‘What is this shit?’, was het commentaar van Rolling Stone columnist Greil Marcus na de eerste beluistering van ‘Self Portrait’ in 1970. Het was één van Dylan’s meest controversiele albums, dat in de kritieken vrijwel unaniem neergesabeld werd. In de periode 1969-1970 werden in New York (met o.a. David Bromberg en Al Kooper) tientallen songs opgenomen, die vervolgens in Nashville en Los Angeles werden voorzien van backing vocals, extra drums en orkest, en die deels terecht kwamen op de albums ‘Self Portrait’ en ‘New Morning’. Het resultaat werd door velen beschouwd als een ratjetoe, Dylan onwaardig. Ongeveer een jaar geleden werden de originele New Yorkse opnamebanden teruggevonden, zodat nu pas duidelijk is hoe ‘Self Portrait’ had kunnen klinken zonder alle overdubs en toevoegingen. ‘Another Self Portrait’ bevat 35 tracks uit genoemde periode: deels niet eerder verschenen titels, deels titels die bekend zijn van ‘Self Portrait’ en ‘New Morning’, maar nu te horen in alternatieve uitvoeringen. In de Deluxe Edition van deze set zijn naast deze twee discs nog twee discs te vinden, één met de opnieuw gemasterde versie van ‘Self Portrait’ (uitgaande van de originele opnames), en één met het complete, historische optreden op het Isle Of Wight Festival, met The Band, op 31 augustus 1969. De set wordt gecompleteerd door 2 boeken, waarvan één met liner notes van Greil Marcus (!) en een -144 pagina’s tellend- boek met niet eerder gepubliceerde foto’s van John Cohen en Al Clayton. De afbeelding op de cover is overigens een nieuw, door Dylan geschilderd zelfportret.

Press Release

Columbia Records will release Bob Dylan’s The Bootleg Series, Vol. 10 – Another Self Portrait (1969-1971) on August 27, bringing fresh perspective to one of the artist’s most controversial periods and revealing it to be one of his most wonderfully creative and prolific.  Containing 35 rarities and previously unreleased recordings, Another Self Portrait (1969-1971) is the latest edition of Dylan’s acclaimed Bootleg Series and is available in both a standard two-disc set and in a four-disc deluxe box set.

The unreleased recordings, demos and alternate takes on Another Self Portrait — drawn mainly from the 1970 studio recording sessions that resulted in the official 1970 albums Self Portrait and New Morning albums — shed new light on an essential and pivotal period in the artist’s ongoing musical evolution.

The original Self Portrait, released in June 1970, was Dylan’s tenth studio album and his first to receive real pans from the music press (“What is this shit?” was literally the opening sentence of Greil Marcus’s review in Rolling Stone while Robert Christgau gave the album a “C PLUS” rating in the Village Voice).  Nevertheless, Self Portrait hit Number 4 on the US Billboard 200 and Number 1 on the UK album charts.

In the Self Portrait sessions, Dylan played a selection of songs accompanied by a small ensemble of musicians, primarily David Bromberg (guitar) and Al Kooper (keyboards, guitar), with producer Bob Johnston later adding overdubs to the basic tracks in Nashville.  Another Self Portrait presents these original session masters for the first time without overdubs.

Another Self Portrait reveals fresh aspects of Dylan’s vocal genius as he reimagines traditional and contemporary folk music as well as songs of his own.  Across these unvarnished performances, Dylan is the country singer from Nashville Skyline (“Country Pie” and “I Threw It All Away”), an interpreter of traditional folk (“Little Sadie,” “Pretty Saro”) who’s right at home singing the songs of his contemporaries (Tom Paxton’s “Annie’s Gonna Sing Her Song” and Eric Andersen’s “Thirsty Boots”) before returning to writing and singing his own new music (“Went To See The Gypsy,” “Sign On The Window”).

While the original Self Portrait was a deliberate act of iconoclasm that shattered Dylan’s image as “generational spokesperson” while stretching the boundaries of pop music and his own, the album’s successor, New Morning, marked Dylan’s return to songwriting.  Another Self Portrait gives fans a chance to reappraise the pivotal recordings that marked Dylan’s artistic transformation as the 1960s ended and the 1970s began.

Featured on Another Self Portrait are a previously unavailable version of “Only A Hobo” and the demo version of “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” a track that finds Dylan, who’d been signed as a recording artist not quite a decade earlier, looking to the future, promising that “Someday, everything’s gonna be smooth like a rhapsody, when I paint my masterpiece.”

