Best Songs of 2013 – #11
Another Self Portrait, the latest installment of Bob Dylan’s great Bootleg Series, goes a long way toward redeeming Self Portrait, widely considered Dylan’s worst album.
Or at least it makes you wonder about the album Dylan might have released had he gone in a different direction.
In a Rolling Stone reader’s poll of Bob Dylan’s worst songs, today’s SOTD placed fourth. Coming in third, inexplicably, was ‘Rainy Day Women #12 & 35,’ the great rollicking kick-off track of Blonde On Blonde. So obviously this is a subjective exercise.
I don’t know every Bob Dylan song, and the ones I don’t know come from what is considered his worst period, so it’s possible he has recorded songs I’d find less pointless than this one. But it would be a tough contest.
The latest installment of Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series (the tenth) is, at first glance, a bit of a head-scratcher.
Titled Another Self Portrait, it’s a collection of tracks recorded mostly for 1970’s Self Portrait, the album widely considered Dylan’s worst. That was the record that prompted critic Greil Marcus to start his infamous Rolling Stone review with the words “What is this shit?”
Bob Dylan must have felt his ears burning.
Last weekend he learned that Fountains of Wayne was besting him (on a percentage basis) in the Random Weekend horse race. The week before that he was pitted against Bruce Springsteen in a death match over who’s had the more extraordinary career.
Guess he decided to chime in.
#5 – Modern Times – Bob Dylan
My top five albums from the five-year period 2006-2010 are an amazing bunch. Even more impressive is that all five are actually spread between 2006 and 2008, a wonderful three-year span in hindsight.
Bob Dylan’s Modern Times could have topped this list if I were in a different mood when I finalized it. When you’re dealing with albums this good, whatever you happen to be listening to at the moment has the edge in the rankings.
Meet Me In Montauk 