Compiled without Dylan’s involvement and made up of studio outtakes from Self-Portrait and New Morning, Dylan sounds on paper like it was set up to fail as a way for Columbia to get the last laugh. – Chris IngallsĪ result of record company revenge, Dylan came out on Columbia after the titular artist jumped ship for Asylum Records (where he would stay for only two albums before rejoining his old label). Not a bad batch of tunes, all things considered.
But, you also get the gorgeously gospel-tinged “Sign on the Window”, self-referential treasures like “Day of the Locusts” and “Went to See the Gypsy”, and of course, “The Man in Me” (the song that gave The Big Lebowski its much-beloved theme song nearly 30 years later). There are a few oddities sprinkled in here-like the lilting waltz of “Winterlude” and the strange jazziness of “If Dogs Run Free” (complete with scatting by Maeretha Stewart). Opening with the gentle, chiming folk of “If Not for You”, New Morning is infused with surprising warmth, even during rave-ups like the title track and “One More Weekend”. His “normal” voice was back, all 12 songs were self-penned, and while it doesn’t have the dangerous buzz of, say, Blonde on Blonde, the pastoral, full-band beauty of the album is a wonder to behold. Released just four months after the puzzling and polarizing (but not all that bad) Self-Portrait, New Morning was a relief to fans put off by Dylan’s sprawling double-album of country crooning. Vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica, and piano rarely sounded this fully formed. 10” tosses off a future classic with “It Ain’t Me Babe” and even adds a couple of multi-verse epics (“Chimes of Freedom” and “Ballad in Plain D”) before he’s done.
Bob dylan discography song free#
While he largely abandoned the “protest” flavor of his previous records (typically aggravating Dylan purists in the process), the sheer variety he ekes out of his solo performances is impressive.įor instance, he bangs out 12-bar piano blues on “Black Crow Blues” unspools more odd surrealism on “Motorpsycho Nitemare” and “I Shall Be Free No. It’s a shame because the majority of its songs are top-notch, and the performances-recorded on one June evening in 1964-are inspired, intimate, and sublime. With the possible exception of his mostly-covers debut album (1962’s Bob Dylan), Another Side of Bob Dylan is probably the most ignored of Dylan’s early acoustic works. With that in mind-and in celebration of his 80th trip around the sun-we’ve compiled this list of ten Dylan albums that aren’t necessarily fantastic or horrible. While his discography contains plenty of justly praised masterpieces, several of his collections have failed to gain the respect they deserve. That’s far from surprising-after all, nobody bats a thousand-especially since Dylan enjoys foisting head-scratching stylistic left turns on unsuspecting fans.
Born on, Bob Dylan has released more than three dozen studio albums over the last 60 years or so naturally, that includes plenty of stunning records, a few duds, and some that are, shall we say, “fair”.