Descrizione
PREMESSA: LA SUPERIORITA’ DELLA MUSICA SU VINILE E’ ANCOR OGGI SANCITA, NOTORIA ED EVIDENTE. NON TANTO DA UN PUNTO DI VISTA DI RESA, QUALITA’ E PULIZIA DEL SUONO, TANTOMENO DA QUELLO DEL RIMPIANTO RETROSPETTIVO E NOSTALGICO , MA SOPRATTUTTO DA QUELLO PIU’ PALPABILE ED INOPPUGNABILE DELL’ ESSENZA, DELL’ ANIMA E DELLA SUBLIMAZIONE CREATIVA. IL DISCO IN VINILE HA PULSAZIONE ARTISTICA, PASSIONE ARMONICA E SPLENDORE GRAFICO , E’ PIACEVOLE DA OSSERVARE E DA TENERE IN MANO, RISPLENDE, PROFUMA E VIBRA DI VITA, DI EMOZIONE E DI SENSIBILITA’. E’ TUTTO QUELLO CHE NON E’ E NON POTRA’ MAI ESSERE IL CD, CHE AL CONTRARIO E’ SOLO UN OGGETTO MERAMENTE COMMERCIALE, POVERO, ARIDO, CINICO, STERILE ED ORWELLIANO, UNA DEGENERAZIONE INDUSTRIALE SCHIZOFRENICA E NECROFILA, LA DESOLANTE SOLUZIONE FINALE DELL’ AVIDITA’ DEL MERCATO E DELL’ ARROGANZA DEI DISCOGRAFICI .
BOB DYLAN
new morning
Disco LP 33 giri , CBS , CBS 32267 , 1976, holland
OTTIME CONDIZIONI, vinyl ex++/NM , cover ex++
New Morning è l’undicesimo album di Bob Dylan, pubblicato dalla Columbia Records del 1970.
Pubblicato solo quattro mesi dopo il controverso Self Portrait, il più conciso ed immediato New Morning ebbe un’accoglienza migliore da parte dei critici
e dei fan. Meglio accolto fu il ritorno di un Dylan più familiare, che
da Nashville Skyline aveva iniziato a cantatre in modo più morbido. In
retrospettiva, l’album rappresenta uno dei suoi successi minori,
specialmente in seguito alla pubblicazione di Blood on the Tracks del 1975, spesso visto come un pieno ritorno in forma.
L’album raggiunse la settima posizione nella classifica degli album di Billboard, e permise a Dylan di raggiungere la vetta della classifica inglese per la sesta volta. La canzone che ha avuto commercialmente più successo è If Not for You, rifatta anche da George Harrison, il quale suona la chitarra nella versione in The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991 (1991), ed è stata un successo per Olivia Newton-John nel 1971.
Dylan dedica un capitolo del primo volume della sua autobiografia a New Morning. Molte altre preliminari versioni dell’album sono state documentate da vari bootleg e da parte dell’album Dylan (1973). Dylan ha suonato nei concerti solamente quattro delle dodici canzoni presenti nell’album; una, If Dogs Run Free, fece il suo debutto live il primo ottobre del 2000, nei giorni del trentesimo anniversario della pubblicazione dell’album.
Etichetta: Cbs
Catalogo: CBS 32267
Data di pubblicazione: 1976
Matrici: S 69001-1 II AL 30290-1B / SEC-69001-B S-64179-2
- Supporto:vinile 33 giri
- Tipo audio: stereo
- Dimensioni: 30 cm.
- Facciate: 2
- Red/orange label, white paper inner sleeve
Track listing
All tracks written by Bob Dylan
Side one
- “If Not for You” – 2:40
- “Day of the Locusts” – 3:58
- “Time Passes Slowly” – 2:35
- “Went to See the Gypsy” – 2:47
- “Winterlude” – 2:22
- “If Dogs Run Free” – 3:37
Side two
- “New Morning” – 3:57
- “Sign on the Window” – 3:45
- “One More Weekend” – 3:08
- “The Man in Me” – 3:05
- “Three Angels” – 2:05
- “Father of Night” – 1:38
Personnel
- Bob Dylan – vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, organ; piano on tracks A2, A3, A4, A5, B2, B4,B6
- David Bromberg – electric guitar, dobro
- Harvey Brooks – bass guitar
- Ron Cornelius – electric guitar
- Charlie Daniels – bass guitar
- Buzzy Feiten – electric guitar
- Al Kooper – organ, piano, electric guitar, French horn
- Russ Kunkel – drums
- Billy Mundi – drums
- Hilda Harris – backing vocals
- Albertin Robinson – backing vocals
- Maeretha Stewart – backing vocals on track A6
- Bob Johnston – producer
- Len Siegler – photographer
Pubblicato appena quattro mesi dopo Self Portrait, fu oggetto di speculazioni il fatto che New Morning venne rapidamente registrato e pubblicato, come se fosse un’immediata risposta alle caustiche critiche che colpirono Self Portrait. Infatti, gran parte del materiale di New Morning era già stato registrato quando venne pubblicato Self Portrait.
In un’intervista del 1975 Dylan dichiarò: «In tutta franchezza non dissi “Oh mio dio, alla gente Self Portrait non piacerà, bisogna che ne faccia subito un altro”; no, niente di tutto questo. Fu solo una coincidenza se New Morning venne fuori dopo tanto poco tempo dall’uscita del suo predecessore».
Nel marzo 1970 venne registrato gran parte di Self Portrait, ma Dylan registrò anche tre canzoni che poi usò per New Morning: Went to See the Gypsy (suonata con una tastiera), Time Passes Slowly, e If Not For You. Vennero registrate più versioni, ma neppure una era soddisfacente.
Dopo aver terminato le registrazioni di Self Portrait, Dylan tenne altre sessioni agli studi della Columbia Records a New York iniziate il primo maggio del 1970. Nello studio B la prima sessione vedeva alla chitarra George Harrison, al basso Charile Daniels e alla batteria Russ Kunkel. Vennero registrate un gran numero di cover e vecchie canzoni in aggiunta ad altre di nuove. La registrazione di Went to See the Gipsy registrata in queste sessioni venne inclusa in New Morning.
