Bob Dylan: Biograph

Bob Dylan: Biograph

1985

Columbia Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing (oh, man...This is gonna take awhile...)

Disc One: 1. Lay Lady Lay  2. Baby, Let Me Follow You Down   3. If Not for You  4. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight  5. I'll Keep It with Mine  6. The Times They Are a-Changin'  7. Blowin' in the Wind  8. Masters of War  9. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll  10. Percy's Song

Disc Two: 1. Mixed-Up Confusion  2. Tombstone Blues  3. Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar  4. Most Likely You Go Your Way (Live)  5. Like a Rolling Stone  6. Jet Pilot  7. Lay Down Your Weary Tune  8. Subterranean Homesick Blues  9. I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) (Live)  10. Visions of Johanna (live)  11. Every Grain of Sand

Disc Three: 1. Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)  2. Mr. Tambourine Man  3. Dear Landlord  4. It Ain't Me, Babe  5. You Angel You  6. Million Dollar Bash  7. To Ramona  8. You're a Big Girl Now (Live)  9. Abandoned Love  10. Tangled Up in Blue  11. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

Disc Four: 1. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?  2. Positively 4th Street  3. Isis   4. Caribbean Wind  5. Up to Me  6. Baby, I'm in the Mood for You  7. I Wanna Be Your Lover  8. I Want You  9. Heart of Mine (Live)  10. On a Night Like This  11. Just Like a Woman

Disc Five: 1. Romance in Durango (Live)  2. Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)  3. Gotta Serve Somebody  4. I Believe in You  5. Time Passes Slowly  6. I Shall Be Released  7. Knockin' on Heaven's Door   8. All Along the Watchtower (Live)  9. Solid Rock  10. Forever Young (Demo Version)


                                                                
Gigantic vinyl box set monster from 1985, that follows (perhaps  invented?) the standard box set formula...A Bunch of greatest hits mixed with a motley assortment of outtakes, demos, and live versions...Presented in non-chronological order, which was probably wise, since the only way to get me to sit through gospel Dylan is the promise of a rare non-album "Highway 61"-era single...Probably, the single most entertaining aspect of the box set is the big-ass book and copious  liner notes where Dylan give his usual mix of incredibly precious information and complete and utter BS...I've probably already discussed all the hits, so I'll mostly just talk about the non-album stuff and tracks from albums I haven't discussed yet (aka stuff I don't own)...I'll break this down, record by record...

Disc 1:

They ease you into "Biograph" with the highest concentration of legit hits found in the set...Only a few rarities but they're good ones..."I'll Keep it With Mine" is top notch...Just a simple, luminous beauty of a song that was apparently recorded for the "Blonde on Blonde" sessions...On one hand, the quietude of the song might have slowed down the whirlwind that was "Blonde on Blonde,"but on the other hand, imagine how fucking awesome that album would have been if he'd replaced "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat"  with this...I also like "Percy's Song" even though it's 1,000,000 years long...I can't help it, it brings back fond memories of watching "Don't Look Back" and wondering what in the hell that cool song Joan Baez was singing...I should also point out how much I enjoy "Masters of War"...I know it's blustery and unsubtle but damn if you don't feel it here (motions to beer gut)...

Disc 2: Alright, now we're digging into the vaults a bit...Over half of this disc is non-album stuff.....This kicks off with Dylan's first single which was electric Elvis Rock n' Roll?!?!  It's nothing too staggeringly great, but it's super fun to hear Dylan tackle this style...Actually, once it gets going, it's not too dissimilar to the electric portions of "Bringing it All Back Home"...We also have a "Shot of Love"-era B-Side (?!?!) called "Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar" which isn't half bad...Just a pretty generic blues that isn't too preachy on a casual listen..."Jet Pilot" is interesting, it's just a chunk of an early take of "Tombstone Blues" that features an M. Night Shyamalan type twist ending...I sorta think this disc is the best one in the set, due to the back-to-back pairing of two fantastic outtakes: "Lay Down Your Weary Tune" which is a desolate, dissolute acoustic track...real lonesome stuff ...And " I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) " feels like more of a legit single than  most of the singles Dylan actually released...It makes my head spin that he didn't include this on one of his albums and instead threw it onto side 4 of a box set...

 On a side note, I've never heard the "Before the Flood" Dylan/Band live album...Boy, is the stuff from that album on here weird...Compare its stiff weirdness with the brilliant live recording of "Visions of Johanna" that follows it...

 Disc 3: Some more unreleased live stuff on Disc 3...There's also an alternate version of "Quinn the Eskimo" that's suitably creamy..."Abandoned Love" would have fit right in on "Desire"...Same crisp songwriting style, same vaguely irritating violin...Nah, the violin sounds fine here...Again, it's the cumulative effect of the instrument...Put any song on from "Desire" on and it sounds great individually...

Disc 4: Is almost all rare/unreleased...It starts off with a couple of non-album singles, "Positively 4th Street" (which I've discussed in a previous post) and the "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?"  which is such super classic "Highway 61"-era Dylan that I can't believe isn't more popular...I had never heard it until I bought this boxset roughly 10 years ago...This spindly, non-country-ish Hawks were such an amazing band...Who bought them wah-wah pedals and clavinets? Who?!  Another score here is "Up to Me," a "Blood on the Tracks" outtake that sounds exactly like "Shelter from the Storm," although I think I might actually like it a bit more than "Shelter"...It feels less forced somehow...Also be sure to check out "I Wanna Be Your Lover," where Bob blatantly rips off the Beatles/Stones but bests both of those bands...He uses the opening line of "I Wanna Be Your Man" for the chorus and then writes a bunch of evocative lyrics that highlight how shallow the British-Invasion still stuff was at that point..."Baby, I'm in the Mood for You" is somewhat slight folkie Dylan but worth it to hear Bob get all wacky with his vocal delivery at the end...They also include a couple of 80's outtakes that are surprisingly fun and listenable...I don't remember enjoying these 80's Dylan albums at all, but for some reason these sound great to me...Maybe because I know in  3 minutes or so I'll get to hear some cool 60's stuff? Or is it really that he cut all the good songs from his 80's albums (in fear of it possibly highlighting the fact that the rest of it is so lacking)? I dunno...But "Caribbean Wind" rules...

Disc 5: They start to get back to the hits with the final disc, in an attempt for a strong finish, I'm guessing, but this is where fatigue starts to set in for me...Possibly due to a cluster of sterile "Slow Train Coming" songs...I kinda dig some of the world music feel on some of the stuff on this disc...Like "Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)" and the 70's outtake "Romance in Durango" which seriously won me over...They end on a strong note with an intimate rel-to-reel demo of "Forever Young" that offers up yet a third drastically different take of the song...

Overall, a trawl through this thing is serious fun for a Dylan fan...I think a beginner would be completely overwhelmed by all of this, but maybe not...It's about 90% awesome and I agree that the mosaic sequencing really bolsters the less interesting 70's and 80's stuff...

Here's "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window" by Bobby D tha Bo$$....Enjoy...