BOB DYLAN NEW MORNING C/D

This album has his best piano playing. I love those runs after singing the chorus of "Day of the Locusts."

allmusic suggests that went to see the gypsy is about elvis! huh...i didn't get that at all.

also: charlie daniels is on this record. the more you know (TM)

allmusic suggests that went to see the gypsy is about elvis! huh...i didn't get that at all.

it makes me think of gurdjieff having a meeting in a hotel, the way he did in new york in the 40s.

classic! one of the odder Dylan albums, for sure. Doesn't seem that way at first, but there's a definite strange-ness going on here that's unique to his catalog. also, there are some interesting outtakes from these sessions -- "Sign On The Window" with a big orchestral backing, solo piano version of "Spanish Is The Loving Tongue," electric piano-led "Gypsy." It deserves a deluxe edition that it'll probably never get ...

it's so loosey goosey, one of the most fun dylan records.

what's funny is reading Al Kooper's recollections of the making of the record -- how Dylan sort of obsessed over the whole thing and kept changing his mind and generally drove Kooper nuts! Very un-Dylanesque. And yet it still sounds so ramshackle, or loosey goosey as you say.

huh that really surprises me...it feels really off the cuff almost like parts of the basement tapes where you can tell they are just feeling their way through the song or something...that's strange to hear that it was fussed over.

to me it's a funnier, looser Low, in which a great singer/songwriter says fuck-all to concepts, relies on the mundanities (babies, Elvis, etc), and throws a buncha songs together on which he plays a dispropotionate number of instruments.

It deserves a deluxe edition that it'll probably never get ...

The CD sounds like garbage. I love the woody, warm sound of the LP.

translation: you are right. I would love a deluxe reissue.

i've seen a new vinyl pressing of it for sale..i have a good shape vers. of the old vinyl and it sound great.

The chapter in Chronicles that deals (kinda tangentially) with this album is great as well.

it's a second-tier bob album for me. which makes it still pretty great. i've always heard "gypsy" is about the maharishi (sort of a "sexy sadie part ii".)

Nah, "Gypsy" isn't mean at all (as "Sadie" rightfully was), and there's no way Dylan was gonna rep for the Maharishi in late 1970. . . .

i think the gypsy is pretty clearly a charlatan. but it's true that whoever he is, dylan seems more amused by him than disgusted.

Any love for Time Passes Slowly? I like the sorta climax where the guitar is 'soloing' over those blocked piano chords

I bought this on vinyl for $2 today.

I'd totally forgotten I started this thread. I was like "how obnoxious that this title is in all caps how presumptuous of the thread-starter that his thread is so fucking impor-- oh."

new morning is important! $2 is great if it was in decent condition.

so good

I bow to the Bob canon and all, but this is my personal fave of his, if only because it was the only Dylan album my father owned (I'm guessing he bought it for "If Not for You") and I heard it a kabillion times throughout my childhood. And it's not just nostalgia, I still love it, from first to last. "Time Passes Slowly," "Day of the Locusts," "Went to See the Gypsy" (swinging little number, that), "If Dogs Run Free," title track, "Father of Night," all good. Even quasi-cheeseball stuff like "Winterlude"--I love it when he calls her "my little apple."

In re "Gypsy," I've heard variously that it's about Elvis, the Maharishi, and Allen Ginsberg. Still waiting on the definitive word on that.

Changing of the Guard?

OH sorry that's STREET LEGAL

I am literally listening to this lp for the first time right now, I bought it on Sunday

somewhat shocking that I'd never heard of this album before I looked up what record "The Man In Me" was on! guess it's like Neil Young, he's got so many good-to-great records it's hard for them to all get mentioned ....

love this one and best bob drinking album actually... is totally otm.

Can someone who was there, so to speak, tell me what the reception to this album was like when it was released? i've heard conflicting reports.

This was the first of several thank-god-Bob's-back publicity events. It sold well. The early seventies were a strange transitional time; NM and Planet Waves are not among his well-known albums. I like them as minor records with several great cuts apiece.

i certainly wasn't there, but the impression i get from a collection of critical essays and reviews (i'll try to find a link. can't remember the official title) i read a few years ago was since it came on the heels (like just a few months?) of the dissappointing Self Portrait, some fans & critics were pleased to have a "proper" record with some strong songs in his "normal" voice. OTOH it also seemed a lot of the fanatics were angry he hadn't followed up on the promise of Blonde on Blonde and was content to be "domesticated Bob" rather than some sort of emblem of the counter-culture. Chronicles Vol 1 and I'm Not There touch on this, even if they don't directly reference New Morning.

The chapter in Chronicles that deals (kinda tangentially) with this album is great as well.

-- tylerw, Monday, September 17, 2007 3:01 PM (11 months ago) Bookmark Link

or maybe Chronicles did?

this A.J. Weberman dude was pretty cracked:
http://expectingrain.com/dok/who/w/webermanaj.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._J._Weberman

i've definitely read about the comparisons it faced alongside Self-Portrait, which came out what, 4 months prior? i guess i'm just curious about the general public's reaction. Critics seemed pretty divided between "return to form" & "boring, lackluster". It's really not important, i just have a personal fascination with the context of albums that came out long before i was born. Especially ones i really like.

still love this. yeah honestly maybe it is a "minor" album but that's why i like it so. it doesn't feel bogged down by history or expectations or anything.

is street legal worth getting?

it doesn't feel bogged down by history or expectations or anything.

yeah exactly, it's like bob put out this little personal thing in hopes people might get it as *him* instead of one of the many masks he wore over the years

Calling a record "minor" is not insulting.

