New Dylan album filled with rare tracks

NEW YORK - More than two-dozen previously unreleased Bob Dylan tracks will be found on “No Direction Home: The Soundtrack,” due in stores Aug. 30.

The double-disc set, the seventh volume in Columbia/Legacy’s “Bootleg Series,” is the companion to Martin Scorsese’s Dylan documentary of the same name, which premieres Sept. 26 on PBS.

Sequenced in chronological order, “No Direction Home” boasts 26 rarities, beginning with what is believed to be the first original song Dylan ever recorded (“When I Got Troubles,” taped by a high school friend in Minnesota in 1959).

Also featured are two tracks recorded in Minneapolis in December 1961, a live version of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” from a 1961 show at New York’s Carnegie Hall and alternate takes of “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” and “She Belongs to Me” from the 1964-65 “Bringing It All Back Home” sessions.

The album’s second disc sports five alternate takes from the 1965 sessions for “Highway 61 Revisited” and three from the following year’s “Blonde on Blonde,” as well as live versions of “Ballad of a Thin Man” and “Like a Rolling Stone” from Dylan’s 1966 U.K. tour.

Liner notes for “No Direction Home” were penned by former Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham and Dylan collaborator Al Kooper, while journalist Eddie Gorodetsky offers track-by-track analysis.

Dylan himself narrates the film version of “No Direction Home,” which boasts interviews with such figures as Joan Baez, Allen Ginsberg, Al Kooper, Pete Seeger and Dave Von Ronk.

On the same day “No Direction Home” hits stores, another Dylan album will begin an 18-month window of exclusivity at Starbucks locations. “Bob Dylan: Live at the Gaslight 1962” features restored recordings culled from the artist’s early performances at the New York cafe.

Here is the track list for “No Direction Home”:

Disc one:
“When I Got Troubles” (1959)
“Rambler, Gambler” (1960)
“This Land Is Your Land” (live at New York’s Carnegie Chapter Hall, 1961)
“Song to Woody” (1961)
“Dink’s Song” (1961)
“I Was Young When I Left Home” (1961)
“Sally Gal” (“The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” outtake, 1962)
“Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” (demo, 1963)
“Man of Constant Sorrow” (1963)
“Blowin’ in the Wind” (live at New York’s Town Hall, 1963)
“Masters of War” (live at New York’s Town Hall, 1963)
“A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” (live at New York’s Carnegie Hall, 1963)
“When the Ship Comes In” (live at New York’s Carnegie Hall, 1963)
“Mr. Tambourine Man” (“Bringing It All Back Home” alternate take, 1964)
“Chimes of Freedom” (live at Newport, R.I. Folk Festival, 1964)
“It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” (“Bringing It All Back Home” alternate take, 1965)

Disc two:
“She Belongs To Me” (“Bringing It All Back Home” alternate take, 1965)
“Maggie’s Farm” (live at Newport, R.I. Folk Festival, 1965)
“It’s Take a Lot To Laugh, It Takes a Train To Cry” (“Highway 61 Revisited” alternate take, 1965)
“Tombstone Blues” (“Highway 61 Revisited” alternate take, 1965)
“Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” (“Highway 61 Revisited” alternate take, 1965)
“Desolation Row” (“Highway 61 Revisited” alternate take, 1965)
“Highway 61 Revisited” (“Highway 61 Revisited” alternate take, 1965)
“Leopard Skin Pill-Box Hat” (“Blonde on Blonde” alternate take, 1966)
“Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again” (“Blonde on Blonde” alternate take, 1966)
“Visions of Johanna” (“Blonde on Blonde” alternate take, 1965)
“Ballad of a Thin Man” (live at Edinburgh’s ABC Theatre, 1966)
“Like a Rolling Stone” (live at Manchester, England’s Free Trade Hall, 1966)

MORE FROM ROCK

Pearl Jam boxes up shows for June release

Pearl Jam boxes up shows for June release Courtney Love plans to auction Cobain items McCartney CD ambles down ‘Memory’ Lane Motorcycle Club roars back to rock origins   Add Rock headlines to your news reader: