Biograph [Box set]

Track Listings
Disc: 1

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. Times They Are A-Changin', The

7. Blowin' In The Wind

See all 19 tracks on this disc
Disc: 2

1. Visions Of Johanna - (live 1966 version)

2. Every Grain Of Sand

3. Mighty Quinn, The (Quinn The Eskimo)

4. Mr. Tambourine Man

5. Dear Landlord

6. It Ain't Me Babe

7. You Angel You

See all 17 tracks on this disc
Disc: 3

1. Caribbean Wind

2. Up To Me - (previously unreleased 1974 song)

3. Baby I`m In The Mood For You

4. I Wanna Be Your Lover

5. I Want You

6. Heart Of Mine

7. On A Night Like This

See all 18 tracks on this disc

Tracks:

Lay Lady Lay
Baby, Let Me Follow You Down
If Not For You
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
I'll Keep It With Mine
The Times They Are A-Changin'
Blowin' In The Wind
Masters Of War
Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll
Percy's Song
Mixed-Up Confusion
Tombstone Blues
Groom's Still Waiting At The Altar
Most Likely You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine
Like A Rolling Stone
Lay Down Your Weary Tune
Subterranean Homesick Blues
I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)

Tracks:

Visions Of Johanna
Every Grain Of Sand
Quinn The Eskimo
Mr. Tambourine Man
Dear Landlord
It Ain't Me Babe
You Angel You
Million Dollar Bash
To Ramona
You're A Big Girl Now
Abandoned Love
Tangled Up In Blue
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?
Positively 4th Street
Isis
Jet Pilot

Tracks:

Caribbean Wind
Up To Me
Baby, I'm In the Mood For You
I Wanna Be Your Lover
I Want You
Heart Of Mine
On A Night Like This
Just Like A Woman
Romance In Durango
Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power)
Gotta Serve Somebody
I Believe In You
Time Passes Slowly
I Shall Be Released
Knockin' On Heaven's Door
All Along The Watchtower
Solid Rock
Forever Young

Customer Reviews:

One of the first, and greatest, box sets ever..........2007-04-28

This really got me into Dylan. I had 4 of his albums up to this point (Shot of Love, Infidels, Slow Train Coming, and Empire Burlesque), but this one was the jackpot. I bought everything I could get my hands on after this. This is a magnificent set, with beautifully remastered versions of his great songs, great outtakes (some better than the song he left on the album), and great alternate versions (I like the quieter version of You're a Big Girl Now here...it's so lovely, and not as angry as the studio version on Blood). Caribbean Wind, an outtake from the Shot of Love sessions, is here, and it's better than most of the songs on that album. Ditto with Up to Me, from the Blood sessions. Up to Me is a majestic song, and it's a shame it couldn't make in on Blood. Positively 4th Street makes it on this album, along with the magnificent Percy's Song. The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar appears here. It was an outtake from the Shot of Love sessions, but garnered some airplay as a B-side. Eventually, Shot of Love would be reissued with the song. And, of course, the great Dylan songs are here in abundance. The album came out in 1985, and it covered only up until the Shot of Love sessions. No tracks from Infidels or Empire made it here. The booklet and liner notes are really revealing, and Dylan shares his incredible intelligence with us all. I'd like to see a reissue of this with material from Infidels and beyond. The 80's was a terrible decade for Bob, but this fantastic set ALMOST compensates for bad albums he put out during that decade like Knocked Out Loaded, Dylan and the Dead, and Down in the Groove. This is the best Dylan compliation out there....

Amazing.......2007-02-06

I spent a weekend trying to figure out the words to a song I heard in the background of North Country. THanks to Amazon and Google I narrowed it down to Bob Dylan's Lay Lady Lay..... I bought this CD for that song alone so you can imagine my immense surprise when the rest of the CD turned out some wonderful hidden treasures too.

Ok but only for the Die-Hards.......2007-01-09

This is a compliation of mostly everything already published. I bought for 'I'll Keep it w/Mine', 'Lay Down Your Weary Tune', and 'Percy's Song'. If you already own a lot of Dylan, you already have these songs.

Good Introduction.......2006-12-27

This CD set turned me on the Bob Dylan. The song, Abandoned Love, blew me away the first time that I heard it. Overall, it is a good collection with most of the big Bob Dylan songs on it.

