Bob Dylan LP: New Morning (Song-by-Song + Rarities & Live Apperances, 1970-71)

BOB DYLAN - NEW MORNING
stereo LP released October 1970
12 songs, approx. 36 minutes

Bob supposedly said that he chose the front cover photo for this album because he's giving the camera the exact same look that he did on the back cover photo, only in reverse. (The older photo was taken in the early 1960s, with classic blues singer, Victoria Spivey, who Bob did some recording sessions with.)




Side 1.
IF NOT FOR YOU

DAY OF THE LOCUSTS

TIME PASSES SLOWLY

WENT TO SEE THE GYPSY

WINTERLUDE

IF DOGS RUN FREE

side 2.

NEW MORNING

SIGN ON THE WINDOW

ONE MORE WEEKEND

THE MAN IN ME

THREE ANGELS

FATHER OF NIGHT

This album of all original compositions was viewed as a return to form for Bob, coming just four months after the release of Self-Portrait, a double album devoted primarily to cover versions and old folk songs, with a few live tracks included, which drew mixed reviews from critics, and remains a controversial album to this day. (Check out that thread!) Most of those same critics, however, raved about New Morning. (Greil Marcus, I think, said "We got Dylan back again!")

Dylan actually started working on New Morning before Self-Portrait had even been released. He'd attempted two new songs, Went To See the Gypsy and Time Passes Slowly, during the Self-Portrait sessions, and he tried them again on May 1, 1970, along with Sign on the Window and a new Dylan classic - If Not For You. Joining him in the studio that day was his old pal, George Harrison, who stuck around for a lengthy jam session. (There's a lot to talk about with those recordings, now that they've finally released some of them.) The actual album tracks were recorded between June and August of that year, with some overdubs added before the record came out in October.

The first song on the released New Morning LP is If Not For You. Does anyone not like it?

 

And there's a great rehearsal version of If Not For You on the reissued Bangladesh Concert DVD.

New Morning: still my favorite of all of Bob's albums.

 

Yes, the Banglasdesh version is interesting -- I don't think it was ever bootlegged, for some reason. I heard Dylan do a slow version of If Not For You live back in the 90s, with steel guitar, in the arrangement that Harrison used on All Things Must Pass -- that's the best approach to the song, I think, although the New Morning "fast" version is good, too, and I can't imagine the LP without it after all these years.

 

Here is what I came up with for the first New Morning recording session:

May 1, 1970 recording session with George Harrison, NYC
IF NOT FOR YOU alternate ver., released 1991
WORKING ON A GURU released 2013
TIME PASSES SLOWLY #1 released 2013
SONG TO WOODY
MAMA, YOU BEEN ON MY MIND
DON'T THINK TWICE, IT'S ALL RIGHT
YESTERDAY (Lennon/McCartney)
JUST LIKE TOM THUMB'S BLUES
DA-DOO-RON-RON (Phil Spector & Crystals 1963)
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
MATCHBOX (Carl Perkins)
YOUR TRUE LOVE (Carl Perkins)
TELEPHONE WIRE [a/k/a Las Vegas Blues/ Wonder When My Swamp's Gonna Catch Fire]
FISHIN' BLUES (Henry Thomas)
HONEY, JUST ALLOW ME ONE MORE CHANCE (Henry Thomas)
RAINY DAY WOMEN # 12 & 35
IT AIN'T ME BABE

And a sample:

 

Ralph J. Gleason wrote this.

 

Thanks, you're right. All the critics at that time were happy with New Morning, IIRC.

EDIT: I just noticed I spelled "appearances" wrong in the thread title - that's what happens when you type after midnight.

 

the original new morning is a great album, has a great NYC feel to it. but all the so called remasters/sacds, or whatever suck up all the NYC vibe right out of it. go for the original release be it on vinyl or cd.

 

Al Kooper wrote in his book that he got annoyed with Dylan changing his mind for weeks about the tracklist until the album was finally finished and released. This makes me curious what else Dylan was considering for the album.

 

not the tracklist, changing the arrangements at the last minute.

