Biograph is more than just a retrospective; it is essential for any Dylanophile. While it indeeds collects the majority of the essential tracks in Dylan's canon (Rolling Stone, Heaven's Door, Watchtower, I Want You, Blowin' In The Wind, etc.), classic album tracks (To Ramona, The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll, etc.), live and alternate take offerings (Visions, I Don't Believe You, It's All Over, etc.), and the best of the latter day tracks (Gotta Serve Somebody, Groom, Every Grain of Sand, etc.), what makes this set an essential for the hard-core (other than the revealing sequencing, which puts a whole new light on the material, and the deluxe packaging) is the generous smattering of previously unreleased material. Absolutely first-rate songs such as Percy's Song, Caribbean Wind, and Up To Me stand up well to his officialy released canon. This, along with Volumes 1-3 of The Bootleg Series, show that Dylan throws away tracks that any other artist would kill to have written. This release was so good, in fact, that it set the standard (and the pattern) for all box sets to come. It stands as a good primer for those new to Dylan, and also as an essential addition to the catalog of the fan who already has everything else.

By any measure, Bob Dylan is one of the two to three most crucial figures in the creation of modern rock and popular music. It wouldn't be too simplistic to say that rock as we eventually came to know it was the result of the meshing of the way Chuck Berry wrote music and Bob Dylan wrote lyrics. For several years, I told friends that I was going to write a book about the way music changed when Dylan released the most important single in the history of rock: "Like a Rolling Stone." Otis Redding heard it and felt compelled to write something more "meaningful" than his prior compositions, and "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" resulted. Sam Cooke responded to it by attempting to deepen his lyrics, and penned "A Change is Gonna Come." Lennon and McCartney, Jagger and Richards, and Pete Townshend responded to the challenge by writing more complex and lyrically sophisticated songs. After Dylan, absolutely no one could ignore lyrics. (The book, by the way, was eventually written by someone vastly more qualified than I am: Greil Marcus, in his 2005 book BOB DYLAN: AT THE CROSSROADS, a book on my Summer 2005 reading list.)

This boxed set provides a magnificent overview of Dylan's work, but is also significant for being arguably the first great boxed set to appear after the CD format appeared. It was the first such set to blend both previously unreleased cuts (such as his famous 1966 London solo recording of "Visions of Johanna"), hard-to-find singles (such as "Positively 4th Street," previously only on the BOB DYLAN'S GREATEST HITS album, which was otherwise useless for those who owned all of Dylan's albums), overlooked songs from neglected albums (most notably the stunning "Every Grain of Sand," from his Christian album SAVED), as well as a couple of handfuls of hits. Because Dylan has been the most prolific musical figure of the rock era, it is impossible to do anything approaching a comprehensive collection (unless one would to do a 25-CD boxed set), so this box represents merely a taste, but a very good taste it is. Of how many artists could it be said that a 3-CD set represented only an introduction? It is instructive that one of the Beatles in an interview (I believe it was George Harrison) was asked whether he thought the Beatles would be listened to five hundred years from now. He replied that he didn't know, that the only contemporary artist he was certain would still be familiar would be Bob Dylan.

The cuts on the albums are arranged non-chronologically, which seems to bother some listeners, and I can understand their reasoning. But musically I think arranging the songs by contrast and variation probably results in easier listening. Also, so ordering the songs results in unexpected insights. For instance, it is generally thought (on the whole, quite correctly) that Dylan wrote most of his good music in the sixties, rebounded in the mid-seventies to produce a couple of stunning albums (including the amazing BLOOD ON THE TRACKS), suffered a permanent decline only occasionally interrupted by gems like EMPIRE BURLESQUE in 1985 and TIME OUT OF MIND in 1997. But BIOGRAPH showed that Dylan had written songs after BLOOD ON THE TRACKS that could stand up to his best sixties and seventies work. If BIOGRAPH doesn't change one's mind about the primacy of the earlier work, it helps make one less dismissive of the later.

Dylan's output has been so massive that arguing that this or that song should have been put in rather than another. My only complaint is instead of the version of "Isis" from DESIRE, they included a previously unreleased version that lacked all of the subtlety and charm of the original. It does serve to illustrate how dramatically Dylan will perform his songs. Still, whenever I hear this "Isis" I end up pulling out DESIRE and listen to that one instead.