An essential compilation for every fan.......2005-12-08

The three-CD Biograph is probably not the best place to start if you're new to Bob Dylan, but it is a really great set that any serious fan needs to own. Biograph is both an excellent summary of Dylan's musical career (the first twenty years of it, at least) and an assortment of excellent rare and obscure tracks. Supreme classics like Blowin' in the Wind, Like a Rolling Stone, Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Tangled Up In Blue, Mr. Tambourine Man, Just Like A Woman and Subterranean Homesick Blues are here representing some of Dylan's finest recorded work to see commercial release. There are tons of very good lesser-known songs as well. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight, the excellent closing track from Dylan's John Wesley Harding album is one of Dylan's finest country love songs. Mixed-Up Confusion from 1962 was actually Dylan's first song with electric guitars and a backing band. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll is very highly regarded by Dylan fans as a beautiful, somber eulogy/protest song but remains largely unknown or forgotten to the general populace. To Ramona is one of Dylan's most beautiful and eloquent love songs (and it does have a lot of competition there). Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window is a single from 1965 that faded into obscurity by not appearing on an LP until Biograph in 1985. Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power) is a hidden classic from Dylan's underrated 1978 album, Street Legal. Just listen to this song and see if it doesn't give you goosebumps.

However, there's much more still. Numerous excellent tracks which did not see commercial release are here for your enjoyment. Songs such as I'll Keep It With Mine, Percy's Song, Lay Down Your Weary Tune, Abandoned Love, Caribbean Wind, Up To Me, and I Wanna Be Your Lover are as good as anything on Dylan's studio albums. You will also hear alternate versions of familiar favorites, some in the studio and some live, such as I Don't Believe You, Visions of Johanna, It's All Over Now Baby Blue, Isis, Romance in Durango, I Shall Be Released, Forever Young, and All Along the Watchtower.

Another reason is to pick it up is for two key tracks: Positively 4th Street and Knockin' on Heaven's Door. Positively 4th Street is a Dylan classic, released as a non-album single in 1965, the only album it was available on was Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits. Knockin' On Heaven's Door is a classic from 1973 that has seen many cover versions, notably from Eric Clapton and Guns N' Roses. The only album it appears on is the soundtrack to Sam Peckinpah's film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid in which the song originally appeared. So you get both of these great songs in one place without having to buy the otherwise unnecessary Greatest Hits or Pat Garrett soundtrack. These two songs are nearly worth the price of the set.

The sound quality on the CDs is excellent, provided you get the 1997 re-release which was remastered for highest fidelity. The 1997 version is in a double-CD case as opposed to the bigger box set format of the original release. In addition to the excellent music there are thorough and informative liner notes by Cameron Crowe which give a look at Dylan's discography and notes for every single song as well as recording and release dates. That's something of very high value to geeks like me. There are lots of pretty pictures of Mr. Dylan too.

I think I've given you ample reasons to buy this box set. If you consider yourself any kind of Bob Dylan fan and you don't have Biograph, get it right now! Stop reading this extraordinarily well-written, very helpful review and go buy this set. If this box has you itching for more Dylan outtakes and rarities, then by all means proceed to The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare and Unreleased) for even more delectable unreleased goodness.

Average customer rating:

Biograph Bob Dylan
A Bob Dylan box set? Spanning just three discs?
The best "best of Dylan" available
Some of Dylan's Best Left Behind Stuff

Biograph
Bob Dylan
Manufacturer: Sony
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Contemporary Folk | Folk | Styles | Music

Singer-Songwriters | Contemporary Folk | Folk | Styles | Music

Folk Rock | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

General | Classic Rock | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964 - Concert at Philharmonic Hall
The Basement Tapes
Bob Dylan Live 1975 (The Bootleg Series Volume 5)
The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 : Rare And Unreleased, 1961-1991

ASIN: B00006FN96
Release Date: 2002-08-06

Tracks:

Lay Lady Lay
Baby Let Me Follow You Down
If Not For You
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
I'll Keep It With Mine
Times They Are A-Changin', The
Blowin' In The Wind
Masters Of War
Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll
Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power)
Percy's Song - (previously unreleased 1963)
Mixed Up Confusion
Tombstone Blues
Groom's Still Waiting At Altar
Most Likely You Go Your Way - (live 1974)
Like A Rolling Stone
Lay Down Your Weary Tune
Subterranean Homesick Blues
I Don't Believe You - (live 1966)

Tracks:

Visions Of Johanna - (live 1966 version)
Every Grain Of Sand
Mighty Quinn, The (Quinn The Eskimo)
Mr. Tambourine Man
Dear Landlord
It Ain't Me Babe
You Angel You
Million Dollar Bash
To Ramona
You're A Big Girl Now
Abandoned Love - (previously unreleased)
Tangled Up In Blue
It's All Over Now Baby Blue - (live in 1966)
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?
Positively 4th Street
Isis - (live 1975)
Jet Pilot - (previously unreleased)

Tracks:

Caribbean Wind
Up To Me - (previously unreleased 1974 song)
Baby I`m In The Mood For You
I Wanna Be Your Lover
I Want You
Heart Of Mine
On A Night Like This
Just Like A Woman
Romance In Durango
Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power)
Gotta Serve Somebody
I Believe In You
Time Passes Slowly
I Shall Be Released
Knockin` On Heaven's Door
All Along The Watchtower
Solid Rock
Forever Young - (previously unreleased demo)

Customer Reviews:

Biograph Bob Dylan.......2006-03-24

I sent it back to Amazon for a refund, for personal reasons, not related to the quality of the product.

