PACKAGES like this are manna from heaven for Dylanologists - packed full of alternative versions, rare live tracks and unreleased demos - it's like all your Christmases and birthdays have come at once.

The two-CD set has been released to coincide with the forthcoming Martin Scorsese documentary of the same title on Dylan - and a fine package it is. Scorsese has been busy focusing on his love of music recently and this new film comes after his fascinating "Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues" project.

The material on CD1 focuses on Dylan's early roots and starts with an ultra-rare recording of a teenage Dylan in 1959 singing and strumming an original, When I Got Troubles - it's rough and ready and decidedly lo-fi, but already some of the Dylan trademarks are firmly in place. There's a fine This Land Is Your Land from Dylan's obsessive Woody Guthrie period and then its into the real meat and veg of Dylan's back-pages - demos of Sally Gal, Don't Think Twice It's All Right and early live versions of Blowin' in the Wind, the visceral Masters of War and a cutting A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall.

A fascinating early take of Mr Tambourine Man finds Dylan dueting with fellow folky - Ramblin' Jack Elliot - so strange to hear such a familiar song in experimental form.

CD2 finds Dylan plugging in, with most of the material hailing from his electric "Judas" period covering the albums Bringing it All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde.

A live version of Maggie's Farm at the Newport Folk festival is sneering and raucous with Mike Bloomfield ripping up his guitar like there's no tomorrow.

It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry finds Dylan and his band on take nine when the song was still an upbeat number, just before they slowed the whole thing down for the final album cut. Though many of the songs here had yet to be completed, these different takes are an insight into what went on in the studio in these crucial Dylan years and, to be fair, many of these early versions would still have been good enough to make the final cut.

There's almost too much to digest, but Dylan fans will be poring over this release for years to come.

JS