Dylan

[Norah]

Nashville Skyline is the only one I really like from that stretch.

[Kevin Davis]

New Morning is one of my all-time favorites, though I understand why it's a lower-tier album for others. Self Portrait has its shortcomings but I was so overwhelmed by how bad it wasn't the first time I heard it, compared to its reputation, that I always carry a little of that awe with me. The accompanying Bootleg Series album is fantastic.

But I agree that Nashville Skyline is pretty much perfect.

[Hatfield]

Nashville Skyline is the only one I really like from that stretch.

Same. That was my Saturday morning album for years and my wife and daughters even love it too.

It's fun for me to imagine myself in 1969, the world is crazy, you've loved Dylan since 1963 and listened to him like a prophet, you open this album and.....Nashville Skyline Rag.

I'm with Kevin. I can't get enough of his voice on this record. How did he do it?

[liebzz]

Yeah, these songs can really get into your head and stay there.

[Gods' Die]

It certainly doesn't hit as hard up front as the 1962-1967 stretch, but in a lot of ways the 1968-1971 is the Dylan I find myself revisiting most. Artistically, it's a bit of a retreat -- not as musically or linguistically as ambitious, but I just can't get enough of the voice. I will be curious to hear what you think of Self Portrait and New Morning, two of my personal favorites that seem to get varied response elsewhere.

It's funny. I loved Dylan before I got into this period. I started listening to this era, especially the basement stuff which is less cutting edge when I had my total Dylan epiphany that he's my favorite musician and artist. He took risks and so many paid off, and the fact that his lesser stuff is so listenable and good made him my most reached for music. His pillars are undeniable but that and everything down to his tossed off stuff gives you something to think about or something that's nice to listen to and so many genres tested kind of blew my mind. And his voice got fucking good. It all adds up, it's not a man trying to make art but a man art flows through.

[knee tunes]

It certainly doesn't hit as hard up front as the 1962-1967 stretch, but in a lot of ways the 1968-1971 is the Dylan I find myself revisiting most. Artistically, it's a bit of a retreat -- not as musically or linguistically as ambitious, but I just can't get enough of the voice. I will be curious to hear what you think of Self Portrait and New Morning, two of my personal favorites that seem to get varied response elsewhere.

It's funny. I loved Dylan before I got into this period. I started listening to this era, especially the basement stuff which is less cutting edge when I had my total Dylan epiphany that he's my favorite musician and artist. He took risks and so many paid off, and the fact that his lesser stuff is so listenable and good made him my most reached for music. His pillars are undeniable but that and everything down to his tossed off stuff gives you something to think about or something that's nice to listen to and so many genres tested kind of blew my mind. And his voice got fucking good. It all adds up, it's not a man trying to make art but a man art flows through.

That's what he said tho

[liebzz]

Self-Portrait - I think we’re in the midst of a discussion on this, but really in the wake of Dylan’s evolution from folk hero to rock music to country and beyond, I think one key element to enjoy his work is to walk into the a h album without expectations - almost like suspending disbelief when reading a book or watching a movie. I think that’s certainly the case here since I wouldn’t expect this from Dylan: a double album that didn’t have to be one and could, without thinking further, be dismissed as a sloppy toss away of an album complete with live versions, cover songs (completely reimagined), and no seeming cohesive glue...but that’s sort of where the album title comes in. As if this is all the Bobs we’ve come to know and love, the album glides through much of his artistic forays, plays into his influences, twists the pop classic The Boxer into a countrified version of itself, completely reimagines his A #1 classic hit, and somehow gets this all right so long as you are willing to take this journey with him. Surely I have my favorites, like Days of ‘49, Early Mornin’ Rain, Woogie Boogie, Living the Blues, Blue Moon, and (Quinn the Eskimo) The Mighty Quinn, but I think the true key to enjoy this record is to let yourself be immersed from end to end without over analyzing and nitpicking. Maybe Dylan sees himself as this mess of a topsy turvy amalgam of things, much like the cover art. Yet there’s something to see and hear here, much like a Picasso of sorts.

[Kevin Davis]

Self-Portrait - I think we’re in the midst of a discussion on this, but really in the wake of Dylan’s evolution from folk hero to rock music to country and beyond, I think one key element to enjoy his work is to walk into the a h album without expectations - almost like suspending disbelief when reading a book or watching a movie. I think that’s certainly the case here since I wouldn’t expect this from Dylan: a double album that didn’t have to be one and could, without thinking further, be dismissed as a sloppy toss away of an album complete with live versions, cover songs (completely reimagined), and no seeming cohesive glue...but that’s sort of where the album title comes in. As if this is all the Bobs we’ve come to know and love, the album glides through much of his artistic forays, plays into his influences, twists the pop classic The Boxer into a countrified version of itself, completely reimagines his A #1 classic hit, and somehow gets this all right so long as you are willing to take this journey with him. Surely I have my favorites, like Days of ‘49, Early Mornin’ Rain, Woogie Boogie, Living the Blues, Blue Moon, and (Quinn the Eskimo) The Mighty Quinn, but I think the true key to enjoy this record is to let yourself be immersed from end to end without over analyzing and nitpicking. Maybe Dylan sees himself as this mess of a topsy turvy amalgam of things, much like the cover art. Yet there’s something to see and hear here, much like a Picasso of sorts.

"Days of 49" and "Early Morning Rain" are my favorites on Self Portrait as well.

