Customer Reviews
He knows what he's doing the critics don't - By: Richard, 01 Apr 2008 
What I like about Dylan is that he does plenty of covers.Self Portait & its still-not-issued-on CD sequel DYLAN was Dylan playing the covers game-which at least proved he wasn't big headed enough to keep doing his own songs.
I also liked the way he walloped other peoples' songs & passed them off as his own-though mainly this came from the common stock.
The recent Theme Time Radio Hour indicates what's always been there-that Dylan is a Human Jukebox just waiting to be plugged in.
He's covered songs no one else would have touched but may I suggest he now does a version of Dust my broom
So bad it's good! - By: P. Wallace, 07 Feb 2008 
Leo Kottke is celebrated as having described his own voice as "goose farts on a foggy day". A reasonable description balanced by the simple fact that he plays unbelievably wonderful guitar. Bob Dylan however has a voice (more evidently than usual on this album) that sounds like the cries of a particularly vocal & constipated goose being slowly tortured to death with a petrol powered brush-cutter. Furthermore his guitar playing is so excruciatingly bad (again as usual) as he butchers this selection of English & American folk songs that, were he unknown, he would be forcibly ejected from any half-decent folk club.
Why then do I award this 4 stars? Because it just sounds great!! I can't explain it - you just have to listen for yourself. At the price it sells for nowadays you can afford to take the chance and, if you do, it'll creep up on you for sure - trust me.....
Bob goes back to his folk roots - By: Steve, 28 Aug 2007 
I got round to listening to this album after Frank Black sardonically called it the best album of the last 15 yearsin a special edition of Q a few years back (he also added that he was currently listening to Self-Portrait). This is an undistinguished, but enjoyable collection of stripped-down folk standards, recorded during a time when Dylan's creative muse had more or less deserted him. As such, its best not to come to this album with high expectations. Its not that there's anything wrong with it, its just that this is Bob Dylan, & one expects a bit more than Bob going through the motions, even if he is doing so quite competently. Nonetheless there may be some justicein seeing this album as a prelude to his return to form with Time Out of Mind & Love & Theft, going back to his roots to get some inspiration. So its certainly worth a look if you're a Dylanologist. For the casual listener, to pick this album up instead of one of Bob's more celebrated albums would be, at the very least, perverse.
Rough but great! - By: JP, 13 Apr 2007 My first reaction on listening to this was `what have we got here?'. There is some rough singing & some rough guitar playing, albeit both highly skilled. Even Bob Dylan's photo on the front cover looks rough! These are a collection of folk & blues songs from another era. Most are not familiar to me, except `Tomorrow Night' which was recorded by the fine singer-guitarist Lonnie Johnson. Many of the songs are story telling (a style repeated on the equally good follow up `World Gone Wrong'). These songs sound like they could have been recordedin one of those old drinking taverns way back then. When Bob Dylan sings of hard times they sound hard! It is a very enjoyable listen which improves with each playing. The lyrics missing from the CD can be obtained from websites. Don't be put off by the absent fifth star, my four stars are equivalent to others five stars!
You've been good to us Bob! - By: R.C Johns, 30 Sep 2005 I think this album gets unfairly ignoredin Dylan's back catalogue, not because it's full of cover songs but because of it's position on the Dylan album tree. In the 90's Dylan had just come off the back of some of his worst stuff ever, empire burlesque, knocked out loaded, downin the groove. This period of Dylan was somewhat of a 'writers block period' where nothing truly inspirational was coming from the man. Under The Red Sky, although not that bad, wasn't the return to form expected after the brilliant Oh Mercy. So what we have is what some perceive as a series of 'forgettable' albumsin Under The Red Sky, Good As I've Been To You & World Gone Wrong. However, to take such a view on As Good... would be a big mistake. Just listening to this album gives me that same glow as when listening to John Wesley or Blood on The Tracks. It's just Dylan, his harp & his guitar playing the songs that mean something to him & what more could a Dylan fan ask for. It's not revolutionary but it's not meant to be its just light soothing music. So to all those that ignore this period of Dylan you are really missing out & need to find out for yourself (not just listen to others) how good this is.
