26 unreleased Zim gems unearthed

PBS' American Masters series will air Martin Scorsese's "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan," a chronicle of Dylan's turbulent career from 1959 to 1966, on September 26 and 27. Accompanying the film is this 2-disc soundtrack, which is not so much a cohesive collection of the songs contained in the film itself as it is a primer for this period of Dylan's career, wherein the span of 7 years he went from recording a shrill blues number with a high school friend to redefining rock and roll as the world knew it.\nBeginning with two home recordings featuring a 19-year-old Robert Zimmerman (purportedly two of the first he ever put to tape), and culminating with an ominous alternate take of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," disc 1 sees Dylan transform from humble traditional folk singer to insightful lyricist and unlikely leader of a cultural revolution. Mostly demo recordings and live tracks, including superior versions of "This Land is Your Land," "When the Ship Comes In," "Chimes of Freedom," disc 1 feels like the calm before the storm in some ways. Dylan's talent was palpable, and he oozed a sense of hesitated readiness to overtake the world.\nDisc 2 begins with the unmistakable hum of an electric bass on "She Belongs to Me," and soon plunges headlong into a searing live version of "Maggie's Farm" from the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. From that moment onward, folk was no longer folksy, and the next 10 tracks chart a course of excellent alternate takes from the "Bringing It All Back Home," "Highway 61 Revisited," and "Blonde on Blonde" studio sessions (don't miss one of the best recorded versions of Dylan's finest song, "Desolation Row"), culminating in a live performance of "Like a Rolling Stone" in England from the late spring of 1966. During this performance, half the crowd applauds Dylan; the other half, irritated and somewhat befuddled by the newness of what they were hearing, jeer and dub him Judas, emphasizing that Dylan was always too forward-thinking for some.\nAs with each of the previous Dylan Bootleg Series sets, Volume 7 comes with a thick booklet containing candid photographs, detailed descriptions of the songs on both discs and extensive, eloquent liner notes from those who were personally caught up in the whirlwind that was Dylan's early career.\nMore than any of the Bootleg Series offerings up to this point, No Direction Home gives fans an accurate chronological account of a time period in which one man was almost single-handedly flipping the popular music world on its head, and delivering rock and roll from its 3-chord love-song origins into uncharted territory.