Nella primavera del 1970 Dylan venne coinvolto nella scrittura delle canzoni per una commedia teatrale di Archibald MacLeish intitolata The Devil and Daniel Webster, di cui esisteva anche una versione musicale intitolata Scratch. Dylan scrisse per la commedia New Morning, Time Passes Slowly e Father of Night. Quest’ultima generò delle controversie tra Dylan e MacLeish che spinsero Dylan a lasciare il progetto. Dylan scrisse nella sua autobiografia: «La commedia di Archie ea molto cupa, greve come un omicidio a mezzanotte». Al Kooper, citato come co-produttore dell’album,
in seguito disse che le tre canzoni erano «praticamente il fulcro [di
New Morning] […]. Quello che lo convinse a scrivere un po’ di più».
La sessione successiva venne registrata solo il primo giugno. In questo periodo Dylan scrisse alcune nuove canzoni, tra cui Three Angels, If Dogs Run Free, Winterlude, e The Man in Me.
Dylan fece le seguenti registrazioni nello Studio E. In cinque giorni, dall’1 al 5 giugno, registrò l’album; registrò anche alcune cover
con l’intenzione in includerle nell’album. La sessione del primo giugno
fu dedicata solamente alle cover, ma l’unica che venne presa in
considerazione per l’album fu Ballad of Ira Hayes di Peter La Farge. Il 2 giugno venne registrata una versione con pianoforte e voce di Spanish the Loving Tongue; Al Kooper
capì che c’erano buone possibilità che entrasse nell’album, ma alla
fine venne accantonata. Nello stesso giorno vennero registrate anche Mr. Bojangles di Jerry Jeff Walter e la canzone tradizionale Mary Ann, ma solo la prima venne tenuta in considerazione.
Il 9 giugno, alcuni giorni dopo l’ultima sessione, Dylan accettò una laurea ad honorem dalla Princeton University. Per Dylan fu un’esperienza spiacevole e lo ispirò nella scrittura di una nuova canzone, Day of the Locusts.
In una sessione tenutasi il 30 giugno Dylan registrò una nuova versione di Blowin’ in the Wind, che però venne accantonata.
Bob Johnston era accreditato come produttore, ma nel mese di luglio si era allontanato e non era intenzionato a ritornare. Così Dylan e Kooper crearono una tracklist preliminare di New Morning. La prima sequenza includeva alcune cover così come una nuova versione di Tomorrow is a Long Time, una canzone inedita di Dylan risalente al 1962.
Intanto Kooper convinse Dylan a registrare le sovraincisioni degli archi in Sign on the Window. Una di queste sessioni avvenne il 13 luglio, ma Dylan volle escluderla dalla versione finale. Kooper convinse Dylan a registrare sovraincisioni anche per Spanish Is the Loving Tongue e per una registrazione del mese di marzo di If Not For You e Went to See the Gypsy. Queste sessioni avvennero il 23 luglio, ma come le precedenti vennero scartate dal missaggio finale.
Il 12 agosto Dylan tenne l’ultima sessione in cui registrò una nuova versione di If Not for You, Time Passes Slowly e Day of the Locusts.
Nella la tracklist finale, le tre registrazioni del 12 agosto vennero poste come tracce di apertura, mentre vennero scartate Ballad of Ira Hayes and Mr. Bojangles.
Canzoni
If Not For You
If Not For You è una canzone d’amore che ha avuto il maggior successo commerciale nella versione di Olivia Newton-John, con un arrangiamento simile alla cover che ne fece George Harrison nell’album All Thing Must Pass. La versione della Newton-John, che diede il titolo al suo album d’esordio, arrivò al venticinquesimo posto nella classifica pop ed al primo nella Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks, mentre nel Regno Unito raggiunse il terzo posto nel 1971. È l’unica canzone di New Morning pubblicata come singolo.
Day of the Locusts
È una cinica canzone ispirata dalla cerimonia in cui la Princeton Univercity conferì a Dylan una laurea ad honorem in musica.
Dylan rimase contrariato dal discorso dell’oratore, il quale lo
descrisse come “l’autentica espressione della turbata e impegnata
coscienza della Giovane America”, e non accennò mai alla sua musica. Il titolo fa riferimento alla piaga delle cavallette citata nella Bibbia in Esodo 10,4, Deuteronomio 28,42 e Apocalisse 9,7, ed al romanzo di Nathaniel West Day of the Locust (1939).
Time Passes Slowly, New Morning e Father of Night
Sono le tre canzoni che Dylan compose per il dramma di Archibald McLeish Scratch, l’ultima delle quali è quella su cui Dylan e McLeish si divisero. Per McLeish il padre della notte era il diavolo, mentre secondo Dylan doveva essere Dio. New Morning probabilmente doveva servire da finale.
Went To See The Gypsy
Dylan scrisse Went To See The Gypsy dopo aver incontrato per la prima volta Elvis Presley. Elvis, di ritorno dal servizio militare, suonò per qualche mese a Las Vegas, ed è proprio in un hotel della città del Nevada che si svolge la canzone. Negli ultimi versi si parla anche di una piccola città del Minnesota, forse Hibbing, in cui Dylan visse la sua infanzia.
Winterlude e If Dogs Runs Free
Winterlude è una canzone d’amore umoristica dedicata ad una ragaza di nome Winterlude. La canzone successiva è If Dogs Run Free, uno scattante beatnik in cui Al Kooper suona il pianoforte e Maeretha Stewart canta come corista.
Outtakes
Scritta da Charles Badger Clark, Spanish Is The Loving Tongue è una triste canzone d’amore suonata da Dylan solo al pianoforte. La registrazione del 2 giugno 1970 venne inclusa come B-side di Watching the River Flow, uscito il 3 giugno 1971.
Inizialmente Dylan pensò di includere alcune cover e ne registrò alcune, molte delle quali vennero incluse in Dylan (1973).
Le sessioni di New Morning produssero un grande numero di outtakes,
che consistono in nuove registrazioni di vecchie canzoni, materiale
originale e un gran numero di rielaborazioni melodiche fatte con George Harrison.
Le seguenti canzoni sono state registrate alla prima sessione di New Morning con George Harrison.
La maggior parte di queste canzoni sono nuove registrazioni di
materiale già edito, ma in queste sessioni venne registrata anche la
canzone Working on a Guru, tutt’ora inedita. Degne di nota sono le canzoni Guru, Telephone Wire, Song to Woody e una versione completa di Yesterday.
- Working on a Guru (pubblicata come Working On The Guhry)
- Song To Woody
- Mama, You Been On My Mind
- Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
- Yesterday – (John Lennon–Paul McCartney)
- Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
- Da Doo Ron Ron – (Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, Phil Spector)
- One Too Many Mornings
- Ghost Riders In The Sky – (Jones)
- Cupid (Sam Cooke)
- All I Have To Do Is Dream (Boudleaux Bryant)
- Gates Of Eden
- I Threw It All Away
- I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
- Matchbox – (Carl Perkins)
- Your True Love – (Carl Perkins)
- Telephone Wire (Wonder When My Swamp’s Gonna Catch On Fire?)
