The Essential Bob Dylan - Dylan, Bob (CD 2000)

Uh oh...here comes Dopple again to knock a compilation for it's structure, despite the fact that is filled with awesome music.

But I must.

This seems to be nothing more than yet another attempt by Sony to milk the Dylan catalogue for all it is worth. In between his last two albums, Time Out Of Mind and Love & Theft, they decided "you know, three or four Bob Dylan compilations aren't enough. We should do another retrospective spanning those same years!". What the hell? It's bound to enter the charts and make them all a pretty penny.

But it's totally unnecessary. Yes, that's a nice title, The Essential Bob Dylan, but it's just Greatest Hits by a different name. Clearly they weren't shooting for the truly essential or they would have examined the albums more closely.

"Masters of War", for instance, is perhaps Dylan's sharpest piece of social commentary and most haunting folk tune. It remains a popular cover for many musicians, from activists to street musicians to Tom Petty to Pearl Jam. Yet it doesn't make the cut.

The hit "I Want You", one of the most pleasent moments from Blonde on Blonde, is nowhere to be seen.

The latter-day masterpiece "Most of the Time" aint there either, and that's been picked up by movie soundtracks and covered by folk singer Ani Difranco.

Clearly, you would need more than two discs to actually serve up all the essential Bob Dylan. But even then, there was leftover disc space and a couple negligible selections in the arrangement they chose.

Then there is my second point - Dylan compilations are stupid! Throughout the 60s and 70s, & even recently he put out masterpiece albums! If they should make any comp, it should gather decent material from his dreary 80s period.

But even if one must have the predictable radio tunes in one place, there were already a couple Greatest Hits albums that did the job quite nicely. If those didn't suit you, there was an even more direct and concise 'Best of' CD.

The only thing "Essential" brings to the table are a couple of newer tunes from his last couple of releases. But the casual fans who buy these things are in all likeliness more interested in the vintage material anyway, those who really enjoy the newer stuff would be better off with the albums.

And Sony, could you at least wait till his career is over before you put out a career-spanning retrospective?? He's still cranking out good material, like the recent award-winning hit single "Things Have Changed". His last two albums have gotten rave reviews. Hold on to your wallets for a bit.

But alas, every song here is a winner; they just didn't need to be jumbled together like this again.