The first Bob Dylan album of the 1970s continues his leftfield turn that he took with both John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline. Self Portrait is made up of four sides of six songs per side, mostly two-three minute songs vs the epics he released through the 1960s. A mixture of new material, live tracks, and covers – it is an eclectic mix of songs that has confused and confounded fans and critics alike for over 50 years.
One of the most striking and memorable songs is the lead track, “All The Tired Horses”. Using female singers, the song creates a hypnotic groove as they sing the same lines over and over again – “All the tired horses in the sun/How am I supposed to get any riding done?”. The only single released from the album is “Wigwam” that sees Dylan sing along “La dah dah dah” to a horn section that rises and falls. The live version of “Minstrel Boy” on the other hand is a chore to get through. Other live versions include a laidback take on his own classic, “Like a Rolling Stone”.
“Days of 49” is one of the most Dylanesque tracks here, the midtempo song takes in storytelling over six verses. Dylan tackles a Gordon Lightfoot song in “Early Mornin’ Rain” then on side two, a country sounding version of a song made popular by The Everly Brothers’ “Let It Be Me”. The sentimental “Blue Moon” makes an appearance but the most memorable cover is his version of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer”. Sung as a duet with himself in two different singing styles, it is difficult to make out if it’s a tip of the hat to his contemporaries or a parody of one of their most beloved songs.
For listeners coming to Self Portrait for the first time, expectations will be low as the album has been maligned for years. While certainly not a lost classic, there are several songs that are worthy of repeated listens. It would have been hard at the time to make sense of what Dylan later described as a joke album and saying that the album is a pleasant background listen when it’s made by the voice of a generation is faint praise. But all these years later, Self Portrait does indeed make for a pleasant listen.
6.5/10