Dylan-the OTHER Zimmerman
I'm glad that I am finally going to hear some outtakes and B-sides from that much under-appreciated stage of Dylan's career.
A few years ago, Dylan put out a Christmas album that was widely panned but that is also a hidden gem that Dylan fans would be wise to check out.
Another mystery. Read the Rolling Stone article on this subject, it’s available online (I think it was RS where I read it just yesterday.) It’s the album everybody hated, including Dylan, for whom it was a sort of revenge on all those who demanded of him political leadership. The liner notes for this one wrote the Berkeley Dylanologist Greil Marcus, who was the one who wrote the review in the RS back then titled “What Is This Shit?”
There is also an interesting promotional Youtube vid with Al Kooper and David Bromberg in it. Some cuts are playing in the background to bait you, and they do sound good.
I always thought he did pretty well for a guy who can’t sing, can’t play the harmonica, and can’t play the guitar.
I was starting to worry not seeing the usual idiot “Dylan can’t sing” post for 4 posts and full 30 minutes!
Here’s that Lorring Stone (for our Asian readers) article that talks about the ugly background of Self-Portrait I. Dylan, you’ll note, says that he painted the cover in 5 minutes (if I remember colletry.) Check out the cover of Self-Portrait II. 7 minutes?
The thing about Dylan at the time (Re: the RS revelations) is that he could act like a prima donna. Royalties were rolling in, why, even the Four Seasons had recorded an album of his songs, he didn’t give a damn. The motorcycle accident (which we don’t really know if it happened) the drug addiction, as discovered by A.J. Weberman going through Zimmerman’s garbage cans in the village, Zimmy was his own man.
I thought his less than popular era happened when he declared himself to be a born again Christian.
Elvis stopped recording rock and roll records after he took a stab at You Ain't Nothin' But A Hound Dog.