"Dylan" (1973): Track-By-Track Discussion

I don't think Columbia used that inner sleeve any more in 1973. It is in some LPs I have from 1968 and 69, with ads for other LPs of that time on the other side.

 

I remember my HS buddy & I picking up the Dylan LP at Korvettes in December of '73 & running back to his house to listen to it. We made it through Bojangles, Taxi and the two Elvis "tributes" more or less OK. But when Spanish came on at the end of side 2, we were laughing so hard we were literally crying.

The solo piano version is utterly sublime, however.

 

I think so but will check. My original vinyl versions are mainly the UK versions. Regarding Blonde on Blonde you get the inner cover with the lady actress whose name I am unable to spell! Actually Blonde has only the plastic sleeves no paper inners. They are really nice well done mini sleeves. There is also Greatest Hits and More Greatest Hits in the series which of course were not in the albums box. All the albums are of course stereo.
The debut has a vertical white and blue striped paper inner.

 

Are we still on 'Can't Help falling In Love' ? I hope so...

One of my favourite tracks on the album... not epoch-making, but full of small pleasures. I like the fact that Bob doesn't go overboard on the vocals, he sits inside the song, he has his New Morning 'i've got a head cold but i'm gonna do it anyway' voice, there's a Just Like A Woman descending phrase on the organ after the first verses, the little guitar (Bromberg?) fills, the girls' voices don't fight with him the way they do on some of the other tracks, the fact he gives us two verses of harmonica played straight at the end...

I think he would do a great version on stage with the current band, but it wouldn't be a version by New Morning Bob, and I like what we have here.....

 

I have no evidence to back up this guess, but ...

I get the feeling that the compiler(s) did not have free run of the Columbia vault when putting "Dylan" together. I just get the impression that they were working from a subset of material - a certain set of boxes of tape, or a bunch of tracks that an engineer put together for a compiler to draw from. (Hence no "Pretty Saro" or "Thirsty Boots", for example.)

As was pointed out above, surely The Basement Tapes would have sold circles around this material that dredged up the ghost of "Self Portrait", despite the material being 6 years old (as compared to 3). An odd choice all around.

And as far as "revenge" album is concerned, I feel that record companies were far more concerned about the overall perceived "status" of artist back in the 1970s, and they wouldn't want a record out that harmed that status. Seeing as Dylan was already a "status artist" (as compared to a huge seller of smash hits), Columbia had a stake in maintaining Dylan's "status", even if he was on Asylum, since they still owned his eternally-profitable back catalog. I can't see them knowingly and willfully doing damage to his reputation out of spite.

 

Track 3 - "Sarah Jane"

 

"Sarah Jane"/"Saro Jane" is a traditional.

Recorded versions date back at least to 1927.

 

I'm leaning towards Ron Cornelius for this without much to back me up. I hope someone here has the knowledge. He might spill a few beans himself in this book:-



Chapter One, which features in the Kindle sample (and "look inside" function) on A****n, contains a story about his guitar being broken on the flight he took from San Francisco to New York to begin the "New Morning" sessions. Might be worth a punt.

 

This version of "Saro Jane" by Flatt & Scruggs bears a strong resemblance (to me anyway) to "Rolling in My Sweet Baby's Arms", which Dylan rehearsed with The Grateful Dead in 1987.

 

So Bob did once sing "la la la la la la la". This is a pretty good vocal on the verses and one that recalls his 1965 vocal delivery more than the first two songs. It wouldn't be out of place on New Morning. It's the liveliest Bob vocal on this record so far in my view. Interesting to hear Bob with a female chorus as I've spent time with the 1979 to 1981 years recently as I'm sure many others have. It's energetic and fun and Bob dominates this performance so I give it a thumbs up.

 

I think Dylan has a deep fascination with how far he can take his vocals in weird and unexpected directions, including the varied vocal pallets brought on by the ravages of life--aging, colds, wear-and-tear, and over-use!

On another note, the vocal in "Lily of the West" is so distant that it almost takes on a kind of ethereal quality.

