Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II
Encyclopedia
Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II (1971), also known as More Bob Dylan Greatest Hits, was the second compilation album released by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

. With Dylan not expected to release any new material for an extended period of time, CBS Records
CBS Records
CBS Records is a record label founded by CBS Corporation in 2006 to take advantage of music from its entertainment properties owned by CBS Television Studios. The initial label roster consisted of only three artists; rock band Señor Happy and singer/songwriters Will Dailey and P.J...

 president Clive Davis
Clive Davis
Clive Davis is an American record producer and music industry executive. He has won five Grammy Awards and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer. From 1967 to 1973 he was the President of Columbia Records. He was the founder and president of Arista Records from 1975...

 proposed issuing a double LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...

 compilation of older material. Dylan agreed, suggesting that the package include a full side of unreleased tracks from his archives. After submitting a set of excerpts from the The Basement Tapes
The Basement Tapes
The Basement Tapes is a 1975 studio album by Bob Dylan and The Band. The songs featuring Dylan's vocals were recorded in 1967, eight years before the album's release, at houses in and around Woodstock, New York, where Dylan and the Band lived...

that Davis found unsatisfactory, Dylan returned to the studio in September 1971 to recut several Basement songs, with Happy Traum
Happy Traum
Happy Traum is an American folk musician who started playing music in the Fifties. Happy is most famously known as one half of Happy and Artie Traum, a duo he began with his brother...

 providing backup.

The final package included one previously uncollected single, "Watching The River Flow", (which became an instant cult classic and is still performed live today); an outtake from the same sessions, "When I Paint My Masterpiece"; one song from Dylan's April 12, 1963 Town Hall
The Town Hall
The Town Hall is a performance space, located at 123 West 43rd Street, between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, in New York City. It seats approximately 1,500 people.-History:...

 concert, "Tomorrow is a Long Time
Tomorrow Is a Long Time
"Tomorrow Is a Long Time" is a song written and recorded by Bob Dylan. Dylan's version first appeared on the Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume II compilation, released in 1971...

", and three songs from the September sessions, "I Shall Be Released
I Shall Be Released
"I Shall Be Released" is a 1967 song written by Bob Dylan.The Band played it on their debut album, Music from Big Pink , with Richard Manuel singing lead vocals, and Rick Danko and Levon Helm harmonizing in the chorus...

", "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
"You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1967 in Woodstock, New York, during the self-imposed exile from public appearances that followed his July 29, 1966 motorcycle accident. A recording of Dylan performing the song was first officially released on the Bob Dylan's Greatest...

", and "Down in the Flood
Down in the Flood
Down in the Flood is a song by Bob Dylan, copyrighted and originally recorded by him in 1967 and featured on his 1971 compilation album, Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II. He has recorded it with The Band, too - this version was featured on the 1975 album The Basement Tapes...

". The remaining tracks were drawn from existing releases.

In 2003, this album was released along with Dylan's two other Greatest Hits compilations in one four-disc set, as Greatest Hits Volumes I-III.

Artwork

The album package was designed to capitalize on the publicity surrounding George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...

's Concert for Bangladesh, about to be released on film and LP
The Concert for Bangla Desh
The Concert for Bangladesh is a live triple album and double DVD by George Harrison and celebrity friends performed in aid of the homeless Bengali refugees of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War...

. The photo on the album cover is a cropped version of a photo taken during Dylan's performance at the concert by the film's still photographer, Barry Feinstein. The uncropped photo, which appeared as a two-page spread in the booklet included in the album Concert for Bangla Desh (original title), also contained George Harrison, who was standing to Dylan's right. The album cover is similar to the previous volume, Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits
Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits
Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits is the eighth album released by Bob Dylan on Columbia Records, original catalogue number KCS 9643. It contains every Top 40 single Dylan enjoyed through 1967. It peaked at #10 on the pop album chart in the United States, and went to #3 on the album chart in the United...

, which utilized Rowland Scherman
Rowland Scherman
Rowland Scherman is an American photographer.He studied at Oberlin College, and was dark room apprentice at LIFE magazine. He was the first photographer for the newly formed Peace Corps in 1961...

's 1965 photo. Reaching #14 the US and #12 in the UK, Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II is now certified five times platinum in the US, making it one of Dylan's best selling albums. The original LP also contained Milton Glaser's iconic poster of Dylan with kaleidoscope hair.

Songs previously unreleased on LP

"In one sense, 1971 and 1972 might both be considered 'lost' years," writes Dylan biographer Clinton Heylin
Clinton Heylin
Clinton Heylin is an English author who has written extensively about popular music and the work of Bob Dylan.- Education :...

. Neither year would produce an album, at least not an album entirely composed of newly-recorded material.

