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The evolution of a revolutionary

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Bob Dylan

“No Direction Home: The Soundtrack” (Columbia Legacy)

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ROCK’S greatest songwriter has opened up more in the last two years than he did in the previous 40 --from his bestselling memoir to the lengthy interview in Martin Scorsese’s marvelous four-hour PBS documentary, “No Direction Home,” that airs Sept. 26-27.

You’d think all this might strip his music of some mystery and magic, but the complexities of Dylan’s story only add to the fascination of these 2 1/2 hours of rarities, live performances and alternate album tracks. All but two of the 28 recordings are released here for the first time.

Nothing on “No Direction Home” is necessarily better than the official version, so the package is strictly for Dylan loyalists.Still, the heart of the album is illuminating.

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For all Dylan’s fascination with Woody Guthrie, his first love was rock ‘n’ roll, and it sure sounds as if he had been listening a lot to Elvis Presley (the smooth, crooning side) in “When I Got Troubles,” a recording that was made by a high school friend in 1959.

But Dylan was soon down the folk path, and it’s amazing to hear him singing Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” on stage in New York just two years later. That folk allegiance changed, of course, in 1965, when Dylan defiantly delivered his electric version of “Maggie’s Farm” at the Newport Folk Festival. Included here, it remains one of the most riveting moments in American pop history.

Elsewhere on Disc 2, sparks fly in every direction as Dylan and his musicians wrestle with the arrangements on songs from his two most explosive albums, “Blonde on Blonde” and “Highway 61 Revisited.” It was a time when he was simply ablaze with ideas and energy, and every note seemed filled with promise.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four (excellent), and have already been released unless noted.

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