I’ve always thought of Self portrait simply as Dylan coming into the studio every day and recording whatever song he’d happen to have found himself idly singing to himself in the shower that morning. It’s always made perfect sense to me that way, and I’ve always enjoyed it for its chill, easy-going vibe.
There's audio of Bob with George Harrison, Charlie Daniels & I'm not sure who else singing whatever songs come to mind.. I read Bob rented studio time to just have fun but I think he was trying out tunes to record . Self-Portrait was released on June 8, 1970. *Bob Dylan & George Harrison in Studio is from May of 1970. Coincidence or Cohencidence? lol. ps: Search Utube for *"Bob Dylan & George Harrison in Studio"*. Too bad it's only audio 😿
This is my FAVORITE Dylan album. It has been in my car six CD changer for six years. I know it front to back. Listen to it every week. Thanks for this video!
I’ve always loved this album, from the first time I listened to it in 1970 up to this day. It’s such a wonderfull hodgepodge of songs that meant something to Dylan. I never got the impression Dylan was doing it tongue in cheek-it was a direct message to the world that he was a chameleon. Just as he changed from folk music to electric to country back to folk, this album presaged the ever-changing albums to come in the following decades. Thanks for giving this album its due.
Of course its brilliant, but im glad you also like it. Not to say they're all brilliant, but there are more great ones than misses. Blonde on blonde, blood on the tracks, highway, he's got heaps. One of the few artists to actually recreate himself over and over.
The black-n-white footage with Bob at piano is from the recording of *"The Man in Me"* from the movie with Jeff Bridges "The Big Lebowski"... Alot of people know the movie but aren't aware that it's Dylan singing 😎
Always one of my favorite albums...I've had it on record, tape, and cd over the years. Didn't think dylan really did a bad album until we got them few in the mid 80s. But other than that it's gold to me...Days of 49 is a personal favorite!
@@drewshortellYep. Copper Kettle is mighty fine. There’s a lot of soul in his singing. I also appreciate Take A Message to Mary. It could have something to do with that my first wife was Mary. But there’s a cool story in it-The guy is in jail.
You made a kinda uninteresting lp seem a lot more interesting. Ill have to take a listen for the first time in decades. To be honest i had zero memory that half his short isle of wight set was on this lp. Nice job
RUclips has now taken to putting negative comments at the end. No big deal with less than 100 comments, but try scrolling through 1.6K in order to find a bad review (or several hundred bad reviews) to say - a free movie that you may be considering watching. Anywhere from ‘meh’ to infuriating. In regards to this post: The Self-Portrait re-issue was so good it actually made me like this album (a lot). It’s an interesting topic. Genius? well - I’ll give it a shot.
Hi Drew While I think you have done an excellent job here however it think you a missing some of the genius of self portrait. The album is a true self portrait. In self portrait he covers many great song writers. He has learned much from many before him. The real point though is the live songs. In 1970 i was 15 yrs old. I was already a die hard fan however I had never heard live dylan. Yes he has been to Australia but i did not see him. This live music on the album you call a studio album was a lightning strike for me. I recall not long after with my friend Ian we caught a train to get to Martins Records and Books. We came away with bootleg albums. I left the store with an LP in lime green vinyl with the title Live at Royal Albert Hall. Yes I have many recordings of the same concert now but i still have the green vinyl. More importantly self portrait taught me the best Dylan was live Dylan. I also learnt that he was a student of song writing and accepted the work of others and learnt from it. So really, Self Portrait was the blueprint for the rest of Bob's career. Think about it, rolling thunder and the never ending tour, the Bob Dylan radio hour, the Bob Dylan painting and metal work and the ability to pay homage to other great song writers think about when Warren Zevon announced he had mesothelioma and it was life ending, Bob takes to playing Warren tunes and so many more great moments. Dig out the bootleg of Bob playing Little Suzi because Bobby Vee was in the audience. Bob had played piano for Bobby Vee before any knew about BD. Self portrait is the most true to the artist album of all time!!!!
That is a great perspective! I also highly enjoy the Royal Albert Hall live album. I just wish I could have seen him live then. I agree that Self Portrait delivers a uniquely honest insight into Dylan as well as mapping out many of the musical trends we would see later. Thank you for watching!
Thank you! I think I will sometime. I was tossing around the idea of a video on Desire, the Christian trilogy, Modern Times or Rough and Rowdy Ways. What albums would you like me to cover?