- Fishin’ Blues – (Henry Thomas)
- Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance (Henry Thomas)
- Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35
- It Ain’t Me, Babe
L’album venne registrato in sei sessioni, con George Harrison presente solo nella prima. Le seguenti canzoni sono state registrate durante le rimanenti cinque sessioni. Tranne che per Ahoooah, tutte le altre canzoni vennero registrate più di una volta. Nel 1973 la Columbia Records ne pubblicò sette in Dylan, una sorta di ripicca nei confronti di Dylan che decise di cambiare casa discografica.
- Ahoooah – (Owau) (strumentale)
- Alligator Man
- The Ballad of Ira Hayes (pubblicata in Dylan)
- Big Yellow Taxi – (Joni Mitchell) (pubblicata in Dylan)
- Blowing in the Wind
- Bring Me Water
- Can’t Help Falling In Love – (pubblicata in Dylan)
- I Forgot To Remember To Forget – (S. Kesler/C. Feathers) (Questa versione rimane inedita. La registrazione pubblicata in Dylan è un outtake di Self Portait)
- Jamaica Farewell – (Burgess)
- Long Black Veil – (Danny Dill/Marijohn Wilkin)
- Lily Of The West – (trad., arr. di E. Davies/J. Peterson) (pubblicata in Dylan)
- Mary Anne – (pubblicata in Dylan)
- Mr. Bojangles – (pubblicata in Dylan)
- Oh Lonesome Me – (Don Gibson)
- Sarah Jane – (pubblicata in Dylan)
- Spanish in the Loving Tongue (pubblicata come lato B nel 1970, una versione molto differente venne inclusa in Dylan)
- Tomorrow Is A Long Time
New Morning is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan‘s 11th studio album, released by Columbia Records in October 1970.
Coming only four months after the controversial Self Portrait, the more concise and immediate New Morning
won a much warmer reception from fans and critics. Most welcome was the
return of Dylan’s more familiar, nasally singing voice, which had not
appeared on record since John Wesley Harding in 1967 (he had taken on an affected country croon
since then). In retrospect, the album has come to be viewed as one of
the artist’s lesser successes, especially following the release of Blood on the Tracks in 1975, often seen as a fuller return-to-form.
It reached #7 in the U.S., quickly going gold, and gave Bob Dylan his 6th UK #1 album. The album’s most successful song from a commercial perspective is probably “If Not For You,” which was covered by George Harrison,
who had played guitar on a version of the song not released until
1991’s Bootleg Series Volume 2, and was also an international hit for Olivia Newton-John in 1971. Bryan Ferry also included the song on Dylanesque.
Details
Dylan discusses the recording of New Morning at length in one chapter of his autobiography, Chronicles, Vol. 1. Several alternate, preliminary forms of the album have been documented, including tracks which later appeared on the 1973 Dylan. He has played only four of the album’s twelve songs in concert; one, “If Dogs Run Free,” made its live debut on October 1, 2000, within days of the 30th anniversary of the album’s original release.
Recording sessions
Issued four months after Self Portrait, there was some speculation that New Morning was quickly recorded and rushed out as an immediate response to the scathing criticism surrounding Self Portrait. In fact, much of New Morning was already complete when Self Portrait was officially released.
“I didn’t say, ‘Oh my God, they don’t like this, let me do another
one,'” Dylan said in 1975. “It wasn’t like that. It just happened
coincidentally that one came out and then the other one did as soon as
it did. The Self Portrait LP laid around for I think a year. We were working on New Morning when the Self Portrait album got put together.”
During the March sessions that yielded most of Self Portrait, Dylan recorded three songs that he later used for New Morning:
“Went to See the Gypsy” (featuring an electric piano), “Time Passes
Slowly”, and “If Not For You.” A number of performances were recorded,
but none to his satisfaction.
After work on Self Portrait was virtually completed, Dylan
held more sessions at Columbia’s recording studios in New York,
beginning May 1, 1970. Held in Studio B, the first session was
accompanied by George Harrison, bassist Charlie Daniels, and drummer Russ Kunkel.
A large number of covers and old compositions were recorded in addition
to several new compositions. The master take for “Went to See the
Gypsy” was recorded at this session and eventually included on New Morning, but most of the results were rejected.
Sometime in the spring of 1970, Dylan became involved with a new play by poet Archibald MacLeish. A musical version of The Devil and Daniel Webster, it was titled Scratch.
“New Morning,” “Time Passes Slowly,” and “Father of Night” were all
written for the production. Though Dylan enjoyed talking with MacLeish,
he was never confident about writing songs for Scratch.
“Archie’s play was so heavy, so full of midnight murder, there was no
way I could make its purpose mine,” he would later write.
Eventually, a conflict with the producer over “Father of Night”
prompted Dylan to leave the production, withdrawing his songs in the
process. Al Kooper, who is credited as co-producer of New Morning, would later say that these three songs were “pretty much the fulcrum for [New Morning]… That got him writing a little more.”
The next session for New Morning would not be held until June
1. By this time, Dylan had written several new songs, including “Three
Angels,” “If Dogs Run Free,” “Winterlude,” and “The Man in Me.”
Dylan vacated Studio B and moved into Studio E, where he stayed for
the remaining sessions. For five straight days, ending on June 5, Dylan
recorded most of New Morning; he even recorded a number of covers with the intention of including a few on New Morning. The June 1 session was devoted entirely to covers, but Peter La Farge‘s
“Ballad of Ira Hayes” was the only one given any serious consideration
for inclusion. The June 2 session produced a solo piano rendition of
“Spanish Is the Loving Tongue”; Al Kooper felt it was a strong candidate for New Morning, but it was ultimately set aside. Jerry Jeff Walker‘s
“Mr. Bojangles” and the traditional “Mary Ann” were also recorded on
June 2, with “Mr. Bojangles” receiving serious consideration for
inclusion.
On June 9, several days after those initial June sessions, Dylan accepted an honorary doctorate in music from Princeton University. Dylan did not enjoy the experience, and it inspired him to write a new song, “Day of the Locusts.”
Weeks later, a session held on June 30 was dedicated to recording
new versions of “Blowin’ in the Wind,” but those recordings were left
on the shelf.
