bob dylan - self portrait

1 track is offairly rough sound quality, the rest are Dylan of less intensity, but nothing is 'really bad' to my ears.

But nothing beats the "La la la la's" on Sarah Jane...a classic example of "so bad it's good."

from http://www.bsnpubs.com/elektra/asylumstory.html
-- o. nate (syne_wav...), September 10th, 2004.

interesting. perhaps I misunderstood the records Bob was referring to in Chronicle?

-- Amateurist (-m-t--r-s...), March 17th, 2003.

An excellent question. And, of course, the answer is yes! (Which is not to say that I own this thing.)

How good is "Copper Kettle"?

i hope that made sense.

why is 'self-portrait' so maligned? is just like, cuz greil marcus & 'what is this shit?' i dunno, when i first got into bob and hwy 61, blonde on blonde, and all that, and then finally heard it, i guess i had some fun going along w/ all the critics' laughter and derision. but the more i listen to it the more i'm really confused by its status as 'worst dylan album' (or one of em).

i feel like it just as easily could've been called this great, loose, sprawling work of americana/folk/country/nashville/rock/gospel/ genius - which is kind of what i think it is now! - and could've since become a classic album!

i mean it's a totally, totally different beast, but in terms of drawing from those influences in such a loose, laid-back, spontaneous and disparate way, i kind of see it in some ways as similar to 'exile on main street' - which received lukewarm/negative reviews at first but is now obv called a total classic. why hasn't the same happened to SP?

well, imho there are still some pretty bad tracks on SP. that's not a problem (for me) with Exile. i do get a kick out of a lot of the stuff there though. i do tend to skip tracks, but i've probably listened to Self Portrait more than John Wesley Harding

i do i do

yea i think ur right, it's probably a bit much to compare w/ Exile in that respect. there's a couple lousy tracks. but i just see this other possible universe where SP is an acknowledged classic...

also, i pretty much don't believe people (or even dylan himself) when they say it was a total piss-take to get crazy fans off his back. tho i don't doubt that he anticipated that maybe some of his fanbase might react negatively, i think dylan really put a lot of himself into it

and wouldn't 'nashville skyline', which came right before SP, have tempered people's reactions to this? the croon/smooth voiced dylan? the more country-inflected tone? on the NS poll thread i mentioned that i see this as a companion album to NS in a lot of ways, and it confuses me why one is considered a classic but the other a total misstep. i mean, take out a few of the weaker tracks, give it a little more polish maybe, and you basically have an album that's just as good. i mean 'take me as i am' a number of other tracks are pretty much perfect, and totally fit in w/ that NS style.

i think if Self Portrait hadn't been a double album, it would've been received differently, like a logical step after Nashville Skyline. As it stands, I think people were experiencing a post-60s hangover, where they were suddenly like "oh man, remember Blonde on Blonde? Now that was a double album!" If you put the more straightforward country rock stuff on a single disc and no one would be upset. But there are some songs on SP that would just feel insulting to somebody like Greil Marcus, who has invested so much time and effort into mythmaking with Dylan.

But there are some songs on SP that would just feel insulting to somebody like Greil Marcus, who has invested so much time and effort into mythmaking with Dylan.

haha, yea. admittedly i've read very little of him but am i wrong in saying that marcus can be full of shit? his quote about SP: "unless dylan returns to the marketplace, with a sense of vocation and the ambition to keep up with his own gifts..." keep up w/ his own gifts? man what a dick. what are you, his dad? fuck that shit

greil marcus is totally full of shit

maybe not all the time, but at least some of the time, and often when he's talking about dylan

even the different versions of 'like a rolling stone'/'she belongs to me' which are ripped on like crazy - i even think these are great and totally fit in this album. they're basically just more countryfied, rock n roll, barroom versions, not much else - which is great! like some dive band ripping into a cover and everyone's spilling drinks and singing along. it totally takes the bite out of the originals but fits completely w/ what dylan's doing with this whole album & playing around w/ the 'great american songbook' and all that in such a loose and unrefined way

same goes for the 'blue moon' cover, which also got ripped apart. i dunno, sounds just as warm and gorgeous as anything else on 'nashville skyline'

the 'blue moon' cover and what i think dylan's attitude was wrt singing it makes me think of that interview when dylan's talking about the 'anthology of american folk music' and all the greil marcus 'old weird america' cult status that was given to it, but then talks about how great the kingston trio was instead and how much he liked them too

sorry guys i'm just having one of those 'THE CRITICS ARE RONG' moments here

oh who knows, if I had been a hardcore Dylan fan or a critic in 1970, I mighta been as disappointed in Self Portrait as Greil was. I'd say he's only about 50% full of shit when it comes to Dylan. Which is a better percentage than a lot of writers! And yeah, I don't know why the live remakes of "she belongs to me" and "quinn the eskimo" aren't more praised. That's Dylan and the Band at the Isle of Wight -- they should seriously put that whole show out as a Bootleg Series. There are only audience tapes available bootleg-wise. Totally unique and fun show -- the only live appearance of Dylan's country croon.

Belle Isle is beautiful.

yea i would love to hear the rest of that

xp

I like this much more than New Morning which everyone hails as his return to form. It's fun, the covers are interesting, even when not all that great (though I always laugh at his version of "The Boxer"). However, keep in mind that I'm one of those people that finds Dylan a blast and wish it was in print. More people need to hear his "Mr. Bojangles."

yeah, seems a little unlikely they'll officially release it since it's sort of a weird show. great, but weird. Would be nice if Dylan started a "Dick's Picks" kinda thing, officially releasing some great live shows from his archives. Not that there aren't enough live bootlegs out there to last a lifetime, but I think a dozen or so well-chosen sets from over the years would be great.

btw if you like this era Dylan check out the comp of outtakes I posted on my blog here: http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/100814102/winterlude-the-early-word-on-the-new-dylan-album i think the Johnny Cash covers are from the Self Portrait sessions actually.

xps - i love new morning too. i've basically just had a great time getting into this period of dylan lately - everything from JWH, NS, new morning, pat garrett, planet waves, - i often feel like there's some kind of weird position some people have that between 'blonde on blonde' and 'blood on the tracks' there's not a whole lot worth listening to, which is so, so wrong.

awesome, thanks tylerw!

downloaded that right away

also goddam, what a great cover
http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/b/bob-dylan/album-self-portrait.jpg
haha, do you think that is actually a self portrait?

haha i heard that it is, right? didn't he say he did it in like 5 minutes?

yeah: "And then I did this portrait for the cover. I mean, there was no title for that album. I knew somebody who had some paints and a square canvas, and I did the cover up in about five minutes. And I said, 'Well, I'm gonna call this album Self Portrait.'"

Chum finds Bob Dylan... then THIS happens pic.twitter.com/SXt86nzyfs

— Pawn Stars (@pawnstars) January 16, 2020

Here’s a little more background on that episode… I saw it when it first aired, it was pretty funny

ah 2010. was kinda surprised how spry BD looks. 12 years ago makes a little more sense

I like how this is obviously staged but Dylan does it so half-assed that you can almost believe they really did just randomly run into him on the street

i think all of us vinyl buyers in 2010 can remember how hard it was to buy a used copy for less than $50