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I don't know much, but I do know Dylan (not the man, only his art and career which is just fine by me). Many, perhaps most, of the folks who rank themselves among his core fans will never appreciate this release. The sad truth is that Dylan's breadth of interests and genres exceeds that of virtually all of his fans, myself included. That's a real shame as this particular Dylan release not only contains some his greatest songs but also some really nice covers of both other artists' and his own prior work. This all comes from a period when Dylan was actively trying to deconstruct his image and to disappear from public scrutiny. He documented his perspective at that fairly well in his "Chronicles, Volume 1" autobiography. This release is a split between what is essentially a different release of "New Morning" and better material from his "Self Portrait" and "Dylan" cover albums plus a few outtakes from Nashville Skyline.
My starting perspective was that I generally like this era and have long considered "New Morning" to be one of Dylan's top releases. However, I cared little for "Self Portrait" and "Dylan" save for a few scattered gems. In order to get to an ideal frame of mind to review this I avoided all liner notes and sequestered myself and my wife for two weeks on an almost vacant beach. I took along "Chronicles Vol 1" and studied it along with the Wikipedia Dylan LP ring from "John Westley Harding" through "New Morning". I brought along all released material from that era including some Bootleg Series outtakes from the period with George Harrison and Johnny Cash. What? Am I some rich retired millionaire who can simply fly off and dedicate this kind of effort to a review? Nope. We were just a harried and harassed couple, sick of our jobs and subject to an unexpected stream of negative chaotic events over the past 2 years. We had arranged for a badly needed off season vacation with a mindset to hide from the world's cross hairs, much as Dylan and his family were doing in these years albeit for much better reasons and on a grand scale. Still, we were in that mode in our little world and this release came out just as we were to depart. Upon realizing that Amazon allowed immediate mp3 download I grabbed it along with Chronicles on the way out the door. I've just picked up the physical package 3 weeks later, but I'll crack the shrink wrap after I review to avoid any influence from the liner notes. Have I mentioned that I'm in an ideal state of mind to review this?
Without exception, all of this material is better than or equal to the previously released versions. Here we find Dylan in great voice, and it is his natural voice without any affect whatsoever. Critics have written that he had an extra octave on New Morning and indeed Dylan has claimed that his voice throughout this era was sweet from quitting smoking. Not so. That's typical Dylan media manipulation and it's patently absurd to think that smoking cessation could change the voice of a young man in his early 30's to that degree, particularly as the main difference is far more stylistic than tonal in nature. Further, Dylan had an additional octave beyond this material on his very first release as clearly demonstrated on the yodeling in the "Freight Train Blues" recording. Shift forward 3 or 4 decades and we have the croaking Dylan of the last 5 releases, the raspy Dylan DJ of Theme Time Radio Hour and the wheezing, creaking Dylan of the Mike Wallace 60 Minutes interview. I just have to laugh as we also have recent recorded evidence of a silky smooth Dylan speaking voice. "Manipulator of crowds" indeed. The fact is that Dylan's vocal command has always been nearly unrivaled and this hasn't changed. Outside of Billie Holiday I have yet to hear another vocalist who could match Dylan's ability to intensively focus to the point of giving every single syllable on "Blonde on Blonde", "Highway 61" and "Blood on the Tracks" its own special considered treatment. In this era, he chooses to treat honest folk and country songs with an honest voice. That's an artist's choice, a good one in my opinion and much of the reason why the casual radio listening public generally enjoyed the best known work of this period, "Lay Lady Lay", without any of the usual complaints about "that awful Dylan voice".