Bob Johnston
was still credited with production, but by July he was absent and would
not return. Instead, Dylan and Kooper created the preliminary sequence
for New Morning. The process was wrought with frustration, possibly the result of the negative criticism over Self Portrait. The first sequence of New Morning included a few covers as well as a new version of “Tomorrow is a Long Time,” an original composition dating back to 1962.
Meanwhile, Kooper convinced Dylan to record string overdubs for
“Sign on the Window.” An overdub session was held on July 13, but Dylan
left those overdubs out of the final mix. Kooper then convinced Dylan
to record overdubs for a June 2 recording of “Spanish Is the Loving
Tongue” and the March recordings of “If Not For You” and “Went to See
the Gypsy.” That overdub session was held on July 23, but Dylan would
ultimately reject these recordings.
“When I finished that album I never wanted to speak to him again,”
Kooper said. “I was cheesed off at how difficult [the whole thing
was]…He just changed his mind every three seconds so I just ended up
doing the work of three albums…We’d get a side order and we’d go in
and master it and he’d say, ‘No, no, no. I want to do this.’ And then,
‘No, let’s go in and cut this.’… There was another version of ‘Went
to See the Gypsy’ that was really good… It was the first time I went
in and had an arrangement idea for it and I said, ‘Let me go in and cut
this track and then you can sing over it.’ So I cut this track and it
was really good… and he came in and pretended like he didn’t
understand where to sing on it.”
Dylan ultimately decided to re-record “If Not for You” and “Time
Passes Slowly,” holding one final session on August 12. During that
session, he also recorded “Day of the Locusts,” which by now had been
finished.
For the album’s final sequence, the three August 12 recordings were placed at the beginning of New Morning, while covers of “Ballad of Ira Hayes” and “Mr. Bojangles” were dropped.
Songs
The album opens with “If Not For You,” which was also covered on George Harrison‘s All Things Must Pass. A sincere, sentimental love song with modest ambitions, it was Dylan’s first and only single from New Morning.
“Day Of The Locusts” is a cynical piece of work inspired by his June experience at Princeton University. David Crosby
was present when Dylan went to the graduation ceremony, and later
commented: “Sara was trying to get Bob to go to Princeton University,
where he was being presented with an honorary doctorate. Bob did not
want to go. I said, ‘C’mon, Bob it’s an honor!’ Sara and I both worked
on him for a long time. Finally, he agreed. I had a car outside, a big
limousine. That was the first thing he didn’t like. We smoked another
joint on the way and I noticed Dylan getting really quite paranoid
about it. When we arrived at Princeton, they took us to a little room
and Bob was asked to wear a cap and gown.
He refused outright. They said, ‘We won’t give you the degree if you
don’t wear this.’ Dylan said, ‘Fine. I didn’t ask for it in the first
place.’…Finally we convinced him to wear the cap and gown.” The
lyrics refer to the 17-year cicada infestation covering Princeton at the time:
“Sure was glad to get out of there alive. And the locusts sang such
a sweet melody. and the locusts sang with a high whinin’ trill, Yeah,
the locusts sang and they was singing for me . . . “
It is often assumed that Dylan wrote “Went To See The Gypsy” after meeting Elvis Presley, as the song mentions visiting with a mysterious and important man in a hotel. The song also contains the line, “A pretty dancing girl was there, and she began to shout… ‘He did it in Las Vegas,
and he can do it here.'” This lyric was seen by some as a reference to
Elvis’ regular concerts in Las Vegas. However, in a 2009 interview with
Rolling Stone’s Douglas Brinkley, he stated, “I never met Elvis, because I didn’t want to meet Elvis… I know The Beatles went to see him, and he just played with their heads.”
The “Gipsy” could also possibly be Jimi Hendrix, whose backup group was
“Band of Gypsies”. Strangely the song was recorded a few months before
Jimi’s death in September of 1970. In the final lines of the song,
there is also a mention of a “little Minnesota town,” a rare instance where Dylan references his childhood in Hibbing.
“Winterlude” verges on satirical, a humorous love song directed at a
girl named Winterlude, and includes the chorus, “Winterlude, this dude
thinks you’re fine”. It is immediately followed by “If Dogs Run Free,”
a scatting beatnik send-up, featuring Maeretha Stewart as a guest
vocalist and Al Kooper on piano.
The title track of New Morning is another one of the lighter tracks, a wry take on country life.
“Sign On The Window” expands on the joyous sentiments found in “New
Morning,” applying it to domestic bliss. “Beginning hesitantly, the
last verse of ‘Sign On The Window’ builds towards its repeated last
line not as a forced projection of false hope but as simple,
matter-of-fact acceptance of middle-age sentiment,” writes NPR‘s
Tim Riley. “[These words] offer a way of redefining one’s values that
doesn’t mean copping out or giving up. The antithesis of the family
man, at thirty a father of four, begins broaching homeliness without
irony – and still convinces you not to hear it as strict autobiography.”
Guitarist Ron Cornelius recalls, “Dylan had a pretty bad cold that
week. You can hear it on [‘Sign On The Window’], y’know, that bit about
‘Brighton girls are like the moon,’ where his voice really cracks up.
But it sure suits the song. His piano playing’s weird…because his
hands start at opposite ends of the keyboard and then sorta collide in
the middle – he does that all the time – but the way he plays just
knocks me out.”
In “The Man in Me,”
“Dylan surrenders to the person he sees when his lover looks through
him,” writes Riley. “He’s not trying to impress this lover, so the
title hook resonates enough to carry things…’Take a woman like you to
get through/To the man in me’ is so direct in its expression of the
unflinching cues of intimacy, you forgive him the occasional forced
rhyme.” The song was later featured during several scenes in the 1998 Coen Brothers film The Big Lebowski.
“Three Angels” is gospel-tinged track that documents the sights on an urban street, including “a man with a badge”, a “U-Haul trailer”, and “three fellas crawling their way back to work”. The final song, “Father of Night”, is Dylan’s interpretation of the Jewish prayer Amidah.
Outtakes
Written by Charles Badger Clark, “Spanish Is The Loving Tongue” is a
mournful love song featuring Dylan alone at the piano. The master take
from June 2, 1970 was issued as the B-side to “Watching The River Flow”
on June 3, 1971.
Dylan originally planned to include a few covers, and he recorded a
significant amount during the sessions. Several of these covers were
later issued on Dylan in December 1973.
Dylan recorded a large number of outtakes for New Morning.
The outtakes consisted of new recordings of his older material, some
original material, and a large number of reworked tunes with George Harrison accompanying him.
