bob dylan - self portrait

i think my favorite thing about empire burlesque is that photo

i never seek it out but i always have time for 'rainy day women' (i am a little horrified that that's what ties 'like a rolling stone' for highest charting dylan single). at this point i think i may have more time for 'she's always a woman' than 'just like a woman'.

"just like a woman" is kind of really gross.

i wish it didn't share an album with "visions of johanna", the greatest song of the 60s.

fave on that lp is stuck inside of memphis...
close 2nd i want you

btw y'all know that next bootleg series will cover self-p/new morning sessions right? or have we covered this already?

er stuck inside of MOBILE

just like a woman is heavy dumb. leopard-skin pill-box hat is GREAT, the part where the doctor steals his girl is better than when it happens to leonard cohen.

tell tale signs has all kinds of good stuff on it including the definitive version of "someday baby" from modern times.

i like "something's burning baby" too but it's definitely on the hokier end of the dylan apocalypse spectrum. (my favorite pious dylan dystopia is "foot of pride". they take all this money from sin. build BIIIIIIIIIIG universities to study in. sing amazing grace ALL the way to the swiss banks.)

he's singing about hisself from 5 years earlier maybe

I like to think that Bob is referring the Monty Python foot in "Foot of Pride".

what makes SBB hokey is the synth horn

SOMETHING'S THE MATTER BABY THERE'S SMOKE IN YOUR HAAAAAAAAAAAAAIR.

do u think it's about America

ignore that question

do u think it's about America

sure – if you're Bono

ONE HUNDRED

dylan albums without filler: highway 61, john wesley harding, uhhh live '66.

Nashville Skylines pretty solid.

nashville skyline is kind of all filler. in a good way.

incidentally I just googled "who is the girl on the back of empire burlesque" and found this thread:
http://www.expectingrain.com/discussions/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=68556

so many completely ridiculous guesses! A lot of people are near blind, apparently.

lol at that being emmylou harris!

that's not even the worst guess!

nashville skyline is kind of all filler. in a good way.

― tylerw, Monday, May 6, 2013 2:38 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i see what you're getting at but no. "i threw it all away" is nobody's idea of filler. it's one of his very best songs IMO.

but the whole album can be read as a "tribute" to those country music LPs of the era (say, by roger miller) that are like 26 minutes long and include a few instruments and "trad arr." tunes to save money on royalties. just completely unpretentious but (at their best) still committed to quality.

so good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLwhDb7J7TY

Yep. New Morning is where tries to transcend that style.

also you have to wonder if the back cover of a very mundane even glum looking nashville cityscape is bob being a little tongue in cheek

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2629/4013250338_30c76ed815_z.jpg

also the playing on this record

bonerville, population: me

http://www.bobdylan.com/us/node/31036

:D

wait so the self-portrait reissue is only gonna be in the deeeluxe version?

yup. :(

No

http://www.amazon.com/Self-Portrait-1969-1971-Bootleg-Series/dp/B00DW5IM9Q/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1373992643&sr=8-2

The Standard Version contains 35 tracks on 2 CD's, and soft cover perfect bound booklet
The Deluxe Version contains 4 CD s and two hardcover books housed in a hardcover slip case
Book # 1 contains 4 CD's and liner notes
Book # 2 contains the photos from John Cohen and Al Clayton.
The 2 bonus CD's will contain the newly remastered version of Self Portrait and the complete 17 song recording of Dylan & The Band performing live at the Isle Of Wight in 1969
The vinyl version contains 35 tracks on 3 LPs (and 2 CDs) plus a 12" x 12" booklet that includes the liner notes written by Greil Marcus, the essay from Michael Simmons, and the photographs from John Cohen and Al Clayton, and pictures of the original tape boxes and cue sheets.

It would be great if Greil Marcus's liner notes were just, "what is this shit?".
Or has he come around?

"Self Portrait" was the first (and for a long time only) Dylan record I heard. My dad had a copy of it and as a 12 yr old just getting into music it was a real "huh" record for me. Took me a long to figure out that wasn't yr normal Dylan record.

how much is the deluxe going to be?

at the mo, it's $125 on amazon to the ~20 for the other : (

damn bob that's a cold shot

bummer about the pricing but i'm really excited that this music is seeing release, especially the isle of wight stuff. i love this period.

tons of good discussion upthread. it sucks that greil marcus' review was reduced to "what is this shit" because it's actually a really long and thoughtful review, even if i disagree with some of his assessments.

http://expectingrain.com/dok/div/greilmarcusselfportrait.html

that is a wonderful review, one of his best ever imo -- love how all over the place it is.

The four questions: The four sons gazed at the painting on the museum wall. "It's a painting," said the first son. "It's art," said the second son. "It's a frame," said the third son, and he said it rather coyly. The fourth son was usually considered somewhat stupid, but he at least figured out why they'd come all the way from home to look at the thing in the first place. "It's a signature," he said.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/bob-dylans-lost-1970-gem-pretty-saro-premiere-20130807

lovin this

This is damn great!

yeah that sounds awesome.
kinda can't believe that they're not including the new morning version of "tomorrow is a long time" though. that one is great! (can't find it on youtube tho).

#bootlegnerdgripe

oh man these outtakes. "these hands" sounds like an early slow train coming demo

FYI: the super box is on sale at Popmarket for $82.99, Vinyl for $52.99 for next 20-odd hours. Still too expensive but tempting.

http://www.popmarket.com/details/28811265?feature_id=28808750

regardless of the Bootleg/Expanded Reissue version, this is a p funny record. Some great stuff, some terrible stuff, some goofy stuff. The two attempts at Little Sadie are both bad, The Boxer is so totally wtf, and the Isle of Wight performances are a mess. But Early Mornin' Rain is awesome! And a bunch of it is v pretty. It's strange that he does *all* his voices here, including the Nashville Skyline voice on "Let It Be Me". Such a hodge-podge, kind of his White Album except there's a bunch of shitty covers and not nearly enough decent song material.

yeah self portrait itself is entertaining.
the isle of wight stuff on there the most convincing argument that dylan was self-sabotaging — that "like a rolling stone" is the worst performance from the show. as a whole, it's a great set.