New Morning - 5 stars all the way
To me the "New Morning" material here is what "New Morning" should have been. In "Chronicles Vol 1" Dylan wrote of how the press was waiting for his next move, his next vision, denied that he's the voice of a generation, etc all of which is pretty true. He then sequed to a car ride conversation with Robbie Robertson of the Band where Robertson asks "So, where do you think you're going to take it [the music industry] next?" and Dylan claims that he couldn't believe that even Robertson doesn't get it, that Dylan isn't a leader, etc. But these are two quite different topics and this is merely an example of Dylan's typical word games. Dylan wasn't the voice of a generation, nor was he a movement leader. However, along with the Beatles, he undeniably had been setting the musical direction in folk, folk rock and rock for nearly a decade at this point. In fact, this was exactly the problem, the very role from which he was attempting to extricate himself. Dylan easily could have taken the music industry in a new direction with "New Morning", and in my opinion this material proves that he was considering doing exactly that. I believe that he was wrestling with this decision and that the incredible horn based title track of "New Morning" as included here could have been a startling genre changing #1 single in 1970. That of course was exactly what Robbie Robertson was asking about, totally within Dylan's power to do and indeed what he had already been doing for years.
The previously released "New Morning" title cut is a great song in its own right with a sparse, stripped down acoustic/electric arrangement kicked along with a nice groove by Russell Kunkel's typically stellar drumming. But this alternate full blown horn based "New Morning" that we have here is an animal which simply cannot be contained. It would demand radio play as surely as "Like a Rolling Stone" had in the prior decade These horns are commanding; alternately brash, ballsy, melodic, triumphant and even humorous as the song calls for it. The electric and acoustic guitar overdubs that have been added back in are also spectacular. After 3 solid weeks of listening I still cannot believe how compelling this take is. All of the other original takes from "New Morning" included here are similarly better and quite different from the release.
Dylan wouldn't approach this level of orchestration again until he was fully out of hiding in the late '70s "Street Legal" and throughout the '80s and '90's starting first with the incredible horn Tour de force "Brownsville Girl". It is important to realize that when "New Morning" was released in 1970 it was to a post Woodstock/Altamont/psychedelic era into a directionless vacuum which would not be filled until the mid '70s disco direction. Had this horn based "New Morning" been released, we would have had an entirely different 70's scene. Late 60's/early 70's soul & Motown artists would have quickly added more brass. David Bromberg's Chicago big band concept (did it start in these "New Morning" sessions?) would have been bigger and more successful. The Stones would have added bluesy horns in a flash.. there would have been no Rolling Bee Gee's "Emotional Rescue" LP. The 70's would have been very different, far more diverse. New Wave and Rap may well have been avoided... ahhh, well... we all have our dreams.
The alternate takes of "Went to See the Gypsy" are fascinating. The originally released Gypsy has this great understated electric guitar which just hangs back throughout the entire tune with very few, always tasteful, jagged riffs... invariably at just the right time... all just waiting to cut loose at the end. However, in the end the guitar does kick in and sizzle but it never quite cooks and that is maddening although it really is a great cut. Here however, we have an early acoustic demo version and I'm going to guess that it's David Bromberg playing lead on it because his playing is as recognizable to me as his face. He plays melodic riffs and games with Dylan's vocals throughout, but there are gaps in the song... key lyrics and ideas missing. But it all is just great. The final lyrics on the released version (and here as well on a second great keyboard based Gypsy) is better and details backing "He [the Gypsy] did it in Las Vegas, and he can do it here..." are more fleshed out. Maddeningly though, the final lyrics do drop the single best lyric (only heard here): "I contemplated every move, or at least I tried". But to be honest, it was dropped as it really didn't fit the rest of the verse. That's how one can tell that this is an early version as typical Dylan outtakes have substantially different poetry and imagery which arrive at the same meaning. For example, on "Blood on the Tracks", "Idiot Wind" contains "I ran into the fortune teller who said beware of lightning that might strike. I haven't known peace and quiet for so long I can't remember what it's like" but the original had "I threw the I Ching yesterday, it said there might be some thunder at the well. Peace and quiet's been avoiding me For so long it seems like living hell". Very different, yet the same vibe and meaning. So we are still waiting for an ultimate version of Gypsy with something akin to the final lyrics but I'll be enjoying the three that we now have for at least the rest of my life.
