Bob Dylan. Song and dance man? Ladies underwear salesman? Folksinger? Revolutionary? Poet? Oscar winning songwriter? Novelist? Actor? Yes, he is all those things and more. In the last six months an armload of books have been published to come to grips with who he is, what he's done, where he's been and where he's going. But still we have no answer. No definitive one anyway. The film for which this collection of songs serves as soundtrack, Masked and Anonymous, describes him as most of us know him. Bob Dylan has been a slippery character, trying to hide from the spotlight, by placing himself there in plain sight. He does it again in this film, and his record company accommodates him by releasing this extraordinary collection of Dylan written songs...performed, for the most part, by other artists. Jessica Lange in the film hears that Dylan's character, Jack Fate, will be appearing at a bizarre benefit concert in an unnamed Central American country and asks, "Will we be able to recognize the songs?" and we know that she is talking about the actor, as much as the character.

The thing about Dylan's songs is that they are so iconic, so immersed in our collective memory, that no matter how they are performed we recognize them. He knew this a long time ago, when he started adding reggae rhythms or sizzling blues riffs to familiar acoustic melodies. "This is where I am now!" he seemed to be saying, "Try to keep up!" And for some of us...it's been a lifelong job trying to keep up. Just like the film, this soundtrack starts off with a southern preacher doing his thing...but he's talking about revolution isn't he? Then a familiar riff, and "My Back Pages" IN JAPANESE, by the Magokoro Brothers. How weird is that? Then the gospel voice of Shirley Caesar on a bluesy "Gotta Serve Somebody." The styles change, the voices change but the message is there. The Dylan trademark seems to travel with the song not the singer. The Grateful Dead plod through "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," Jerry Garcia whining, and his twisting guitar licks swirling through the oblique lyrics.

In between Dylan and his hot new stage band drop in a few new recordings. These were done, live on the soundstage, after shooting was completed, but the cast hung around to witness the filming. Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Bruce Dern, Ms. Lange, Penelope Cruz, they all took time from their busy schedules for this once in a lifetime event. The music laid down by guitarists Larry Campbell and Charlie Sexton; bassist Tony Garnier and drummer George Recile was worth it. A powerfully rocking new version of "Down In The Flood;" a banjo driven folk song "Diamond Joe;" a ragged take on "Dixie," and a new seige is laid on "Cold Irons Bound." Each one worth is having, a couple of them worth the price of the album. Dylan's latest new voice, the threadbare aged-Dylan, is finding a home in his body. He is feeling more comfortable with it, and is using it within its limitations. The band find harmonies where they will and together they're creating a new version of that thin wild mercury sound he's been looking for his whole career.

Los Lobos offer a multi-cultural take on "On a Night Like This," Articolo 31 do an Italian hip-hop with "Come Una Pietra Scalciata" (yep, that's "Like a Rolling Stone" and believe me when I tell you...it works!) There's more too, Jerry Garcia, Sophie Zelmani, Sertab, and the Dixie Hummingbirds, amazing stuff. In the context of the film, these things played along and created dissociate images; as music...the soundtrack to your life as it were...(and isn't that what the music we listen to becomes?)...as your own soundtrack this album is almost hypnotic. It calls to you as you listen. It fills your head with images. Cinematic images of the film, of Dylan, of your own experiences inexorably linked to the Dylan originals. It creates a surrealistic swirl of these images and means this and that, and before you know it you're actually THINKING about the music you're listening to. Just as the film forces you to confront everything you've always thought about Bob Dylan, and then rethink it, and then it reminds you that, "Hey! It's a movie...he's a character in a story!" so too this soundtrack album accomplishes the same task aurally. Records aren't supposed to have that kind of power, are they?