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   6 <title>Self Portrait (1970)</title>
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  11 <h1><img alt="Self Portrait" src="../graphics/selfportrait.jpg" width="150" height="150" />Self Portrait (1970)</h1>
  12 <p class="recdate">Recorded Apr 1969-Mar 1970<br />
  13   Released June 8, 1970</p>
  14 <div id="songs">
  15   <ol>
  16     <li><a href="all_the_tired_horses.htm">All The Tired Horses</a></li>
  17     <li><a href="alberta.htm">Alberta #1</a> </li>
  18     <li><a href="i_forgot_more.htm">I Forgot More Than You&rsquo;ll Ever Know</a></li>
  19     <li><a href="days_of_49.htm">Days of &rsquo;49</a></li>
  20     <li><a href="early_morning_rain.htm">Early Mornin&rsquo; Rain</a> </li>
  21     <li><a href="in_search_of_little_sadie.htm">In Search of Little Sadie</a> </li>
  22     <li><a href="let_it_be_me.htm">Let It Be Me</a> </li>
  23     <li><a href="little_sadie.htm">Little Sadie</a> </li>
  24     <li>Woogie Boogie (12-bar blues in Ab) </li>
  25     <li><a href="belle_isle.htm">Belle Isle</a></li>
  26     <li><a href="livin_the_blues.htm">Living the Blues</a> </li>
  27     <li><a href="../06_hwy61/like_a_rolling_stone.htm">Like a Rolling Stone</a> </li>
  28     <li><a href="copper_kettle.htm">Copper Kettle</a> </li>
  29     <li><a href="gotta_travel_on.htm">Gotta Travel On</a> </li>
  30     <li><a href="blue_moon.htm">Blue Moon</a> </li>
  31     <li><a href="boxer.htm">The Boxer</a> </li>
  32     <li><a href="../17_basement/quinn_the_eskimo.htm">Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn) </a></li>
  33     <li><a href="take_me_as_i_am.htm">Take Me as I Am (Or Let Me Go)</a></li>
  34     <li><a href="take_a_message_to_mary.htm">Take a Message to Mary</a> </li>
  35     <li><a href="it_hurts_me_too.htm">It Hurts Me Too</a> </li>
  36     <li><a href="minstrel_boy.htm">Minstrel Boy</a> </li>
  37     <li><a href="../05_biabh/she_belongs_to_me.htm">She Belongs to Me</a> </li>
  38     <li><a href="wigwam.htm">Wigwam</a> </li>
  39     <li><a href="alberta.htm">Alberta #2</a> </li>
  40   </ol>
  41 </div>
  42 <div id="intro">
  43   <h2>Introductory remarks</h2>
  44   <h3>Eyolf &Oslash;strem</h3>
  45   <p>&ldquo;What is this shit?!&rdquo; wrote Greil Marcus in his <em>Rolling
  46       Stone</em> review of this album, and there is something to that
  47   question. There are only three possible explanations to the mix of the
  48   blatant sentimentality of <a href="i_forgot_more.htm" class="songlink">I
  49       forgot more</a> (and a bunch of others), the ludicrous chord changes
  50   of &ldquo;<a href="in_search_of_little_sadie.htm" class="songlink">In
  51       search of Little Sadie</a>&rdquo;, the duet between the old, nasal
  52   Dylan and the new country-crooner Dylan in <a href="boxer.htm"
  53       class="songlink">&ldquo;The Boxer&rdquo;</a>, which is fun on the
  54   first hearing, but gets quite dull already on the second (and I
  55   don&rsquo;t know what happens after the second hearing), and &ndash; the best
  56   of them all &ndash; &ldquo;<a href="all_the_tired_horses.htm"
  57       class="songlink">All the tired horses</a>&rdquo;, which brilliantly
  58   captures the mood of this album.</p>
  59   <p>Either it was, as Dylan himself has explained, conceived as a
  60   collection of country standards, maybe inspired by the sessions with
  61   Johnny Cash in 1969. This would imply that it&rsquo;s a serious effort.
  62   If so, it&rsquo;s the best proof that his muse was silent at the moment
  63   (as Paul Williams asks: if the tracks that ended up on <em>Self Portrait
  64   </em>and <em>Dylan</em> were just warm-ups for the band, then where are
  65   the <em>real</em> tracks?). </p>
  66   <p>Or it was, as Dylan himself has <em>also</em> explained, an attempt to
  67   shake off the annoying role of icon and voice of a generation that he
  68   felt he was being forced into and kept locked up in &ndash; a big &ldquo;fuck
  69   you&rdquo; to everyone caring to take it as a provocation. But why then
  70   the effort? There are more sessions for these albums (counting also
  71   <em>New Morning</em>) than for any other Dylan album. And why the
  72   inclusion of tracks that are actually quite enjoyable, among the
  73   shit?</p>
  74   <p>Or was it, perhaps, an ironic kick in the butt to the country idiom,
  75   and a clever, multi-level analysis of sentimentality and of his own
  76   music-making, where the packaging adds to the wit of the music?</p>
  77   <p>I wish I could say that the third alternative is the correct answer,
  78   but I can&rsquo;t. What I can say is that Dylan was experimenting with
  79   his singing style, not only in the direction of country, but also a blues
  80   style which sounds new (and actually quite fresh!) in his oeuvre. They
  81   also seem to be having a good time, at least on some of the tracks
  82   (whereas others sound very uninspired). It is an amusing album, but not a
  83   good one&hellip; </p>
  84   <hr  />
  85   <p>Postscript:<br />
  86     Having lived with this album for a couple of days now, while tabbing
  87     it, I have quite reluctantly reached the conclusion
  88     (&ldquo;insight&rdquo; is too strong a word) that the most interesting
  89     songs on the album are &ldquo;In search if little Sadie&rdquo; (heard
  90     in conjunction with &ldquo;Little Sadie&rdquo;, of course) and All the
  91     Tired Horses. They both stretch some limits that aren&rsquo;t usually
  92     touched upon. What&rsquo;s interesting about the &ldquo;Search for
  93     little Sadie&rdquo;, is that it&rsquo;s a stylized search &ndash; it sounds
  94     like (and is probably meant to sound like) Dylan sitting at home,
  95     searching for a melody, trying out things, discarding them on the way,
  96     and picking up the next thing to try out. But it isn&rsquo;t:
  97     it&rsquo;s a planned progression through various stages, planned so as
  98     to sound erratic. At times it is genuinely erratic, of course, but only
  99     on the surface level: the chromatic progression of chords in the first
 100     half leads Dylan to melodic goals he can&rsquo;t have foreseen (which
 101     is evident from the recording &ndash; lots of sliding-up-to the last note of
 102     a phrase, to make it fit the chord). But the course through the song is
 103     orderly enough to be labeled &ldquo;planned&rdquo;. This ambiguity puts
 104     the aesthetics both of improvised and of pre-planned music (which is to
 105     say: the entire history of Western Classical Music) under scrutiny, by
 106     using the one to nullify the other. What remains, may be crap, but at
 107     least it&rsquo;s interesting crap (oh my, I&rsquo;m turning into a
 108     garbologist!)</p>
 109   <p>Wigwam stretches limits too, but mostly those of patience.</p>
 110   <hr />
 111   <p>Postscript II: I couldn&rsquo;t resist to put up this note, posted at r.m.d:</p>
 112   <p><em>Hello-<br />
 113     Just picked this one up this afternoon. I have the following to say:
 114     That is $11.99 and 74 minutes of my life that I&rsquo;m never getting
 115     back. <br /> <br />
 116     Best,<br />
 117 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ~Ryan</em></p>
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