Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits [Remaster] - Dylan, Bob (Cassette 1999)

In the music world, when Greatest Hits compilations come out, it usually means one of two things: 1. the artist has retired or has died, and the Greatest Hits are used to either keep his/her career alive or to cash in on his/her reputation; 2. it is generally believed that the artist is at the end of his/her career and is putting out a Greatest Hits compilation to salvage what is left of their legacy (this is what Eminem is planning to do with his upcoming compilation entitled "Curtain Call"); The latter is what happened to Bob Dylan in 1967. I don't think there's any denying that Bob Dylan is immensely complex but talented musician. As a young singer/songwriter in the 1960s he became a cultural icon whose outlook of and impact on America's society at that period is extremely revealing. After seven albums, it seemed Dylan would be here for years to come, and he has been ... but all that came crashing to a halt. On July 29, 1966, near his home in Woodstock, New York, the brakes of his Triumph 500 motorcycle locked, throwing him to the ground and supposedly, breaking his neck. Since it was unknown whether or not Dylan would even return to the studio, Columbia Records decided to release a "Greatest Hits" compilation of Dylan's work in March 1967. Luckily for us, Dylan was able to make it back to the studio and continue his career. There are tons of compilations from Dylan out now, but this remains the first one, and one that picks some of the best records from his early days and put them on one record.

1. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 (4 Stars)
2. Blowin' in the Wind (5 Stars)
3. The Times They Are A-Changin' (5 Stars)
4. It Ain't Me Babe (5 Stars)
5. Like a Rolling Stone (5 Stars)
6. Mr. Tambourine Man (5 Stars)
7. Subterranean Homesick Blues (5 Stars)
8. I Want You (5 Stars)
9. Positively 4th Street (5 Stars)
10. Just Like a Woman (5 Stars)

This compilation starts off in a pretty good way with the unusual, playful, and mildly controversial "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35". This song, which was the opening song from his seventh LP, "Blonde on Blonde", is a militant but jazzy little number about criticism. He describes how some critics, obviously referring to hateful women in particular, will attack you no matter what you do, talking about how they will verbally 'stone' you. But Dylan feels no remorse, as he says everybody will be attacked verbally some time in their life; he makes this point by constantly repeating the two following lines: "But I would not feel so all alone / everybody must get stoned!". That line can easily be interpreted as a double entendre, referring to not just verbal criticism, but the large amount of drugs that a lot of artists did in that period. Because of that, this song is a 'stoner's anthem', often associated with smoking marijuana; it doesn't help that the two numbers in the song's title multiplied together equal 420. Whichever way you take it, it s a good song, but nowhere near Dylan's best.

Dylan also speaks on criticism in "Positively 4th Street", which remains one of my favorite Dylan records to this day. It was recorded in New York City on July 29, 1965 - 4 days after the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, where Dylan played his first electric set to a mix of boos and cheers. It was released as a single two months later, and this compilation marks the first official appearance of this song on an 'album'. On this one, Dylan lashes out at a friend who hurt him deeply by betraying him. Songs about disloyalty isn't new to the music scene nowadays but its still one of the best songs to cover said subject. Dylan has never cleared up who the specific target of this song is, but it's mostly thought to be about all the folk music critics who lambasted for going electric and abandoning the protest song movement. This theory is supported by the lyrics in the song, especially these: "You say I let you down / you know it's not like that / if you're so hurt / why then don't you show it? / you say you lost your faith / but that's not where it's at / you had no faith to lose / and you know it!". For those who don't understand the title, it's a reference to his time in Greenwich Village when he lived on West 4th street, as well as his stint on fraternity row at the University of Minnesota, which was located on 4th Street in Minneapolis. People can argue for just who the song might be directed at for days but it doesn't really matter because it transcends any specifics to offer multiple meanings to listeners.

Back when he started out, Dylan was known as the voice of the younger generation. His protest songs were highly revered, and they still are. The two songs that many consider to be his best protest songs both appear on here. They both are written very well and are very simple, with Dylan playing on his acoustic guitar and harmonica. The first one, "Blowin' in the Wind", originally released on his sophomore album "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan", is one of Dylan's most popular songs. In this song, Dylan asks philosophical questions about peace, war, and freedom and while the song asks these questions, it does not refer specifically to any particular political event, which proves its timelessness. It is widely considered the anthem for the civil rights movement and can easily be interpreted as a song that speaks out against racial injustice and how the general public mostly ignores it ("How many years can some people exist / before they're allowed to be free? / Yes and how many times can a man turn his head / and pretend that he just doesn't see?"). The Times They Are A-Changin'", which would be released the next year on Dylan's third album of the same name, is another one of his famous protest songs. On this one, Dylan captures the spirit of social and political upheaval that characterized the 1960s. He lyrically describes how the world is changing and how people need to get with the times and understand how it's changing. Even today, it is an anthem for the frustrated youth, summing up the anti-establishment feelings that many people in that time had and still have today: "Come mothers and fathers throughout the land / and don't criticize what you can't understand / your sons and your daughters are beyond your command / your old road is rapidly agin' / please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand / for the times, they are a-changin'"

Dylan is known for his love songs, and two of his best, ironically both from "Blonde on Blonde", are included on this compilation. First up, we have "I Want You", a sweet little number lead by his harmonica and backed by the electric guitar plucking. On this song, Dylan uses some somewhat complex lyrics to describe just how much he wants this girl. Even though it's a great song in its own right, it doesn't hold a candle to "Just Like a Woman". Dylan wrote this ballad on Thanksgiving Day 1965 while on tour in Kansas City. It's played as a slow acoustic ballad with his harmonica leading him in at the beginning and leading him out at the end. The track was inspired by two different girls in particular: Edie Sedgwick, a Warhol factory pin-up girl who appeared in the sleeve photos to "Blonde on Blonde" and would later die of a drug overdose, and Joan Baez, a folk singer who Dylan had once had a relationship with. Lyrics like "Nobody has to guess / that Baby can't be blessed / till she sees finally that she's like all the rest / with her fog, with her amphetamine and her pearls" would be referring to Sedgwick, while "When we meet again / introduced as friends / please don't let on that you knew me when / I was hungry and it was your world" would refer to his ex, Baez. It all adds up together to make a beautiful ballad and one of Dylan's best.

