Album Reviews

Not having to include picture with sound gave the compilers of this 4 LP box set latitude Martin Scorsese did not have when he made his Dylan bio No Direction Home: The Soundtrack.

Though the album’s musical flow follows the film’s non-linear template and some of the film’s performances have been retained, much of this box set offers alternative takes, live performances and unreleased songs instead of the ones seen and heard in the movie, many of which have already been released in the Bootleg series. So while this is the soundtrack to accompany the movie, it’s not literally the movie’s soundtrack.

Sides five and six containing Dylan’s opening electric onslaught at Newport 1965 backed by The Butterfield Blues Band, plus alternate takes from Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited alone are worth the price of admission to this sumptuously packed box as is the full sized perfect bound, coffee table book-quality booklet.

The alternative takes of familiar tunes offer rewarding glimpses into the creative process as tentativeness and deliberateness permeate almost of all them, compared to the whirlwind effortlessness and transparency of the tracks we’ve grown up (and some of us old) listening to. Wisely, though it’s previously appeared on another in the Bootleg series, the set ends with the climactic live “Like a Rolling Stone” known as the “Judas” performance wherein Dylan is heckled as a betrayer for going electric.

The 140g box’s 4 LPs come two to a gatefold LP inner jacket. The first LP’s cover mimics Bringing It All Back Home but appropriately uses an alternate take of the famous cover photo featuring a softer-faced, more stoned-looking Dylan. The album title has been changed to No Direction Home. The second gatefold uses an alternative take from the Blonde on Blonde cover photo session that has Dylan relaxed and bemused rather than squinty.

Andrew Loog Olham’s pop-history lesson essay, accompanied by dramatic shots of Dylan, young, self-assured and commanding the camera, puts the period in perspective.

Sitcom producer and comedy writer Eddie Gorodetsky’s song-by-song capsules get right to the point of each tune’s inclusion. Gorodetsky, like co-producer and Columbia exec Steve Berkowitz is an alumnus of New England Music City and Cheap Thrills, a record chain that flourished in Boston during the late 1960’s and ‘70’s. I did their radio commercials. Gorodetsky worked the counter in the Boylston Street store across from the Prudential Center home of WBCN-FM.

One evening before heading up to the station to do my radio show, I stopped in to the store and Gorodetsky pitched me a song parody of Steppenwolf’s “Born To Be Wild” that he’d written called “Born To Be Wild.” I passed on it and I don’t think Eddie’s ever forgiven me for it. Not that I’d know. I haven’t heard from him in decades.

In any case, this compendium of Dylan alternative and live takes is a Dylan fan-atic’s essential, and certainly worthwhile for everyone else both for the music and for the packaging. No CD set can give you the drama of the full sized 12x12 booklet.

As for the sound, I’m a realist. Do I really think these tracks were mixed to analog, assembled to analog and then cut to lacquer from analog tapes? No I don’t. And I’m not asking because I don’t really care, because it sounds like it was. Do me a favor and start listening with the gorgeous sounding “She Belongs To Me” that begins side 5. That’s how good this set can sound. Of course not every track sounds that good, especially the early stuff, but even those tracks have a satisfying purity and clarity. Great set only slightly marred by a glaring typo. The header to Gorodetsky's section is labeled "Performnaces." Fortunately the guy's got a sense of humor!