Between March 16 and 19, 1971, Dylan reserved three days at Blue Rock Studios, a small studio in New York's Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...

. According to Heylin, "These sessions were produced by Leon Russell
Leon Russell
Claude Russell Bridges , known professionally as Leon Russell, is an American musician and songwriter, who has recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music....

 of Mad Dogs and Englishmen
Mad Dogs and Englishmen (album)
Mad Dogs and Englishmen is Joe Cocker's 1970 live album, featuring a fusion of rock and soul. The album title is drawn from the 1931 Noël Coward song of the same name. Mostly Cocker's album is made up of covers, drawing equally from rock and soul...

fame. Only two originals were recorded - 'Watching The River Flow' and 'When I Paint My Masterpiece' - but both confronted the same subject matter, a continuing dearth of inspiration, in a refreshingly honest fashion."

"When I Paint My Masterpiece" was also recorded by The Band
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...

, who would release their version first on Cahoots. Dylan's recording from Blue Rock would only see release on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II.

"Watching the River Flow" was issued as a single in June 1971, backed by "Spanish Is the Loving Tongue", which had been recorded during the New Morning
New Morning
New Morning is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 11th studio album, released by Columbia Records in October 1970.Coming only four months after the controversial Self Portrait, the more concise and immediate New Morning won a much warmer reception from fans and critics. Most welcome was the return of...

sessions. It would fail to reach the Top 40.

Months later, Dylan would agree to release a second "greatest hits" compilation, provided he could compile it himself, issue it as a double album, and include several older compositions which he had written but never issued himself. To accommodate this last condition, Dylan took it upon himself to hold a recording session at Columbia's Recording Studios in New York. On September 24, 1971, in Columbia's Studio B, Dylan recorded four songs with his friend, Happy Traum.

"He felt there were some songs that he had written that had become hits of sorts for other people, that he didn't actually perform himself," recalls Traum, "and he wanted to fit those on the record as well...So we just went in one afternoon and did it, it was just the two of us and the engineer, and it was very simple...we chose three [songs] on the spot and mixed them...in the space of an afternoon...Sometimes I wasn't even sure if it was a final take until we would just finish and Bob would say, 'Okay, let's go and mix it.'"

"Crash On The Levee (Down In The Flood)". "You Ain't Going Nowhere". and "I Shall Be Released" were recorded and selected for the compilation. "Only a Hobo", an early composition dating back to 1963, was also considered for inclusion but ultimately was left unreleased until 1991's The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 is a compilation box set by Bob Dylan, issued on Columbia Records, catalogue C3K 86572. It is the first installment in the Dylan bootleg series, comprising material spanning the first three decades of his career, from 1961 to 1989...

.

A few lyrical revisions were made on "You Ain't Going Nowhere", the most notable being a reference to Roger McGuinn
Roger McGuinn
James Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...

. Told to "pick up your tent, you ain't going nowhere," McGuinn's band, The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...

, had successfully recorded "You Ain't Going Nowhere" on their landmark album, Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Sweetheart of the Rodeo is the sixth album by American rock band The Byrds and was released on August 30, 1968 on Columbia Records...

, and they even issued their recording as a single. Country musician Marty Stuart has also recorded this song. According to McGuinn in the liner notes to the 1997 reissue of Sweetheart of the Rodeo, Dylan singled him out in these lyrics for bungling Dylan's original Basement Tapes lyrics on the Byrds version of the song in which McGuinn sings "Pack up your money / Pick up your tent" instead of "Pick up your money/ Pack up your tent" as Dylan had.

Other notable releases recorded in 1971

In addition to the material added to Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II, Dylan recorded a single, "George Jackson."
George Jackson (song)
"George Jackson" is a song by Bob Dylan, written in 1971, in tribute to the Black Panther leader, George Jackson, who had been recently shot and killed by guards at San Quentin Prison on August 21, 1971, an event that indirectly provoked the Attica Prison riot...

 An incarcerated black activist, George Jackson
George Jackson (Black Panther)
George Lester Jackson was an American convict who became a left-wing activist, Marxist, author, a member of the Black Panther Party, and co-founder of the Black Guerrilla Family prison gang...

 died on August 21, 1971. After reading a newspaper article about his death, Dylan quickly wrote an elegy for Jackson and rushed a small band into Blue Rock Studios to record it the following day. He recorded two versions, one following a simple acoustic arrangement, another with a full-band arrangement. Dylan also recorded another original composition, the country-flavored "Wallflower
Wallflower (Bob Dylan song)
"Wallflower" is a song written and recorded in 1971 by Bob Dylan. Dylan's own recording, however, was not released until twenty years later as part of The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 1961–1991. The song was recorded, with Dylan's backing vocal, for Doug Sahm's 1973 recording Doug Sahm and his Band...

