[samsonite2100]

OP--I think others are making this point, too, but the difference is that the good stuff has moved underground. Record labels in the 60s and 70s were owned/run by men like Ahmet Ertegun and Seymour Stein--businessmen, yes, but businessmen with taste and vision. That simply doesn't exist today. If you scratch beneath the surface, however, and look at the underground artists being put out by labels like Merge or Sub Pop, I think you find a lot of comparable quality to the artists you're mentioning, although not Bob Dylan-level.