 

Everyone should read Al's book, Backstage Passes. One of the best musicians memoirs ever.

I hope you've heard the alternate mixes that Kooper did for New Morning, with the horns and strings; maybe these are the tracks that he and Bob were in disagreement about.

 

the only track that i would replace with the alternate on ASP is if dogs run free. otherwise its a perfect album.

 

Looking at Kooper's book again this is what he wrote. "When we had recorded everything, Bob pulled out some random tracks he had cut in the last year and added those to the oversupply we already had from the current sessions. Then we began to select and sequence. He changed his mind daily and the weeks began to drag on. This drove me nuts. We had a final title and cover artwork, but we had a new sequence and songlist every day."

 

If Dogs Run Free is the only song I've heard on this, and I love it.

 

Once I was driving down the road late at night with New Morning in the tape player, and just as this song started, a dog ran across the road in front of me...wow, man!

 

There's only about two tracks on this that I can actually stick. A poor effort, in my view, clutching at musical straws. One More Weekend is especially lame.

 

"Wed get a side order and hed go in and master it and hed say, "no,no, no, I want to do this.. And then, 'No, lets go in and cut this".......

whatever Al Kooper says you have to take with a grain of salt. i dont see how deciding the final track selection would be considered hard work, or concern him.

 

You've seen "Al's Mix" from these sessions?
(per Krogsaard at bjorner.com)
Following these basic recording sessions, a number of overdub sessions
took place. As it has been told by Al Kooper, there was some disagreement
between Bob Dylan and Al Kooper about the production and arrangement of
New Morning. A lot of mixing and overdubbing was done during July 1970.
Probably as a result of that, several early versions of New Morning exist.
One is simply labeled "Al's Mix" and has the following tracklisting:

Side l: The Man In Me / Winterlude / Maryanne / One More Weekend.
Side 2: Mr. Bojangles / Tomorrow's A Long Time / Three Angels / Ballad Of
Ira Hayes / If Dogs Run Free.

 

some great tracks on this record:
sign on the window
winterlude
days of the locusts my personal fav
new morning
went to see the gypsy
the man in me
time passes slowly.

i wouldnt be surprise if it the whole thing was based on that play that got nixed, the songs seem to have an interconnecing vibe.

 

A few points of interest:

If Not For You was edited down for release (the full version was bootlegged)
Da Doo Ron Ron is actually I Met Him On A Sunday.

 

I first bought New Morning in the fall of 1970, a few weeks after it came out, and I played it a lot, along with other records from that year, including Let It Be and CCRs Cosmos Factory. My original vinyl copy got worn out, so I bought a later pressing in the 1980s, and then the first CD issue. But the remastered CD from 2009 eliminated a lot of the record's muddy sound, and I think it's the definitive version. (After buying this same album four times, I hope Sony is through with the remasters now.)

EDIT: And how could I forget All Things Must Pass by George Harrison, released a month after New Morning, which contained George's version of If Not For You, his Dylan harmonica imitation on Apple Scruffs, and the Dylan/Harrison composition I'd Have You Anytime...

 

Funny, he used the covers that I like least from Dylan. I would have used Lily Of The West and Sarah Jane.

 

So the Harrison/Dylan If Not For You was floating around with the rest of the session tapes? Was it a different mix? I thought it first showed up on BS Vol 1-3 in 1991...

Also: I think the Da Doo Ron Ron/Met Him On a Sunday track is kind of a hybrid of both of those songs, and doesn't clearly follow either one.

 

The harpsichord overdub nearly ruins Lily of the West for me. Maybe they'll put the undubbed track on the Another Side of New Morning Portrait box set.

 

I forgot to add that versions of Sign on the Window and Went to See the Gypsy were also attempted at this session, possibly before George arrived.

 

Olof Bjorner adds the following 13 tracks to that session in addition to yours:
Sign On The Window x 5
If Not For You x 4
Time Passes Slowly x 3
Went To See The Gypsy
http://www.bjorner.com/DSN01790 1970.htm#DSN01810

I note your above post.