Customer Reviews

Masterpieces

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

... and I'm not about to disagree. It was released on vinyl only in New Zealand, Australia and Japan in 1978. I listened to my vinyl version again a few days ago and on the basis of that was moved to track it down on CD. Mission accomplished! (If you're ever in Auckland, New Zealand, Real Groovy Records is well worth a visit).
The version of Spanish is the Loving Tongue on this is superb and I haven't seen it on anything else.
Don't buy it for the sleeve notes though!

Bob Dylan / Masterpieces: This is an excellent 3 CD overview of Dylan's career up to that point (the late 1970's). This set may seem redundant compared to the many other retrospectives on Dylan's work, and it largely is, with the exception of a few rare live performances. However, considering this set by itself, as it is, this is a Five Star set (but an unnecessary one).

When this album came out all those years ago in Australia, American Dylan fans went nuts trying to get it, because of all the stuff on it that you couldn't get anywhere else, unless of course you owned the singles

A lot of that extra stuff was B sides or in the the case of "George Jackson," a single that never made it to an LP in the States or Europe, but the Aussies, canny individuals that they were, saw a chance to make a different kind of Dylan record and they did.

A great CD and well worth owning if you can find it.

God knows I must have some of these tracks umpteen times over, however, 'Masterpieces' gets a thumbs-up from me simply because of the presence of a few otherwise unobtainable, or at least scarce jewels located within. The live versions (from the Isle of Wight, 1970), of 'Like A Rolling Stone' and 'Mighty Quinn' are great, and the 'Big Band' version of the single 'George Jackson' likewise is a rarity. Aside from those tracks, you can't argue with the track selections - like another reviewer says, it was an Aussie / Japanese release at the time (late 70's) to coincide with a Far East tour. I've always liked the Bobster's 'Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window', and 'Mixed Up Confusion' - all good stuff, but, if you can afford it, worth owning, but not if you're looking for a more all-encompassing Dylan comp.

"Masterpieces" is an excellent survey of Bob Dylan's music up until 1978.

It's choice of exciting studio and live recordings is impeccable and the poetry, melody, and rhythmic variety of Dylan's songs are simply awe-inspiring. A great tribute to this greatest of American musical geniuses.

"Masterpieces" is an excellent three CD retrospective of Bob Dylan's music up until 1976.

This item is no longer in print and is somewhat of a rarity.

Considering that putting together a Bob Dylan compilation is extremely hard, this three disk Japanese import does the job pretty well for Dylan's early to mid career. I guess I'm not a huge Dylan fan so I'm not familiar with all of his albums, but this was a good launching point for me into a downright imposing discography. Any release like this runs the risk of not including enough or including too much, and this does miss a few really good ones while including a few questionable songs too (I personally loathe Tears of Rage). But when it comes to Bob Dylan, really it is all about personal preference, and people are going to find songs they love that most are indifferent about and songs they hate that most love. If you want to get into Bob Dylan, stopping here would be the worst thing you could do, because the albums themselves are what hold strength. With that said, you will never get a definitive answer as to where to start in that respect. People will say Freewheelin', Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61, Bringing it All Back Home, Blood on the Tracks... There is no easy way to dig into this artists body of work, and the only options are to dig and keep digging or simply not get a full picture. But this compilation rustles up some essentials to round off whenever you decide to stop digging, which will happen if this is justified in the first place.

This album is one of my favorite Bob Dylan Titles that I own, I have almost every album printed. I am very happy with the quality of service and material from CD Now they do a great job ..
Thanks Again CD Now

If this was only out there for everyone to own. We would all fall in love with this 63-76 collection just for it's few rare b' sides and the sloppy live versions. some from (Hard Rain & Self portrait) This in a way is better then biograph. This set is like no other in the way that it focuses on his greatest songs not greatest performances nor to fill every gap in this genus as we all know it's the best to have all the albums from 63-76. The greatest asset to this set is that it is his greatest period even though die hard fans enjoy later dylan many not and this is so you can proove how amazing he is.

3 CD SET OUT OF PRINT