Dylan is cropping up all over the place in the last few years, whether it's his (panned) 2003 flick MASKED AND ANONYMOUS, the Scorsese PBS documentary from 2005 NO DIRECTION HOME, his first number one album in 30 years, MODERN TIMES, the Mirror dvd chronicling his Newport concerts from 1964, and now this release. And that's not all. There are already some very heavy rumours Dylan is going to be recording MODERN TIMES's followup with producer Rick Ruben (!!!!) in early 2008. A lot of stuff going on for the Dylan community.

When we found out about this set, the Dylan fanbase met the news with trepidation. A lot of us thought ultimately it would be of little interest to us who already know his music. Then we found out Mark Ronson would be remixing "Most Likely You Go Your Way and I Go Mine", which was interesting, if little more than a novelty. Disappointingly enough, [that] this remix appears only on the single disc compilation issued in conjunction with the triple disc set. What a marketing ripoff. So how does the Dylan set came hold up? Depends on whose asking.

The problem with any Dylan anthology Columbia will put out is there are two primary audiences who will consider buying it.

The first audience are those [There are the] hardcore Dylan fans who have been listening to him (perhaps obsessively) for years, who read the bios, who haunt fan websites, and who collect as many boots as possible. I belong to this group, and have for the last several years.

The second audience are the casual fans, those who may have heard of Dylan but never really listened to him other than the few stray tracks they may have heard on the radio (and trust me, most of Dylan's work is NOT played on the radio). They have a vague notion of what he wrote, may know an album or two, but for whatever reason never really got into him, whether it be to lack of interest or a hard time adjusting to his voice. (As far as Dylan singing, he's a great singer, though not in a technical sense. I love Tom Waits, but for my money his voice is much harder getting adjusted too than Dylan's.).

Now, when doing a retrospective, these are the two primary audiences to keep in mind. Well, obviously Columbia has decided to forgo thinking about the first audience and focus on the second audience, because quite frankly this set is of little interest to the Dylan faithful. Despite Columbia's hype that the track selection was heavily influenced by fan input on the dylan07.com website, there are very few surprises here (oh look, we got "Dark Eyes". Woohoo). On the fansites I go to there was talk of flooding the ballot box with requests for rare and alternate takes, unreleased studio outtakes, and live material. Obviously, that didn't happen.

Looking at the set list, for those who are new to Dylan's work, this is an overall fair representation of his work. While there's much more than this (and I can think of several songs, namely "That's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding" and "Desolation Row", that are missing), I already know Dylan is simply too prolific to fully capture his genius in a mere three discs, so I'm more forgiving in that regard that I have been in previous years. I've made my own "Essential Bob Dylan" CD-Rs before. There were two volumes, each double-disc, the first covering 1962-1975, the second covering 1975-2003 (this was just before MODERN TIMES came out), and I found myself cutting quite a bit of material I felt should belong there. To do a true retrospective, the best route would be to do two three discs set, each covering the first part, the second part, and the last part of his recording career. But that is neither here nor there.

While DYLAN may contain little surprises, what makes it all the more disappointing for the Dylan faithful is Bob Dylan's first boxset (and one of the first major boxsets by a major rock artist ever), BIOGRAPH manages to satisfy both audiences, and sets up the template that most bands and solo artists would use when constructing their own box sets. BIOGRAPH managers to capture Dylan's strength as a songwriter and paint an accurate and telling portrait of what makes Dylan so highly regarded by so many people.

While there's a large proportion of previously released work on BIOGRAPH, the genius of that box set is it incorporates a large number of studio outtakes and a handful of live tracks, weaving them seamlessly into the portrait of Dylan the songwriter that the set is weaving. The outtakes they released on BIOGRAPH is good as anything he's released, and some I count as among his best songs ("I'll Keep It With Mine", a particular favorite I wish they had seen fit to include here, "Lay Down Your Weary Tune," "Percy's Song", and "Up To Me", the BLOOD outtake that should have been on the album, to name but four.) BIOGRAPH, released in 1985 was the first major boxset to be commercially successful, with Clapton's CROSSROADS following in 1988, and most boxsets have followed Dylan's template of mixing previously released work with previously unreleased work.

