Bob Dylan – Self Portrait (CD)
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Liner Notes
When Dylan dropped *Self Portrait* in the summer of 1970, it landed like a deliberate provocation, arriving just months after the basement-tape mythology and *Nashville Skyline* goodwill were still fresh. The covers-heavy tracklist, including songs associated with Gordon Lightfoot, Paul Simon, and others, felt to many fans like a rebuke of their expectations. Decades later, it reads more clearly as an artist refusing to be pinned down.
Self Portrait is the tenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on June 8, 1970, by Columbia Records. Self Portrait was Dylan's second double album, and features many cover versions of well-known pop and folk songs. Also included are a handful of instrumentals and original compositions. Most of the album is sung in the affected country crooning voice that Dylan had introduced a year earlier on Nashville Skyline.
Seen by some as intentionally surreal and even satirical at times, Self Portrait received extremely poor reviews upon release; Greil Marcus' opening sentence in his Rolling Stone review was: "What is this sh#t?" Dylan has claimed in interviews that Self Portrait was something of a joke, far below the standards he set in the 1960s, and that it was made to get people off his back and end the "spokesman of a generation" tag.
Despite the negative reception, the album quickly went gold in the U.S., where it hit No. 4, and it gave Dylan yet another UK No. 1 hit before it fell down the charts. The album has since built a cult following and saw a retrospective positive re-evaluation with the release of The Bootleg Series Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait (1969-1971) in 2013.
Tracklist
Disc 1
1. All The Tired Horses (3:12)
2. Alberta # 1 (2:57)
3. I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know (2:24)
4. Days Of '49 (5:27)
5. Early Mornin' Rain (3:34)
6. In Search Of Little Sadie (2:28)
7. Let It Be Me (3:01)
8. Little Sadie (2:00)
9. Woogie Boogie (2:07)
10. Belle Isle (2:30)
11. Living The Blues (2:43)
12. Like A Rolling Stone (5:18)
13. Copper Kettle (3:35)
14. Gotta Travel On (3:08)
15. Blue Moon (2:30)
16. The Boxer (2:48)
17. The Mighty Quinn (Quinn The Eskimo) (2:48)
18. Take Me As I Am (3:03)
19. Take A Message To Mary (2:47)
20. It Hurts Me Too (3:15)
21. Minstrel Boy (3:33)
22. She Belongs To Me (2:44)
23. Wigwam (3:10)
24. Alberta # 2 (3:12)
UPC: 886978991423
Label: Sbme Special Mkts.
Release Date: 9.5.89
Format: CD