Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2

Customer Rating:
Summary: Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol 2
Comment: 2 decades ago I wore out the cassette and the 8 track. This is a one of the worlds best "Greatest Hits" collections.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Not Only Hits, but Great Unreleased Stuff too
Comment: Bob Dylan didn't release a new record in 1971, but instead issued several unreleased songs on this second Greatest Hits record. "Tomorrow is a Long Time," is a beautiful song recorded during Dylan's 1963 Town Hall Concert. This concert was released on the Trade Mark of Quality bootleg "While the Establishment Burns" and the show is brilliant. I'm guessing, wishing, hoping that one day Bob Dylan and CBS/Sony will release the show as part of the official Bootleg Series.

"Watching the River Flow" and "When I Paint My Masterpiece" were produced by Leon Russell and are both outstanding. "Watching the River Flow" was kind of a hit single and is really a rocker. "Masterpiece" makes its first appearance here. "The three songs recorded with Happy Traum are really beautiful and I would have loved to see a whole album done this way, what a joy that would have been. Still, we take what we can get from Mr. Dylan and are thankful for all he's given us. Like his first Greatest Hits record, this album was huge, going five times platinum which makes the first two Hits records his all time best sellers. This is a must own disc for everybody and anybody who has even a passing interest in Bob Dylan.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Best Songs from the Best (!) Songwriter
Comment: 'Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Volume 2' is part of the evidence that makes one wonder why the first Gershwin award for popular songwriting went to Paul Simon and not to Bob Dylan. Unlike some other reviewers, all but one song on this collection was immediately recognizable, from the high point of Dylan's career with Highway 61 Revisited, Blond on Blond, John Wesley Harding, and Nashville Skyline. I have to admit that Simon's career had more major hits in the '80's, '90's, and the 21st century, and Simon had almost as many 'major' hits in the '60's, but this collection demonstrates that no one in our lifetimes has ever matched Dylan's genius for songwriting. Even after all these years, I find this collection and its predecessor a great source for recalling Dylan lyrics, as when I was trying to remember the song from which the line 'But I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now'. Discovering the answer ('My Back Pages') was much easier by listening to this album than by reading a book of his lyrics. I was especially keen on listening to Dylan's original 'All Along the Watchtower', to compare it to possibly the greatest Dylan cover of all time, by Jimi Hendrix, of this song on 'Electric Ladyland'. Hendrix' rendition only shows how great is Dylan's genius at lyrics and tunes, when we see the rendition Hendrix was able to build with the song.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Should have been on a single disc
Comment: Only complaint I have is this should have been on 1 disc. Disc 1 is 36 minutes flat & disc 2 is 42:23. All 21 tracks could have easily fit on one space-saving 78 minute disc. Only way to justify this being on 2 discs would be to include at least 1 bonus track, which Columbia has done on some other artists' reissues. Other labels have reissued 2 LP sets on 1 CD, such as Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland, The Who's Tommy & Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, so they should have done that with this album.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Dylan Fans
Comment: Bob Dylan is always at his best, but this time he may be more on top than usual. The music is fresh, concise, and delivered with enthusiasm. It reminds me of a time when the music and the story were the most important issues.