Bob Dylan "Self Portrait"

Dylan returns to the world of the double album after inventing the form with "Blonde on Blonde". And it is a disaster. One of the most famous record reviews in Rolling Stone magazine asked "What is this shit?" A shocking accusation given that Dylan at that time held a reputation amongst the Rolling Stone generation of a cross between Buddha, Gandhi, Socrates and Jesus. And that is not an overstatement. He was the single most important cultural figure under 30 coming out of the 1960s. His legend had been enhanced by his silence from late 1966 to 1968 when he had released no new music (a lifetime in terms of the accelerated development of the 60s). Vietnam, assassinations, drugs, South Africa, Kent State, man on the moon. An audience was keen to hear what the voice of their generation had to say about these and other pressing issues.

Unfortunately, the Gandhi/Jesus figure felt himself to be trapped by the demands and expectations that were being placed on him. He had gotten married, bought a house, started a family, stopped taking so many drugs. He was no longer speeding through life. He had time to reflect and consider himself and his place in the world. He also had time to think in more depth about the material that had inspired him to take up performing in the first place. It is possible that he also measured his own writing against his inspirations and found himself wanting. For whatever reason, when Dylan was ready to begin recording again he did not have a lot of top drawer material available.

The title of this lp seems to relate to its cover art rather than its musical content. Although it might be suggestive of a musical autobiography, the lp is more of a scrapbook, a collage of different elements that suggest something about their author's thoughts and current interests as well as his influences. Dylan records material like "Alberta", "Little Sadie", "Days of '49" that may or may not be traditional. He adds to this his own instrumental or mostly instrumental recordings such as "All the Tired Horses" and "Wigwam". There are then a number of poor (both in terms of performance and recording quality) songs from his appearance at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1969. Finally, he records items like "Blue Moon" and "Let It Be Me", songs more associated with middle of the road singers. These sort of performers were rife in the 60s and there was plenty of material created for them to perform. To Dylan's fans, these performers were the enemy - the purveyors and enforcers of a mass blandness that real artists like Dylan were intended to sweep away.

"Self Portrait" revealed Dylan to be as much of a fan of this sort of schlock material as any Minnesota housewife. He sings these songs in a crooner impersonation which could be ironic but is in fact sincere (I think Dylan sees irony as a waste of effort). And then his producer adds in saccharine strings, backing vocalists and other orchestral touches to the recordings. It is all very Dylan does Vegas.

Subsequent speculation was that Dylan brought out "Self Portrait" as a way of deflecting some of the unwanted attention away from him, as a way of losing the more fanatical part of his audience. Possibly as a smokescreen to hide the fact that he had no new material of any distinction and was in fact suffering from writer's block. At the time, that point of view might have had some attraction such is the confusion engendered by the latest recording from the man who had shortly before issued genuinely challenging and innovative works such as "Highway 61 Revisited", the man who had been the epitome of cool in 1966, who had taken on the establishment and called them out on their hypocrisy and lying and who had also taken on his own audience by going electric. Seen through the prism of Dylan's whole career, a less apocalyptic view can be taken of "Self Portrait". There is nothing in Dylan's career to suggest that he has ever wanted to put people off listening to him, on the contrary this most generous of performers seems only too keen to communicate and grateful for the opportunity to do so. His career does have its share of missteps and mistakes (and this lp is another of them) and he has followed his own muse as he sees fit but he hopes to take his audience with him (and seems genuinely surprised when they fail to appreciate his new ventures).