Customer Reviews
The Best Dylan Hits Collection 
2006-11-03
The first Dylan hits collection has all the famous stuff from the mid-Sixties: Blowing in the Wing, Mr. Tambourine Man, Like a Rolling Stone, The Times They Are A-Changin' etc. Those songs are indispensable to any rock collection.
But I think I like volume two better. This collection has twice as many songs as the first hits album, and the songs are mesmerizingly beautiful and skillfully written.
Another reason why I like this collection better than volume one is because the songs on volume one have been played to death on the radio. I love the melodious pop folk sounds of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue, "My Back Pages," and "I Shall Be Released."
I also like the hard rocking "Maggie's Farm," the soft rocking "All Along the Watchtower," the country melody of "If Not For You,' aw heck, I like them all.
It should also go without saying that every single Dylan album from the 1960s is absolutely 5 star material, and some of his later albums are vastly unappreciated (Slow Train Coming, Infidels).
I highly recommend Greatest Hits Volume two as a great place to experience the diverse and beautiful sounds of Bob Dylan.
a really great collection 2006-08-28
the funniest thing ,i think, about this album is that it came out in the 90s.his 1st greatest hits album came out in 73.that was supposed to cover 73 and back.this new one sgould have picked up in 74 and went till its realease.however all the songs are oldies from the 60s,hinting maybe the 70s and 80s werent nearly as good.anyhow,theres "dont think twice its alright"-catchy."lay lady lay"-a beautiful love song."stuck inside mobile with the memphis blues again"-upbeat and catchy."ill be your baby tonight"-a sort of love dovey song abour a one night stand.only dylan!!!!!!!!!!"all i really want to do"-lyrical genius!"my back pages" is a song about reversing the aging process."maggies farm" is the dylan equivelant of "take this job and shove it!"."tonight ill be staying here with you" is good just like all the rest.ok disc 1 is down .now disc 2."she belongs to me" still sounds fine."all along the watchtower" is classic!then theres "mighty quinn the eskimo"-wtf???????????and "just like tom thumb blues".i guess they canr all be winners.then "a hard rain is gonna fall" a jim morrison like song but full of love like john lennon."if not for you"is singable."its all over now baby blue" is very pretty.then a few extras for space i think.this album kicks butt!
I'm being generous 
2006-07-19
I have mixed emotions about Bob Dylan's music. His "Blood On The Tracks" is one of the finest albums ever made. "Greatest Hits 1" is perhaps worthy of the title. However, GH 2 is not. I didn't even recognize a third of the songs on first listen, and still have to skip quite a few when listening to this CD (which is not very often). He has written some great songs which were performed very well - by other people. On this CD, they include:
"All I Really Want to Do" - Sonny and Cher or Mamas and Papas, I think.
"All Along the Watchtower" - Jimi Hendrix. Here, Bob's version is anemic.
"The Mighty Quinn" - was a hit for somebody, though still bad. Here again, anemic.
"If Not For You" - George Harrison has a smooth nice version. Here, we have to suffer with Dylan's voice.
"I Shall Be Released" - The Band, I guess, had the best (falsetto) version. Here, again, it's marginal.
OK, so we get these good ones - "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright", "Lay, Lady, Lay", "Maggie's Farm", "She Belongs To Me", "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue", and "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall". The rest is disappointing and there is too much padding for this to be a greatest hits.
Don't think twice, this is a good album! 2006-07-12
If you're like me and have Greatest Hits Volume 1, then you want more. I like this double-disc album because I don't have a lot of the albums that contains these songs (I don't have Nashville Skyline, John Wesley Harding, New Morning, & Self Portrait, but have the rest that came before). Probably my favorite song, though, on this set is "Tomorrow Is A Long Time," which is a live version that sounds fantastic with its sparse instrumentation and beautiful, poetic lyrics. As a reviewer already stated, there are several styles of music here for people to enjoy. I have always preferred the folky Bob Dylan but also love some of his bluesy rock, so this is fun to have on a long drive to hear a little bit of everything (including songs from his country album, Nashville Skyline). If you have all the Bob Dylan CD's, you probably don't need this, but I think it's worth it alone for the last songs on the 2nd disc. If you don't have any Bob Dylan CD's, you'll probably be better off getting "Essential Bob Dylan."
