Bob Dylan’s 1970 album Self-Portrait was welcomed by Rolling Stone magazine with the rather succinct review opener: “What is this shit?” Needless to say quite a few Dylan diehards had no idea how to take the troubadour’s tenth album; a double record set featuring mainly covers of old pop and folk hits. It was rightly maligned at the time with it’s puzzling selection of covers and sappy, cluttered string arrangements. Given the enormous talent he had already proven to possess creating anthems for a generation, why waste time covering someone else’s hits? Had Dylan released the 35-song Another Self-Portrait instead, perhaps the reviews would have been better.
This double-disc set, the tenth in Dylan’s wildly-anticipated Bootleg Series, draws mainly from the 1970 studio record session that resulted in not only Self Portrait, but New Morning as well. The songs on this most recent collection are stripped of the unnecessary overdubs, giving the music a much more organic feel. As Self Portrait was an immediate follow up to his country-influenced Nashville Skyline, Dylan still carries over much of that country crooning on these songs.
While it may not have been what his fans and the critics were expecting at the time, with a little tinkering the music has aged surprisingly well over the decades. This collection also comes in a massive four-CD release, but the trimmed down 35 song set is bound to satisfy most.
Bob Dylan – Another Self Portrait: The Bootleg Series Vol. 10 (1969 – 1971)/2 CDs/Columbia/Legacy/2013