The following songs were recorded at the first New Morning
session with George Harrison. While the majority of these songs are
rerecorded versions, these sessions yielded the original song “Working
on a Guru”, which is still unreleased. Notable songs from this session
are the aforementioned “Guru”, “Telephone Wire”, “Song to Woody”, and a
complete version of Dylan covering The Beatles‘ famous song “Yesterday“.
- “Working on a Guru” (titled “Working On The Guhry” on the tape box)
- “Song To Woody”
- “Mama, You Been On My Mind”
- “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”
- “Yesterday” (John Lennon, Paul McCartney)
- Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
- Da Doo Ron Ron (Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, Phil Spector)
- One Too Many Mornings
- One Too Many Mornings
- Ghost Riders In The Sky (Jones)
- Cupid (Sam Cooke)
- All I Have To Do Is Dream (Boudleaux Bryant)
- Gates Of Eden
- I Threw It All Away
- I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
- Matchbox (Carl Perkins)
- Your True Love (Carl Perkins)
- Telephone Wire (Wonder When My Swamp’s Gonna Catch On Fire?) (original song to these sessions)
- Fishin’ Blues (Henry Thomas)
- Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance (Henry Thomas)
- Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35
- It Ain’t Me, Babe
There were six main recording sessions for the album, with Harrison
only being present at the first. The following songs were recorded
during the remaining five sessions. Multiple takes were recorded of all
the songs listed here, with the sole exception of “Ahoooah”. In 1973,
Columbia raided the vaults to release the album Dylan, which consisted of seven of these tracks supplemented with two outtakes from New Morning’s predecessor album, Self Portrait.
- Ahoooah (Owau) (Instrumental)
- Alligator Man
- The Ballad of Ira Hayes (released on Dylan)
- Big Yellow Taxi (Joni Mitchell) (released on Dylan)
- Blowing in the Wind
- Bring Me Water
- Can’t Help Falling In Love (released on Dylan)
- I Forgot To Remember To Forget (S. Kesler, Charlie Feathers) (the take that appears on Dylan is from the Self Portrait sessions, with the New Morning recording unreleased.
- Jamaica Farewell (Burgess)
- Long Black Veil (Danny Dill, Marijohn Wilkin)
- Lily Of The West (trad. arr. E. Davies, J. Peterson) (released on Dylan)
- Mary Anne (released on Dylan)
- Mr. Bojangles (released on Dylan)
- Oh Lonesome Me (Don Gibson)
- Sarah Jane (released on Dylan)
- Spanish in the Loving Tongue (released as a B-side in 1970, a much different recording than the version that appeared on Dylan)
- Spanish is the Loving Tongue (released on Dylan)
- Tomorrow Is A Long Time
Aftermath
Critics were quick to praise New Morning upon its release. Ralph Gleason‘s Rolling Stone
review reflected most sentiments, proclaiming “WE’VE GOT DYLAN BACK
AGAIN.” Few placed it alongside his masterworks from the 1960s, but it
was considered a substantial improvement over its predecessor. It was
only four months since Self Portrait, and many reviewers did not resist comparing the two.
“In case you were wondering how definitive that self-portrait was, here comes its mirror image four months later,” wrote Robert Christgau,
before giving it an A-. “Call it love on the rebound. This time he’s
writing the pop (and folk) genre experiments himself, and thus saying
more about true romance than is the pop (or folk) norm.”
While New Morning neared completion, Dylan and his manager, Albert Grossman,
formally dissolved their business relationship on July 17, 1970.
Grossman retained certain rights from previous agreements, including
royalties on work produced under his management, but their publishing
company, Big Sky Music, would be replaced by Ram’s Horn Music before
the end of 1971, putting an end to any joint ownership in publishing.
Dylan would gain complete control over his personal management and his
own music publishing. Another tense contract negotiation awaited in
1972, this time with CBS. Until then, there would be little musical
activity as Dylan entered the quietest period of his career.
Dylan rushed out New Morning in the wake of the commercial and critical disaster Self Portrait, and the difference between the two albums suggests that its legendary failed predecessor was intentionally flawed. New Morning expands on the laid-back country-rock of John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline
by adding a more pronounced rock & roll edge. While there are only
a couple of genuine classics on the record (“If Not for You,” “One More
Weekend”), the overall quality is quite high, and many of the songs
explore idiosyncratic routes Dylan had previously left untouched,
whether it’s the jazzy experiments of “Sign on the Window” and
“Winterlude,” the rambling spoken word piece “If Dogs Run Free” or the Elvis parable “Went to See the Gypsy.” Such offbeat songs make New Morning a charming, endearing record.
Well, friends, Bob Dylan is back with us again. I
don’t know how long he intends to stay, but I didn’t ask him. Didn’t
figure it was any of my business.
Put simply, New Morning is a superb album. It is everything that every Dylan fan prayed for after Self Portrait. The portrait on the cover peers out boldly, just daring
you to find fault with it, and I must admit that if there is a major
fault on the album, I haven’t found it. Nor do I care to. This one
comes easy, and that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? A newly
re-discovered self-reliance is evident from the first measure to the
last fadeout, the same kind of self-reliance that shocked the
old-timers when this kid dared to say “Hey-hey Woody Guthrie, I wrote you
a song.” That may have been his own modest (as it turns out in
retrospect, anyway) way of saying “Here I am, world.” Calling his
latest outing New Morning may very well be his way of saying, “I’m back.”
But
that’s reading things into it already, and I’d like to get through this
review without reading much into what’s already there, because what’s
there is very impressive indeed, and needs no help from the likes of
me. Instead, let’s look at what is there, pausing now and again to
comment on it.
To begin with, there’s the cover. Dylan, looking
like he’s been through some rocky times, but confident. And the back
cover, with Young Zimmerman and Victoria Spivey, self-appointed “Queen
of the Blues,” standing by her piano. He’s holding a guitar that Big
Joe Williams had just given him, and she is beaming up at him,
immensely pleased. The look on his face seems to say, “I thought I
could do it, and I could. Shit, man, I’m Bob Dylan, that’s who I am.”
And indeed, that’s who he was. And is.
“If Not For You” starts it all off. A kind of invocation to the muse, if you will, only this time, instead of crying “I want you so bad,”
he’s celebrating the fact that not only has he found her, but they know
each other well, and get strength from each other, depend on each
other. ‘Twas always thus, it seems, and the Kooperishly bouncy organ
and brisk tempo go back a long ways.
