Selfportrait
Bob Dylan
Looking through Ross (my son) CD collection I found a really unusual Bob Dylan album. Selfportrait contains traditional songs, covers, live performances from the Isle of Wight ’69 and many scraps from various recording sessions. Although not Dylan’s ... Read review
Self Portrait - CD
All The Tired Horses Alberta #1 I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know Days Of 49 Early ... more
Mornin' Rain In Search Of Little Sadie Let It Be Me Little Sadie Woogie Boogie Belle Isle Living The Blues Like A Rolling Stone Copper Kettle Gotta Travel On Blue ...
A review by weemam on Self Portrait - Bob Dylan February 20th, 2004
Author's product rating:
Originality
Average
Lyrics
Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks
A couple of weak links
How does it rate alongside the competition
Unmemorable
Value for Money
Advantages:
soulfull singing by Bob Dylan
Disadvantages:
some weak tracks
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Selfportrait
Bob Dylan
Looking through Ross (my son) CD collection I found a really unusual Bob Dylan album. Selfportrait contains traditional songs, covers, live performances from the Isle of Wight ’69 and many scraps from various recording sessions. Although not Dylan’s greatest album, Self Portrait does have some redeeming features. This album was released by Columbia music when Dylan moved to Big Sky music as a slap in a face to him . All The Tired Horses The album starts of with a female chorus of “All the Tired Horses” this is the worst start to any Dylan album, Why is this here? Bob Dylan wrote this. Alberta 1# is a much better song also penned by Dylan; he has a nice mellow voice.
I Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know Is Bob Dylan in Crooner mode long before 2001’s Love and Theft? This is one of the best songs on the album; I could listen to this song all day.
Days of ’49 is a traditional sounding song and is quite boring to listen to.
Early Morning Rain Is the first song on the album to be covered by both Elvis and Bob. He sounds very relaxed, almost like a crooner, this has got bad reviews but I really like this. Dylan seems a fan of Gordon Lightfoot, who wrote the song.
In Search of Little Sadie Is the first version of the song. This was recorded at the Nashville Skyline sessions and he seems to be parodying his on unique singing voice. It is a good recording, the first of two recordings of this song on this album. Written by Dylan
Let It Be Me Is a version of a song that was sung by Elvis a year later. Bob goes into crooner mode again and is an excellent version of the song.
Little Sadie Is a faster version of In Search of Little Sadie; the guitars in here make a difference and are better than version 1.
Woogie Boogie This is a strange instrumental by Dylan using saxophone and piano. It’s definitely not a traditional Dylan song. It’s a great one to listen to when I’m on the glider as it has a great beat. I’m getting Ross to copy this for me so as I can use it repeatedly .
Belle Isle From the obscure to sublime, Belle Isle is a gorgeous song and is a parody of a Celtic ballad. Is voice is clear and crisp and is very dreamy.
Living The Blues Written by Bob, this is a very jazzy song and uses female backing singers. It feels a very 1940s type song; the backing singers are probably the same ones on All the Tired horses.
Like A Rolling Stone A live version of the classic Dylan song. A reasonable version but I have heard a lot better.
Copper Kettle (The Pale Moonlight) Another cover song. Nice enough, lovely background music on this track. Again it feels a very old song.( experience talking here lol)
Gotta Travel On A foot tapping Elvis Presley type song. This is a very Country and Western song. A nice sing a long type song.
Blue Moon Another crooner song. I really like his version, interestingly Dylan chooses to add the “happy” verse:- “An suddenly she appears before me, The Only one my arms could ever hold. I heard someone whisper please adore me. And when I looked my moon had turned to gold”
(I bet you kept on singing this one when you read it) This indicates that he wasn’t thinking about Elvis’s version as Elvis NEVER sang this verse.
The Boxer A cover of the Simon and Gartfunkal song. This is very poor and sounds like a ramble.
Mighty Quinn This was the only single from the album. See Like a Rolling Stone
Take Me As I Am (Or Let Me Go) Yet another Country and Western type song, complete with backing singers. Surely Dylan and backing singers don’t work?
Take a Message to Mary
This about a man in jail, and not wanting anyone to tell her girlfriend he has committed a crime and is in jail and is lonely. His voice sounds really mellow and he sounds if he is really enjoying it.
It Hurts Me Too Written by Dylan it’s a pretty simple song for him, excellent guitar work.
Minstrel Boy I don’t like this either. This is Dylan live in 1969.
She Belongs To Me Bad live version of the classic song.
Wigwam An instrumental with Dylan humming in the background( quite unusual)
So there you have it a real mixed bag of songs. I’m not as big a Bob Dylan fan as Ross is but I like some of his stuff.
Selfportrait. It is £7.99 in Amazon, however Amazon’s version is missing Little Sadie and Take a Message to Mary. Ross bought his one about 8 years ago though and it was £10 then.
www.bobdylan.com
Margaretxx
I’m at my computer and something is wrong Listen!! There’s nobody singing a song Ill hunt through some music I’ll try some from Ross He won’t really mind As he knows I’m the boss Here’s some Bob Dylan Not to everyone’s taste Some really good songs For each and every race The words that he wrote Yes! They came from the heart There’s so much to hear So where can I start
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