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Whistle Stopper - I'm Not There
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List Price: $19.98
Our Price: $11.35
Your Save: $ 8.63 ( 43% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Sony
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0886971203820
Format: Soundtrack
Label: Sony
Manufacturer: Sony
Number Of Discs: 2
Publisher: Sony
Release Date: 2007-10-30
Studio: Sony
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: So much more than the movie's soundtrack
Comment: Let me state upfront that, while I was rather apprehensive of the movie concept as such, I ended up really liking the non-delinear interpretation of Bob Dylan's life by director Todd Haynes. The structure of the film had the potential to turn this into a (well-intended) disaster, but it turned out to be quite the enjoyable surprise. When you watch the film. you hear a lot of Dylan songs, mostly from Dylan himself, and once in a while fragments from Dylan-covers also can be heard. The "I'm Not There" is a collection of those covers.
"I'm Not There" (2 CDs, 34 tracks; 159 min.) brings 33 covers, many of which do not appear in the movie. I am generally speaking not a great fan of these types of collections (cover songs of big name artists) but must admit that it works quite well here. Among the many highlights on tis collection, my personal favorites include "Goin' to Acapulco" by Jim James & Calexico (done brilliantly in the movie), "One More Cup of Coffee" by Roger McGuinn & Calexico, Jeff Tweedy's somber take on "Simple Twist of Fate", Charlotte Gainsbourg (who stars in the film) whispering-soft version of "Just Like A Woman", a surprising appearance of the Hold Steady for their cover of "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?", an almost subdued performance of the Black Keys on "The Wicked Messinger", and a memorable "Highway 61 Revisited" from Karen O (of the Yea Yea Yeas). The very last song brings Bob Dylan himself, doing "I'm Not There", along with the Band (from the Basement Tapes-era).
Bottom line: I was very pleasantly surprised by this album, which is so much more than a soundtrack. The best proof of that is of course that you can play this and it will resonate just as well, whether you've actually seen the movie "I'm Not There" or not.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Like the movie, these covers disappoint
Comment: I looked forward to seeing the movie; but, quite frankly it sucked! More artsy-craftsy contortions than a ballerenic pretzel. And the covers of Dylan's music all turn out to be lame and lifeless just like the movie. Read Chronicles or Suze Rotolo's memoir: much, much better.A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties[[ASIN:0743244583Chronicles: Volume One (Chronicles)]][[ASIN:0825634520Bob Dylan: No Direction Home - The Soundtrack]]
Customer Rating:
Summary: NOT MUCH THAT BETTERS THE ORIGINAL - BUT STILL INTERESTING
Comment: As I look through my i-tunes collection, I realize that I already have six versions of "Highway 61 Revisited" saved digitally on my computer. A few are various Dylan recordings and the remainder are covers by other artists. I have eight versions of "All Along the Watchtower," nine versions of "Just Like a Woman," and over a dozen renderings of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." All of this overkill begs the question; Does the world need another album of artists covering Bob Dylan songs? The simple answer is `Of course not", but the soundtrack for "I'm Not There" is not quite so simple.
Over the course of two disks, thirty-four recordings by almost as many artists veer wildly all over place. Some are faithful to the original recordings, while others are incredibly imaginative recreations. For my money, it's the reinvented tracks that may help this collection become something more than a novelty. Perhaps the most surprising thing is how many of the most iconoclastic artists are the very ones who play it safest. Eddie Vedder sounds great on "All Along the Watchtower," but he does nothing that hasn't been done hundreds of times before. Cat Power and Karen O created virtual carbon copies of Dylan's own recordings, leaving me to wonder why they would even bother, since any cover band could have done the same thing. Even Jeff Tweedy disappointed, with a true-to-form but straightforward reading of "A Simple Twist of Fate."
The most successful stuff here are the acts who chose obscure material, or have rendered the song into something new and interesting in its own right. The Los Lobos version of "Billy 1" is totally cool, and casts an obscure gem in an entirely new light. Iron and Wine teamed up with Calexico to create as moody an interpretation of "Dark Eyes" as I could imagine. You'll have to listen twice before you even recognize it. I also have to give props to Yo La Tengo - a band that usually does not impress me much - for choosing "I Wanna Be Your Lover." This may the hardest-rocking song this band has ever stumbled upon. I don't even know where Stephen Malkmus found "Can't Leave Her Behind," but I'm glad he did, while Sufjan Stevens turns "Ring Them Bells" into a Van Dyke Parks-style show tune.
I guess everybody will read this collection in their own way, but I doubt that anyone would consider it to be indispensable. As for myself, I intend to load a dozen or so tracks into my i-tunes, but I'll skip the recordings that bring nothing new to the table. B Tom Ryan
Customer Rating:
Summary: I'm Not There soundtack
Comment: I bought this for my girlfriend. The music is great and so was the movie. Please buy if you like Bob Dylan's music!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Dylan without The Dead???
Comment: A very good Dylan cover compilation, don't get me wrong...but how can you really have any kind of a Dylan cover compilation without The Grateful Dead??? For that I can only give it a 3 star.
Next time someone does a Bob movie...include The Dead.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Many people have covered Bob Dylan's songs over the years, but few quite like this. On the double-disc soundtrack that accompanies Todd Haynes' extremely confounding biopic of the already plenty confounding folk icon, we get the likes of Sonic Youth, Cat Power, Yo La Tengo, the Hold Steady, and Antony & The Johnsons doing their best Dylan impressions and often failing gloriously. Former Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus does a particularly fine job oozing his way through "Ballad of a Thin Man," while Wilco's Jeff Tweedy draws the moody beauty out of "Simple Twist of Fate," and Sufjan Stevens lends his typically baroque touch to "Ring Them Bells." Special credit has to go to the Million Dollar Bashers, the unofficial house band that includes Steve Shelley on drums, John Medeski on piano, and Tom Verlaine on guitar, along with other notable musicians. The generous track list and dynamic set of contributors promises that this album will provide plenty of awe long after the film itself has been forgotten. --Aidin Vaziri
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