Recent release great for new Dylan fans

By Neil Leibundguth
Cardinal Staff

“I’m out here a thousand miles from my home, walkin’ a road other men have gone down” are the first words Bob Dylan sings on “DYLAN,” his new three-disc retrospective.
Read more... It becomes blatantly obvious after the three-plus hours of music that encompass his entire career that very few people have walked the same road as Dylan. “DYLAN” attempts the near impossible task of condensing more than 40 years and 30 albums into a three-disc set. Unlike some of his earlier greatest hits albums, this compilation consists of all previously released material, which is the biggest turn off to Bob Dylan fans.

The order of the songs on “DYLAN” progresses chronologically, which is great for new listeners. It illustrates Dylan’s movement through different styles and periods of his writing.

Disc one begins his early folk and protest work, including some of his most famous songs like “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They are A-Changin’.” The only real complaint here, and throughout most of the album, is not the quality of the songs but the lack of depth. A song like “The Ballad of Hollis Brown” would really demonstrate the power of his song writing, but it is not as accessible to new listeners as a song like “It Ain’t Me Babe.”

The same goes for the rest of the disc, which features Dylan’s first venture into rock’n’roll. It has all of his most popular songs, but nothing that digs deeper into that time period.

Another thing that this compilation needed is some of the live material from the bootleg series Columbia has put out. By replacing some of the studio material with its live equivalent, it could have shown off Dylan’s prowess as both a songwriter and performer.

Discs two and three seem to have a little more room to feature hidden gems from some of Dylan’s later work. Disc two begins with a nice back-porch feel with songs like “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” and “I Shall be Released.” It then pulls out some great material from some of Dylan’s sub-par 80s albums. Songs like “Changing of the Guards” and “The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Altar” are great examples of how Dylan always has at least one masterpiece on every album he makes.

“DYLAN” is not for the Bob Dylan fanatic because fanatics probably already have all of the material on this set. It is, however, great for a listener that wants to get a taste of what Dylan is all about.

Bill Flanagan said it best in the liner notes; “Choose your favorite from here, go back to the album it came from, and dig in. Dylan’s music is a gold mine of innovation and insight. You’ll never get to the bottom of it all.”