Street Legal is definitely worth getting. I don't understand why it has a mediocre reputation. Mediocre for Dylan, maybe, but still really good. He still plays a bunch of these songs live.

I'm not sure what I think about New Morning, though. Minor is probably the best way to put it. I hate hate hate "If Dogs Run Free". I don't listen to the album very often, but it's not an embarrassment.

I have never heard Self-Portrait but I would like to. I know "All The Tired Horses" and like it a lot.

self portrait ain't bad. i always liked his cover of "Gotta Travel On" and Gordon Lightfoot's "Early Morning Rain." In fact, all the covers except for "The Boxer" are at least interesting, if memory serves. and there's a ramshackle (possibly live?) "Quinn the Eskimo"

im a big fan of self portrait and new morning...

even winterlude and the simon and garfunkel cover

i'm now totally convinced "Went to see the gypsy" is about elvis.

still need to get street legal....i bought biograph on vinyl a while back and "Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)" is so great.

np: "Winterlude"

the corny female scat singing on if dogs run free is wtflol but also kind of awesome at the same time

this kinda bums me out though cuz it's so fucking cold right now in minneapolis...this is an album that makes me wanna drink a beer outside when it's warm ;_;

current temp: 2O degrees F

posted to another dylan thread:

but what i really want to say is i downloaded some stuff from the "new morning" sessions and i've gotta say it's a revelation. i long ago absorbed the complete basement tapes and the new york blood on the tapes sessions and the myriad outtakes from blonde on blonde... and frankly every other bootleg i've heard since then has been sort of just OK, even including the dylan/cash sessions. but this "new morning" stuff is amazing! although i say that as a big fan of the album, which i know is not a consensus favorite.

by the way the remaster of this sounds excellent.

Yeah my roommate counts this as the best Dylan album and he peed his pants when his remaster came in the mail. Need to listen to this again when I get home.

A friend that Dylan's piano really sounds great.

gotta get that remaster. btw, i agree, the outtakes are really great -- here's my own comp of some of the best stuff http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/100814102/winterlude-the-early-word-on-the-new-dylan-album

thx dude!

no prob. yr gonna like it! the "gypsy" there is worth the price of admission alone.

Yes! This remaster and the "Hokoyo!" Thomas Mapfumo reissue on Water are my two fave reissues of the year so far...

tbh I think Lebowski was where I first heard The Man in Me, that album was not widely available in the 90s

def was my way in, was just coming back to post about how its pop-cultural status maybe overshadows what a great song and performance it is. the hoarse la-la-la voice, "TURN INTO SOME MACHINE," the ooooo backing vocals... dylan throwing it all out there.

symphonic Sign On The Window

Love this version. Might be my favorite thing on that box.

LOVE this album. Such cozy, Sunday morning warm-blanket vibes. Also Went to See the Gypsy is one of his best vocal performances.

that orchestral sign on the window is pretty crazy just for how they had to build it over dylan's totally off-kilter piano ... i'm sure the strings players were a little mystified at the overdub session haha.

My number one Dylan for sure. Planet Waves comes close though!

Those are two great Dylan albums, you have good taste!

Planet Waves is a slog

and the best song ("Nobody 'Cept You") was left off of it!

pw is the greatest, unless u are a stanking bar stool

planet waves is not a slog outside of “dirge”

“Three Angels” is really something. Just a perfect little song.

Wonderful, lovely record. Unsure if I've said that before here.

I just put this on and heard the locusts in "Day of the Locusts" for the first time!
Of all Dylan's records this one sounds like he had the most fun doing it. I love the congested casual sound too, just sounds like hitting tape and doing a rough mix on the fly. "Gypsy" is my favourite (some days it's my favourite Dylan song).

the part where he goes "saw the sun come up on that little minnesota tooooooowwn...that liiiitle miiinesooota tooown!" part gets me crunk if i've had a few..home pride!

― M@tt He1ges0n, Monday, September 17, 2007 12:52 PM (thirteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Love this and the short little outro jam right after.

new morning just makes me happy in general

best bob drinking album actually...

^^still otm

In this concrete world full of souls
The angels play on their horns all day
The whole earth in progression seems to pass by
But does anyone hear the music they play
Does anyone even try?

I love the juxtaposition of “the wildest cat from Montana passes by in flash” followed by “then a lady in bright orange dress”

This album has his best piano playing. I love those runs after singing the chorus of "Day of the Locusts."

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, September 17, 2007

HE DID IT IN LAS VEGAS AND HE CAN DO IT HERE

classic obv... I love the sequencing

I even like “when dogs run free”.. the whole album is so warm and welcoming that I’m like “yeah it’s ok go ahead have a goof, bob”

Great late summer evening album.

so happy just to be alive

the second time bob verges into the "la-la-la-la" vocals on "man in me" is so so beautiful.

I love the alternate version of “Time Passes Slowly” on Another Self Portrait, also has great la-la-la’s

Dylan in the studio recording "The Man In Me":

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

AWESOME

hell yeah

Love it

So cool. That huff and smile at the ending are the best. Thanks!

If he regularly played piano standing up while recording, that could explain why he hits so many off notes on this album.

wow that's amazing

absolutely

That huff and smile at the ending are the best.

So cute!

Miraculous footage

If he regularly played piano standing up while recording, that could explain why he hits so many off notes on this album.

― Halfway there but for you,

Glorious off notes. This is my favorite Dylan-on-piano album.

Oh wow