Maps of Music

Self Portrait (1970)

Where the lyrics of Self Portrait take you, and where it was really made.

Dylan released this double album to confound his audience, and it still topped the UK chart despite scathing reviews.

Key places

Isle of Wight Festival, 31 August 1969 (1969)

Live show Isle of Wight Festival — The album's version of The Mighty Quinn is a soundboard recording of the performance at this festival, and three other tracks on the album come from the same show. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Self Portrait: tenth studio album by Bob Dylan
• Released June 8, 1970 on Columbia Records
• Produced by Bob Johnston
• Dylan's second double album, after Blonde on Blonde (1966)
• Mix of cover songs, live recordings, and new original songs
• Arrangements and vocals continue the country vein of Nashville Skyline (1969)

Background

• Dylan later said the album was meant to confound public expectations of him
• The aim was to counter the 'spokesman of a generation' label placed on him throughout the 1960s
• Dylan said he had gained notoriety for doing nothing while living in Woodstock
• A motorcycle accident in 1966 kept him out of action, and he later moved to New York with his family

Recording

• Many tracks were made during the period when Dylan worked in Nashville
• In an interview with Cameron Crowe, Dylan said the album gathered tracks made during those sessions and material that had been left on the shelf
• Dylan said he wanted to put the material out himself, comparing it to a bootleg record
• The Mighty Quinn and three other tracks come from a soundboard recording of the Isle of Wight Festival concert

Cover

• The cover painting is by Dylan himself
• Dylan said a friend supplied paints and a square canvas, and he finished the cover in about five minutes

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Disc 1

Disc 2

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota; raised in Hibbing, Minnesota.
• Moved to New York City in January 1961 to pursue a music career.
• Signed to Columbia Records after playing harmonica on Carolyn Hester's album; debut album Bob Dylan released in 1962.

Members

• Solo artist; backed over the years by bands including the Hawks/the Band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and his touring band led by bassist Tony Garnier.

Career

• Breakthrough with The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963); protest songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" became anthems for the civil rights and antiwar movements.
• Went electric with Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited (1965) and Blonde on Blonde (1966), provoking controversy among folk fans.
• Motorcycle accident in 1966 led to nearly eight years without touring; Basement Tapes recorded with the Band.
• Converted to Christianity in the late 1970s and released gospel albums; won Album of the Year Grammy for Time Out of Mind (1997).
• Has toured since 1988 on the Never Ending Tour; won an Academy Award and ten Grammy Awards; awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Critics and consumers alike gave the album negative reviews, and critical disdain seemed nearly universal
• Robert Shelton wrote that the album confused him and asked why Dylan had recorded 'Blue Moon'
• Robert Christgau called the concept brilliant but found the singing inconsistent and the production poor, blaming Bob Johnston
• Christgau also wrote that the album sounded good on WMCA, a remark aimed at its cheap sound
• Greil Marcus opened his Rolling Stone review with a harsh first line and argued Dylan should return to the marketplace with more ambition
• Marc Bolan defended the album in a letter to Melody Maker on 11 July 1970

Reappraisal

• Dylan revisited the album on The Bootleg Series Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait (1969-1971) in 2013
• That release led to further positive critical revaluation
• In 1991, rock critics Jimmy Guterman and Owen O'Donnell ranked Self-Portrait third among the worst rock albums ever

Records

• Reached number four in the United States
• Topped the chart in the United Kingdom
• Commercially successful despite critical rejection

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The instrumental Wigwam was later recognized for its use in the 2001 Wes Anderson film The Royal Tenenbaums.
• Copper Kettle was popularised by Joan Baez and appeared on her best-selling 1962 LP Joan Baez in Concert.
• Dylan told Cameron Crowe he saw the album as a kind of bootleg record of his own, since he was being bootlegged at the time.
• The original lyrics from Self Portrait are never acknowledged in the Writings and Drawings and Lyrics editions.
• The Mighty Quinn originated at the 1967 Basement Tapes sessions, and Manfred Mann's 1968 cover was a major success.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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