Bob Dylan - The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3

This dazzling set was originally released in 1991, when Dylan's reputation had sunk about as low as it has ever been. The Bootleg Series was a perfectly judged, and desperately needed, reminder of Dylan's roots, and of the way he'd used them to create so much transfiguring music of his own. It reached from early-'60s talking blues and gutbucket folk to wildly different unreleased versions of the likes of "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and "Like A Rolling Stone" before galloping on to such recent epics as "Foot Of Pride" and "Blind Willie McTell". The great mystery was, why the hell hadn't we heard this stuff before?

Rating: 5 / 10