Bob Dylan has created a new painting as the cover art for The Bootleg Series, Vol. 10 – Another Self Portrait (1969-1971).

The Bootleg Series, Vol. 10 – Another Self Portrait (1969-1971) will be available in a standard two-disc configuration as well as in a four-disc deluxe boxed set which will include, for the first time ever, the complete historic performance by Bob Dylan and The Band from the Isle of Wight Festival on August 31, 1969.  Housed in a slipcase, the deluxe edition will include the newly remastered version of the 1970 Self Portrait album, in its entirety with original sequencing, in addition to two hardcover books featuring revisionist liner notes penned by Greil Marcus (author of the notorious “What is this shit?” 1970 Self Portrait review in Rolling Stone).

A vinyl version of The Bootleg Series, Vol. 10 – Another Self Portrait (1969-1971) will include the album’s 35 tracks on three LPs plus a 12″ x 12″ booklet.

Hardcore fans got an early taste of The Bootleg Series, Vol. 10 – Another Self Portrait (1969-1971) when a limited edition 7″ single of “Wigwam” (demo) c/w “Thirsty Boots” (a previously unreleased recording) was released for Record Store Day, Saturday, April 20, 2013.

bob-dylan

Bob Dylan
Another Self Portrait 1969-1971) / The Bootleg Series Vol. 10

Format: 4CD Deluxe Edition, 2CD Standard Edition, 3LP + 2CD Vinyl Edition)
Label: Sony Music – Columbia Records
Release: 23 augustus 2013

The Bootleg Series, Vol. 10 – Another Self Portrait (1969-1971)

CD 1

1 Went To See The Gypsy (demo)
2 In Search Of Little Sadie (without overdubs, Self Portrait)
3 Pretty Saro (unreleased, Self Portrait)
4 Alberta #3 (alternate version, Self Portrait)
5 Spanish Is The Loving Tongue (unreleased, Self Portrait)
6 Annie’s Going To Sing Her Song (unreleased, Self Portrait)
7 Time Passes Slowly #1 (alternate version, New Morning)
8 Only A Hobo (unreleased, Greatest Hits II)
9 Minstrel Boy (unreleased, The Basement Tapes)
10 I Threw It All Away (alternate version, Nashville Skyline)
11 Railroad Bill (unreleased, Self Portrait)
12 Thirsty Boots (unreleased, Self Portrait)
13 This Evening So Soon (unreleased, Self Portrait)
14 These Hands (unreleased, Self Portrait)
15 Little Sadie (without overdubs, Self Portrait)
16 House Carpenter (unreleased, Self Portrait)
17 All The Tired Horses (without overdubs, Self Portrait)

The Bootleg Series, Vol. 10 – Another Self Portrait (1969-1971)

CD 2

1 If Not For You (alternate version, New Morning)
2 Wallflower (alternate version, 1971)
3 Wigwam (original version without overdubs, Self Portrait)
4 Days Of ’49 (original version without overdubs, Self Portrait)
5 Working On A Guru (unreleased, New Morning)
6 Country Pie (alternate version, Nashville Skyline)
7 I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight (Live With The Band, Isle Of Wight 1969)
8 Highway 61 Revisited (Live With The Band, Isle Of Wight 1969)
9 Copper Kettle (without overdubs, Self Portrait)
10 Bring Me A Little Water (unreleased, New Morning)
11 Sign On The Window (with orchestral overdubs, New Morning)
12 Tattle O’Day (unreleased, Self Portrait)
13 If Dogs Run Free (alternate version, New Morning)
14 New Morning (with horn section overdubs, New Morning)
15 Went To See The Gypsy (alternate version, New Morning)
16 Belle Isle (without overdubs, Self Portrait)
17 Time Passes Slowly #2 (alternate version, New Morning)
18 When I Paint My Masterpiece (demo)

Bob Dylan & The Band
Isle of Wight – August 31, 1969

1 She Belongs To Me
2 I Threw It All Away
3 Maggie’s Farm
4 Wild Mountain Thyme
5 It Ain’t Me, Babe
6 To Ramona/ Mr. Tambourine Man
7 I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
8 Lay Lady Lay
9 Highway 61 Revisited
10 One Too Many Mornings
11 I Pity The Poor Immigrant
12 Like A Rolling Stone
13 I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight
14 Quinn The Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)
15 Minstrel Boy
16 Rainy Day Women #12 & 35

Bob Dylan treedt dit jaar op in Nederland / Belgie, bekijk hier de concertdata : https://bluesmagazine.nl/agenda/tag/bob-dylan/


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