A Bob Dylan box set? Spanning just three discs?.......2004-12-05

How to make a Bob Dylan box set...well, you could put out one with about a dozen CDs and still be blamed that somebody's favorite song was missing.
But the compilers at Columbia have doen a good job solving this rather impossible task. 1985's "Biograph" wasn't the first ever career-spanning rock box set (the late, great Buddy Holly was honored with that in 1979), but it was the most important by far, establishing the format and sparking new interest in Bob Dylan whose career was in decline at the time.

Unlike many box sets, this one actually offers something to both the casual and the dedicated fan. Most of Dylan's best-known songs are here, as well as a generous helping of unreleased songs, B-sides, alternates and demos. And almost everything gels, actually, making "Biograph" an excellent, if not definitive, summary of Bob Dylan's career from 1961-1985.
Many great songs are missing, of course, but with an artist as prolific as Bob Dylan that can't be helped. And the songs that are here are excellent (with the exception of a handful that are merely good).

This is an immensely varied compilation, very well annotated and boasting magnificent state-of-the-art fidelity. The track list includes early acoustic numbers, electric rock songs, blues-rock, folk-rock, country-rock, and lovely ballads. And the rarities and previously unreleased songs aren't rejects or filler, most of them are in fact excellent, from the acoustic "Up To Me" and the surreal "Quinn The Eskimo" to the quirky, upbeat pop of "On A Night Like This" and "Heart Of Mine", and the gorgeous ballads "Lay Down Your Weary Tune" and "I'll Keep It With Mine".
Casual Dylan fans may well find that there are too many unfamiliar songs here, and they should probably start somewhere else...Dylan's original "Greatest Hits" album and the two-disc "More Greatest Hits" (AKA "Greatest Hits vol. 2") still provide the best introduction to Bob Dylan in his prime, much better than the more recent "Essential Bob Dylan". Or start by picking up Dylan's three best band-backed records, "Bringing It All Back Home", "Highway 61 Revisited", and "Blood On The Tracks".

There is no such thing as a definitive Bob Dylan-compilation, and three CDs wouldn't contain it if there was. And besides, the wonderful 70s albums "Blood On The Tracks" and "Desire" in particular are being short-changed, which is a shame.
But "Biograph" is still 3½ hours of some of Dylan's greatest songs, and the rarities and unreleased tracks makes it a must-have purchase even for the dedicated fan who already has all the hits.
4 3/4 stars.

The best "best of Dylan" available.......2004-02-06

Putting together a "best of" collection for a musical artist whose work should be heard in the context of the albums on which it originally appeared is a difficult task, but the folks responsible for Bob Dylan's "Biograph" did themselves proud.

The sequencing may not make much sense in the CD era, but this was released in 1985 when vinyl records were still the dominant format. By 33 1/3 standards, the sequencing makes perfect sense with each side arranged (loosely) around a theme. The so-called protest songs were relegated to one side, love songs were given another, and difficult to catagorize tracks like "Every Grain of Sand" and "Visions of Johanna" were collected on another side.

With that in mind, "Biograph" is hard to beat. As an introduction to THE singer-songwriter of the rock era, "Biograph" makes previous "hits" packages obsolete by providing an exciting and varied overview of Dylan's brilliance as both a composer and performer. Whether protesting society's injustices in "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are A Changin'," chronicalling the course of a love affair in "You're a Big Girl Now," professing a belief in the divine as in "Solid Rock" and "Every Grain of Sand," or just being inscrutably brilliant as in a previously unreleased live rendition of "Visions of Johanna," Dylan's songwriting genius is simply unrivaled in any genre of music.

For those who already own most of the official releases from Dylan's Columbia catalogue, the real treat here are the previously unreleased recordings, such as the breathtaking "Up to Me" (an outtake from 1974's "Blood on the Tracks") and the superb "Abandoned Love" (leftover from 1976's "Desire"), all of which prove that the scraps from the man's table are often every bit as tasty as the main meal.

