Dylan/Self Portrait
gail marie wiese
>I'm sorry but these are just not great Dylan records. He even admited
>that he put out Dylan and Self Portrait deliberately to be mediocre
>to get people off his back as this great guru!!
I recall the "get people off my back" statement, but not the "deliberately
to be mediocre," bit. Can you support this with a quote?
David Doff
gail marie wiese <gai...@PRIMENET.COM> writes:
>>I'm sorry but these are just not great Dylan records. He even admited
>>that he put out Dylan and Self Portrait deliberately to be mediocre
>>to get people off his back as this great guru!!
Come on! Hardly possible in the case of "Dylan" since it was the first
album and he wasn't a guru yet. I have just been listening to "Dylan"
again after a gap of about 30 years and it sounds wonderful. Fantastic
bluesy sound and strong lyrics hinting at great tracks to come. I also
happen to be very fond of "Self Portrait", though I know most people
can't stand it. On the other hand, I have never understood why so many
people rate "Blood on the Tracks" so highly - I only remember it as
very disappointing compared to the albums which preceeded it.
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David Doff, Geology Department, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland.
dd...@tcd.ie http://www.tcd.ie/Geology
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"If there is an original thought out there I could use it right now"
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Ronald Lamars
In article <v01510100ae6fb9b67cd9@[204.212.59.76]> gail marie wiese <gai...@PRIMENET.COM> writes:
>Date: Wed, 25 Sep 1996 20:42:50 -0800
>From: gail marie wiese <gai...@PRIMENET.COM>
>Subject: Re: Dylan/Self Portrait
>>I'm sorry but these are just not great Dylan records. He even admited
>>that he put out Dylan and Self Portrait deliberately to be mediocre
>>to get people off his back as this great guru!!
>I recall the "get people off my back" statement, but not the "deliberately
>to be mediocre," bit. Can you support this with a quote?
It's in Clinton Heylin's biography. Don't have the book handy. E-mail if you
want to know the exact quote & its whereabouts.
Ronald Lamars
EDLIS Assistant Bibliographical Agent
r.la...@pobox.ruu.nl
Chris Chapman
>
> >I recall the "get people off my back" statement, but not the "deliberately
> >to be mediocre," bit. Can you support this with a quote?
>
> It's in Clinton Heylin's biography. Don't have the book handy. E-mail if you
> want to know the exact quote & its whereabouts.
>
> Ronald Lamars
> EDLIS Assistant Bibliographical Agent
> r.la...@pobox.ruu.nl
I'd like to see the quote on the newsgroup. Self portratit mediocre --
well maybe and I say maybe "Like a Rolling Stone" on it -- but "Copper
Kettle" -- that song is like a heavely hymn. There seem to be some flaws
on that album but it is beautiful. The musicans play well and the songs
are very rich. "Blue Moon" is great too. Many of the songs are great. The
arrangements are good. His singing is good. I'd say he tried to do a good
job and did. Not mediocre -- that seems to be some sort of Dylan/urban
fable.
Chris
John Howells
gail marie wiese wrote:
>
> >I'm sorry but these are just not great Dylan records. He even admited
> >that he put out Dylan and Self Portrait deliberately to be mediocre
> >to get people off his back as this great guru!!
>
> to be mediocre," bit. Can you support this with a quote?
How about this?
Bob Dylan interview with Kurt Loder in Rolling Stone, June 1984
---------------------------------------------------------------
KL: It always seemed to me that you where sort of infallible in your
career up until _Self Portrait_ in 1970. What's the story behind that
album?
BD: At the time, I was in Woodstock, and I was getting a great degree
of notoriety for doing *nothing*. Then I had that motorcycle accident,
which put me outta commission. Then, when I woke up and caught my
senses, I realized that I was workin' for all these *leeches*. And I
didn't wanna do that. Plus, I had a family, and I just wanted to see my
*kids*.
I'd also seen that I was representing all these things that I didn't
know anything *about*. Like I was supposed to be on acid. It was all
storm-the-embassy kind of stuff - Abbie Hoffman in the streets - and
they sorta figured me as the kingpin of all that. I said, "Wait a
minute, I'm just a *musician*. So my songs are about this and that. *So
what?*" But people need a leader. People need a leader more than a
leader needs people, really. I mean, anybody can step up and be a
leader, if he's got the people there that want one. I didn't want that,
though.
But then came the big news about Woodstock, about musicians goin' up
there, and it was like a wave of insanity breakin' loose around the
house *day* and *night*. You'd come in the house and find people there,
people comin' through the *woods*, at all hours of the day and night,
knockin' on your door. It was really dark and depressing. And there was
no way to *respond* to all this, you know? It was as if they were
suckin' your very *blood* out. I said, "Now wait, these people can't be
my fans. They just *can't* be." And they kept comin'. We *had* to get
out of there.
This was just about the time of that Woodstock festival, which was the
sum total of all this bullshit. And it seemed to have something to do
with *me*, this Woodstock Nation, and everything it represented. So we
couldn't *breathe*. I couldn't get any space for myself and my family,
and there was no help, nowhere. I got very resentful about the whole
thing, and we got outta there.
We moved to New York. Lookin' back, it really was a stupid thing to
do. But there was a house available on MacDougal Street, and I always
remembered that as a nice place. So I just bought this house, sight
unseen. But it wasn't the same when we got back. The Woodstock Nation
had overtaken MacDougal Street also. There'd be crowds outside my
house. And I said, "Well, fuck it. I wish these people would just
*forget* about me. I wanna do something they *can't* possibly like,
they *can't* relate to. They'll see it, and they'll listen, and they'll
say, "Well, let's get on to the next person. He ain't sayin' it no
more. He ain't given' us what we want", you know? They'll go on to
somebody else. But the whole idea backfired. Because the album went
out there, and the people said, "*This* ain't what we want," and they
got *more* resentful. And then I did this portrait for the cover. I
mean, there was no *title* for that album. I knew somebody who had some
paints and a square canvas, and I did the cover up in about five
minutes. And I said, "Well, I'm gonna call this album _Self Portrait_."
KL: Which was duly interpreted by the press as: This is what he is...
BD: Yeah, *exactly*. And to me it was a *joke*.
KL: But why did you make it a double-album joke?
BD: Well, it wouldn't have held up as a single album - then it *really*
would've been bad, you know. I mean, if you're gonna put a lot of crap
on it, you might as well load it up!
--
John Howells
how...@sgi.com
http://reality.sgi.com/howells
Paul Loeber
It's a great interview but surely no one believes this revisionist nonsense.
Dylan put out the best album he was capable of at the time.
gail marie wiese
>> gail marie wiese wrote:
>> >
>> > >I'm sorry but these are just not great Dylan records. He even admited
>> > >that he put out Dylan and Self Portrait deliberately to be mediocre
>> > >to get people off his back as this great guru!!
Hey, I didn't write this.
Patricia Jungwirth
>Thu, 26 Sep 1996 17:28:15 +0000
>A McCallum <Andrew....@VUW.AC.NZ>
>
>Self Portrait is not mediocre - just very very different. I recently saw
>Bob on the Johnny Cash show in 1969 (yes, I have finally mastered
>time-travel - just waiting on the patent) and the thing I noticed was how
>hokey Bob was - reminded me of a young Elvis Presley. He couldn't have
>been more different from 1966 - 180 degrees. That's Self Portrait. In a
>sense it's a mirror image - everything is reversed, including the voice.
Uh-oh... the Thread That Wouldn't Die rises again...