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Biograph

BIOGRAPH

 
Biograph  is a box set compilation spanning the career of American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on November 7, 1985 by Columbia Records.  Consisting of 53 released and unreleased tracks from 1962 to 1981, the box set was released as both a five-LP set and a three-compact disc set.  The recordings on Biograph are a mix of rarities, hit singles, and album tracks.  They are not presented in chronological order; 18 of its 53 tracks had not been previously issued, and three more had only been previously available on singles.  The set comes accompanied with a 42-page booklet, containing rare photos and liner notes by Cameron Crowe, who interviews Dylan about each of the tracks.  Nine of the ten tracks from Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits appear on this compilation.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
Bob Dylan hates bootleg albums, but he has consented to the official release of a series of albums called The Bootleg Series.  (Earlier releases that also included songs that were previously available only as bootlegs are the 1975 album The Basement Tapes, which included numerous recordings from Great White Wonder album; and the 1985 five-LP or three-CD retrospective Biograph).  To date, nine volumes have been released in The Bootleg Series, the most recent (The Bootleg Series Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos: 1962–1964) in 2010. 
 
(August 2012)
 
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I encountered “Mixed Up Confusion” on one of the first Bob Dylan bootleg albums that I bought (though it was not Great White Wonder).  However, it was not officially re-released until the box set Biograph was released in 1985.  A pristine copy of the “Mixed Up Confusion” 45 brought $1,225 at auction in 2008. 

 

(June 2013/2)