For reasons I won't go into, I have owned both the original 1985 release of BIOGRAPH and the 1997 repackaging. The latter is greatly to be preferred because they upgraded the recordings for the re-release. If you compare CDs from the respective sets, the quality of the more recent set is obvious.

I had the pleasure of seeing Bob Dylan in concert last year, and while I wasn't familar with the songs he played, I was very impressed.

That being said I decided I wanted to have some Dylan to listen to at home. I thought about getting the three Greatest Hits album, but decided to go with this box set instead. It's been a great listening experience.

Of course you'll get the well know songs, "Lay Lady Lay", The Times They Are A-Changin'", Blowin' in the Wind", "Subterranean Homesick Blues", "Mr. Tamborine Man", "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", among others.

The true gems are the unreleased and B-sides. Not sure why they've been left off the albums, but they're genuine Bob Dylan. Great music and great lyrics are his trademarks and this box set holds true to that premise.

A large (almost the size of the box) booklet comes with the set. It features plenty of color pictures and backgroud information. There are also yellow pages with detailed notes (and Dylan quotes) about every song on the album. A nice touch.

A great sampler for the casual fan. Enjoy.

How to make a Bob Dylan box set...well, you could put out one with about a dozen CDs and you'd still be told that somebody's favorite song was missing.

But the compilers at Columbia have doen a good job solving this rather impossible task. 1985's "Biograph" wasn't the first ever career-spanning rock box set (the late, great Buddy Holly was honored with that in 1979), but it was the most important by far, establishing the format and sparking new interest in Bob Dylan whose career was in decline at the time.

Unlike many box sets, this one actually offers something to both the casual and the dedicated fan. Most of Dylan's best-known songs are here, as well a terrific booklet, and a generous helping of unreleased songs, B-sides, alternates and demos. And almost everything gels, actually, making "Biograph" an excellent, if not definitive, summary of Bob Dylan's career from 1961-1985.

Many great songs are missing, of course, but with an artist as prolific as Bob Dylan that can't be helped. And the songs that are here are superb (with the exception of a handful that are merely very good).

This is an immensely varied compilation. The track list includes early acoustic numbers, electric rock songs, blues-rock, folk-rock, country-rock, and lovely ballads. And the rarities and previously unreleased songs aren't rejects or filler, most of them are in fact excellent, from the acoustic "Up To Me" and the surreal "Quinn The Eskimo" to the quirky, upbeat pop of "On A Night Like This" and "Heart Of Mine", and the gorgeous ballads "Lay Down Your Weary Tune" and "I'll Keep It With Mine".

Casual Dylan fans may well find that there are too many unfamiliar songs here, and they should probably start somewhere else...Dylan's original "Greatest Hits" album and the two-disc "More Greatest Hits" (AKA "Greatest Hits vol. 2") still provide the best introduction to Bob Dylan in his prime, much better than the more recent "Essential Bob Dylan". Or start by picking up Dylan's three best band-backed records, "Bringing It All Back Home", "Highway 61 Revisited", and "Blood On The Tracks".

There is no such thing as a definitive Bob Dylan-compilation, and three CDs wouldn't contain it if there was. And besides, the wonderful 70s albums "Blood On The Tracks" and "Desire" in particular are being short-changed, which is a shame.

But "Biograph" is still 3½ hours of some of Dylan's greatest songs, and the rarities and unreleased tracks makes it a must-have purchase even for the dedicated fan who already has all the hits.

4 3/4 stars.

This is a fantastic box set that every true Dylan fan should own. It covers the period from 1961 to 1981, and has 53 digitally remastered songs, including a whopping 21 rare and unreleased recordings. The 36 page booklet contains rare photographs and an in-depth, informative, exclusive interview. Also includes 5 separate pages, on which each song is given at least a paragraph, often more, of interesting information about it.

Listening to this set, it is so hard to understand why the unreleased songs, were previously unreleased. They really are just as good, in some cases better, than some songs that were released. But never mind...we get them all here, thankfully. This set is a treasure trove of musical gems. Highly recommended.