Dylan (1973) is an album made up of studio outtakes that Bob Dylan did during recordings for Self Portrait and New Morning. After Dylan left Columbia Records for Asylum, the former released this set of mostly forgettable tracks with no input from the singer. The album gets off to a decent start with the upbeat “Lily Of The West”, a traditional track that Dylan adapted to make the story take place in Louisville.
It’s mostly downhill from there. Two songs popularized by Elvis appear including the funky “A Fool Such As I”. His version of Joni Mitchell’s classic “Big Yellow Taxi” sounds thin – like the band warming up, which it possibly could have been. His version of “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” is atrocious. It is hard to fault Dylan as these songs were not intended for release. Instead, it’s Columbia who deserves the scorn for having OK’d this uninteresting mess.
3/10
The Light Appears 