A young Dylan poses with his guitar in New York, 1962. Photo: Don Hunstein.

There are few artists whose musical legacy has not only been maintained, but arguably amplified by the passage of time. In fact, it's usually the other way around — a majority of art is actually most viable in the context of its own era. Transcending that tendency are master craftsmen like Bob Dylan, whose significance has continually been a hallmark and sonic touchstone for practically anyone who has ever heard his music. Dylan's influence on the past forty years of popular music cannot be overstated. Legendary artists ranging from proto-punk icon Lou Reed to soul music legend Smokey Robinson, and even the Beatles, have been expressly influenced by Dylan?s radical and often surreal musical observations. But perhaps more importantly, people like you and me — white collar 9-to-5'ers, truckers, and grocery store clerks — have been listening as well.

Even after four decades, Dylan?s music has not lost its finely honed insight. Anthems such as ?Masters Of War? or ?Gotta Serve Somebody? are arguably more relevant in 2003 than ever before. But whereas the message has not changed, technology has assured that the medium most certainly has. As the compact disc enters its second decade of prominence, some musicians have chosen to endlessly remaster and reissue their albums to take advantage of new digital mastering techniques. For instance, it would take a pair of hands to tally the total number of times The Allman Brothers? At Fillmore East has been overhauled. Conversely, Dylan is among the holdouts who?ve waited for significant technological advancements before embarking on a thorough revisitation of previously released material.

One such technological advancement is the recent advent of the Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD) format. SACDs offer superior sound quality for both the contemporary consumer, as well as future generations of music enthusiasts, by using a new recording technology that captures four times more musical information than the standard CD recording process. As a result, SACDs offer the listener a more accurate digital reproduction that yields a warmer, smoother, and more "analog" sound than standard compact discs.

Certain SACDs contain several high-density layers of audio information that can be held and accessed within a single surface. Many SACDs take advantage of the format's ability to store music in up to six discrete channels, and contain a 5.1-channel audio mix in addition to the SACD stereo recording. Listeners with a standard 5.1-channel home theater or mobile audio system can experience the unprecedented sonic realism of the SACD in true surround sound!

A typical surround setup (left) has 5 speakers and a subwoofer, compared to a two-channel stereo setup (right). All those extra speakers and that enveloping sound mean that a 5.1-channel source gets mixed differently than a 2-channel source.

Furthermore, some SACDs are actually hybrid SACDs¹ that contain a stereo mix designed to be played on a standard CD player, in addition to the SACD stereo mix. Hybrid SACDs may also contain a 5.1-channel mix.

While Dylan isn?t the first major icon to begin offering SACD compatible titles — the Rolling Stones and Sam Cooke are other major acts to be represented in this format — Columbia/Legacy has upped the ante with the commencement of what is being lauded as a ?long-term? reissue campaign. The new Dylan hybrid SACDs contain considerably upgraded sonic and packaging elements in what is undoubtedly one of the most important catalogs in popular music. The first 15 Dylan albums to be issued in hybrid SACD format are (in chronological order) The Freewheelin? Bob Dylan (1963), Another Side Of Bob Dylan (1964), Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Highway 61 Revisited (1965), Blonde On Blonde (1966), John Wesley Harding (1967), Nashville Skyline (1969), Planet Waves (1974), Blood On The Tracks (1975), Desire (1976), Street Legal (1978), Slow Train Coming (1979), Infidels (1983), Oh Mercy (1989) and his most recent, Love and Theft (2001) . While each volume will be available individually, Legacy has also compiled them into a single box set — Bob Dylan Revisited — The Remasters (2003) includes 16 CDs [Note: Blonde On Blonde is spread over two discs] bound in a collectors? container with images of actual Dylan master tape boxes on the outer packaging.

Each of the hybrid SACD discs can be played and sound spectacular on any CD player. Yet as the Dylan remasters demonstrate, not all hybrid discs contain a 5.1 mix. Only Another Side Of Bob Dylan (1964), Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Blonde On Blonde (1966), Blood On The Tracks (1975), Slow Train Coming and Love and Theft (2001) in this initial offering include an SACD stereo mix, a 5.1 SACD mix, and a standard audio CD stereo mix. You'll need an SACD player in order to make use of the SACD stereo or 5.1 layers on these discs.

With Hurricane Isabel quite literally looming off the East coast, Crutchfield Advisor was lucky enough to spend a few minutes on the afternoon of Friday, September 19, 2003 with the Dylan project?s reissue producer, Steve Berkowitz, from his Manhattan office. His insight is invaluable, as he provides a guided tour of the processes involved in reassessing the first wave in this intricate and complete career assessment.

¹ Hybrid SACDs are designed to play in all players compliant with the Compact Disc specification. Some DVD players, computer drives and car players which use DVD transports have been found to lack the proper programming to recognize a Hybrid SACD and cannot default to normal playback of the CD layer. The consumer should report this playback problem to the player manufacturer for possible remedy. Copyright ? 2003 Sony Music Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved.