August 19, 2013

"By 1970, Dylan was ready for a new game. He was absolutely done with fitting into other people's categories."

"He'd retreated to Nashville to learn from country music, and to upstate New York to woodshed with musicians who loved old hokum and parlor ballads as much as he did. Another Self Portrait captures the casual daring of that time, when Dylan was militant about just one thing: pleasure. The 35 songs that form the heart of this collection, most newly discovered in the Sony vaults and including less heavily produced "mix-down" versions of songs from Self-Portrait and New Morning, shows how Dylan reinvented himself by finding new and rich ways to sing, and freer ways to think musically. The 15 songs you can sample here capture the depth and variety of the larger collection."

From the NPR story on the new/old Dylan album.  Click over there, where you can play 46+ minutes of highlights from the album.

The links in the quote above go to Amazon, in case you want to buy any of those albums, all of which I have bought. "New Morning" is one of my all-time favorite albums. If you know it, you know "Went to See the Gypsy," and the audio at the link begins with another version of "Went to See the Gypsy," a really enjoyable one. A little further in, there's also a version of "Time Passes Slowly," which is also on "New Morning."

4 comments:

Heartless Aztec said...

Not only have you taken my advice Perfesser, you have done so with Althousian panache. Good stuff. Might have to learn one or two more tunes from New Morning...looking now.

Richard Lawrence Cohen said...

Many old mornings were spent listening to that. "Day of the Locust" is one of his underrated best songs -- a very powerful statement of independence and rebellion" -- and one of the few that's directly autobiographical (another is "Sara," on "Desire" and "Live 1975 -- Rolling Thunder Revue"). "Sign on the Window" also excellent.

JZ said...

If you listen to only one song on the album, make it, "If dogs run free."

Amexpat said...

I listened to New Morning a lot during the summer of '76, when it was one of two cassettes in my backpack.

Recently I heard this an outtake of "Tomorrow is a Long time" done during the New Morning sessions. Its an old Dylan folk song that's redone in a funky, quirky way. Its grown on me with repeated listenings. Amazed that it didn't make the official bootleg series for this time period - makes me think there must be many other undiscovered gems.