 

There are also “la la la”s on the early “Time Passes Slowly” recorded a bit earlier than this. Not to mention the “da da da da da dum”s on “Wigwam.”

 

There were 8 takes of "Sarah Jane", the last song recorded on June 1, 1970. Clearly not a "warm-up" in this case, although one could maybe make the argument that the entire day was "warm-up", as nothing but cover versions were done, and it had been a month since Dylan was last in the studio (the May 1st session with George Harrison).

 

I always loved this track. It’s a bit sloppy, but very spirited. He sure sounds like he’s having fun. Is it an early take? I can’t imagine Bob being this enthusiastic if it was take seven or eight.

Also, fidelity-wise this track is noticeably inferior to the others. I wonder why that is. Sounds like it may be a couple of generations removed.

 

And the "la la la la la la la la la" intro on The Man In Me in that same time period, of course, which absolutely sets that song up.

 

I slightly object to covers being equated with warm-up material. Even in retrospect. Even when we know he chose only originals for New Morning. I absolutely adore 'Sarah Jane's vocal arrangement. The call and response lines are just a pure joy. I don't like people who claim objective truth for what can only be a subjective view. I hope you don't think that last comment is targeted at RayS, btw.

 

I don't think it is coincidental that non-verbal fillers (and instrumentals) are a hallmark of this period. "All the Tired Horses" is an example of where Dylan remains wordless, in defiance of the listener's expectations. It's like words, pushed to the limits of meaning by electric Dylan, have run out of steam. Or, as Dylan put it himself, "What's the matter with me? I don't have much to say."

 

It's as plausible as any other explanation, I suppose.

Indeed -- and it's the oddness of the choices on Dylan (1973) that encourage the conspiracy theory. Is this really an LP that Columbia thought would make Dylan look good? If your instinct is "no," and there is no other official explanation, the revenge theory has plenty of soil to take root.

Interesting take on it -- and sure, maybe CBS was playing a long game, hoping to get Bob back at some point. But then, to take the next logical step, you have to answer the question, "Was this really an LP that Columbia thought would make Dylan look GOOD?" In retrospect, they sure didn't do their wayward "status artist" any favors there...

 

I actually like this album better than New Morning but what do I know?

 

Yes! I’d completely forgotten that one. Definitely seems to be a recurring trend in this period.

 

"Sarah Jane" is a strange one -- the ladies are (again) too much for me, and too high in the mix; and the music sounds like it was recorded in mono through a closed door, lacking the unadorned clarity of a New Morning recording. And yet ... it's kinda fun to listen to. The song itself is an evergreen, the melody is fun, and Bob is clearly having fun singing it. A better mix would make this a winner for me.

 

Yeah I wonder what the deal is with the mix on Sara Jane. It is very low fi

 

We may never know the answer to our questions until someone actually interviews the people involved, but I do tend to agree with Ray about Columbia not really having any interest in sabotaging Dylan's reputation--and I agree that they were probably working with what was most immediately to hand. They didn't want to have to pay people to trawl through what was probably at that time a fairly disorganized and even scattered set of tapes looking for a great "lost" Dylan album. I doubt anybody in a position to make these sorts of decisions at Columbia back then would have even thought in those terms about Dylan.

And, Sean, I think you may be overestimating the aesthetic taste of the people who made the decision to slap the record together and get it out. I think they very well may have had an artistically clueless sense that it would sell the way SP and NS sold. I don't think they were working from a particularly sensitive or sophisticated grasp of what made Dylan great--and that's not the same thing as deliberately putting out stuff they knew was substandard just to spite him.

L.

 

It sounded much better on my long-gone cassette.

 

I wonder if the reason Self-Portrait sold so well is because it was the first time Mighty Quinn appeared on an album. Manfred Mann already had a hit with it. I bet people were interested in hearing the author's own version.

In fact, Self-Portrait was the first Dylan album I ever owned for the very reason I listed above. I was expecting a clean, interesting studio version of this great song. I was disappointed then, but love the sound of the wheels almost coming off in that exciting performance!

Dylan (1973) had no such hit to get people interested...