As I said, most of Dylan's best from the beginning of his career is here. "Mr. Tambourine Man", which would later be covered by both as The Byrds and William Shatner, finds Dylan playing an acoustic guitar in dropped D tuning, capoed at the seventh fret, while an electric guitar plays a counter melody to back up Dylan's vocals. The concept of the song seems to focus around a drug deal, but its not totally sure. Dylan does claim the song was inspired party by a trip he took from Los Angeles to New York, where he mailed packages of marijuana to post offices along the route so that he would not be caught with the drug. We also have "It Ain't Me Babe", where Dylan sings about a woman who is in love with him over a lovely acoustic guitar melody. The lyrics discuss how he doesn't love this woman and how he doesn't want to be held up to the high position she holds him to, a subtle reference to the fans who praised Dylan and claimed him to be 'the voice of the generation', a 'prophet', and whatnot. And of course, we have the loud, rambunctious "Subterranean Homesick Blues", which was Dylan's first Top 40 hit. This one is a blues rockabilly song in which Dylan uses rapid delivery to sing, something you hear a lot nowadays; people often joke that SHB was the first Hip-Hop song, or was a prelude to what would later become Hip-Hop. The lyrics appear as if they are completely random, and at times they are, but there is a political meaning behind most of these lines. For example, the song's first lines reference LSD and the politics of that time: "Johnny's in the basement mixing up the medicine / I'm on the pavement thinkin' about the Government". There was also a few references to the struggles surrounding the American civil rights movement ("Better stay away from those that carry around a fire hose").

And of course, no Dylan collection would be complete without this last song; it's his most popular song to date, and last year it was voted the Number One Song of all time by Rolling Stone magazine, the archetypal "Like a Rolling Stone". The song is musically based on drums (Bobby Greg), electric guitar (Mike Bloomfield), a honky-tonk piano (Paul Griffin), and an organ (Al Kooper). The lyrics talk about a young woman who fell from high society, and Dylan lashes out at her for acting how she acted when she was wealthy. Here's a short lyrical excerpt: "You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely / but you know you only used to get juiced in it / nobody's ever taught you how to live on the street / and now you're gonna have to get used to it". Its not just the lyrics though, but the way he sings it. His screams of "How does it FEEE-EEEL?!" in the chorus show just how bitter Dylan was at that time in his life, and the by way he sings the song overall, you can just tell that he knows exactly how the girl feels to have "no direction home". As for referencing someone specifically, like most of Dylan's songs, he never makes it clear who he's referencing. It is rumored that like the previously mentioned "Just Like a Woman", this was written about one time debutante Edie Sedgwick. Some have said that Andy Warhol, whom she was affiliated with, is referenced in this song as "Napoleon in rags". Apparently she was the subject of an emotional tug of war between Dylan's camp and Andy Warhol's camp. Others have said that Dylan wrote this song with himself in mind, as he was slowly drifting away from the folk audience that first embraced him. Others have said that the song was simply based on a short story he had written about a debutante who becomes a loner when she falls out of high society. Either way, this is definitely one of Dylan's best songs ever written, no question about it. I can personally say ANY Dylan 'Best of' compilation that DOESN'T include this song is worthless.

Being that this is the first compilation, this doesn t chronicle Dylan's entire career. You couldn't expect it to; this was released when most believed that his career, and maybe even his life, was over. Though there is one gripe that I do have about this compilation. As time went on, Dylan went ahead and released two more 'greatest hits' compilations, and while they captured the essence of his later career, his 2nd greatest hits was a double disc that contained not only material released after his first, but some more material from his first seven LPs that WEREN'T included on his first Greatest Hits compilation. I mean, it makes you wonder, if they were gonna get the best songs from his first seven LPs, why did songs like "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall", "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright", "Maggie's Farm", and "Stuck Inside Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" kept off the first compilation but later put on the second? I never really understood that, and I probably never will. And as I said, other compilations have come out aside from the three "Greatest Hits" series, including a 3-disc set called "Biograph" and the 2000 release "The Essential Bob Dylan", which chronicles his entire career except for his 01 album "Love and Theft". I've even heard rumors of ANOTHER compilation to come out at the end of this year entitled "The Very Best of Bob Dylan" (take that with a grain of salt, people). Anyway, I believe no compilation can truly capture the brilliance that is Bob Dylan. "Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits", while not the best compilation of his work, is an admirable attempt at doing so. If you are curious about Dylan and unfamiliar with his music, this is what I would recommend to you to start out with.

FINAL RATING: 5 Stars


Related reviews (none available yet, all coming soon though):
Movies:
Bob Dylan: No Direction Home

Albums:
Bob Dylan Greatest Hits Vol. 2
Bob Dylan Greatest Hits Vol. 3
Bob Dylan Highway 61 Revisited
Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks
Bob Dylan Time Out of Mind
------------------------------------------------
This review is my entry into Plorentz' Best of & Box Sets Write off. For more information on the write off, please check his profile.