Bob Dylan – The Essential Bob Dylan Review

A slick-looking compilation which would kickstart a brief and welcome trend of uniform covers, The Essential Bob Dylan is as its title would suggest. Those must-hear numbers compiled into one spot. Bold lettering, a clean, black and white photo of the artist, too. If it worked for Johnny Cash, then it too shall work for Bob Dylan. It does. The Essential Bob Dylan prides itself on being a successful collection of those inevitable hits, and a few at-the-time oddities are thrown in, for good measure. A double-disc set with songs pushing the word “essential” to its very limit. Gotta Serve Somebody? Maybe to the dedicated listener, which this compilation almost certainly is not for. Extracting the hits and delivering a taster session of Dylan has proven to be tricky. Compilation after compilation has come and gone, though this is the everyman collection. An acceptable and solid release. 

Once more, the purpose of the compilation is not to access these songs for the first time but to re-experience them. Ripped from their spot in this collection or that album, the isolation of these songs is a test of the track’s strength. The Times They Are A-Changin’ and all those inevitable, early folk-adjacent songs are a nice and inevitable start to the album. Nothing from the first album, the self-titled piece cast aside. Even if it is broadly cover songs, it has its spot in history. Essential, though? Perhaps not. The Essential Bob Dylan wants only the prime cuts from a discography with more on offer than most. These early folk inclusions are special. They have transcended the usual replay value, and though the electrified period to follow is of more interest, to head back into the pre-1965 days is always a treat.  

Hearing the transition through the best-of songs from acoustic to electric is a neat three-song trip from Mr. Tambourine Man, Subterranean Homesick Blues and Like a Rolling Stone. There is more emphasis on the lack of equaliser on this song, a noticeable thump compared to other versions. When you start picking up on little intricacies like that, perhaps it is time to take a walk in nature. Head outdoors and skip over the rest of those inevitable hits. Nod to the nice additions of Quinn the Eskimo and Lay, Lady Lay, and get stuck into those B-sides and oddities. A run of exceptional songs like Forever Young, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door and Tangled Up in Blue almost makes up for a lack of Blood on the Tracks exploration. The lack of Simple Twist of Fate and Idiot Wind feels more like a chance to explore later, lesser-known spots than anything that could be perceived as an intentional snub.  

It is rare these modern-day Dylan compilations even accept that the mid-1980s happened, let alone feature a song like Silvio from Down in the Groove. Yet here we are, and an Oh Mercy rip with the pertinent and ever-relevant Everything is Broken to back it up. The crucial problem for any compilation is knowing which listeners to serve. Some will be well-versed with each of these songs and focus on the period of particular interest. Others will use this to spring into one album or another, an informed decision off the back of a few inclusions. For the latter crowd, The Essential Bob Dylan will serve them well, a respectable compilation of quality songs and a few leftfield choices and studio outtakes to kindle an interest in The Bootleg Series and the songs which followed a commercial and creative peak.