Everyone seems to think that
“Day of the Locusts” is about Dylan picking up his degree at Princeton,
but it could as easily be any kid in this day and age, perplexed,
uptight, and not a little unnerved by this juncture of his life,
graduating from college. But putting all that aside, musically, this is
where the whole thing gets off the ground. Dylan makes his first
appearance here playing piano (piano cuts wisely ticked off on the
cover, probably by Kooper who knows a great keyboard artist when he
hears one, and who hears one in Dylan), and the entire production, from
the locust organ discord to the subtly mixed-down vocal backup, is just
fine. This cut sounds like a lot of work was put into it, which is a
break from Dylan’s usual studio practice of doing a song about twice
and leaving it at that.
After the hero of “Locusts” has run off
to the Black Hills, he tells us that “Time Passes Slowly.” More superb
pianistics here, although the erratic ending makes me think that this
was done on the spot in the studio. No matter, it’s a nice piece of
fluff, and it fits.
“Went to See the Gypsy” is what the side’s
been building up to, and there is no doubt in my mind that it is a
masterpiece. The hardest rocker from Dylan in a ‘coon’s age, it builds
beautifully, ending in some fantastic electric guitar work. Dylan’s
voice is back in its raspy, rowdy glory; after a list of unusual
achievements credited to the gypsy by his dancing girl, we hear Bob
growl, “He did it in Las Vegas and he can do it here,” Really! I
whooped the first time I heard that. For some unknown reason, the story
line in this song reminds me of the scene in Juliet of the Spirits
where Juliet and her friend go to see the androgynous Indian at the
grand hotel. And the meaning, if indeed there is one, of the line about
the “little Minnesota town” escapes me, but I don’t really care.
Side
one ends on two comic notes. “Winterlude” is lewd, and makes me wish
I’d learned to ice skate when I was still back East. The line about
going to get married and then coming back and cooking up a meal reminds
me of Bing Crosby crooning, “In the meadow we can build a snowman” in
“White Christmas.” And “If Dogs Run Free” puts me in mind of a beatnik
poetry reading at the Fat Black Pussy Cat Theatre in Greenwich Village.
Everybody—and especially Maeretha Stewart—sounds like they’re having a
good time, and Al Kooper can play in my piano bar any time he wants.
On
the surface, the second side would seem to be the “serious” side of the
record, but that notion is belied immediately by the fact that
somebody’s guitar (Bob, is that you?) is horribly out of tune.
But there is a lot of gusto to Dylan’s singing and, for a change, the
backup girls add just the right touch.
The unquestioned
masterpiece of the album is “Sign on the Window.” It ranks with the
best work he’s done, and the fact that he plays such moving piano and
sings with just everything he’s got makes it one of the most
involved (and involving) pieces he’s ever recorded. It’s right up there
with “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowland,” “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues,”
“Like A Rolling Stone,” and the unreleased “I’m Not There” in
intensity. “She and her boyfriend went to California.” And baby, that’s
a long, long way. It’s gonna be wet tonight on Main Street, and with
that pronouncement, Dylan communicates a despair mixed with resignment.
And is the cabin in Utah the panacea that it would seem, the glue to
mend this broken heart? I’m not convinced, and Dylan doesn’t sound like
he is either. If poetry can be a story that must be sent by telegraph,
then this is certainly one of Dylan’s foremost achievements as a poet.
Words, music, singing, piano work, all of the highest order. Yes,
Doubting Thomas, he can still do it. And how!
And if there is any
doubt left try on “Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat Volume Two,” otherwise
known as “One More Weekend.” It’s such a good rocker, and so full of
energy that I still haven’t bothered to listen to the words. No matter,
they surely say what they must, which, in the grand old rock lyric
tradition, is not much.
Speaking of lyrics, who among us would
have thought that we’d see the day when Bob Dylan would start out a
song with “La la la la la …?” I’ve never heard Dylan sounding so
outrageously happy before. The tune to the verse is similar to
“I Shall Be Released,” but the sentiments here show that the release
has already happened. I just love this number, and I hope that the
likes of Joe Cocker will think twice before attempting a cover version
of it.
The second side ends with two “religious” songs that will
doubtless be plumbed for “meanings” they don’t contain. “Three Angels”
is an old-fashioned Dylan word-riff, the kind of thing that we’ve seen
before in “Gates of Eden” and “Desolation Row.” It is so corny that it
is funny, and this is the one cut on the album that makes me wonder if
it’ll stand up under repeated playings. And regardless of what others
say about “Father of Night,” I (think that Dylan found a good
gospel riff on the piano and used it. Anybody can make up words to it;
they simply aren’t that important. I guess it could also be seen as the
leavetaking of the muse too, but I’ll leave it to others far more
erudite than myself to figure that out. Praising the maker of the night
is an awfully good way to end a New Morning, anyway.
* * *
In
the end, this is an album that, the less said about it, the better. I
have my favorite moments (like the part in “Sign On the Window” where
he modulates up and then, when he says “Looks like it’s gonna rain”, he
hits a major chord—right out of the blue), but so will you. It seems
almost superfluous to say that this is one of the best albums of the
year, one of Dylan’s best albums, perhaps his best. In good conscience,
all I can really say is get it yourself and prepare to boogie.
After all, what better recommendation for an album—be it Dylan or a bunch of unknowns—is there?
Bob Dylan’s influence on popular music is incalculable. As a
songwriter, he pioneered several different schools of pop songwriting,
from confessional singer/songwriter to winding, hallucinatory,
stream-of-conscious narratives. As a vocalist, he broke down the
notions that in order to perform, a singer had to have a conventionally
good voice, thereby redefining the role of vocalist in popular music.
As a musician, he sparked several genres of pop music, including
electrified folk-rock and country-rock. And that just touches on the
tip of his achievements. Dylan’s force was evident during his height of
popularity in the ’60s — the Beatles’ shift toward introspective
songwriting in the mid-’60s never would have happened without him —
but his influence echoed throughout several subsequent generations.
Many of his songs became popular standards, and his best albums were
undisputed classics of the rock roll canon. Dylan’s influence
throughout folk music was equally powerful, and he marks a pivotal
turning point in its 20th century evolution, signifying when the genre
moved away from traditional songs and toward personal songwriting. Even
when his sales declined in the ’80s and ’90s, Dylan’s presence was
calculable.
For a figure of such substantial influence, Dylan
came from humble beginnings. Born in Duluth, MN, Bob Dylan (b. Robert
Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) was raised in Hibbing, MN, from the age
of six. As a child he learned how to play guitar and harmonica, forming
a rock roll band called the Golden Chords when he was in high school.
Following his graduation in 1959, he began studying art at the
University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. While at college, he began
performing folk songs at coffeehouses under the name Bob Dylan, taking
his last name from the poet Dylan Thomas. Already inspired by Hank
Williams and Woody Guthrie, Dylan began listening to blues while at
college, and the genre weaved its way into his music. Dylan spent the
summer of 1960 in Denver, where he met bluesman Jesse Fuller, the
inspiration behind the songwriter’s signature harmonica rack and
guitar. By the time he returned to Minneapolis in the fall, he had
grown substantially as a performer and was determined to become a
professional musician.
Dylan made his way to New York City in
January of 1961, immediately making a substantial impression on the
folk community of Greenwich Village. He began visiting his idol Guthrie
in the hospital, where he was slowly dying from Huntington’s chorea.
Dylan also began performing in coffeehouses, and his rough charisma won
him a significant following. In April, he opened for John Lee Hooker at
~Gerde’s Folk City. Five months later, Dylan performed another concert
at the venue, which was reviewed positively by Robert Shelton in the
-New
York Times. Columbia AR man John Hammond sought out Dylan on the
strength of the review, and signed the songwriter in the fall of 1961.
Hammond produced Dylan’s eponymous debut album (released in March
1962), a collection of folk and blues standards that boasted only two
original songs. Over the course of 1962, Dylan began to write a large
batch of original songs, many of which were political protest songs in
the vein of his Greenwich contemporaries. These songs were showcased on
his second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. Before its release,
Freewheelin’ went through several incarnations. Dylan had recorded a
rock roll single, “Mixed Up Confusion,” at the end of 1962, but his
manager, Albert Grossman, made sure the record was deleted because he
wanted to present Dylan as an acoustic folky. Similarly, several tracks
with a full backing band that were recorded for Freewheelin’ were
scrapped before the album’s release. Furthermore, several tracks
recorded for the album — including “Talking John Birch Society Blues”
— were eliminated from the album before its release.
Comprised
entirely of original songs, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan made a huge
impact in the U.S. folk community, and many performers began covering
songs from the album. Of these, the most significant were Peter, Paul
Mary, who made “Blowin’ in the Wind” into a huge pop hit in the summer
of 1963 and thereby made Bob Dylan into a recognizable household name.
On the strength of Peter, Paul Mary’s cover and his opening gigs for
popular folky Joan Baez, Freewheelin’ became a hit in the fall of 1963,
climbing to number 23 on the charts. By that point, Baez and Dylan had
become romantically involved, and she was beginning to record his songs
frequently. Dylan was writing just as fast, and was performing hundreds
of concerts a year.
By the time The Times They Are A-Changin’
was released in early 1964, Dylan’s songwriting had developed far
beyond that of his New York peers. Heavily inspired by poets like
Arthur Rimbaud and John Keats, his writing took on a more literate and
evocative quality. Around the same time, he began to expand his musical
boundaries, adding more blues and RB influences to his songs. Released
in the summer of 1964, Another Side of Bob Dylan made these changes
evident. However, Dylan was moving faster than his records could
indicate. By the end of 1964, he had ended his romantic relationship
with Baez and had begun dating a former model named Sara Lowndes, whom
he subsequently married. Simultaneously, he gave the Byrds “Mr.
Tambourine Man” to record for their debut album. the Byrds gave the
song a ringing, electric arrangement, but by the time the single became
a hit, Dylan was already exploring his own brand of folk-rock. Inspired
by the British Invasion, particularly the Animals’ version of “House of
the Rising Sun,” Dylan recorded a set of original songs backed by a
loud rock roll band for his next album. While Bringing It All Back Home
(March 1965) still had a side of acoustic material, it made clear that
Dylan had turned his back on folk music. For the folk audience, the
true breaking point arrived a few months after the album’s release,
when he played ~the Newport Folk Festival supported by the Paul
Butterfield Blues Band. The audience greeted him with vicious derision,
but he had already been accepted by the growing rock roll community.
Dylan’s spring tour of Britain was the basis for D.A. Pennebaker’s
documentary Don’t Look Back, a film that captures the songwriter’s edgy
charisma and charm.
Dylan made his breakthrough to the pop
audience in the summer of 1965, when “Like a Rolling Stone” became a
number two hit. Driven by a circular organ riff and a steady beat, the
six-minute single broke the barrier of the three-minute pop single.
Dylan became the subject of innumerable articles, and his lyrics became
the subject of literary analyses across the U.S. and U.K. Well over 100
artists covered his songs between 1964 and 1966; the Byrds and the
Turtles, in particular, had big hits with his compositions. Highway 61
Revisited, his first full-fledged rock roll album, became a Top Ten hit
shortly after its summer 1965 release. “Positively 4th Street” and
“Rainy Day Women 12 35” became Top Ten hits in the fall of 1965 and
spring of 1966, respectively. Following the May 1966 release of the
double-album Blonde on Blonde, he had sold over ten million records
around the world.
During the fall of 1965, Dylan hired the Hawks,
formerly Ronnie Hawkins’ backing group, as his touring band. the Hawks,
who changed their name to the Band in 1968, would become Dylan’s most
famous backing band, primarily because of their intuitive chemistry and
“wild, thin mercury sound,” but also because of their British tour in
the spring of 1966. The tour was the first time Britain had heard the
electric Dylan, and their reaction was disagreeable and violent. At the
tour’s Royal Albert Hall concert, generally acknowledged to have
occurred in Manchester, an audience member called Dylan “Judas,”
inspiring a positively vicious version of “Like a Rolling Stone” from
the Band. The performance was immortalized on countless bootleg albums
(an official release finally surfaced in 1998), and it indicates the
intensity of Dylan in the middle of 1966. He had assumed control of
Pennebaker’s second Dylan documentary, Eat the Document, and was under
deadline to complete his book -Tarantula, as well as record a new
record. Following the British tour, he returned to America.
On
July 29, 1966, he was injured in a motorcycle accident outside of his
home in Woodstock, NY, suffering injuries to his neck vertebrae and a
concussion. Details of the accident remain elusive — he was reportedly
in critical condition for a week and had amnesia — and some
biographers have questioned its severity, but the event was a pivotal
turning point in his career. After the accident, Dylan became a
recluse, disappearing into his home in Woodstock and raising his family
with his wife, Sara. After a few months, he retreated with the Band to
a rented house, subsequently dubbed Big Pink, in West Saugerties to
record a number of demos. For several months, Dylan and the Band
recorded an enormous amount of material, ranging from old folk,
country, and blues songs to newly written originals. The songs
indicated that Dylan’s songwriting had undergone a metamorphosis,
becoming streamlined and more direct. Similarly, his music had changed,
owing less to traditional rock roll, and demonstrating heavy country,
blues, and traditional folk influences. None of the Big Pink recordings
were intended to be released, but tapes from the sessions were
circulated by Dylan’s music publisher with the intent of generating
cover versions. Copies of these tapes, as well as other songs, were
available on illegal bootleg albums by the end of the ’60s; it was the
first time that bootleg copies of unreleased recordings became widely
circulated. Portions of the tapes were officially released in 1975 as
the double-album The Basement Tapes.