". Both versions of "George Jackson" were issued on the two sides of a single released on November 12, 1971. The single penetrated the Top 40, peaking at #33 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

. The "Wallflower" recording was set aside and would later be released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 is a compilation box set by Bob Dylan, issued on Columbia Records, catalogue C3K 86572. It is the first installment in the Dylan bootleg series, comprising material spanning the first three decades of his career, from 1961 to 1989...

, but was recorded, with Dylan's backing vocal, for Doug Sahm
Doug Sahm
Douglas Wayne Sahm , was an American musician from Texas. Born in San Antonio, Texas, he was a child prodigy in country music, but became a significant figure in blues rock and other genres. Today Sahm is considered one of the most important figures in what is identified as Tejano music...

's 1973 recording Doug Sahm and his Band.

Dylan gave three significant concert performances in 1971, which were professionally recorded and eventually released.

The first two came on August 1, at Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...

 for a benefit concert
Benefit concert
A benefit concert or charity concert is a concert, show or gala featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate humanitarian crisis. Such events raise both funds and public awareness to address the cause at...

 organized by George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...

. Dylan was not scheduled to perform, but Harrison convinced him to make a surprise appearance. Dylan performed a set at both the afternoon and evening shows, backed by Harrison on lead guitar, Leon Russell
Leon Russell
Claude Russell Bridges , known professionally as Leon Russell, is an American musician and songwriter, who has recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music....

 on bass, and Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...

 on tambourine. A selection of his performances was issued on the Grammy-winning The Concert for Bangladesh, issued on December 20, 1971.

The third and final performance actually came during the first hour of 1972, when he made a surprise appearance at The Band
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...

's New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...

 concert at New York's Academy of Music. Dylan appeared sometime after midnight and performed four songs backed by The Band: "Crash on the Levee (Down in the Flood)", "When I Paint My Masterpiece", "Don't Ya Tell Henry" and "Like a Rolling Stone". Clinton Heylin would later describe Dylan's appearance as "a return to some approximation of peak performing powers." The concert was recorded by Phil Ramone
Phil Ramone
Phil Ramone is a South-African violinist, composer, recording engineer, and record producer.-Biography:As a young child in South Africa, Ramone was a musical prodigy, beginning to play the violin at age three and performing for Queen Elizabeth II at age ten...

 and later mixed and compiled as The Band's Rock of Ages
Rock of Ages (album)
-Side two:-Side three:-Side four:-2001 bonus disc track listing:-Personnel:* Rick Danko - vocal, bass, violin* Levon Helm - vocal, drums, mandolin* Garth Hudson - organ, piano, accordion, tenor saxophone and soprano saxophone solos...

. However, Dylan's set would have to wait until May 2001 for official release, when it was included as part of an expanded, remastered CD edition of Rock of Ages.

Track listing (US edition)

All songs were written by Bob Dylan. As with The Beatles' 1962–1966, the CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

 version was released on two discs, though it could have fit onto a single disc.

The UK edition has a different tracklist from that given below. "Positively 4th Street
Positively 4th Street
"Positively 4th Street" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan, first recorded by Dylan in New York City on July 29, 1965. It was released as a single by Columbia Records on September 7, 1965, reaching #1 on Canada's RPM chart, #7 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and #8 on the UK Singles Chart...

" replaces "She Belongs to Me
She Belongs to Me
"She Belongs to Me" is a song by Bob Dylan, and was first released as the second track on his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. It was one of the first anti-love songs and one of Dylan's first of many songs that describe a "witchy woman"...

" as the first track on Disc 2. ("Positively 4th Street" was missing from the 1967 UK Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, where "She Belongs to Me" replaced it.) On Side 4, "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan and featured on his Bringing It All Back Home album, released on March 22, 1965 by Columbia Records . The song was originally recorded on January 15, 1965 with Dylan's acoustic guitar and harmonica and William E. Lee's bass...

", which had also appeared on the 1967 UK Greatest Hits album as one of the two extra tracks, is replaced by "New Morning" as track 2. http://www.searchingforagem.com/1970s/InternationalCompilationsDylan_1970s.htm

Side One

  1. "Watching the River Flow
    Watching the River Flow
    "Watching the River Flow" is a blues song by Bob Dylan that was first released as an independent single. It was recorded during the March 16–18 sessions at the Blue Rock Studios in New York City, and was produced by Leon Russell. The recording was first issued as a single on June 3, 1971, backed...

    " – 3:32
  2. "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
    Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
    "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962, and released on the 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.-Context:...

