Customer Reviews

The Best Of Bob Dylan

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

 

 

"The Best Of Bob Dylan", is a very thin overview at best, and I can only recommend this disc to someone who has never owned a Dylan cd, and they want a small sampling[and I mean small], of a career that has spanned over 40 years. Most Dylan fans already own his more expansive collections, like "Biograph", and the "Greatest Hits Vol, 1,2, and 3" compilations. If you are new to Dylan, I would recommend the "Essential Bob Dylan", if you just want one CD. That double disc gives a healthy serving of Dylan classics, and is more complete. If you have never owned a Dylan collection before, and you buy this, try listening to his "Blonde On Blonde" or "Blood On The Tracks" cd to see what you have been missing!

I guess Columbia records need some money this Christmas to pay for new yacths for their excecutives. We already have Greatest Hits I, Greatest Hits II, Greatest Hits III, The Essential Bob Dylan, and now in time for the Holidays: The Best of Bob Dylan. Nothing special about this collection, in fact, its preety dumb trying to put tracks from the 60's, 70, 80, 90, and 2000's in the same CD. Its a mess and a very unnatural listen. Get the greatest hits packages, and from there, start collecting the albums. This compilation is nonsense.

This set is for the extremely casual fan who thought the 2-disc "Essential" collection was just too much. This is roughly the best of that, and better than his "Greatest Hits" because of the inclusion of what he's done since. This is also almost exactly the same as the UK only "Best Of" right down to the cover photo, just two tracks shorter. Anyway, this gives you his early classic material like "Blowin' In The Wind", "Like A Rolling Stone", and "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35", as well as his better later stuff like "Tangled Up In Blue", "Gotta Serve Somebody", and "Jokerman". My personal favorites are the cool "Lay Lady Lay" and the moving "Not Dark Yet". Both are excellent. Obviously this is missing a ton of great songs, and I would recommend more, but for a single disc it does the job well.

I was torn in writing my review of this CD, but came to the conclusion that the problem with this CD is that it is mistitled. This could aptly be titled "An introduction to", "the Idiots Guide to" or a "A Dylan Sampler", and I would have rated it higher. But as many reviewers have pointed out, this is a very limited CD, and I think it is more designed to give an intro and stimulate sales of other Dylan CDs. So we can probably thank the marketing folks for the title.

I DO own this CD (my wife bought it for me) and I am a longtime Dylan fan. My first album of his was 'Highway 61', which I consider his second best after 'Blood on the Tracks'.

So bottom line, if you are new to Dylan or want a quick refresher this is really quite good. If you really want a Best Of, get the Essential set. My copy of this CD is going in the car, for when I want a little Dylan on the road. I think it's well suited to that.

I had never really paid much attention to Bob Dylan prior to listening to this CD 2 years ago. He has since become a favorite of mine and I have since acquired 25 Bob Dylan CDs including many of his compilations.

As a now avid fan of Bob Dylan, I can understand the feeling that many of the core fans have expressed and the low ratings they attributed this CD, however I also remember the feeling that I had when I walked into Tower Records and upon seeing "The Best Of Bob Dylan" on sale, and feeling the price was right I made the purchase with the thought that 'this CD could offer me some exposure to Dylan'.

I played this CD every day for weeks, until I started researching his music in order to decide just what CDs to order, and now, I have quite a Bob Dylan collection.

But let me also say this: though the "Essential" double CD is a much better deal, if at the time I had a choice between "The Best Of Bob Dylan" and "Essential", I would still have chosen "The Best Of Bob Dylan", as it represented a sampler of his best songs which at the time was all I was interested in. For me this CD was perfect. I never would have purchased a double CD "sight unseen" no matter what the sale price.

Although, people may think of Bob Dylan as an "old man" and part of the past, his music still lives on today. His cd The Best of Bob Dylan, brings together is best work that was actually way ahead of its time. He sang of fear and anger towards the war in such a way that he got people to really listen. His lyrics also read things about tragedy and hate that was going on. He has many songs about racism and the faults of the world. Not only did he write about these things but he also wrote about sexual things that were not accepted to be sang about. One tune by him "Lay Lady Lay" was an extremely controversal song. People of the 60's never heard such things as "Lay across my big brass bed" in a song before. I think that the point that he was trying to get across was that old saying "make love, not war." With so many of his songs being about war he wanted to make light of a very stressful time for many.

Bob Dylan was an icon of his time and still is today. His music is soulful and full of life. Each song brings on a new idea that he has running in his head. Although, many people thought of his music to be too "raw," he stil kept going. Many of his ideas are still being produced in songs today, however, it's the way he presented them that made him more intruiging. Nowadays, all you hear about is "I hate Bush" or "Smack my Bitch up." What we really need to be doing is just chilling out and if you want to make a change, really do something about it!

I have to admit that I only became a Dylan fan until a couple years a go when this compilation came out, and guess what? it worked, converted me into Dylan. It's understood that this compilation is only for new or casual fans, you also have to realize that this is the first one disc compilation that covers all of Bob's career from the 60's to the 00's. How can you rate a CD with all of these classic songs with one, two or even three stars?

Good disc with a variety of Dylon's work. Liked the beginning bands better with his icon numbers. Later compositions lacked the authenticity when he got into electric guitars and less soulful numbers.

Let me start by saying I don't own the album. That is because I have every song on another CD and in 5 minutes on the media player I could make this CD. I am shocked however at all the low reviews of this album. If you own every Dylan album and were dumb enough to buy this CD that isn't a good reason to give it a bad review. Every track listed is at least a good song with most being classics. If you don't own a Dylan album or if you only have a couple than this would be a great buy. But also look into The Essential Bob Dylan which is also a fantastic collection.

There are some GREAT SONGS on here, don't get me wrong. But this cd just isn't the best of Dylan. I would liken this to taking 16 lines from every Shakespeare play and calling it "the best of shakespeare' - you get a glimpse but not a clear picture or good idea of what makes Bob Dylan great. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, except for hardcore Dylan fans who collect every release. If you're just getting into Dylan, go for "Blood on the Tracks," or even the Essential Dylan. The spirit of the songs are really lost because of the limited space (1 disc) and the time span covered (40 years).