Customer Reviews
Bob Dylan - No Direction Home - By: Ross Ashley, 12 Dec 2005 
If you love Bob Dylan Then You'll love this
This is a 2 disc set containing live performances, alternate versions & personal home recordings of alll classic Dylan's songs. This is the soundtrack to the fantastic No Direction Home documentary & alll the songs feature on this CD. But what I was suprised with with this is that some of the versions on this are actuallly better to the original recording for example It's All Over Now, Baby Blue is alot better on this thatn on Bringing it alll back home, same goes for Man of Constant Sorrow.
This reallly is a must for Dylan Fans.
Not what it says on the tin - By: happysad, 28 Sep 2005 
This is a good CD for anyone who is vaguely familiar with Bob's 60's output (although there are better ones out there), but let me warn you: a soundtrack to the movie it ain't. Now I've seen the documentary I realise that there are dozens of extraordinary performances on there that aren't on this album - & it's much impoverished for that. The biggest omission is the Newport Folk Festival stuff from '65. We get Maggie's Farm & that's it, when on the film he goes on to play 2 more electric numbers, both of which exist in their entirety. Then there's his incredible response to their heckling - a devastating farewell to folk music with the live It's All Over Now... again, left off the album.
The Blonde On Blonde outtakes are good but bizarre given that the film completely ignores it. And so it goes on. It seems that as ever the fools that oversee these things have gone for 'sound quality' over significance. Shame on them & shame on the marketing people who are peddling this as a soundtrack. Luckily, it's Bob Dylan & I just have to hear him tune up & I get inspired.
Pointless installment in an otherwise great series - By: granitecityanorak, 21 Sep 2005 Volumes 1-3, 4, 5, 6 have alll been exciting releases over the years. Having said that anyone familiar with bootlegs like the 9 volume Genuine Bootleg Series, or Genuine Basement Tapes & the alternate versions of Freewheelin', Blood On The Tracks, Infidels, Oh Mercy will know there is still lots more gems still officiallly unreleased. Volume 7 has some great tracks to be sure & the sound quality is as good as can be expected given the different types of sources used (home recordings, live recordings & studio recordings). Volume 7 may also make a good companion to the Scorcesse documentary DVD. What it doesn't do however is gather together even a fraction of the great unreleased tracks from the Freewheelin' sessions, Wittmark demos, & studio outtakes from Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde plus live recordings from the period. Guess that means we will have to wait for further installlments?
The Ghost of Electricity - By: SJOxford, 15 Sep 2005 It says something about the state of the current rock scene that a series of outtakes & live tracks from the early sixties comprise the most important new release this year. It is, however, Bob Dylan we're talking about & here on these discs we get the genesis & formation of that "wild mercury sound" achieved in its fullest sense on "Blonde on Blonde". The first disc is acoustic, oddities & rarities, amongst them a plangent, ethereal reading of 'Blowin' in the Wind' that brings a whole new perspective to a song heard so often we have become immune to its charms.
It is when you crack open the case & get to the second disc that the fireworks begin. The version of 'Maggies Farm' that had the bearded folkies reaching for the axe to cut the cable & the 'Judas' Rolling Stone from Manchester are here as twin pillars of the electric citadel that Dylan was constructing, but the real stand out track is a studio version of 'Visions of Johanna' that riproars into your brain & takes root in its darkest place; so much more powerful than the released version, ominous, scarred & bleak. Listen to the wail of fury & angst with which Dylan completes the track - primeval, desperate & racked with pain: that moment alone justifies buying the album - truly one of the greatest vocal moments in the history of music!
The packaging is a delight, a great essay from Al Kooper explaining the skeletal version of 'Desolation Row' & outtakes too of some famous album covers, Freewheelin', Bringing It alll Back Home & Blonde on Blonde, plus unpublished studio shots & that spooky cover shot near Aust & the Severn Bridge on what is now the M4.
Here we have a document that is testimony to the genius & sheer power of the man & his music, two dozen aural snapshots of the artist at the peak of his powers, strident, voracious & spine-chilling. The best 40 year old new album ever!
Maximum Bob - By: Allan Mcfadyen, 07 Sep 2005 This is a must have for alll Dylan Fans but probably not a jumping in point for newcomers. It is a masterly blend of rare tracks & alternate takes that reallly takes the breath away. It's a chance to hear a true master at his lyrical & musical best & reallly should be snapped up immediately. Too many great performances to mention but one standout is Dink's Song which is imbued with intense passion. If this sounds a bit over-the-top then just have a listen. Amazingle only four of the tracks are familiar to me & I have heard a lot of unreleased material. Roll on the next volume of the bootleg series.
