I am among the few, the proud, who loved Self Portrait. At least in part because it was an early Dylan album for me, I became a big time fan circa Nashville Skyline and didn’t have the sense of Dylan history that lead so many people to dismiss Self Portrait. Not me. I love “The Boxer”, “Blue Moon” “Take A Message To Mary”… al the pop folkie stuff that had the world up in arms, I heard irony free, I took it at face value.
That was 1970 and I was 13 years old and I am now 56 years old and have been listening to the highlights off The Bootleg Tapes Volume 10, dating from 1969 to 1971 and lo, infamous wee Greil Marcus, who infamously began his Rolling Stone review with “What is this shit?” has apparently come to piece with the album, or at least these outtakes. from the album and the Isle Of Weight performance. In the liner notes to this collection, Marcus has written: “Every listener to this set will find his or her center around which everything else revolves; so many of the performances have the depth, and the oddness, to work that way.”
I like it fine. The “Highway61 Revisted” from the Isle of Wight show isn’t all that and the “When I Paint My Masterpiece” and “Time Passes Slowly” are interesting but not very, and not very necessary. “If Not For You” is oversung, and I miss the “and you know that it’s true”.
But I love the folkie stuff, it kinda reminds me of Good As I Been To You and World Gone Wrong -two great albums of folk covers which lead him right out of the wilderness and over to Time out Of Mind in the early 1990s. “Only A Hobo”, “Minstrel Boy” and “This Evening So Soon” are all worth listening to.
The other undeniable highlight of the highlight is the Dylan – Harrison ‘Working On A Guru” with a terrific Harrison solo, wait for his chuckle before he hits in the second time and listen to the highlights on NPR here.
Grade: A-