Album #10: Self Portrait

 Released June 8, 1970

This is, in fact, a Dylan self-portrait.

Dylan’s second double album is famous for being almost universally panned by the critics. No one liked it. It contains only four original Dylan songs; the rest are a strange collection of covers - blues, folk, even standards like “Blue Moon” - plus some live cuts he threw in for no discernible reason - plus whatever “The Mighty Quinn” is. He uses his “Nashville Skyline “ croon again, which sometimes works and sometimes just sounds weird, like he’s channeling Elvis. 

According to his book Chronicles Volume 1, Dylan was going through a very hard time - besieged by fans who came to his home and invaded his privacy, he was trying anything he could think of to make people stop treating him like some sort of prophet. 

The albums jump around so much it’s very hard to focus on any particular track. I thought the live version of “Like a Rolling Stone” was pretty bad, but the live version of “She Belongs to Me” was very good. In general, the “Americana” songs came off best to me. I liked “Copper Kettle” , the two “Albertas”, and “Little Sadie”. He should have left “The Boxer” to Paul Simon.

It’s going to be a long road until I’m rewarded with “Blood On the Tracks,” but onward! 

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