The Best of Bob Dylan [Digipak] by Bob Dylan (CD, Nov-2005, Legacy Recordings)

Don't let the name of this CD fool you. Somehow, Bob Dylan's 2001 Best Song in a Motion Picture Oscar winner (for "Wonder Boys") is on this CD on the next to last track: "Things Have Changed." It is one hot song for the folk hero of the 1960's US anti-war movement. Here's Dylan's chorus:

"People are crazy, at times are strange.
I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range.
I used to care, but things have changed."

The rest of the CD is loaded with Dylan's most famous hits dating back to the US socially turbulent, early 1960's, war protesting, flower child, peace and love days. I bought his "Love and Theft" CD thinking that the Oscar-winner that I really flipped over would be there. Surprise! The 1999 recorded song is right with the 1960's ones:

Track listing
1. Blowin' In The Wind
2. The Times They Are A-Changin'
3. Mr. Tambourine Man
4. Like A Rolling Stone
5. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
6. All Along The Watchtower
7. Lay Lady Lay
8. Knockin' On Heaven's Door
9. Tangled Up In Blue
10. Hurricane
11. Forever Young
12. You Gotta Serve Somebody
13. Jokerman
14. Not Dark Yet
15. Things Have Changed *** 2001 Oscar-Winner for Best Song: 5:09 mins
16. Summer Days

Bob Dylan (vocals, guitar, harmonica).
Michael Bloomfield (guitar).
Al Kooper (organ).

My favorite oldie is the politically inclined,
"You Gotta Serve Somebody." The Oscar winner has a sound like that one.

This CD is representative of the 2005 Martin Scorsese's documentary "No Direction Home." These songs are not simply classics, or prize winning, they are iconoclastic! They represent Dylan's sensitivity to his changing revolutionary environment, and his playfulness with his peer group. What he sang resonated so astutely with us that Dylan was the man in folk music that was oft times politically motivating. That hasn't changed!

But, I've flipped for his "Things Have Changed" song because he's still right where I am on the new Viet Nam: Bush and Cheney's Iraq fiasco. He's writing and singing that song for me: "People are crazy, at times are strange. I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range. I used to care . . . but things have changed." Midlife . . . he only gets better and more pointedly sharp, if not cunningly cynical.

You cannot come from the US 60's and not know Dylan's music on this CD unless you were totally socially isolated!