***THIS CD NEEDS TO BE REMASTERED. Not for my sake

....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.

Not a comeback; still floundering.

This has often been called Dylan's "comeback" after his post "Blonde on Blonde" diversions: the laid back folk rebound of JWH, the likable country oddity of "Nashville Skyline" and the deliberately bad fan snub of "Self Portrait". Dylan clearly had been out to change his rock-god image - and he succeeded. And it was time he did a comeback - but I don't see this album as being it. "New Morning" is a little more of a "normal" album than either of his previous two, for sure. Unlike "Self Portait" there are - thankfully - no awful cover tunes here. But this still isn't a full return to form. It still seems like he's searching for a direction, experimenting with different styles (which to some extent is what "Self Portrait" was about). There are some oddities here that, quite frankly, just don't work and the "normal" songs are, well, rather bland and uninteresting. They aren't bad, just not terribly interesting - especially when considered in light of the author's past catologue of works. "If Not For You" is a great song and doubtless the best on the album. However, the melody is basically a rehash of "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" from BIABH and his arrangement of it is rather lackadaisical. (The alternate version on the Bootleg Series is better and George Harrison's superb version is quite preferable.) There's some OK stuff on this album and I'm not saying avoid it, but it is underwhelming and is not a full comeback from his post-1968 slump. That would be the next album - "Planet Waves".

Yet another "comeback" album...

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."