11_newmorning/index.htm

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   8 <title>New Morning (1970)</title>
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  14 <h1><img alt="New Morning" src="../graphics/newmorning.jpg" width="150" height="150" />
  15 New Morning (1970)</h1>
  16
  17 <p class="recdate">Recorded Mar-June 1970<br />
  18 Released Oct 21, 1970 </p>
  19 <div id="songs">
  20   <ol>
  21     <li><a href="if_not_for_you.htm">If Not For You</a></li>
  22     <li><a href="day_of_the_locusts.htm">Day of the Locusts</a></li>
  23     <li><a href="time_passes_slowly.htm">Time Passes Slowly</a></li>
  24     <li><a href="went_to_see_the_gypsy.htm">Went to See the Gypsy</a></li>
  25     <li><a href="winterlude.htm">Winterlude</a></li>
  26     <li><a href="if_dogs_run_free.htm">If Dogs Run Free</a></li>
  27     <li><a href="new_morning.htm">New Morning</a></li>
  28     <li><a href="sign_on_the_window.htm">Sign on the Window</a></li>
  29     <li><a href="one_more_weekend.htm">One More Weekend</a></li>
  30     <li><a href="the_man_in_me.htm">The Man in Me</a></li>
  31     <li><a href="three_angels.htm">Three Angels</a></li>
  32     <li><a href="father_of_night.htm">Father of Night</a></li>
  33   </ol>
  34   <p>Outtakes:
  35
  36 </p>
  37   <ul>
  38     <li><a href="../00_misc/tomorrow_is_a_long_time.htm">Tomorrow is a Long Time</a> (several
  39       versions)</li>
  40     <li><a href="../34_bootleg/wallflower.htm">Wallflower</a> (released on <em>The Bootleg
  41       Series 1-3</em>)</li>
  42     <li><a href="../13_dylan/spanish_is_the_loving_tongue.htm">Spanish Is The
  43     Loving Tongue</a></li>
  44   </ul>
  45 </div>
  46 <div id="intro">
  47 <h2>Introductory Remarks</h2>
  48 <h3>Eyolf &Oslash;strem </h3>
  49 <p><em>New Morning </em>has been haunting me ever since I bought it. This must be Dylan's most stylistically varied album ever (possibly topped by <a class="recordlink" href="../41_lat/index.htm">&quot;Love and Theft&quot;</a>), but I still can't decide whether it belongs in the &quot;weak&quot; category together with <a class="recordlink" href="../10_selfportrait/index.htm">Self Portrait</a>, or if it is a glorious testimony to the <em>sprezzatura</em> that only Dylan can handle without collapsing completely. </p>
  50 <p>I've had heated discussions with a friend of mine about &quot;<a href="the_man_in_me.htm" class="songlink">The Man In Me</a>&quot; &ndash; is it a good song? an exuberant jubilation of the bliss of true love? a rare moment in Dylan's catalogue of a love song with no hint whatsoever of uncertainty, bitterness, pain? No! it's just <em>too</em> sweet; things that are too good to be true usually aren't. It's like &ldquo;<a href="../18_desire/sara.htm" class="songlink">Sara</a>&rdquo; or &quot;<a href="../14_planetwaves/wedding_song.htm" class="songlink">Wedding Song</a>&quot;, another couple of songs that I just can't take seriously. What <em>they</em> have, though, is an intrinsic seriousness which commands some kind of respect: <em>only </em>Dylan can say &quot;I love you more than blood&quot; and get away with it. </p>
  51 <p> And what does &quot;The Man in Me&quot; have ?</p>
  52 <p>&quot;La la la la la.&quot; Not quite the same.</p>
  53 <p>In the same category come &quot;<a href="if_not_for_you.htm" class="songlink">If Not For You</a>&quot; (&quot;I'd be sad and blue&quot; or &quot;I wouldn't have a clue / If not for you&quot; &ndash; c'mon Bob, you can rhyme better than that!), and, to some extent, &quot;<a href="new_morning.htm" class="songlink">New Morning</a>&quot; and &quot;<a href="winterlude.htm" class="songlink">Winterlude</a>&quot;. But they aren't too bad after all: Winterlude has this corny, guy-on-the-sleeve-of-Nashville-Skyline-ish, country dude thing going on, and if such a down-to-earth guy &quot;thinks you're fine&quot;, what is there to complain about? And &quot;New Morning&quot; has these wonderful snapshots of situations which may be just reminiscenses of random glimpses, but which <em>may </em>also be filled with meaning (&quot;Rabbit runnin' down across the road /
  54 Underneath the bridge where the water flowed through&quot;, &quot;Automobile comin' into style /
  55 Comin' down the road for a country mile or two&quot;), and they are introduced with a shade of desperation in the insistent questions: &quot;Can't you hear...?&quot; (&quot;You <em>really</em> can't hear it? Don't you <em>remember</em>? But... that was an <em>important </em>moment! I thought we shared it... Don't you love me anymore?&quot;) Besides, the song is forever redeemed by the treatment it got in 1991 &ndash; when someone goes though something like <em>that</em>, you just have to care for them . . . </p>
  56 <p>The three songs that <em>really</em> got to me and made me think of it as a great album after all, were &quot;<a href="if_dogs_run_free.htm" class="songlink">If Dogs Run Free</a>&quot;, &quot;<a href="three_angels.htm" class="songlink">Three Angels</a>&quot; and &quot;<a href="father_of_night.htm" class="songlink">Father of Night</a>&quot;. I'm not <em>positive</em> that the scat singing in &quot;Dogs...&quot; is great, but I know it makes me smile. And the choir on the other two... heavenly! In fact, if Dylan ever wrote a heavenly line of music, it's the two bars of dirty-winged angels' song between the verses in &quot;Father of Night&quot;, or the very end of &quot;Three Angels&quot;.</p>
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