I really hope you get enough out of this journey to jump into the Bootleg Series releases. The "Another Self Portrait" release is a triumph.

[verb_to_trust]

Digging the new song. Album comes out a day after my birthday.

[liebzz]

Digging the new song. Album comes out a day after my birthday.

Fortuitous that I began my journey when I did. I presume I will be done before June 19th but now I have a deadline.

[liebzz]

New Morning - so with this one, I would think it would be easy to overlook plowing through Dylan’s vast sea of albums. There’s not much in the way of mining new places, shocking there system, or redefining or expanding the landscape. It’s good comfortable Dylan at a point where it feels like it just comes to him (though I am sure much went into these things). This albums fits nicely like a shoe after it’s completely broken in but before it causes any discomfort, and this falls into the complimentary side of that. If you look beyond this, you’ll miss a lot of excellent stuff. Day of the Locusts, Went to See the Gypsy and If Not For You are all strong early tracks on this album, but everything really quite opened up for me in the second half. If Dogs Run Free was a fun track and then New Morning sounds great. I’m almost getting that Neil Young like vine where I feel like I have always had this album around familiarity. However, my two favorites would ultimately be One More Weekend (if you had any doubt about that then you didn’t follow me running through The Rolling Stones catalogue or countless others where I praise the blues influences), and The Man in Me (couldn’t get the Big Lebowski out of my head but it’s still a great song nonetheless). I would say this is one of those albums you reach for when you don’t need all that baggage that typically comes with those overly heralded albums. This is an album you can just sit with and enjoy because the music is great, and I can see this one as a real grower of an album where the more you hear it, the more you love it for that reason. There’s no pressure to like this or massive exposition. It just is, and for that it gets it own special place in the Dylan world.

[Kevin Davis]

I agree with every word of your review, liebzz, and I'm so happy you enjoyed this album.

I hope you can take 3 minutes to sidestep the journey and check out this alternate version of "Went to See the Gypsy" that appears on the Another Self Portrait bootleg series. I can look back at certain milestones in my relationship with any artist, and I often look back at this one track (which was still unreleased when I first heard it in 2003) as the single thing that pushed me over the brink with Dylan, where I realized I wanted to know about everything this artist did. It means a ton to me.

[ghost]

KD I had the same experience, except it was "Most of the Time" from Tell Tale Signs.

Hey Liebz, are you doing any reading, research, etc to supplement your listening? I enjoyed these when I did my Dylan tour:

https://www.amazon.com/No-Direction-Hom ... 1617130125
https://www.amazon.com/Bob-Dylan-Record ... oks&sr=1-1

And of course "Chronicles."

I bought a couple of Ian Bell's massive tomes but it was toward the end and I was pretty Dylan'd out. Still haven't read them.

[liebzz]

I do not generally get into the reading material on these journeys because I don’t want to color my experience and let it get in my head, but I will check out that link since I probably won’t get to the next album until Monday.

Edit: gave that version of the song a listen. That’s great. Interesting that this put you over the top since I still associate Dylan with some form of guitar in his hands, and clearly that’s not happening there but it is a great version of the song. Reminds me of how Springsteen’s sparse arrangement of Thunder Road was a big turning point for me as well.

[Simple Torture]

[liebzz]

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid Soundtrack - I almost feel stupid for not disliking anything so far, and that ends up stretching to the this, a soundtrack that should be a toss away. The Billy(s) and Knockin on Heaven’s Door are the only songs with words, all of which I really liked. Throw in a few real solid instrumentals and you got it all. But the thing that surprised me was how developed those instrumentals were - fully realized songs and not simply soundscapes. Main Title Theme and Turkey Chase were my favorites of those. Look, I may never come back to this again, but that’s only due to the exceptional quality of everything he’s done so far. Much more solid than I was expecting.

[liebzz]

Dylan (1973) - i read a little on this and it seems that Dylan himself had little to nothing to do with this release. And that warms my heart since it is terribly uneven and certainly not up to the extensive standards he had laid out for himself. Lily of the West, the Ballad of Ira Hayes and Mr. Bojangles range between pretty good to much better than I expected. After that it is sort of a mishmash of not great covers. Really the first I would definitely skip in the future.

[Kevin Davis]

Dylan (1973) - i read a little on this and it seems that Dylan himself had little to nothing to do with this release. And that warms my heart since it is terribly uneven and certainly not up to the extensive standards he had laid out for himself. Lily of the West, the Ballad of Ira Hayes and Mr. Bojangles range between pretty good to much better than I expected. After that it is sort of a mishmash of not great covers. Really the first I would definitely skip in the future.

These are outtakes from the Self Portrait/New Morning sessions, released by Columbia as a sort of parting shot to Dylan after he signed with Asylum for Planet Waves. It's a weirdly garish collection of tunes, and without some of Self Portrait's more off-the-cuff moments to set them off, the schlockier elements of that session really shine through.

But, that voice. Even on something as treacly as "Big Yellow Taxi," that 1970 voice just sucks me right in.

I'd love to hear some of these takes without overdubs, similar to some of the "naked" Self Portrait tracks on that bootleg series volume.

[LetMeSleep]

This is a fascinating stretch for Dylan. He was comfortable yet searching. The official album releases are greatly enhanced by the bootleg series. Pretty Saro is a must hear.

Will you be including the live releases from the 70s? All three of them help the arc he went through.

[liebzz]

I was planning Before the Flood because of the Band connection but please convince me otherwise. Mostly I am limited to what’s on Spotify..