Several Different Styles Here, All Good 2006-04-02
There is a song on this record "Tomorrow is a Long Time" which is just about one of the best songs I've every heard. It's from a concert that, if all of the performances were delivered this well, then I don't know why they didn't release the whole show. Also I agree that it would have been nice to have a whole record of Bob Dylan and Happy Traum together. It also would have been nice to have a whole record produced by Leon Russell, because as we see with the two songs he produced on this record, "Watching" the River Flow" and "When I Paint My Masterpiece" Mr. Russell knew how to get a good rocker out of Mr. Dylan. Still, even though we don't have the records it would have been nice to have, we have snippets here of what they could have been. Several different styles, all good, but then Bob Dylan is always reinventing himself, but to reinvent himself a couple times on the same record, amazing, simply amazing.
Not Only Hits, but Great Unreleased Stuff too 2008-04-10
Bob Dylan didn't release a new record in 1971, but instead issued several unreleased songs on this second Greatest Hits record. "Tomorrow is a Long Time," is a beautiful song recorded during Dylan's 1963 Town Hall Concert. This concert was released on the Trade Mark of Quality bootleg "While the Establishment Burns" and the show is brilliant. I'm guessing, wishing, hoping that one day Bob Dylan and CBS/Sony will release the show as part of the official Bootleg Series.
"Watching the River Flow" and "When I Paint My Masterpiece" were produced by Leon Russell and are both outstanding. "Watching the River Flow" was kind of a hit single and is really a rocker. "Masterpiece" makes its first appearance here. "The three songs recorded with Happy Traum are really beautiful and I would have loved to see a whole album done this way, what a joy that would have been. Still, we take what we can get from Mr. Dylan and are thankful for all he's given us. Like his first Greatest Hits record, this album was huge, going five times platinum which makes the first two Hits records his all time best sellers. This is a must own disc for everybody and anybody who has even a passing interest in Bob Dylan.
Ken Douglas, author of Dead Ringer, Desperation Moon & Running Scared.
Best Songs from the Best (!) Songwriter 2008-03-07
'Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Volume 2' is part of the evidence that makes one wonder why the first Gershwin award for popular songwriting went to Paul Simon and not to Bob Dylan. Unlike some other reviewers, all but one song on this collection was immediately recognizable, from the high point of Dylan's career with Highway 61 Revisited, Blond on Blond, John Wesley Harding, and Nashville Skyline. I have to admit that Simon's career had more major hits in the '80's, '90's, and the 21st century, and Simon had almost as many 'major' hits in the '60's, but this collection demonstrates that no one in our lifetimes has ever matched Dylan's genius for songwriting. Even after all these years, I find this collection and its predecessor a great source for recalling Dylan lyrics, as when I was trying to remember the song from which the line 'But I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now'. Discovering the answer ('My Back Pages') was much easier by listening to this album than by reading a book of his lyrics. I was especially keen on listening to Dylan's original 'All Along the Watchtower', to compare it to possibly the greatest Dylan cover of all time, by Jimi Hendrix, of this song on 'Electric Ladyland'. Hendrix' rendition only shows how great is Dylan's genius at lyrics and tunes, when we see the rendition Hendrix was able to build with the song.
Should have been on a single disc 
2007-04-08
Only complaint I have is this should have been on 1 disc. Disc 1 is 36 minutes flat & disc 2 is 42:23. All 21 tracks could have easily fit on one space-saving 78 minute disc. Only way to justify this being on 2 discs would be to include at least 1 bonus track, which Columbia has done on some other artists' reissues. Other labels have reissued 2 LP sets on 1 CD, such as Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland, The Who's Tommy & Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, so they should have done that with this album.
Dylan Fans 2007-02-22
Bob Dylan is always at his best, but this time he may be more on top than usual. The music is fresh, concise, and delivered with enthusiasm. It reminds me of a time when the music and the story were the most important issues.
Staying Alive with Bob 2007-01-04
My husband gave away our old stereo equipment, including the Thorens record changer. What is a girl to do? I bought my favorite tunes from Amazon! Can't live without Bob. I got his 2006 album as well. Yah! Good!