Some of Dylan's Best Left Behind Stuff.......2003-10-01

I can just imagine the excitement this set must have generated among Dylan fans when this set was released. Biograph was so much more than a retrospective because of all of the unreleased material on it. The set opens with "Visions of Johanna" from the Sixty-six tour and draws you right into the music. Just imagine, Dylan fans had to wait two more decades to finally get a whole Sixty-six show in the legal Bootleg Series. "Quinn the Eskimo" the third song on the record was recorded at Mr. D's Isle of White show in Sixty-nine and curiously enough left off "Self Portrait" where you can find more songs from that show. "You're a Big Girl Now" and "Tangled Up in Blue" are out takes from "Blood on the Tracks." "I Wanna be Your Lover" and "Crawl Out Your Window" are both songs left over from Sixty-six. "Percy's Song" one of the true gems of this set is from the earlier acoustic period. And there is more, so much more. This is one fine five star Bob Dylan set and if you don't own it, you should.

Reviewed by Stephanie Sane

Average customer rating:

Enjoying a Necessary Evil

Greatest Ragtime Of The Century

Manufacturer: Biograph
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

Traditional Jazz General | Traditional Jazz & Ragtime | Jazz | Styles | Music

Stride Piano | Traditional Jazz & Ragtime | Jazz | Styles | Music

Boogie-Woogie | Traditional Jazz & Ragtime | Jazz | Styles | Music

Ragtime | Traditional Jazz & Ragtime | Jazz | Styles | Music

New Orleans & Dixieland Jazz | Compilations | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Blues | Indie Music | Stores | Music

General | Jazz | Indie Music | Stores | Music
ASIN: B000003HLD
Release Date: 1992-10-09

Tracks:

Shreveport Stomp - Jelly Roll Morton
Sweet Man - Jelly Roll Morton
Tom Cat Blues - Jelly Roll Morton
A New Kind Of Man With A New Kind Of Love For Me - Thomas 'Fats' Waller
Nobody But My Baby - Thomas 'Fats' Waller
Got To Cool My Doggies Now - Thomas 'Fats' Waller
Maple Leaf Rag - Scott Joplin
Weeping Willow Rag - Scott Joplin
Something Doing - Scott Joplin
Steeplechase Rag - James P. Johnson
Twilight Rag - James P. Johnson
Charleston Rag - Eubie Blake
It's Right Here For You - Eubie Blake
Fare Thee Honey Blues - Eubie Blake
Mr. Freddie Blues - Jimmy Blythe
Regal Stomp - Jimmy Blythe/Charles Clark

Amazon.com

Piano rolls--perforated paper rolls that recorded a pianist's performance for playback on a mechanical "player piano"--represent one of the more fascinating windows on the music of the early 20th century. Though player pianos included considerable mechanical noise, they represented the closest thing you could get to "live" sound even into the late 1920s, and they often functioned as acoustic jukeboxes. This CD provides piano rolls from early American music's important pianists, demonstrating the gradual shift in style that took place between ragtime and jazz. Part of the fascination of these rolls is that they represent the way musicians like Jelly Roll Morton and Fats Waller were often heard in their own era.

The tracks by Scott Joplin include his most famous work, "Maple Leaf Rag," and in their subtle shifts and overall architecture, they demonstrate Joplin's affinity with European classical forms. Eubie Blake's ragtime pieces are more animated, including by far the earliest roll here, "Charleston Rag," recorded in 1899, when Blake was just 16. There's even more startling contrast between Joplin's careful formalism and the virtuosic exuberance of James P. Johnson, heard here in a joyous performance of "Steeplechase Rag" and a "Twilight Rag" that makes striking use of dissonance. Waller, Johnson's greatest pupil, plays with such larger-than-life vitality and rhythmic ease that his rolls of "New Kind of Man," "Nobody But My Baby," and "Got to Cool My Doggies Now" seem to cross the line into direct recordings of his performances. Alone among these artists, New Orleans jazz pioneer Morton exploits the extended playing time of the piano roll to press his "Shreveport Stomp" toward the five-minute mark. The final tracks come from Jimmy Blythe, a brilliant if obscure Chicago pianist who worked in both blues and jazz. "Mr. Freddie Blues" is pure, heartfelt blues playing, with little suggestion of ragtime, while "Regal Stomp," a duet by Blythe and Charles Clark, is an inspired demonstration of how much data a piano roll could manage. --Stuart Broomer

Customer Reviews:

Enjoying a Necessary Evil.......2000-09-22

Before the advent of electric recording in the 1920s, the one musical instrument that it was almost impossible to record was the piano. This meant that during the heyday of ragtime piano, most ragtime composers concentrated on sheet music and most performers concentrated on touring. The closest thing we have to a record of what ragtime originally sounded like are piano rolls like these, most of them recorded in the late 1910s and ealry 1920s, just as piano rolls were building to their peak at the end of the pre-electric era. Oddly enough, because these are rolls rather than acoustic recordings, they are subject to a sort of monkeying that you just couldn't do with a record back then. They were adjusted for pacing and "rough" phrasing was made smoother as the roll was copied to the model from which all subsequent recordings would come. Consequently, pianists of very different generations (e.g., Scott Joplin and James Johnson) sound too much alike on this recording, because the companies that issued their rolls were aiming at an aggregate "rag piano" style. Nevertheless, this is the closest you will get to hearing what ragtime originally sounded like. As you listen, you will understand why Joplin in particular saw close connections between his compositions and those of more "classical" composers. You will also understand why he told people again and again: "You must never play ragtime fast."

