BOB DYLAN : NO DIRECTION HOME : THE SOUNDTRACK - THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 7

 

Disc One (72:13)

  1. When I Got Troubles
  2. Rambler, Gambler
  3. This Land Is Your Land
  4. Song to Woody
  5. Dink's Song
  6. I Was Young When I Left Home
  7. Sally Gal
  8. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
  9. Man of Constant Sorrow
  10. Blowin' in the Wind
  11. Masters of War Dylan
  12. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
  13. When the Ship Comes In
  14. Mr. Tambourine Man
  15. Chimes of Freedom
  16. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

Disc Two (72:14)

  1. She Belongs to Me
  2. Maggie's Farm
  3. It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry
  4. Tombstone Blues
  5. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues Dylan
  6. Desolation Row
  7. Highway 61 Revisited
  8. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
  9. Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
  10. Visions of Johanna
  11. Ballad of a Thin Man
  12. Like a Rolling Stone

Label : Columbia

Release Year : 2005

Review (AllMusic) : The seventh volume of Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series doubles as the soundtrack to No Direction Home, Martin Scorsese's feature-length documentary covering Dylan's career from its beginnings to 1966 (it was aired in two parts on PBS in September 2005 and released in expanded form on DVD that same month). Unlike the previous three installments of The Bootleg Series, which focused exclusively on live concerts, No Direction Home is assembled from a variety of sources, including home recordings, publishing demos, alternate studio takes, and live recordings, with the first disc devoted to early acoustic recordings and the second to electric music. In fact, No Direction Home proceeds chronologically, filling in gaps between the proper albums or, more often, providing a parallel history of the most productive era of Dylan's career. All of this material - with the exception of "Song to Woody," taken from his debut, and a cataclysmic version of "Like a Rolling Stone" taken from the Royal Albert Hall show that was released as The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4 - is previously unreleased, and much of it has not been widely bootlegged (and the cuts that have been bootlegged, such as "Dink's Song," have never been heard in such crystal-clear fidelity). Where the inaugural edition of The Bootleg Series had many previously unreleased Dylan originals, there is only one here, the tentative opener, "When I Got Troubles," a sweet, simple 1959 song that finds Dylan in his formative stage. In place of unheard songs are a slew of alternate versions of familiar tunes. On the first disc, these are largely live versions of such warhorses as "Blowin' in the Wind," "Masters of War," and "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall," recorded when the songs were still fresh. These live performances have an immediacy and intimacy that not only illustrate what a powerful folksinger Dylan was, but also suggest how the songs might have sounded when they were new tunes. Toward the end of the first disc, alternate versions that are significantly different from the final versions begin to surface with an early take on "Mr. Tambourine Man" recorded at the Another Side of Bob Dylan sessions with Ramblin' Jack Elliott on second guitar and backing vocals. The second disc has several alternates that are similarly notably different, highlighted by a lively, careening "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" with a different final verse, a "Desolation Row" with electric guitar, "Highway 61 Revisited" without the siren whistle, a slower, heavier, blusier take on "Leopard-Skin Pill Box Hat," a relaxed version of "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" that lacks the carnivalesque swirl of sound from the Blonde on Blonde version, and a lean, insistent "Visions of Johanna."