    " – 3:36
  3. "Lay Lady Lay
    Lay Lady Lay
    "Lay Lady Lay" is a song written by Bob Dylan and originally released in 1969 on his Nashville Skyline album. Like many of the tracks on the album, Dylan sings the song in a low croon, rather than in the high nasal singing style associated with his earlier recordings...

    " – 3:14
  4. "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
    Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
    "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" is a song written by Bob Dylan that appears on his 1966 album Blonde on Blonde. The album version also appears on 1971's Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II. A live version of this song appears on the 1976 album Hard Rain; and was also released as...

    " – 7:06

Side Two

  1. "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" – 2:37
  2. "All I Really Want to Do" – 4:02
  3. "My Back Pages
    My Back Pages
    "My Back Pages" is a song written by Bob Dylan and included on his 1964 album, Another Side of Bob Dylan. It is stylistically similar to his earlier folk protest songs and features Dylan's voice with an acoustic guitar accompaniment...

    " – 4:21
  4. "Maggie's Farm
    Maggie's Farm
    "Maggie's Farm" is a song written by Bob Dylan, recorded on January 15, 1965, and released on the album Bringing It All Back Home on March 22 of that year...

    " – 3:49
  5. "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You
    Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You
    "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You" is a song written by Bob Dylan from his 1969 album Nashville Skyline. It was the closing song of the album. The song was the third single released from the album, after "I Threw It All Away" and "Lay Lady Lay", reaching #50 on the US Billboard Hot 100...

    " – 3:21

Side Three

  1. "She Belongs to Me
    She Belongs to Me
    "She Belongs to Me" is a song by Bob Dylan, and was first released as the second track on his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. It was one of the first anti-love songs and one of Dylan's first of many songs that describe a "witchy woman"...

    " – 2:46
  2. "All Along the Watchtower
    All Along the Watchtower
    "All Along the Watchtower" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. The song, which has been included on most of Dylan's greatest hits compilations, initially appeared on his 1967 album John Wesley Harding. Over the past 35 years, he has performed it in concert more...

    " – 2:30
  3. "The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)
    Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)
    "Quinn the Eskimo " is a folk-rock song written by Bob Dylan and first recorded during The Basement Tapes sessions in 1967. The song was first released in January 1968 as "Mighty Quinn" by the British band Manfred Mann and became a great success...

    " (live) – 2:43
  4. "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
    Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
    "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan. It was originally recorded on August 2, 1965 and released on the album Highway 61 Revisited. The song was later released on the compilation album Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol...

    " – 5:25
  5. "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
    A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall
    "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" is a song written by Bob Dylan in the summer of 1962. It was first recorded in Columbia Records' Studio A on 6 December 1962 for his second album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The lyric structure is based on the question and answer form of the traditional ballad "Lord...

    " – 6:47

Side Four

  1. "If Not for You
    If Not for You
    "If Not for You" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan, recorded for his 1970 album New Morning. George Harrison released a version of the song in November 1970 on his album All Things Must Pass...

    " – 2:38
  2. "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
    It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
    "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan and featured on his Bringing It All Back Home album, released on March 22, 1965 by Columbia Records . The song was originally recorded on January 15, 1965 with Dylan's acoustic guitar and harmonica and William E. Lee's bass...

    " – 4:13
  3. "Tomorrow Is a Long Time
    Tomorrow Is a Long Time
    "Tomorrow Is a Long Time" is a song written and recorded by Bob Dylan. Dylan's version first appeared on the Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume II compilation, released in 1971...

    " (Live) (previously unreleased) – 3:01
  4. "When I Paint My Masterpiece
    When I Paint My Masterpiece
    "When I Paint My Masterpiece" is a song written by Bob Dylan and first featured on the Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II compilation in 1971. The song is segued back-to-back with "Tomorrow is a Long Time" . Even though there is applause at the beginning of the song, it is in fact a studio recording...

    " (previously unreleased) – 3:22
  5. "I Shall Be Released
    I Shall Be Released
    "I Shall Be Released" is a 1967 song written by Bob Dylan.The Band played it on their debut album, Music from Big Pink , with Richard Manuel singing lead vocals, and Rick Danko and Levon Helm harmonizing in the chorus...

    " (previously unreleased) – 3:01
  6. "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
    You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
    "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1967 in Woodstock, New York, during the self-imposed exile from public appearances that followed his July 29, 1966 motorcycle accident. A recording of Dylan performing the song was first officially released on the Bob Dylan's Greatest...

    " (previously unreleased) – 2:41
  7. "Down in the Flood
    Down in the Flood
    Down in the Flood is a song by Bob Dylan, copyrighted and originally recorded by him in 1967 and featured on his 1971 compilation album, Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II. He has recorded it with The Band, too - this version was featured on the 1975 album The Basement Tapes...

    " (previously unreleased) – 2:46
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