Average customer rating:

Thompson Plays Jelly Roll Morton Solos
Butch Thompson
Manufacturer: Biograph
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

Traditional Jazz General | Traditional Jazz & Ragtime | Jazz | Styles | Music

Stride Piano | Traditional Jazz & Ragtime | Jazz | Styles | Music
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The Butch Thompson Trio Plays Favorites
Tain't Nobody's Business
Butch Thompson's King Oliver Centennial Band
Chicago Breakdown 88's

ASIN: B000003HME
Release Date: 1996-03-19

Tracks:

King Porter Stomp
Jungle Blues
Fat Meat & Greens
Bert Williams
Tiger Rag
Pep
Kansas City Stomps
The Crave
Seattle Hunch
Original Rags
I Hate A Man Like You
Black Bottom Stomp

Amazon.com

Today the premier interpreter of early piano jazz, Thompson showed even on this recording debut, at age 25, that his early promise as a piano prodigy would be fulfilled. On 12 tunes from the first half of the early jazz-piano master's career, Thompson lacks none of Morton's later sophistications. He has interpreted Morton's recordings afresh, though without modernization or one-upsmanship. He misses none of the tunes' nuances, including hints at ragtime, stomps, and Morton's tinge of tango. He also finds ways--in, for example, "Kansas City Stomps"--to allude to Morton's arrangements of many of these tunes for his famed Red Hot Peppers band. He summonses up the banjo, the clarinet, and entire trad bands, not to mention the brothels and gambling dens that Morton frequented. --Peter Monaghan

Average customer rating:

The Modern Art of Jazz
Milt Hinton with Hank Jones and Oscar Pettiford
Manufacturer: Biograph
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

Swing General | Swing Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Compilations | Jazz | Styles | Music

Tracks:

Have You Met Miss Jones - Rodgers/Hart
Body And Soul - Green/Heyman/Soar
Blues For Sal - Jones
Airmail Special - Hank Jones/Oscar Pettiford/Charlie Smith
As Time Goes By - Julius Watkins/Joe Puma/Mat Matthews/Oscar Pettiford/Kenny Clarke
What A Difference A Day Made - Herbie Mann/Joe Puma/Mat Matthews/Oscar Pettiford/Kenny Clarke
Knights At The Castle - Dick Katz/Art Farmer/Gigi Gryce/Mat Matthews/Oscar Pettiford/Kenny Clarke
I Only Have Eyes For You - Mat Matthews/Joe Puma/Julius Watkins/Oscar Pettiford/Kenny Clarke
September In The Rain - Dubin/Warren
Not So Deep - Milt Hinton/Zoot Sims/Bob Brookmeyer/Gus Johnson/John Williams
Singing The Blues - Robinson/Conrad/Lewis/Young
Softly As In A Morning Sunrise - Hammerstein Romberg
Abstract Of You - Cohn
Blue Lou - Milt Hinton/Hank Jones/Al Cohn/Frank Rehak/Osie Johnson

Average customer rating:

Thirty-two years of great fun for me
The Return of the Legend
A great CD that I wouldn't part with, but seldom listen to.
Guitar Players Rejoice!
A Primer on the 'Bentonia' Approach to Delta Blues

Hardtime Killing Floor Blues
Skip James
Manufacturer: Biograph
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Delta Blues | Blues | Styles | Music

General | Blues | Styles | Music

Traditional Blues | Blues | Styles | Music

Acoustic Blues | Blues | Styles | Music

Piano | Blues | Styles | Music

General | Soul | R&B | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Devil Got My Woman
Vanguard Sessions: Blues From The Delta
Complete Recorded Works of Son House & the Great Delta Blues Singers
The Complete Recordings
My Name Is Buddy

ASIN: B000003HLW
Release Date: 1992-09-24

Tracks:

Hardtime Killing Floor Blues
Sick Bed Blues
Washington D.C. Hospital Center Blues
Devil Got My Woman
Illinois Blues
I Don't Want A Woman To Stay Up All Night Long
Cherry Ball Blues
Skip's Worried Blues
Cypress Grove Blues
Catfish Blues
Motherless & Fatherless
All Night Long

Customer Reviews:

Thirty-two years of great fun for me.......2003-06-17

I remember buying this record in the spring of 1971. Like another reviewer said, it stays with you. You play it now and again, but it stays with you for years.
The music here is more approachable than the original recordings from the 20s. The new songs are interesting and plaintive and they say something about life, now and then, they aren't just museum pieces.
The falsetto voice and the tenderness with which he sings and plays guitar and piano is striking. This is music to sit with a glass of good wine and listen to and think and learn about life.
If you play guitar you will continue to think about playing the tunes even if you never try the modal tunings and dropped E, Skip uses. I'm learning to fiddle, and I cannot wait to try he's a good man but a poor man on the fiddle.
There is no conflict between this and the original music. Even though many of the songs are the same, the power of the different recordings and the artistry of Skip James are such that they are different, unique and lasting, each with its own power.

