Not including live albums and greatest hits collections, Bob Dylan has released 39 albums over the past 47 years. I own 31 of them. And today we arrive chronologically at the first Dylan album that isn’t in my collection.
Self Portrait is perhaps the most infamous of all Dylan releases. It was released in 1970 at a pivotal point in his career, a time when fans and non-fans alike were holding their breath to see which direction he’d choose to go next.
A few years before Nashville Skyline was released, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash struck up a friendship that blossomed into a collaboration. Cash wrote the liner notes to Nashville Skyline, which took the form of a crackerjack poem celebrating his friend’s unique career.
Sample verse: “This man can rhyme the tick of time / The edge of pain, the what of sane / And comprehend the good in men, the bad in men / Can feel the hate of fight, the love of right / And the creep of blight at the speed of light.”
In 1969, following the stripped-down acoustic approach of John Wesley Harding, Bob Dylan threw his fans for another loop with the straight-up country album Nashville Skyline. But the musical genre was only half of the surprise… the real bombshell was Dylan’s velvety voice, a laid-back croon that was a far cry from his oft-imitated trademark whine.
I remember being told as a kid (thought I don’t remember by whom) that Dylan had gotten into a motorcycle accident and emerged with this new singing voice. That was close to the truth, chronologically, but it gave me the creepy impression that the accident itself had physically altered his vocal chords.
John Wesley Harding is probably best known for ‘All Along the Watchtower,’ although it would be more accurate to say that ‘All Along the Watchtower’ is well-known because of Jimi Hendrix and John Wesley Harding is best known as the album that contains the original version.
The only other song that made any sort of commercial splash was ‘I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight,’ the album’s closing track, and it wasn’t until a 1990 cover by Robert Palmer and UB40 that it reached the charts.
You can hear that version here but I don’t recommend it on a full stomach.
It’s easy to break Bob Dylan’s career into segments: we’ve already noted the shift from the political to the personal and the shift from acoustic to electric, both of which were examples of Dylan changing his musical direction. Now we come to a shift that was caused by an unplanned event changing him.
In July of 1966, just two months after the release of Blonde on Blonde, Dylan was in a serious motorcycle accident. Though the extent of his injuries remains unclear, the more lasting impact was emotional. Dylan ceased touring, withdrew from the limelight and concentrated on his life as a family man.
Meet Me In Montauk 