The Essential Bob Dylan

Disc 1
1	Blowin' in the Wind 2:48
2	Don't Think Twice, It's All Right 3:39
3	The Times They Are A-Changin' 3:13
4	It Ain't Me Babe 3:35
5	Maggie's Farm 3:54
6	It's All over Now, Baby Blue 4:16
7	Mr. Tambourine Man 5:28
8	Subterranean Homesick Blues 2:19
9	Like a Rolling Stone 6:09
10	Positively 4th Street 3:55
11	Just Like a Woman 4:52
12	Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 4:36
13	All Along the Watchtower 2:32
14	The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo) 2:20
15	I'll Be Your Baby Tonight 2:39
Disc 2
1	Lay Lady Lay 3:18
2	If Not for You 2:41
3	I Shall Be Released 3:04
4	You Ain't Going Nowhere 2:45
5	Knockin' on Heaven's Door 2:32
6	Forever Young 4:58
7	Tangled up in Blue 5:43
8	Shelter from the Storm 5:03
9	The Hurricane 8:34
10	Gotta Serve Somebody 5:25
11	Jokerman 6:17
12	Silvio 3:08
13	Everything Is Broken 3:14
14	Not Dark Yet 6:30
15	Things Have Changed 5:08

Barnes & Noble

While Bob Dylan's remarkable body of work is far too large and complex to lend itself to easy compilation, this 30-song double-CD package does a very reasonable job of presenting a balanced overview of Dylan's oeuvre, touching on the various junctures of his multifarious career while not always falling back on the most obvious hits. Unlike Columbia's three Greatest Hits comps and the sprawling Biograph box set, Essential is arranged chronologically, so it functions as a fascinating guided tour through the visionary -- and sometimes baffling -- twists and turns of the artist's unique career. The track selection does a good job of demonstrating Dylan's leap from such immortal folkie protest anthems as "Blowin' in the Wind," "It Ain't Me Babe," and "The Times They Are A-Changin' " toward the more ambitious surrealist poetry of "Like a Rolling Stone," "Positively 4th Street," and "Subterranean Homesick Blues," followed by his subsequent return to relatively straightforward insight in '70s tunes such as "Tangled Up in Blue" and "Hurricane," and it brings the story up to date with the haunting "Not Dark Yet" (from the 1997 comeback disc Time Out of Mind) and the non-album "Things Have Changed" (from the Wonder Boys film soundtrack. Of course no two-CD package can completely do justice to an arist as prolific -- and as profound -- as Dylan, but Essential offers a sensibly assembled, user-friendly introduction to his remarkable output. Scott Schinder

All Music Guide

A double-disc set released for the holiday season of 2000, The Essential Bob Dylan is a fine choice for the casual listener that just wants all the songs they know on one collection -- it's Dylan's equivalent of Beatles One. Outside of the remastering and the previously non-LP (and very good) "Things Have Changed," there's nothing here for collectors, but, then again, that's not who this was designed for. This collection is for the listener that wants "Blowin' in the Wind," "Like a Rolling Stone," "All Along the Watchtower," "Quinn the Eskimo," "Lay Lady Lay," and "Tangled Up in Blue" in one tidy place. Yes, it's easy to find great songs missing, but for those casual fans, and for those looking for a fairly comprehensive yet concise entry point, The Essential Bob Dylan comes close to living up to its title. Stephen Thomas Erlewine