The Return of the Legend.......2002-10-24

The legendary Nehemiah "Skip" James made his first recordings with Paramount in the 1930s shortly before the label folded. Most of these have been tracked down on 78s and collected on "The Complete Early Recordings of Skip James", an essential album for blues aficionado.

This album, however, includes some of the studio recordings made after his rediscovery on the 1960s. These are dramatically different than his early works, but to say that his musical ability diminished over the years is ludicrous.

Most noticably, his voice changed. He sings with even more intimacy and heartbreak than before (although, after hearing the early recordings, that just doesn't seem possible!). His falsetto is more fragile, his moans are more painful, his words are sung with added meaning. Want to make your blood curl? First listen to the original "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" from the 1930s. This is one of the most powerful blues songs ever recorded, fully documenting the poverty, murder, and horror of the Depression-era deep south. Then listen to the version of the same song on this album...the pacing is slower, the words are almost whispers, the guitar work is eerie and crawling, his voice is more fragile. He sounds broken. Thirty years of living penniless in the Mississippi Delta will do that to a man.

James revisits all of his famous songs--"Killing Floor", "Devil Got My Woman", "Cypress Grove", "Cherry Ball"--all of which are very different from their original recordings. And it's all guitar work; James had apparently retired from piano playing by the time of his rediscovery. He includes a unique rendition of the folk-blues classic "Catfish Blues". He also gives us some new tracks--most outstanding are "Washington DC Hospital Center Blues" and "Sick Bed Blues", both of which are about his long battle with cancer, which ultimately claimed him just a couple years after these recordings.

Some would argue that Skip James reached his peak in the 1930s and these later recordings are of lesser quality. I beg to differ--I'd say that he never lost it. He only grew older, and his music changed with him. Not only was his musical genius as strong as ever, he had lived through thirty years of hell--thus giving him the uncanny ability to drive the blues into your soul like a stake through the heart.

A great CD that I wouldn't part with, but seldom listen to........2002-10-09

Haunting. I love this CD, oddly enough, I don't listen to it a whole lot because it sticks with me and has such an effect on my mood.

Guitar Players Rejoice!.......2001-02-05

There is no doubt that Skip James is not for everyone. His songs are sad, full of woe, and are unrelentless in honest singing. But listen a second time and you hear one amazing guitar player and overall musician put it all together. John Fahey write his Master Thesis on James, and the connection is clear. For those guitar pickers out there, listen to Skip, figure out what he's doing, and then try and play it. You might be surprised. Great music.

A Primer on the 'Bentonia' Approach to Delta Blues.......2000-04-04

Nehemiah Curtis 'Skip' James is credited as the founder of the 'Bentonia school' of Delta blues. In reality, James was the full embodiment of this idiom, and Biograph's 'Greatest of the Delta Blues Singers' is an excellent overview. The CD contains 12 songs James recorded in one sitting at Falls Church, VA, on December 16, 1964. These were the first recordings James had made since being 'rediscovered' in a Mississipi hospital earlier that year. On the track list are six works from the early days of Skip James' career, including the classics 'Hard Time Killing Floor Blues,' 'Devil Got My Woman,' 'Cherry Ball Blues,' and 'Cypress Grove Blues.' The remaining songs are either reworked Delta standards or newer material written by James. The listener will not be disappointed; the digital transfer of this recording is as impressive as the performances. 'Hardtime Killing Floor Blues' is considered by some as the penultimate Depression era song, and James' eerie performance here suggests what could be the lament of the downtrodden for all ages. His aged voice soars in a lonely falsetto against the backdrop of ominous bass string lines and nervous upper string picking. The guitar work throughout maintains this constant tension between low register anger and high-pitched fear. James' voice sounds as if it seeks escape from theses dark extremes. Unlike other Delta artists, James did not use a slide. His was an elaborate finger-picking style more akin to Piedmont bluesmen like Brownie McGhee and Cephas & Wiggins. He was also fond of using drop E tuning and dissonant solos to heighten the tension of his music. 'Sick Bed Blues,' written after James was diagnosed with cancer, contains passages where his guitar intentionally gallops away off-key, dramatically suggesting the artist's reaction to learning of his terminal illness. 'Greatest of the Delta Blues Singers' is not for the faint of heart. If genuine, painful blues is what the listener wants to experience, it doesn't get more brazen than this. Skip James was not simply the purveyor of a unique style; his music in many ways reflects the darkest shades of human nature.

