a great intro
this is a great album for what it is and it is a career spanning compilation and as such is meant to include the finest tracks and is meant to give a sampler of an artist work which it does exceptionally well. no it doesn't have all his best tracks and yes everybody has their little probelems,but for those uniniated or just starting out with a minimal dylan collection its a great starter i guarantee you'll come back too time and again.

Dylan Review
This was my first CD of Bob Dylan's good CD with songs that make you think. Good melodies, typical Dylan voice.

GREAT COMPREHENSIVE OVERVIEW
Bashing Dylan's vocal skills as a means of arguing that he's not a great artist is kind of like complaining that Woody Allen isn't a versatile actor. If you have to resort to that, his talent is completely over your head. Look at this track list - 30 of the greatest songs in American popular music & he wrote every single one & had huge radio hits with many of them. Granted, there are versions of these tunes out there that surpass the original recordings in terms of sing-along-ability & pleasing listening. But that's hardly the point. So his poetry is not your thing? Then why come here & review an album you obviously haven't even purchased or listened to?? If anyone wants a wonderful summary of Dylan's repertoire, this is a CD set that can't be beat. And just look at that price! A+

Includes some of his best work.
I don't listen to Bob Dylan a lot. I have 7 of his cd's.(I am 58 year old male) So far this is my favorite. I like most of the tracks on this one and there are 30. Some of the other cd's I have I like maybe half of the tracks. This one has a great "It's all over now, baby blue".
"Rainy day woman", "Forever young", "jokerman", "Silvio", are my least fovorites. They're ok but just don't grab me.
The rest of the cd is great. I could listen to it all day. Great for a long trip in the car.
If you like Dylan then get this one. It's well worth it.
Steve

"Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me"
I am a fan of Bob Dylan's talent. I admire him as a singer-songwriter, musician who plays several instruments, and especially as a poet. I understand very well that Dylan is not Luciano Pavarotti, Robert Plant, Freddie Mercury or Ian Gillan but his rough, nasal and far from perfect singing voice speaks to me clearly. For five decades that he's been a major figure in popular music, Bob Dylan has released over 50 albums including 32 Studio Albums, 13 Live, and 12 compilations. I own The Essential Bob Dylan (Rm) (2CD) which included 30 songs. Of course, 30 songs on 2 CD is just a fraction of Mr. Dylan's very impressive body of work but I am happy with the content of this compilation. It includes some of my favorite songs from 1962 to 1999 written in the different genres - folk, country/blues, rock and roll, and more. Among them:

Mr. Tambourine Man - Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me, In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.

Just Like A Woman,
"Ah, you fake just like a woman, yes, you do
You make love just like a woman, yes, you do
Then you ache just like a woman
But you break just like a little girl."

Rainy Day Women:
"They'll stone ya and then they'll say, "good luck."
Tell ya what, I would not feel so all alone,
Everybody must get stoned"

I'll Be Your Baby Tonight:
"That big, fat moon is gonna shine like a spoon,
But we're gonna let it,
You won't regret it."

If Not For You - I like a lot its cover version by George Harrison but it is always great to have the original performance,
"If not for you
My sky would fall,
Rain would gather too.
Without your love I'd be nowhere at all,
I'd be lost if not for you,
And you know it's true."

Shelter From The Storm:
"Suddenly I turned around and she was standin' there
With silver bracelets on her wrists and flowers in her hair.
She walked up to me so gracefully and took my crown of thorns.
"Come in," she said,
"I'll give you shelter from the storm."

Hurricane - This is not just a great compelling song but the civil action that had helped to overturn Rubin "Hurricane" Carter life in prison sentence and to free the innocent man:

"Rubin Carter was falsely tried.
The crime was murder "one," guess who testified?
Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
And the newspapers, they all went along for the ride.
How can the life of such a man
Be in the palm of some fool's hand?
To see him obviously framed
Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land
Where justice is a game."

Gotta Serve Somebody -
"You may call me Terry, you may call me Timmy,
You may call me Bobby, you may call me Zimmy,
You may call me R.J., you may call me Ray,
You may call me anything but no matter what you say
You're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody.
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody. "

Things Have Changed -
If ever a song deserved the Oscar for the best song of the year in the movie, it was the one. I love Curtis Hanson's film "Wonder Boys" (2000) which I see as one of the best films about writers and writing, but after all these years, the firs thing that comes to my mind while thinking of "Wonder Boys", is the song:

"Standin' on the gallows with my head in the noose
Any minute now I'm expecting' all hell to break loose
People are crazy and times are strange
I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range
I used to care but - things have changed."

People may get crazier, times - stranger, all things may change but my love for Bob Dylan's songs will always stay the same