Toad

My favorite, and one of my top-5 favorite albums, is Blood on the Tracks.

Looking at getting a live disc, and just don't know what's out there, and what's good from what's bad (i.e. bad mixing, etc.)

sauce07

i'd check out one of his bootleg series
the halloween 64' show is great early stuff and the rolling thunder revue tour is dylan in his rocking prime

whynotsmile

blood on the tracks and blonde on blonde are my favorite albums of his.

i listened to both for the first time when I moved away from home to go to college. It was such a crazy, whirl wind experience for me. Those albums really got to me. I love em both.

Elldubtoo

Bringing it All Back Home and Blood on the Tracks are my favorites.

Favorite Live album has to be Bootleg Vol.4: the 1966 "Albert Hall" Concert. Half acoustic, half electric, 100% great music.

Tscott

I recently picked up the SACD boxset for cheap. Before that I only owned his first greatest hits CD. 15 albums is a lot to soak in at once, but Blood on the Tracks is by far my favorite as well. Bringing it All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Another Side of Bob Dylan are also standouts. I'm also just starting to really like Desire the last time I gave it another listen.

I'm slowly completing my collection of his studio albums through yourmusic.com (only 4 left to go, of those currently available). I haven't heard any live CDs yet, so I don't have an opinion there- although, the Bootleg Vol. 4 sounds like the one to start with.

Wazootyman

Bringing it All Back Home and Highway 61 are great great great albums... 1965 must have been an amazing year

NORML54601

So many good albums. Don't overlook his more recent releases like Time Out of Mind. There's also a recent show of his posted at regnyouth.

auto

Does anyone know when the second set of remastered SACDs will be released? I would love to complete my collection of his albums.

On topic: Any of the first four albums plus Blood and Time Out Of Mind.

Hollowgen

-Before The Flood
-Blood On The Tracks
-Desire
-Highway 61
-Basement Tapes

wendersfan

His best studio albums are, in chronological order, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisted, Blonde on Blonde (his masterpiece), and John Wesley Harding. The only live album I care much for is Before the Flood.

Nick Danger

Blonde on Blonde
Highway 61 Revisited
Freewheelin Bob Dylan
Blood on the Tracks
Bringing it all Back Home

In no particular order.

The only live album I have is Dylan and the Dead, which is pretty bad.

Time Out of Mind is almost the only album since 1975 where you can hear his former greatness. I also like Love and Theft.

Toad

I for one don't like Blonde on Blonde whatsoever.

wendersfan

Do you like Highway 61 Revisited? The two are very similar IMO.

Toad

I only have heard BoB, Blood on the Tracks, and Bringin' it all Back Home (which I like).

FrozenMetalHead

I'd like to second this question. I think his self-titled debut and "The Time They Are A-Changing" were remastered and released in the past several months - though they don't appear to be SACD. Anyone hear any news of his remaining albums?

How about "The Basement Tapes"? I haven't heard this album yet, but everything I've read about it says it's great. I was surprised this album wasn't part of the SACD-remaster series.

And finally, while not directly on-topic, I think it fits better in this thread than elsewhere, can anyone recommend some good Dylan books? I plan on checking out the Chronicles autobio, but I'd like to get a more complete picture as well.

Thanks,

Matt

As most of you should know, the SACD hybrids have gone OOP and have been re-issued as redbook CDs only, apparently as a cost-cutting measure. Based on that, I would guess that the chances of a second SACD series being released would be a remote possibility, at best.

Hiro11

1. Blonde on Blonde (along with Exile and the White Album, a definitive double album with too many classic track to list here.)
2. Highway 61 (Dylan at his most rocking, unbelievably good beginning to end)
3. Bringin' it All Back Home (angry and passionate, right when Dylan "went electric")
4. Blood on the Tracks (huge return to form marred by awful production, as are all of his albums, IMO)
5. John Wesley Harding (great country rock album)
6. Nashville Skyline (full-on country with the Band, easily equals Gram Parson's work)
7. Basement Tapes (loose and steeped in Americana. More a "Dylan and the Band" album than a straight Dylan album. Reminds me of "Songs from Big Pink", not surpirsing as (AFAIK) they were recorded at the same time)
8. Love and Theft (just as strong as his classic work, features a killer backing band and (for once) clear and solid production, excellent album, don't miss it)
9. Freewheelin' (sounds a little folksy-wolksy dated at this point, but probably the best folk-rock album of the sixties. Also my mom loves it, so I have a hard time with it...)
10. Another Side (a continuation of Freewheeling, more classic folk-rock)
11. Time Out Of Mind (heralded at the time as his great return to form, downbeat and electronic sounding. I prefer the nastier/raunchier "Love and Theft", but this is one of the best albums of the late ninties, IMO)
12. Desire- (the great unheralded Dylan album, known primarily for "Hurricane". People who think that Blood on the Tracks came out of nowhere are forgetting about this album.)
13. ...everything else.

I don't think he has any good live albums.

WillieTheShakes

They won't be. Apparently the SACD plan has been scrapped.

WillieTheShakes

Live 66?
Rolling Thunder Revue?
Live 64?
Before the Flood?

Sure, I can do without Real Live (except for that version of Tangled), Budakon and Dylan and the Dead, but I do think the others would qualify as 'good live albums'.

wendersfan

I love Before the Flood, but I mainly listen to the sides that feature The Band. And yes, I only have it on vinyl.

1. Blonde on Blonde
2. Highway 61 Revisited
3. John Wesley Harding
4. Bringing it All Back Home
5. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

Numbers 2 & 3 can swap at any time.

I'm not really all that keen on Blood on the Tracks, to be honest. I probably like New Morning and Planet Waves almost as much.

Hiro11

You've got a point, I've heard the bootleg series is terrific.

dcswirl

Highway 61 Revisited
Blood on the Tracks
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Oh Mercy
Love and Theft

I don't care for live CD's by anybody, but if I had to choose one of his it would be Live 64.

Absolut

Blonde on Blonde is far and away my favorite Dylan album.

As for live albums, the Royal Albert Hall album sounds decent and for its historical impact alone is worth having. Aside from that though it's just a really good, rockin' Dylan show.

daltonisbond

Of his later albums, well later than Desire anyway, I have a soft spot for Street Legal, Shot of Love, and Oh Mercy. Plus Infidels has some great songs too - if it had included Blind Willie McTell and Foot of Pride which were recorded in those sessions it would be a much improved album.

Of the earlier stuff I like pretty much everything. Particularly "Bringing It All Back Home", "Another Side of Bob Dylan", and "Blood on the Tracks".

The live version of "Idiot Wind" on "Hard Rain" is wonderful and far better than the version on "Blood on the Tracks" IMO. For the best live album available I'd probably pick The Bootleg Series "Live 1975".

For another great live performance, the version of "Blind Willie McTell" that's on disc 2 of the "Love Sick" single is incredible.