Customer Reviews

Dylan Thomas: The Caedmon Collection

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The reviewer who called this a bad value is completely wrong. This set includes the COMPLETE Caedmon recordings of Thomas' incredible voice. Though a few of these original LP's were fairly common (Child's Christmas in Wales), many of the LPs were rare. People were bidding $50-$100 and up for some of these single LPs only recently. Here you have MANY CDs for the price of one! It would be nice to have an extensive book with this set, but you can always buy Dylan's books seperately. The set includes mini-LP cover sleeves for all of Thomas' original LP covers (though thin paper sleeves), another nice touch. Don't let this one get away. When it is out-of-print, it will probably go for $200-$300 and up!

I enjoy sitting and listening to Dylan Thomas read to me; such a rich and wonderful voice. And contrary to what another reviewer has written, Under Milkwood is complete. While the liner notes do say 'From' Under Milkwood, the play is complete.

...as are Thomas's other works. Thomas was a skilled and lyrical writer and captures much of the musicality of Welsh speaking people in his works. While he is interesting to read it can be a trail for those not familair with Welsh culture, particularly now as the Welsh culture he speaks of is pretty much dead and gone. His musical poetic skills are brought beautifully to life when he reads to you and this is the only way to "do" Under Milk Wood, written as a play for radio but essentially an elongated poem of early 20th century Welsh life as Thomas himself knew it. Contrary to some beliefs expressed in reviewing this item, the play is complete, all the complex and strange villagers are present as are their stories.
What Thomas does best is to guide your imagination into his world and this set allows you to experience his work in the best way read by the man himself.

When you open the box pictured, you get three folders of CDs 1-4, 5-8, and 9-11 respectively. The pictures on the CD folders are the "album covers" reproduced from the records. There is a little pamphlet with info about recording Dylan Thomas written by Marianne Roney, one of the founders of Caedmon. Each CD opens with a spoken intro by Billy Collins.

There is a great mish-mash of selections here. That might be my only criticism, the organization. It's hard to discern the order just from looking at it...why not put an entire album on the same CD, rather than breaking it up? For example, they put some poems from "Dylan Thomas Reading Over Sir John's Hill and Other Poems" on CD 1 and others on CD 2, and I'm curious why.

Still, the collection is great--I'm not sure if it is supposed to be complete or not (I don't see anything on it that claims that), but there is a good plenty here to keep a person listening for a long while at any rate. His voice is wonderful and it's easy to understand why they recorded so much of him.

Excellent cd series.
Thomas' pipe-organ voice resonates on every track.
His wit and humor pushes the envelope for its time. Bobby socksers,the hang-over of those early Cold War years,post war America full of booms and busts and Levit-towns. Picture too a staid America, the 1950s campus life just before "the Cool" hit, before the Folk revival scene, pre Beats.

Now enter the mop-headed Welsh bard replete with his double entendre openings to audiences. Audiences who are mostly undergrads and academics. Thomas has them laughing in all the right places ... its poetry without a laugh track or safety net.

The readings are good, the explantions sometimes meandering but always enjoyable and highly listenable.

Recommend this to any school teachers, lovers of poetry, Britophiles, students... with a willingness to sit back, listen and have a master of the craft weave vistas of Welsh seaside villages, lush countrysides, closed gray coal pits, lecherous and harmless characters and everywhere there are forests to see for the trees.

No other poet I know of -reads his own poetry as well as does Dylan Thomas.
There is the rich melliflousness and the booming strength- there is the mystery of the sounded word made musical. There is too the dramatic play and fun of a large childlike soul , suddenly sad and then in an instant mockingly critical.
Poetry is the deepest expression of feeling in words.
In this sense Thomas is an especially poet , whose poems can be felt not only when read in silence, but most especially when sounded by his own majestic and magnificent voice.

I was originally looking for poet's readings of his famous Under Milkwood play when I bumped into this gem. It has everything a D.Thomas fan might want. WHile the sound quality is at times rather poor, this is by far the fullest collection which I highly recomend to anyone who enjoys poetry.

my favorites are fern hill, do not go, death by fire, craft and sullen art, no dominion. Also child's christmas. Do not expect to like or even tolerate every entry. But the ones that you do like, there is nothing else in the world like Dylan Thomas reading aloud.

I also found somewhere him reading To My Son Aged Eight by John Betjeman, which is a great, heartbreaking poem, read wonderfully, and an interesting counterpoint to do not go.

These have been on my ipods for years and I still love to hear them.

I also like the Voice of the Poet series with T.S. Eliot reading his poems aloud. Wish I could find someone reading aloud Tennyson and Matthew Arnold.

What an absolute delight.

Forget learning tongue twisters for superior elocution; learn and read Thomas' poetry the way he himself does.

A large array of recordings all in neat little covers, which are minatures of the original LP covers. Extra little treats such as Edith Sitwell speaking from her superior mountain-top make this an unmissable event!

Do not go gently. . .

What a great treasure! Here you have Dylan Thomas and that incomparable voice of his all together in one spectacularly priced collection.

Never have I heard anyone able to express emotion and feeling with their voice like Dylan Thomas does. The only one who comes close is Richard Burton.

Buy it. Sit back. Relax and be carried away by the sheer beauty and power of one man's words and voice.