One song which came off truly badly on "New Morning" was "If Dogs Run Free", due to horribly misplaced and discontinuous skat singing which rendered it all but unlistenable. Here however we have the same backing vocalists with much better yet equally quirky jazz tinged vocal arrangements. "Time Passes Slowly" which was beautiful before is even better now, more rhythmic, a little better arrangemed and some great "la, la, la-ing" vocal work from his Bobness. And there is still yet another great arrangement of it as well on this same release! It is just all too much... considering the full impact of what "New Morning" would have been. There is also some ghostly keyboard throughout these sessions which to my ear might be the same player who participated in the original New York sessions for "Blood on the Tracks".
I've left a lot out, there is just so much more to say and tracks that I haven't mentioned. But this is essential listening.
Self Portrait - I waffled between 4 & 5, but there is no choice. 5 stars
The Self Portrait/Dylan portion of the release is complicated for so many reasons. In "Chronicles Vol 1", Dylan notes that he recorded covers, threw them against the wall and released whatever stuck. But he also writes about how he was intentionally trying to drop out of the public eye and he later told Mike Wallace that he had intentionally made some bad albums in this era. Although it did contain the beautiful "Copper Kettle" and a nice take of Paul Simon's "The Boxer", it is clear that what really "stuck" for him was a release of lesser takes which could serve to diminish his profile. That is not so on this release. Incredibly beautiful takes of tunes such as "Pretty Saro", "Tattle ODay", "Spanish Is The Loving Tongue", "Thirsty Boots" as well some of his own tunes ("I Threw it All Away" & "When I Paint My Masterpiece") are easily as good as anything that he's ever done.
The "Self Portrait" material is yet further complicated in genre and song selection in that his fans were generally not interested in their protest and electric folk hero moving to a soft middle of the road folk/country genre, let alone doing covers. True, Dylan had picked up so many of these tunes in the Gaslight Van Ronk/Peter, Paul and Mary scene followed by the Joan Baez/Eric Anderson London hotel rooms as documented in "Don't Look Back" but fans of the time weren't clued in to that. Later early '90s Dylan releases "Good As I Been to You" and "World Gone Wrong" were also all covers and far better accepted even though less than a third of the material was well done. But the original "Self Portrait" had less than 3 good covers on a double album so you certainly can't blame the fans. Also, by the '90s people were used to Dylan changing and blues were more palatable to his core audience than folk and country can ever be.
But one insurmountable problem remains with Dylan doing covers. Simply put, most artists' top signature songs are just not going to rank as top or even second tier Dylan songs. This is true of "The Boxer", "Thirsty Boots" and all of the others here except for a few of the traditional ones that I noted above. Good as Dylan's covers are, the material simply does not equal his own. For example, his takes on standards such as "Alberta", "Days of 49" & "Little Sadie" would easily rank as career best signature efforts for country and folk/old time artists ranging from Willie Nelson to Doc Watson. But in the Dylan pantheon they simply don't rank at all and are now gone from my iPod after 3 weeks as are most of the original "Self Portrait" versions.
But I can't hold that against Dylan in ranking this release as they are top takes in their genre. Unless Amazon lets us go to 6 stars for Dylan or limit other country, folk and old time artists to 4 stars, we just have to accept that other artists in this genre can and do get 5 star reviews for far lesser takes. So the Self Portrait/Dylan half of the collection gets 5 stars as well in my book.
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Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2013
Top reviews from other countries
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- carl moskReviewed in Canada on September 21, 2013
Another side of Bob Dylan is reveled
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Mr. Remi ProuxReviewed in France on September 1, 2013
Magnifique écrin, un contenu excellent !
- Mr. R. PowellReviewed in the United Kingdom on August 26, 2013
What is this piece of .....? Genius Perhaps
