His songs are still what count. Many people consider him America’s best songwriter, a reputation he earned in the turbulent 1960s, with “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Masters of War,” “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” “All Along the Watchtower,” and others that today seem, at the same time, both a little dated and fresh. Simply titled Dylan, a new retrospective box-set includes 51 songs originally released between 1962 and 2006, and a 28-page, photo-filled booklet. (There’s also a deluxe box-set that offers extras such as 10 limited edition postcard prints.)
Sold separately is the DVD The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival: 1963-1965. Though versions of a few of the songs can also be found on the CDs, about 70 percent of the performances on Other Side of the Mirror from the youthful, sincere Dylan have never been published before. Among the 18 songs on the soundtrack of the grainy, dimly lit black-and-white film are renditions of “With God on Our Side,” “Talkin’ World War III Blues,” and “Chimes of Freedom.
Today, Dylan’s enigmatic personality and writing are still inspiring, even when you find him mumbling his way through any one of the hundreds of concerts he performs a year. In a career spanning more than four decades, he hasn’t lost any relevancy. His 2006 album, Modern Times, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart, and his 2004 memoir spent 19 weeks on The New York Times’ bestseller list. As likely to sing a soft ballad as a protest song, Dylan can’t be regarded as anything other than a powerful creative force who proves that poetry still counts in music, age can be a state of mind, and borders are made to be crossed.-Tom Geddie
Dylan
The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival: 1963-1965
(Columbia/Legacy)