While Dylan was in
seclusion, rock roll had become heavier and artier in the wake of the
psychedelic revolution. When Dylan returned with John Wesley Harding in
December of 1967, its quiet, country ambience was a surprise to the
general public, but it was a significant hit, peaking at number two in
the U.S. and number one in the U.K. Furthermore, the record arguably
became the first significant country-rock record to be released,
setting the stage for efforts by the Byrds and the Flying Burrito
Brothers later in 1969. Dylan followed his country inclinations on his
next album, 1969’s Nashville Skyline, which was recorded in Nashville
with several of the country industry’s top session men. While the album
was a hit, spawning the Top Ten single “Lay Lady Lay,” it was
criticized in some quarters for uneven material. The mixed reception
was the beginning of a full-blown backlash that arrived with the
double-album Self Portrait. Released early in June of 1970, the album
was a hodgepodge of covers, live tracks, re-interpretations, and new
songs greeted with negative reviews from all quarters of the press.
Dylan followed the album quickly with New Morning, which was hailed as
a comeback.
Following the release of New Morning, Dylan began to
wander restlessly. In 1969 or 1970, he moved back to Greenwich Village,
published -Tarantula for the first time in November of 1970, and
performed at ~the Concert for Bangladesh. During 1972, he began his
acting career by playing Alias in Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy
the Kid, which was released in 1973. He also wrote the soundtrack for
the film, which featured “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” his biggest hit
since “Lay Lady Lay.” The Pat Garrett soundtrack was the final record
released under his Columbia contract before he moved to David Geffen’s
fledgling Asylum Records. As retaliation, Columbia assembled Dylan, a
collection of Self Portrait outtakes, for release at the end of 1973.
Dylan only recorded two albums — including 1974’s Planet Waves,
coincidentally his first number one album — before he moved back to
Columbia. the Band supported Dylan on Planet Waves and its accompanying
tour, which became the most successful tour in rock roll history; it
was captured on 1974’s double-live album Before the Flood.
Dylan’s
1974 tour was the beginning of a comeback culminated by 1975’s Blood on
the Tracks. Largely inspired by the disintegration of his marriage,
Blood on the Tracks was hailed as a return to form by critics and it
became his second number one album. After jamming with folkies in
Greenwich Village, Dylan decided to launch a gigantic tour, loosely
based on traveling medicine shows. Lining up an extensive list of
supporting musicians — including Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Rambling
Jack Elliott, Arlo Guthrie, Mick Ronson, Roger McGuinn, and poet Allen
Ginsberg — Dylan dubbed the tour ~the Rolling Thunder Revue and set
out on the road in the fall of 1975. For the next year, ~the Rolling
Thunder Revue toured on and off, with Dylan filming many of the
concerts for a future film. During the tour, Desire was released to
considerable acclaim and success, spending five weeks on the top of the
charts. Throughout ~the Rolling Thunder Revue, Dylan showcased
“Hurricane,” a protest song he had written about boxer Rubin Carter,
who had been unjustly imprisoned for murder. The live album Hard Rain
was released at the end of the tour. Dylan released Renaldo and Clara,
a four-hour film based on the ~Rolling Thunder tour, to poor reviews in
early 1978.
Early in 1978, Dylan set out on another extensive
tour, this time backed by a band that resembled a Las Vegas lounge
band. The group was featured on the 1978 album Street Legal and the
1979 live album At Budokan. At the conclusion of the tour in late 1978,
Dylan announced that he was a born-again Christian, and he launched a
series of Christian albums that following summer with Slow Train
Coming. Though the reviews were mixed, the album was a success, peaking
at number three and going platinum. His supporting tour for Slow Train
Coming featured only his new religious material, much to the bafflement
of his long-term fans. Two other religious albums — Saved (1980) and
Shot of Love (1981) — followed, both to poor reviews. In 1982, Dylan
traveled to Israel, sparking rumors that his conversion to Christianity
was short-lived. He returned to secular recording with 1983’s Infidels,
which was greeted with favorable reviews.
Dylan returned to
performing in 1984, releasing the live album Real Live at the end of
the year. Empire Burlesque followed in 1985, but its odd mix of dance
tracks and rock roll won few fans. However, the five-album/triple-disc
retrospective box set Biograph appeared that same year to great
acclaim. In 1986, Dylan hit the road with Tom Petty the Heartbreakers
for a successful and acclaimed tour, but his album that year, Knocked
Out Loaded, was received poorly. The following year, he toured with the
Grateful Dead as his backing band; two years later, the souvenir album
Dylan the Dead appeared.
In 1988, Dylan embarked on what became
known as “The Never-Ending Tour” — a constant stream of shows that ran
on and off into the late ’90s. That same year, he released Down in the
Groove, an album largely comprised of covers. The Never-Ending Tour
received far stronger reviews than Down in the Groove, but 1989’s Oh
Mercy was his most acclaimed album since 1974’s Blood on the Tracks.
However, his 1990 follow-up, Under the Red Sky, was received poorly,
especially when compared to the enthusiastic reception for the 1991 box
set The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 (Rare Unreleased), a collection of
previously unreleased outtakes and rarities.
For the remainder of
the ’90s, Dylan divided his time between live concerts and painting. In
1992, he returned to recording with Good As I Been to You, an acoustic
collection of traditional folk songs. It was followed in 1993 by
another folk album, World Gone Wrong, which won the Grammy for Best
Traditional Folk Album. After the release of World Gone Wrong, Dylan
released a greatest-hits album and a live record.
Dylan released
Time Out of Mind, his first album of original material in seven years,
in the fall of 1997. Time Out of Mind received his strongest reviews in
years and unexpectedly debuted in the Top Ten. Its success sparked a
revival of interest in Dylan — he appeared on the cover of Newsweek
and his concerts became sell-outs. Early in 1998, Time Out of Mind
received three Grammy Awards — Album of the Year, Best Contemporary
Folk Album and Best Male Rock Vocal. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All
Music Guide
