Various Artists: I'm Not There (Music From The Motion Picture) : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

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"I'm not there" is one of the great lost Dylan bootleg treasures — scary, soulful, halfway incoherent. The 1967 recording makes its street-legal debut on this soundtrack: Dylan is full of dazed dread, rambling about loving a lost soul who is going to stay lost and strumming country chords while Garth Hudson follows on organ. The man sounds chilled to the marrow when he growls, "I wish I was there to help her/But I'm not there, I'm gone." Real, real gone.

Nothing else here touches I'm Not There — it's just a good night at the Big Pink karaoke lounge. Eddie Vedder does his joker-and-thief groan for "All Along the Watchtower," Stephen Malkmus croons "Ballad of a Thin Man," the Hold Steady do "Can You Crawl Out Your Window" and Karen O yelps "Highway 61 Revisited." Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo assembled the band: Wilco's Nels Cline, Television's Tom Verlaine, Dylan bassist Tony Garnier. But almost nobody messes with the original arrangements, so a movie about Dylan's multiple identities gets a same-y soundtrack; they don't feel free to kick the songs around, which is what Dylan (or Jack White) would do. John Medeski duplicates the "Ballad of a Thin Man" organ solo, practically note for note, all the way through the song.

The old guys stand out, because they're less cowed by the material: Ramblin' Jack Elliott, John Doe, Roger McGuinn. If Willie Nelson is impressed by "Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)," you can't hear it in his laid-back recitation with Calexico. So he sounds loose and freewheeling, compared to nervous young folkies like Sufjan Stevens and Jack Johnson. But Sonic Youth tackle "I'm Not There," adding fuzz guitar and Thurston Moore's bemused mumble, never forcing the song to make sense — the wisest possible approach.

ROB SHEFFIELD

(Posted: Nov 15, 2007)

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Track List

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All Along The Watchtower (track not available in Rhapsody)
I'm Not There (track not available in Rhapsody)
Goin' To Acapulco (track not available in Rhapsody)
Tombstone Blues (track not available in Rhapsody)
Ballad Of A Thin Man (track not available in Rhapsody)
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again (track not available in Rhapsody)
Pressing On (track not available in Rhapsody)
Fourth Time Around (track not available in Rhapsody)
Dark Eyes (track not available in Rhapsody)
Highway 61 Revisited (track not available in Rhapsody)
One More Cup Of Coffee (track not available in Rhapsody)
The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll (track not available in Rhapsody)
Billy 1 (track not available in Rhapsody)
Simple Twist Of Fate (track not available in Rhapsody)
Man In The Long Black Coat (track not available in Rhapsody)
SeÃ±or (Tales Of Yankee Power) (track not available in Rhapsody)
As I Went Out One Morning (track not available in Rhapsody)
Can't Leave Her Behind (track not available in Rhapsody)
Ring Them Bells (track not available in Rhapsody)
Just Like A Woman (track not available in Rhapsody)
Mama You've Been On My Mind / A Fraction of Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie (track not available in Rhapsody)
I Wanna Be Your Lover (track not available in Rhapsody)
You Ain't Goin' Nowhere (track not available in Rhapsody)
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? (track not available in Rhapsody)
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues (track not available in Rhapsody)
The Wicked Messenger (track not available in Rhapsody)
Cold Irons Bound (track not available in Rhapsody)
The Times They Are A Changin' (track not available in Rhapsody)
Maggie's Farm (track not available in Rhapsody)
When The Ship Comes In (track not available in Rhapsody)
Moonshiner (track not available in Rhapsody)
I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine (track not available in Rhapsody)
Knockin' On Heaven's Door (track not available in Rhapsody)
I'm Not There (track not available in Rhapsody)
Trouble In Mind
Bunkhouse Theme