Bob Dylan - New Morning
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Free Music Notes for New Morning
Free Music Review: Bob had to set up the future gems
Hit: 4 Stars
I hate to read reviews that rip on this album. Peronally, while I agree that it is not Bob's best, I do always enjoy throwin' this one on. It is amazing to listen to this, and hear the shades of "Blood On The Tracks" and "Time Out Of Mind" that were yet to come. Dylan was hanging out in Woodstock when this one was released, and was very happy with the domestic life. Musically, I think this is a great release. "If Dog Runs Free" is one of Dylan's most unique songs, and the pure jazz musicianship on the tune, with the great backing vocals from Maretha Stewart and the piano from the legendary Al Kooper, are excellent. Kooper never came close to getting the credit he deserved. His piano on the tune kicks about any jazz pianist I've ever heard.
All in all, this is a solid release from a legend. If you are a true Dylan fan, you can't leave this one out.
Free Music Review: Yet another "comeback" album...
Hit: 4 Stars
Following the confusing "Self-Portrait", anything Dylan did would have seemed like a monumental comeback. Released some five months after "Self-Portrait" in 1970, "New Morning" must have felt like the moment after the last blow of a good flogging; the moment when one suddenly realizes that it's finally over. Those who found themselves still scratching their heads after Dylan's "country phase" probably found some solace in "New Morning". "At least it's not country" may have been the mantra of a lot of fans at the time.
What most fans probably didn't know at the time, and what Dylan revealed in his recent "Chronicles Vol. 1" (with an entire chapter entitled "New Morning"), is that Dylan was still on the run in 1970. He detested the labels that the "counterculture" gave him in the 1960s, and wanted out. Dylan never wanted to be the leader of a social movement. His work from the 1960s seemed to encourage those in the counterculture to look upon him as a leader or messiah. Though this seems a little strange today, it may partially explain Dylan's drastic change in style in the late 1960s.
The songs on "New Morning" could never inspire revolutions. Dylan goes "la la la" in "The Man in Me"; "Winterlude" includes the quaint line "Winterlude, this dude thinks you're fine"; "If Dogs Run Free" includes improvisational scat singing (not by Dylan, thankfully); "Three Angels" features spoken word and an angelic backing choir; many of the lyrics are straight forward odes to love. Not a lot of room for "hidden messages". The instrumentation sounds closer to "John Wesley Harding" than "Blonde on Blonde". It is pared down and overall minimally produced. Still, a lot of people in 1970 considered this a "comeback" album. Sometimes it seems that every Dylan album after 1970 has been called a "comeback" by someone.
According to "Chronicles Vol 1", many of these songs were originally written for a play called "Scratch". The playwright called on Dylan to compose the music, but things didn't quite work out and they went their separate ways. Dylan found himself with a small pile of songs ripe for recording. These songs became "New Morning".
The album's opener, "If Not For You", may be one of Dylan's most famous songs not typically associated with him. Voluminous cover versions exist. George Harrison recorded it for "All Things Must Pass" and Olivia Newton-John, following the Harrison production, had a huge U.K. hit (and a decent U.S. hit) with it in 1971. Dylan's version is far more subdued.
"New Morning", to fans of Dylan's "major" works, may sound strange, incongruous, and lackluster at first. As usual it sounds almost nothing like anything he's done before or since. But the songs have a tendency to reveal more and more with each listen. After multiple listens some of the songs begin to show their true greatness. Some of these include: "If Not For You", "Day of the Locusts", "Time Passes Slowly", "New Morning", "Sign on the Window", and "Father of Time". That Dylan dedicated an entire chapter of his "Chronicles Vol. 1" to this album suggests that it represented a turning point in his life. A time when his priorities changed along with his point of view. Some lines from "Sign on the Window" support this to a certain degree: "Build me a cabin in Utah, Marry me a wife, catch rainbow trout, Have a bunch of kids who call me 'Pa,' That must be what it's all about, That must be what it's all about."
Free Music Review: ***THIS CD NEEDS TO BE REMASTERED. Not for my sake
Hit: 5 Stars
....i actually like it the way it is. But for those that simply dismiss this album for its poor sound quality. *******
Don't let his photo on the cover fool you, Bob is in the happiest mood in his life on New Morning. I've noticed that people tend to praise the Bob albums they feel contain a more unified theme, like Blood of the Tracks, or Time Out of Mind. But if you look closely at all his albums and the songs on them, they all do that. They don't all have to talk about death or divorce, to be similar. New Morning may be a "mixed bag" of themes, but they're all coming from the same person. That same state of mind. In this one, he doesn't have a depressed bone in his body, and loves married life. Even when Bob is singing the more ponderous "Father of Night" and "If Dogs Run Free", it is from an innocent country-boy's perspective. If you can accept and appreciate this, you'll love this album. Although I can admit that i can appreciate all it's imperfections, such as the shoddy sound, which i think adds to its charm. It reminds you that Dylan is in a happy state, which has to be far away into the country, and can't be bothered to record a perfect sound. All that being said, I know people would change their minds about the album if it were remastered.
