No Direction Home: The Soundtrack (The Bootleg Series Vol. 7) [Best of, Soundtrack]

Oh man! This CD is just terrific!! I guess I need to write more though to turn out a decent review. Where to begin. "No Direction Home: The Soundtrack" is the 7th volume in Bob Dylan's archival Bootleg Series and is also the soundtrack for Martin Scorsese's excellent PBS documentary of the same title. The double CD is chronologically sequenced and features 28 recordings, 26 of them previously unreleased and rare, (most from between 1961 and 1966), including "When I Got Troubles," which is supposedly the first song Dylan ever taped. Many of the tracks are alternate takes of his classic songs, along with some surprise live versions, like "Chimes of Freedom" and "When The Ship Comes In." What a phenomenal body of work created in just six years! This is a superb retrospective of that time.

Disc 1 covers Dylan's early period, 1959 to 1965, from his last year as a Minnesota high school student through his years as the brilliant young troubadour, master folk singer, people's poet and the voice of protest in America. In 1960, Dylan dropped out of college and moved to New York, where legendary folk singer Woody Guthrie was hospitalized with a rare disease of the nervous system. Dylan visited with his idol regularly in the hospital and performed his signature tune, "This Land Is Your Land," soon after arriving in Manhattan. The CD features the Guthrie anthem, recorded live as well as "Song To Woody." Other outstanding cuts on the first CD include: "Sally Gal," adapted from "Sally Don't You Grieve" by Woody Guthrie, ("Freewheelin' Bob Dylan"), "Masters of War" and "Blowin' in the Wind" - Dylan's own protest songs, and alternate takes of "Don't Think Twice" and "It's All Over Now Baby Blue." I haven't heard "Dink's Song" in years and that's here too as is an early version of the old folk favorite "Rambler, Gambler." A great CD!!

Disc Two, however, is even more amazing - it ROCKS!! Here is Dylan's electric, raucous version of "Maggie's Farm," the one that tore-up the 1965 Newport Folk Festival....with hostility. He came onstage in a funky orange shirt and black leather, carrying an electric guitar, and proceeded to play music that was not folk. He performed "Like a Rolling Stone," this CD's final cut, (the Manchester 1966 version), right after "Farm," and when he began "It Takes a Train to Cry," the purists threw him out of the genre. Exit acoustic, enter electric! That's when Bob Dylan became an ex-folk singer and a modern day cultural icon, an artist who greatly influenced the music of his own and later generations...and he continues to do so. "Visions of Johanna" (with full band) is also featured here, as is the emotional "Ballad of the Thin Man," the almost psychedelic "Tombstone Blues," and alternate studio takes of "Leopard-Skin Pill-box Hat," and "Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again."

You don't have to be a hardcore Dylan fan to appreciate this album. It is exceptional. Every track is special. And the CDs come with a 58-page liner booklet that includes rarely and formerly unpublished photos, essays and track-by-track analysis. A must have CD(s)!

JANA

This two-disc set is everything you hope you'll hear when you attend a Dylan concert. There are a few quality rarities from the Dylan songbook, the requisite traditional songs, and a lot of songs that are ordinarily recognizable to almost anyone but given a new spin. Anyone who has been to a Dylan show knows the experience of spending two or three verses trying to figure out which classic song Bob has completely re-imagined. There's nothing quite so radical here, but it's fascinating to hear all of Dylan's different takes on songs that fans know by heart. The sprawling "Desolation Row" is almost country-fied!

Because it sticks to a short time frame, 1959-1966, the tracklist of 30 songs also has time to portray Dylan's growth, from the home recordings that open the first CD to the Blonde on Blonde and Highway 61 alternate takes that fill much of disc two. This is probably the most accessible of the Bootleg Series sets for casual fans, but true-blue, have-every-album fans will delight in the varied instrumentation and altered phrasing that pops up in song after song. A welcome addition to the Dylan discography!

This latest entry in Dylan's "The Bootleg Series" is the most satisfying since "Live 1966" (Volume Four). It spans the first known recording made by Dylan ("When I Got Troubles") in 1959 to the infamous "Judas" performance of "Like a Rolling Stone" in 1966.

"No Direction Home," interestingly enough, ends up being Dylan's answer to "The Beatles Anthology"--most of what we get here comes in the form of alternate takes of great album cuts. Disc One features the most new (officially released) titles, including the aforementioned "When I Got Troubles" and 1960's "Rambler, Gambler." Neither song is particularly good, but similar in quality to other first attempts at recording like The Beatles/The Quarrymen's "In Spite of All the Danger" or Elvis Presley's "My Happiness." Dylan's early nod to Woody Guthrie, here, a cover of "This Land is Your Land," shows him hitting his stride. Two early highlights from this disc are "Dink's Song" and "I Was Young When I Left Home," both which show how rhythmically dynamic a guitar player Dylan could be (in addition to being "a poet," he was/is actually a highly underrated guitarist). Arguably the best cut on Disc One is a live performance of "Blowin' in the Wind" that is powerfully sung by the young Dylan. Giving it a run for its money is "Chimes of Freedom," an often overlooked cut from "Another Side of Bob Dylan," which features some of Dylan's most affected vocals. The demo for "Mr. Tambourine Man," with Ramblin' Jack Elliott joining Dylan on vocals, is slightly disappointing, but still fascinating.

Disc Two is also a little underwhelming. It is easy to see why these takes did not end up on the albums they were intended for. The big disappointments here include a dull version of "Desolation Row" and a more sedate version of "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues." "Blonde on Blonde" tracks "Leopard-skin Pill-box Hat," "Visions of Johanna" and "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" are here presented in alternate arrangements with slight lyrical variations. These takes are quite interesting, but do not improve upon the versions on the album. The two best cuts on the second disc include a fiery performance from the "Dylan goes Electric" show at Newport in 1965 ("Maggie's Farm") and a hot live version of "Ballad of a Thin Man" which shows just how possessed Dylan and the Band were during their 1966 tours. This set is awfully fascinating for Dylan afficionados, but there's somethin' happening here and most newcomers won't know what it is ...

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