@@Ben-dd2ze Those are great choices! I'm currently writing the script for my next video, which will be about a film called "The Old Dark House" from 1932 for my Halloween special. But after that video is done, I'll start writing a script for a video on either Tempest or Desire. I'm not sure which one yet, but I'll start the script next Monday. Thank you again for watching!
Great video of an awful album. The only reason to own it back then was the live recordings from the Isle of Wight concert. Every attempt I've made to give it another chance over the decades I ended up skipping everything but the live tracks, which I still love today.
Self Portrait remains a shoddy, sloppily assembled, poorly thought through effort. I am a big Bob fan, but there's a limit to the historical revisionism. Another Self Portrait just emphasised how poor an offering the original was ... so no.
This is nonsense and so is the album. It's tripe! Dylan just couldn't match his much better earlier work and still can't. Finally, If that's the author doing "Travel On" at the end of this, he needs to stop playing (around?) too!
I’ve always thought of Self portrait simply as Dylan coming into the studio every day and recording whatever song he’d happen to have found himself idly singing to himself in the shower that morning. It’s always made perfect sense to me that way, and I’ve always enjoyed it for its chill, easy-going vibe.
There's audio of Bob with George Harrison, Charlie Daniels & I'm not sure who else singing whatever songs come to mind..
I read Bob rented studio time to just have fun but I think he was trying out tunes to record .
Self-Portrait was released on
June 8, 1970.
*Bob Dylan & George Harrison in Studio is from May of 1970.
Coincidence or
Cohencidence? lol.
ps: Search Utube for *"Bob Dylan & George Harrison in Studio"*.
Too bad it's only audio 😿
This is my FAVORITE Dylan album. It has been in my car six CD changer for six years. I know it front to back. Listen to it every week. Thanks for this video!
"Self Portrait" fills my soul, thank you Bob Dylan
I've always liked the album and still enjoy listening to it.
I’ve always loved this album, from the first time I listened to it in 1970 up to this day. It’s such a wonderfull hodgepodge of songs that meant something to Dylan. I never got the impression Dylan was doing it tongue in cheek-it was a direct message to the world that he was a chameleon. Just as he changed from folk music to electric to country back to folk, this album presaged the ever-changing albums to come in the following decades. Thanks for giving this album its due.
Very well said! Thank you for watching!
I don't listen to much of Dylan's stuff - but "Self Portrait" is an album I can enjoy!
Dear God ~ thank you for Bob Dylan
I really enjoyed this! Excellent presentation.
Thank you!
Same!
A good album. "Another Self Portrait" is even better.
Eye-openng analysis -- and food for thought; thanks!
Also..New Moring...a masterpiece...came out around the same time!
I agree! It's super underrated. Lots of excellent songs: If Not For You, New Morning, Went To See The Gypsy, Sign On The Window, etc.
New Morning is great!
Critics weren't fans but his fans were ... Most of them anyway :)
New Morning is a good album with some great songs but it's no masterpiece.
great essay, very well done
Thank you!
Of course its brilliant, but im glad you also like it. Not to say they're all brilliant, but there are more great ones than misses. Blonde on blonde, blood on the tracks, highway, he's got heaps. One of the few artists to actually recreate himself over and over.
This was absolutely wonderful. Thank you.
Thank you!
the album painting resembles "John Henry Hammond", especially the haircut
The black-n-white footage with Bob at piano is from the recording of *"The Man in Me"* from the movie with Jeff Bridges "The Big Lebowski"...
Alot of people know the movie but aren't aware that it's Dylan singing 😎
Always one of my favorite albums...I've had it on record, tape, and cd over the years. Didn't think dylan really did a bad album until we got them few in the mid 80s. But other than that it's gold to me...Days of 49 is a personal favorite!
I agree! For me, it's either Copper Kettle or Days Of '49 as my favorite on the album.
@@drewshortellYep. Copper Kettle is mighty fine. There’s a lot of soul in his singing.
I also appreciate Take A Message to Mary. It could have something to do with that my first wife was Mary. But there’s a cool story in it-The guy is in jail.
I knew Take A Message to Mary from The Everly Brothers. Bob goes full 50s pop country with his arrangement, especially the intro
This was very interesting. Thank you for the excellent video!