I think another reason it wasn't more popular was timing. 1970 was the beginning of easy listening folk musicians like James Taylor, John Denver and the Carpenters. I think that Bob had to compete with the release of some of these artists, who happened to release classic albums in thos days.
All in all i listen to this more than i do his 60s stuff because i never get tired of it. The fact that its themes are scattered and that it is so lighthearted always makes it fun to listen to.
Free Music Review: Leading up to "Blood on the Tracks"
Hit: 4 Stars
At the time of this album's release, the critics and Dylan-obsessed viewed it as another disappointment, another stinging reminder that the Bob Dylan of "The Times They Are a-Changin'" and "Like a Rolling Stone" was gone. It generated rounds of mourning. Sure, it was a little better than the awful "Self-Portrait," and less corny than the baffling "Nashville Skyline," an album in which Dylan was so determined to conceal himself, he literally changed his voice. It had a grittier feel, musically, but it another one of those "love and marriage" albums. That was a genre unto itself back then--a genre lots of more politically minded rock fans despised. First Paul McCartney, then Van Morrison, now, omigod, Bob Dylan, singing songs of domestic contentment like "Sign on the Window."
The release of "Blood on the Tracks" should have caused a re-evaluation of "New Morning," along with its successor, "Planet Waves." In fact, Dylan was battling just as furiously during this period, and writing about it just as candidly, but this was a battle where the stakes were personal--trying to keep his family together in the face of the overwhelming, dehumanizing pressures of the outside world. It is a story that resonates more broadly, perhaps, than his earlier work. And it's a tragic story. With "Skyline" and "Self Portrait," Dylan built a wall to protect his family. In "New Morning," the key songs describe the life he was living behind that wall--with his wife and children, in a somewhat idyllic world that gives him time to muse on "what life's all about." But there's a subtle edge of desperation; he can't quite relax. The tension grows in the next album, "Planet Waves," and then explodes as the relationship is demolished in "Blood on the Tracks." The sage continues in "Desire," in which he continues the battle to win her back.
Now that I'm older and have lived several lives, it is these albums by Dylan that make the most sense to me. I still enjoy the classic 60s disks, and like everyone else, can pick out some great songs among his work in the 80s and 90s. But if you are a listener who thinks "Blood on the Tracks" is Dylan's greatest poetic and musical expression, I suggest you try this album and "Planet Waves," playing them in chronological order with "Blood..." and "Desire." This was Dylan's greatest period.
Why just four stars? There are few clunkers, like "One More Weekend," and "The Man in Me." But "If Not for You," "Time Passes Slowly," the odd "If Dogs Run Free," "Three Angels" and the title song each rank with his greatest. They are simpler, more direct, less flashy in a lyrical sense, but they cut to the heart of his subject matter, and confirm his genius.
Free Music Review: A Contrarian's View of Dylan
Hit: 4 Stars
To my ears, New Morning always sounds a bit like Nashville Skyline ... only without the country. No fiddles or pedal steels, but it's still Bob trying once again to work in the songwriter-for-hire mode. Sure two of the songs are lyrically little more than veiled anecdotes from Bob's life (meeting Elvis in "Went To See The Gypsy" and getting an honorary doctorate in "Day Of The Locusts"). But for the most part this is Bob writing outside of himself. He's doing work for other writers and projects ("Three Angels" and "Father Of Night" from the nowhere near completed Devil and Daniel Webster musical). On my two favorite songs off this album, he's showing off his range and versatility with a schmaltz-waltz that would be perfect for the Lawrence Welk show ("Winterlude") and then switching directly into Jazz ("If Dogs Run Free"). Even the Blues (which Dylan had often played with and stretched into his own image) is given a fairly straight run-through with "One More Weekend". He's even trying to write straight-ahead pop songs like the title track, "The Man In Me", and "If Not For You" (which sounds like it should be a hit for Olivia Newton-John... and it was). While New Morning is not nearly as brave or interesting as Self-Portrait or even Nashville Skyline, it's a solid, fun, and occasionally weird album.