The main problem with BIOGRAPH is it came out in 1985, so it only takes you so far into Dylan. While a second boxset was obviously called for to update that set, DYLAN is simply not [that set] BIOGRAPH's spiritual successor. Columbia played it like a simple retrospective, and a very predictable retrospective at that, despite the couple of curve balls they managed to throw in there. There's plenty of stuff in the vaults that hasn't been released, so where is it? Where's "To Fall In Love With You", one of Dylan's best unreleased songs from the 1980s (found on the Genuine Bootleg Series Vol 2).? Or "Freedom for the Stallion"? Or "Sidewalks, Fences, and Walls"? Or "Old Five and Dimer"? Or the awesome b-sides "Trouble in Mind" and "Band of the Hand"? Or the John Hiatt cover "The Usual", or "Night After Night", or the Infidel outtakes, or any number of other material?

Ultimately, DYLAN is simply nothing more than another retrospective on Dylan, which is sad as BIOGRAPH managed to do so much more than that. If you look at the three previous Greatest Hits albums, and the Essential Bob Dylan album, it is obvious this release is little more than an update of those releases, and ultimately rather redundant. For the newcomers, a good way to get into Dylan, approx 4 star intro. For ever one else, 1 star.

Overall, DYLAN serves as a fair introduction for newcomers. Unfortunately for everyone else who count themselves Dylan fans, this set is pretty much useless. Dylan has such active fanbase this release would be much more successful if Columbia tried to address both audiences, like they did so successfully in 1985. At the end of the day, this is more of a missed opportunity to update BIOGRAPH than anything else.

Who should buy this? Someone who only owns one or two or three Dylan discs and wants to get a better sense of the whole career. No one who owns more than 10 Dylan discs needs this collection. Use the money to buy three more discs you don't have.

The "Deluxe Box Set" version is getting a lot of one-star reviews because it's so obviously a piece of overpriced product. THIS version costs no more than $35 at full price (compared to $50 for the deluxe version). That puts it at $10 more than "The Essential Bob Dylan," the two-disc career overview. (If you buy the greatest hits collections, volumes 1, 2, and 3, you get ripped off with volume 1, which has the short playing time of the original vinyl album, and you get ripped off with volume 2, which puts 78 minutes of music on two discs and then charges you accordingly.)

So, dollar for dollar, this box set is the best investment for a casual fan who wants to hear more. YOU GET THE MAXIMUM MINUTES OF MUSIC FOR YOUR MONEY, AND IT COVERS THE WHOLE CAREER.

However, there is absolutely nothing imaginative about the set of songs chosen here. There are no real rarities, either. At least "Greatest Hits Volume 2" was imaginative and offers rarities.

If you already have "Greatest Hits," I'd skip this and buy "Biograph." Now THAT was a great box set!

My one-star rating is for the business concept behind this set, not the music itself. Obviously so many of these songs are legendary and amazing, so it would be 5 stars for the music itself. Here's the thing about this set... There have been SO MANY Dylan collections already -- this new one is really just the latest blatant case of the record companies endlessly re-packaging the same songs over and over to make a few extra bucks. Let me list just a few of the existing Dylan collections and box sets that are already available. There's The Essential Bob Dylan (2000); the Biograph 3-CD box set, remastered and reissued in 2002; plus the Greatest Hits Vol. 1-3, remastered and reissued in 2003 as a 3-CD box. And those mostly all contain the SAME SONGS as this new "Dylan" collection! True, this new one does have a few nice extras, and a book, but it's a sad thing if you have to buy the set just for those. I'll also acknowledge that the addition of a few more recent songs makes this new one the most "career-spanning" set of the many available ones, but won't the same thing be true when more new Dylan box sets are put out in 2010, 2014, etc.? There will always be an anniversary date to justify yet another re-packaging. And that's only while he's alive! Just think of what endless milking of the man's work will happen after he's gone!

normally a best of compilation does not adequately reflect the career of the artist.if that statement holds true of the average artist,imagine the effort that had to go into compiling a best of spanning the career of someone as prolific as dylan.

giving the above, listening to this compilation and finding that it is a comprehensive introduction to the greatest living artist,came as a pleasant surprise .yes there are some omissions,but with dylan's repertoire,isnt that to be expected?fact is,the songs that are there,are wonderfull,and the compilation fully deserving of a five star rating.listen for yourself and decide.

We just can't get enough of this album. We have been Dylan fans for years and years and this album just makes us want to dance. We were raised in California, born in the 40's and college in the 60's need I say more.