Thank you for watching! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
You made a kinda uninteresting lp seem a lot more interesting. Ill have to take a listen for the first time in decades.
To be honest i had zero memory that half his short isle of wight set was on this lp.
Nice job
4 songs out of 18, actually.
I love wigwam.
RUclips has now taken to putting negative comments at the end. No big deal with less than 100 comments, but try scrolling through 1.6K in order to find a bad review (or several hundred bad reviews) to say - a free movie that you may be considering watching. Anywhere from ‘meh’ to infuriating.
In regards to this post: The Self-Portrait re-issue was so good it actually made me like this album (a lot). It’s an interesting topic. Genius? well - I’ll give it a shot.
Hi Drew While I think you have done an excellent job here however it think you a missing some of the genius of self portrait. The album is a true self portrait. In self portrait he covers many great song writers. He has learned much from many before him. The real point though is the live songs. In 1970 i was 15 yrs old. I was already a die hard fan however I had never heard live dylan. Yes he has been to Australia but i did not see him. This live music on the album you call a studio album was a lightning strike for me. I recall not long after with my friend Ian we caught a train to get to Martins Records and Books. We came away with bootleg albums. I left the store with an LP in lime green vinyl with the title Live at Royal Albert Hall. Yes I have many recordings of the same concert now but i still have the green vinyl. More importantly self portrait taught me the best Dylan was live Dylan. I also learnt that he was a student of song writing and accepted the work of others and learnt from it. So really, Self Portrait was the blueprint for the rest of Bob's career. Think about it, rolling thunder and the never ending tour, the Bob Dylan radio hour, the Bob Dylan painting and metal work and the ability to pay homage to other great song writers think about when Warren Zevon announced he had mesothelioma and it was life ending, Bob takes to playing Warren tunes and so many more great moments. Dig out the bootleg of Bob playing Little Suzi because Bobby Vee was in the audience. Bob had played piano for Bobby Vee before any knew about BD. Self portrait is the most true to the artist album of all time!!!!
That is a great perspective! I also highly enjoy the Royal Albert Hall live album. I just wish I could have seen him live then. I agree that Self Portrait delivers a uniquely honest insight into Dylan as well as mapping out many of the musical trends we would see later. Thank you for watching!
Very good video, will you do any more videos on Dylan?
Thank you! I think I will sometime. I was tossing around the idea of a video on Desire, the Christian trilogy, Modern Times or Rough and Rowdy Ways. What albums would you like me to cover?
@@drewshortell I would love to see a video on tempest, or desire. But I will eat up any content about Bob Dylan I can get lol
@@Ben-dd2ze Those are great choices! I'm currently writing the script for my next video, which will be about a film called "The Old Dark House" from 1932 for my Halloween special. But after that video is done, I'll start writing a script for a video on either Tempest or Desire. I'm not sure which one yet, but I'll start the script next Monday. Thank you again for watching!
@@drewshortell thanks man, I'll definitely tune in.
Self-Portrait is great but don't forget *Another Self-Portrait!*
😎
God bless🕊️🕯️🤍
If I may, ''Belle Isle' is not a traditional song. It's an original song telling the same story as the traditional song "John Riley". Thank you.
Thank you for letting me know! I guess I didn't catch that during the scriptwriting process.
Apparently a critic from Rolling Stone magazine wrote "What is this shyte"..
I've always loved Self-Portrait & Another Self-Portrait! 🤍
God bless 🕊️
Thank you for your wonderful comments!
Course it is
Great video of an awful album. The only reason to own it back then was the live recordings from the Isle of Wight concert. Every attempt I've made to give it another chance over the decades I ended up skipping everything but the live tracks, which I still love today.
Days of 49 kick ass
Listen to Days of 49 and Alberta #2
Distracting background ambient music doesn't belong.
Yep. Made me stop listening.
Self Portrait remains a shoddy, sloppily assembled, poorly thought through effort.
I am a big Bob fan, but there's a limit to the historical revisionism.
Another Self Portrait just emphasised how poor an offering the original was ... so no.
This is nonsense and so is the album. It's tripe! Dylan just couldn't match his much better earlier work and still can't. Finally, If that's the author doing "Travel On" at the end of this, he needs to stop playing (around?) too!
Good analysis of a great great album but i had to turn it off because of the pointless and irrelevant and overly loud background music. Ugh. 😮
Ah…. No
Stop. Just stop this BS