Average customer rating:

Better Remastering is Out There
Great jazz of the raorin' 20's...
Traditional Jazz at its best

New York Jazz in the Roaring Twenties
Tommy Dorsey , Red Nichols , and Jimmy Dorsey
Manufacturer: Biograph
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

Swing General | Swing Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

Classic Big Band | Swing Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

Contemporary Big Band | Swing Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Indie Music | Stores | Music

Swing Jazz | Jazz | Indie Music | Stores | Music
ASIN: B000003HM3
Release Date: 1994-04-11

Tracks:

Black Bottom Stomp - Red & Miff's Stompers
Hurricane - Red & Miff's Stompers
Alabama Stomp - Red & Miff's Stompers
Stampede - Red & Miff's Stompers
Five Pennies - Phil Napoleon's Orchestra
SIdewalk Blues
Stockholm Stomp
State And Madison - Joe Herlihy & His Orchestra
Gold Digger Stomp - Joe Herlihy & His Orchestra
Shake
I Ain't Got Nobody
Third Rail
Make My Cot Where The Cot-Cot-Cotton Grows
The Pay-Off

Customer Reviews:

Better Remastering is Out There.......2007-03-16

These are the tired old Biograph remasters from the 1960s, some of which were done at the wrong speed, resulting in incorrect pitch. Amazing that no one bothered to correct this. These Edison recordings by Red Nichols' groups are now available in beautifully remastered sound on the Jazz Oracle label, and lovers of 20s hot jazz are advised to seek them out.

Great jazz of the raorin' 20's..........2000-09-20

However this CD contsains no rarities, and it is just a run of the mill hophodge sampler of "new York Jazz In The Roaring 20's," completests and collectors can find this material elsewhere in much more compete series. Most of the material on this CD is by Red Nichols as a leader, and The California Rambers, you can buy their CD's seperately making this CD, very useless, even though the music is great, it's incomplete, and expensive. Not recommended to jazz collectors, who will already have most of this material.

Traditional Jazz at its best.......2000-04-05

New York jazz in the 1920s was new, dynamic, innovative and the precursor to "pop" and big band music that was to follow. This CD has a great sampling of the musicians who epitomized that style, including Red Nichols (my favorite). The first four titles are examples of the wonderful collaboration of Nichols and his close friend Miff Mole ("Red and Miff's Stompers) and clearly demonstrate the higly disciplined style for which Nichols was well known (and cordially despised)by his fellows. Phil Napoleon's sole ontribution here is with "Five Pennies", a Nichols number which Napoleon plays in a much "looser" style than Nichols. Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey are a bit less prominent here as these recordings pre-date their own groups. But their styles are unmistakable Other bands included are the California Ramblers, Joe Herlihy and his Orchestra and Phil Napoleon's Orchestra. The listener should note from the liner notes the various side-men; many of them were highly talented and were much in damand for studio sessions. They made a real contribution to the music of the day, including the selections on this CD.

Tracks:

Maple Leaf Rag
Something Doing
Weeping Willow Rag
The Entertainer
The Easy Winners
Pine Apple Rag
Solace
Gladiolus Rag
The Ragtime Dance
Sugar Cane
The Crush Collision March
Bethena - A Concert Waltz
Combination March
A Breeze From Alabama

Customer Reviews:

Joplin-recorded tracks are excellent.......2007-06-02

The first three tracks of this CD are audio recordings from piano rolls cut by Scott Joplin himself in April and May of 1916. They are excellent and give any pianist great insight as to how Joplin meant the pieces to be played, both in terms of tempo and phrasing. Joplin also includes embellishments that are not reflected in the printed sheet music. These recordings are thus great resources for advanced pianists ready for bigger challenges.

The remaining tracks are unfortunately rather mechanical and lifeless -- at least when contrasted to those played by Joplin himself. For this reason, I rate the CD at only four stars. Nonetheless, I strongly recommend the CD to anyone who is serious about playing Scott Joplin's pieces or simply loves his music.

indispensable old time music - one of the roots of jazz.......2001-09-16

Like on the other Biograph CD of Joplin's work,"Elite syncopations",we are sure that Scott Joplin (1868-1917) plays on the first three rolls.The others were produced in the sixties by a collector,Mr Hal Boulware.Once again,Joplin's talent for writing explodes in each tune; of course, there are well known themes,"maple leaf rag" and "the entertainer";but to me, these tunes,although everyone knows them since "the sting" was filmed,are not Joplin's best efforts.Listen to the beautiful melodies of "weeping willow rag","the easy winners",or "Bethena".Part of "the ragtime dance" has been included in Scott Joplin's greatest and desperate effort,an opera called "Treemonisha",which doesn't seem to be reissued on CD.This is great old time music,with a particular flavor of melancholy and timeless feeling.And even if it seems far from jazz,it's one of jazz's roots,and before that, a great moment in the history of music.

