (Read: Nonsense), I hate the gospelly backup vocals--it makes the whole thing seem like overkill. The bluesy Groom's Still Waiting at the Alter is similar to Changing (that is, it makes no sense and gets hurt a lot by the backup singers), only a ton better. Then there's rightful classic Hurricane, which actually features a bit of musicall complexity--a rarity for Dylan! (Scarlet Riveria, a great violinist, does what sounds like improvisation between verses). Besides that, it's the ultimate angry Dylan protest song, which is saying something considering this guy made It's a Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall, Masters of War and It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding). I don't care if the lyrics are way off the mark, the message remains effective to this day.
Other than a bit of annoying guitar work, Forever Young is a great tune. But the jewel of the collection, and probably the reason why I bought it, is Jokerman. I was a bit leery of it when I first read about it. If you've never heard of Jokerman, it's a Dylan reggae song questioning a prophet, and white people playing reggae doesn't usually turn out that well. But Jokerman turns out to be thoroughly amazing, my favorite post-60's Dylan song.
Silvio, Ring Them Bells, Gotta Serve Somebody and Series of Dreams are the album's resident annoying songs. Silvio is, in my mind, worthless other than the drumbeats. Ring Them Bells is just a rewrite of Chimes of Freedom. I felt that Chimes dragged on forever, and Ring Them Bells isn't really much better. Gotta Serve Somebody has got to stand as the most overrated Dylan song of all time (Not the worst, I'll get to that shortly). Between the message (Everybody has to believe in God, like it or not), the instrumentation (I never really was a big fan of the electric piano, and this is no exception) and the backup vocals (why he used them so often during that period is beyond me, seeing that just about everybody hates them), I cannot believe this was a hit single, a fan favorite, and showed up on the Essential Bob Dylan to boot. Why, people? Why? I mean, it's not really that much of a song...
Anyway, Series of Dreams runs for nearly six minutes but runs out of inspiriation two before the end. But Brownsville Girl is a great song, switching between a story of a road trip of Bob's that involves two girls and a man named Henry Porter, "who's name isn't Henry Porter", and the image of waiting in line to see a movie starring Gregory Peck. But no matter how good it is, the song has issues, nameley (guess what?) six or so gospel backup singers! And while I appreciate the brief sax solo, the horns make it seem like overkill. Had Brownsville Girl been stripped down to either a) basic acoustic instrumentation or b) the bass/drums/organ/piano/electric guitar combo of the mid-Sixties, it would have turned out a lot better.
The only good things I can say about Under the Red Sky is that it has some okay guitar work courtesy of George Harrison and that it gets rid of the million backup singers that make so many of these songs annoying. It's pretty much just a dull, uninspired nursery rhyme that drags on too long and features Dylan's worst singing ever. How this was included is beyond me, I have to say it's my least favorite Dylan tune.
Knockin' on Heaven's Door is a classic, and with good reason. Between subtle string arrangements, smooth harmonies, great lyrics and a vocal part by Bob himself that actually sounds good, Knockin' should be a part of anybody's music library. My only problem is how, especially considering the length of most these songs (Brownsville Girl cracks eleven minutes, Hurricane breaks eight, Jokerman and Changing six, and several others float around the five-minute mark), it seems to be over before it really starts.
Now, my list of songs that should've been removed:
Changing of the Guards (Good but doesn't quite measure up to the rest of Dylan's material)
Silvio, Ring Them Bells, Gotta Serve Somebody, Series of Dreams (all four are annoying in varying degrees)
Under the Red Sky (As I said before, my least favorite Dylan song)
And songs that could have repleaced them...
You're a Big Girl Now (Blood on the Tracks)
Shelter From the Storm (Blood on the Tracks)
Isis (Desire)
One More Cup of Coffee (Desire)
Idiot Wind (Hard Rain)
Senor (Street Legal)
Slow Train (Slow Train Coming)
This could have been a lot better, but if you want latter-day Dylan without having to buy the much-criticized latter-day albums (or just want some good, cheap Dylan), this should be your source.