Bob Dylan - A Different Self Portrait - Non-Album Tracks (1970)

I have been slowly and steadily working my way through Bob Dylan's music career. I've been trying to go chronologically, though I've made many exceptions to that. One sticking point I've had is what to do with the recording sessions surrounding Dylan's 1970 double album "Self Portrait." Happily, I've been going through a Dylan phase lately, so I listened to this material a bunch of times and I have it worked out.

Frankly, the "Self Portrait" album as it was originally released is a mess. An infamous review in Rolling Stone Magazine started out by asking, "What is this shit?" It's a strange mishmash of material, mostly done in the studio but with some live tracks included, and mostly covers but with a few lightweight originals, and many songs done simply but many others being heavily overproduced.

It seems likely that the album was a deliberate career self-sabotage. At the time, Dylan was considered the voice for his generation, and the expectations for him were sky-high. Many people expected him to lead the counterculture protest movement with more insightful protest songs. He probably wanted to release an album mostly made up of covers to puncture those expectations. He denied the sabotage idea when the album came out, but he admitted as much in a 1984 interview:

“I said, 'Well, fuck it. I wish these people would just forget about me. I wanna do something they can't possibly like, they can't relate to. They'll see it and they'll listen and they'll say, 'Well, let's go on to the next person. He ain't sayin' it no more. He ain't givin' us what we want, you know?'"

However, in my opinion, much of the "sabotage" of the album can be blamed on the producer Bob Johnston. Dylan did select a handful of clunkers that couldn't be redeemed in any version., but most of the many songs on the double album were actually pretty good. Unfortunately, after Dylan was done with the album, Johnston took the tapes and added layers of horns, strings, and backing vocals, all without Dylan's input. In my opinion, it's mainly that overproduction that has given the album such a negative reputation. (Well, that and the shock over the simple fact that it was mostly an album of cover material.)

Given that history, it was quite a revelation in 2013 when the archival album "The Bootleg Series, Volume 10: Another Self Portrait" was released. It got high praise, drastically upgrading the reputation of this phase of Dylan's career. It contains many songs from the time period that were previously unreleased, and many alternate versions of songs without the overproduction. Yes, it's mostly made of covers, but they're generally good, little known songs, and Dylan's singing was arguably the best of his long career. (His voice in 1969 and 1970 was significantly different than how he's sounded before and after that. Some say that's due to him not smoking for a few years.)

My goal here has been to create the best version of all this "Self Portrait" era material. The problem with "Another Self Portrait" is that is disorganized. In addition to "Self Portrait" outtakes, it contains a few outtakes from Dylan's 1969 album "Nashville Skyline," many outtakes from his "New Morning" album later in 1970, and even a few outtakes from 1971. I've already included the good outtakes from 1969 on the stray tracks album "I Ain't Got No Home." As for the rest, I've divided them into two groups: the songs actually recorded for "Self Portrait," which is this album here, and the songs recorded for "New Morning" (and later), which will be posted later.

Here's the method to my madness for this album. I only included three songs from the original "Self Portrait" without any changes: "Early Morning Rain," "It Hurts Me Too," and "Gotta Travel On." I eliminated all the songs that I didn't like, no matter the version. Mostly, they're covers of famous classics that just don't sound right when done by Dylan: "Blue Moon," "The Boxer," "Take a Message to Mary," and "Let It Be Me." I removed all the live tracks. (I've already posted the full concert where they come from, the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival.) I removed two originals that are forgettable or downright annoying, in my opinion: "All the Tired Horses," and "Woogie Boogie."

Instead, I used a bunch of good songs from "Another Self Portrait," plus all the versions without the Bob Johnston overdubs. I also included one song ("Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies") from "Anniversary Collection 1970," a very limited release to secure copyright rights in Europe. I ordered the songs chronologically, according to the days they were recorded. However, that didn't sort things much, since the entire album was recorded in just three days in early March 1970. I made a chonological exception with the two versions of "Little Sadie," putting one near the start and the other near the end.

I think the final result is an album that's not only better than "Self Portrait," but is even better than highly praised "Another Self Portrait." But before you judge that last comment, consider I will actually be posting two albums of "New Morning" outtakes, drawing heavily on "Another Self Portrait" material to do so. One of those albums consists entirely of songs not included on "New Morning." The other one is an alternate version of "New Morning," containing different versions of every song from that album.

The original "Self Portrait" is 73 minutes long. Despite all the many changes made here, this album is nearly the same length, at 70 minutes long.

I would have liked to call this album "Another Self Portrait." But since that's been used already, I went with "A Different Self Portrait."

01 Pretty Saro (Bob Dylan)
02 Little Sadie [No Overdubs Version] (Bob Dylan)
03 These Hands (Bob Dylan)
04 Copper Kettle [No Overdubs Version] (Bob Dylan)
05 It Hurts Me Too (Bob Dylan)
06 Belle Isle [No Overdubs Version] (Bob Dylan)
07 Annies's Going to Sing Her Song (Bob Dylan)
08 Early Morning Rain (Bob Dylan)
09 Railroad Bill (Bob Dylan)
10 Thirsty Boots (Bob Dylan)
11 This Evening So Soon (Bob Dylan)
12 House Carpenter (Bob Dylan)
13 Wigwam [No Overdubs Version] (Bob Dylan)
14 Days of '49 [No Overdubs Version] (Bob Dylan)
15 Tattle O'Day (Bob Dylan)
16 Spanish Is the Loving Tongue [Alternate Version] (Bob Dylan)
17 Alberta [Alternate Version] (Bob Dylan)
18 Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies (Bob Dylan)
19 Little Sadie, No. 2 [No Overdubs Version] (Bob Dylan)
20 Gotta Travel On (Bob Dylan)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15107461/BobD_1970a_ADifferentSlfPortrait_atse.zip.html

Both "Self Portrait" and "Another Self Portrait" had covers that were self portraits painted by Dylan. I would have loved to use another such painting, but I couldn't find one. So I went with a nice photo that apparently was taken in 1970.