Average customer rating:

The Jazz French Horn - it Does Exist!!!
Warm and exotic blast from the past

Les Jazz Modes
Charlie Rouse
Manufacturer: Biograph
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Bebop General | Bebop | Jazz | Styles | Music

Hard Bop | Bebop | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Harold in the Land of Jazz
The Fox

ASIN: B000003HM8
Release Date: 1995-05-30

Tracks:

Dancing On The Ceiling
Legend
Temptation
Episode
Dancing In The Dark
Goodbye
Baubles, Bangles, And Beads
Autumn Leaves
Golden Chariot
Let's Try
Bohemia
Catch Her
Hoo-Tai

Tracks:

Mood In Scarlet
Linda Delia
Town And Country
When The Blues Come On
Blue Modes
You Are Too Beautiful
So Far
Idle Evening
Garden Delights
Strange Tale
Two Songs

Customer Reviews:

The Jazz French Horn - it Does Exist!!!.......2007-02-25

This CD should be mandatory listening for anyone who wants to learn to play French Horn. If it can be done, you can do it too. And Julius Watkins did it - playing jazz! What a swinging, inventive, beautifully-toned soloist. "Dancing on the Ceiling" will tell you all you need to know.

As an added caveat, the arranging on this CD is fascinating - shout choruses, send-offs, interludes, intros and ending are woven in beautifully to the tunes, with Watkins and Tenorman Charlie Rouse playing off each other like dolphins in the seas. First-class music.

Warm and exotic blast from the past.......2005-10-26

As a kid, I somehow wound up with a number of LP's from the tiny Dawn label. The sounds were of such a high quality that 35 years later they were still receiving spins on my turntable. To discover these recordings reissued on CD and to have them back in hand is a satisfying slap on the face of time.

Les Jazz Modes complemented the unusual sound of a tenor sax/French horn frontline with instruments such as harp and wordless human voice. The free and open feeling of the song forms belied their 12 and 32-bar structures, thanks in part to fugal textures and colorful orchestrations. Yet, as the presence of musicians like Oscar Pettiford, Paul Chambers, Art Taylor and Chano Pozo should testify, these were musicians who could swing and reflect the tradition.

About horn player Julius Watkins, I'm reminded of Dr. Johnson's comparison of a woman preacher to a dog walking on its hind legs: "It is not done well, but you are surprised to find it done at all." As sexist as the comment is, I'm afraid it has some application to Julius Watkins' playing. He's a fine musician, but his contribution owes as much to the unique tonal characteristics of his instrument as to his melodic ideas and execution. The French horn still sounds rather cumbersome when it attempts to play anything close to bebop. It's Charlie Rouse, a truly underrated and formidable tenor saxophonist, who takes up the slack and then some. A player practically unmatched for ceaselessly inventive, swinging and soulful melodic lines and for lightning fast articulations, he's at once the spark and life of the entire enterprise.

You don't have to be a francophile to relate to this music, though being a Frenchman may not hurt. This is mainstream American jazz, a music that has frequently found a more receptive audience on Napoleon's soil than our own. (Start with the second disc, which is easily the superior of the two.)

Average customer rating:

Midnight Blues
Larry Johnson , and John Hammond Jr.
Manufacturer: Biograph
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Blues | Styles | Music

East Coast Blues | Regional Blues | Blues | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Blues | Indie Music | Stores | Music

General | Jazz | Indie Music | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Push Comes to Shove
The Road to Escondido

ASIN: B000003HMB
Release Date: 1995-10-03

Tracks:

Blood Red River
One Room Country Shack
Saturday Evening Blues
Peace Breakin' People
Walking Blues
Mama-Less Rag
Red River Dam Blues
Nobody's Biz-ness
Midnight Hour Blues
When Things Go Wrong
Tell Me Mama

Music Review:

Music Review

Music Review

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. Times They Are A-Changin', The
7. Blowin' In The Wind

1. Visions Of Johanna - (live 1966 version)
2. Every Grain Of Sand
3. Mighty Quinn, The (Quinn The Eskimo)
4. Mr. Tambourine Man
5. Dear Landlord
6. It Ain't Me Babe
7. You Angel You

1. Caribbean Wind
2. Up To Me - (previously unreleased 1974 song)
3. Baby I`m In The Mood For You
4. I Wanna Be Your Lover
5. I Want You
6. Heart Of Mine
7. On A Night Like This