Bob Dylan is streaming highlights from the deluxe reissue of his 1970 album, Self Portrait, one week ahead of its release date (August 27th via Columbia Records). Take a listen at NPR.
The four-disc set serves as the latest volume in Dylan’s ongoing Bootleg Series. It includes never-before-heard material from his original acoustic recording sessions and outtakes from Self Portrait along with material from 1968’s Nashville Skyline and 1970’s New Morning. Also featured is a complete recording of Dylan and the Band’s 1969 performance at the Isle of Wight Festival as well as a remastered version of the original Self Portrait.
Comprised mostly of well-known pop and folk cover songs, the album was recorded at the height of Dylan’s popularity in the 1969. Upon its release, it was panned by virtually every music critic, with Rolling Stone famously asking, “What is this shit?” Though, as Dylan explained to Rolling Stone in 1984, the album was intentionally terrible.
At the time, Dylan was trying to raise a family in New York City and was disinterested in calls for him to lead the protest movement. “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,” he explained. “They’ll see it, and they’ll listen, and they’ll say, ‘Well, let’s go on to the next person. He ain’t sayin’ it no more. He ain’t givin’ us what we want,’ you know? They’ll go on to somebody else.’”
In liner notes for the package, acclaimed music critic Greil Marcus writes, “Every listener to this set will find his or her center around which everything else revolves; so many of the performances have the depth, and the oddness, to work that way.”
Pre-orders for the reissue are ongoing. Below, watch a music video for the album track “Pretty Saro”, directed by Jennifer Lebeau. (She also worked with Dylan on his 1994 MTV Unplugged video and the unreleased 1993 show at the Supper Club).
The Bootleg Series, Vol. 10 – Another Self Portrait (1969-1971) Tracklist:
CD 1
01. Went to See the Gypsy (demo)
02 In Search of Little Sadie (without overdubs, Self Portrait)
03. Pretty Saro (unreleased, Self Portrait)
04. Alberta #3 (alternate version, Self Portrait)
05. Spanish Is the Loving Tongue (unreleased, Self Portrait)
06. Annie’s Going to Sing Her Song (unreleased, Self Portrait)
07. Time Passes Slowly #1 (alternate version, New Morning)
08. Only a Hobo (unreleased, Greatest Hits II)
09. Minstrel Boy (unreleased, The Basement Tapes)
10. I Threw It All Away (alternate version, Nashville Skyline)
11. Railroad Bill (unreleased, Self Portrait)
12. Thirsty Boots (unreleased, Self Portrait)
13. This Evening So Soon (unreleased, Self Portrait)
14. These Hands (unreleased, Self Portrait)
15. Little Sadie (without overdubs, Self Portrait)
16. House Carpenter (unreleased, Self Portrait)
17. All the Tired Horses (without overdubs, Self Portrait)
CD 2
01. If Not For You (alternate version, New Morning)
02. Wallflower (alternate version, 1971)
03. Wigwam (original version without overdubs, Self Portrait)
04. Days of ’49 (original version without overdubs, Self Portrait)
05. Working on a Guru (unreleased, New Morning)
06. Country Pie (alternate version, Nashville Skyline)
07. I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight (Live With the Band, Isle Of Wight 1969)
08. Highway 61 Revisited (Live With the Band, Isle Of Wight 1969)
09. Copper Kettle (without overdubs, Self Portrait)
10. Bring Me a Little Water (unreleased, New Morning)
11. Sign on the Window (with orchestral overdubs, New Morning)
12. Tattle O’Day (unreleased, Self Portrait)
13. If Dogs Run Free (alternate version, New Morning)
14. New Morning (with horn section overdubs, New Morning)
15. Went to See the Gypsy (alternate version, New Morning)
16. Belle Isle (without overdubs, Self Portrait)
17. Time Passes Slowly #2 (alternate version, New Morning)
18. When I Paint My Masterpiece (demo)
Bob Dylan & the Band at Isle of Wight – August 31st, 1969
01. She Belongs to Me
02. I Threw It All Away
03. Maggie’s Farm
04. Wild Mountain Thyme
05. It Ain’t Me, Babe
06. To Ramona”/”Mr. Tambourine Man
07. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
08. Lay Lady Lay
09. Highway 61 Revisited
10. One Too Many Mornings
11. I Pity the Poor Immigrant
12. Like a Rolling Stone
13. I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight
14. Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)
15. Minstrel Boy
16. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
