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"...Sign On The Window..."
Following on
from June 1970's self-indulgent and often derided "Self Portrait"
double album (funnily enough hindsight has many loving it to pieces) - critics
and the public alike went nuts for the supposed 'return to form' of October's
"New Morning". The British pummelled it into the No. 1 slot when it
was issued slightly later in November of 1970 - and no self-respecting Bob
Dylan "Greatest Hits" or "Anthology" is complete without
"If Not For You".
Some have even
said that "New Morning" is as good as 1975's meisterwork "Blood
On The Tracks" - which in my mind is stretching credulity and the obvious
audio truth way past its limit. "New Morning" is a solid Dylan album
only with some moments of greatness. And re-listening to it in 2017 on this
fabulous Remaster hasn't changed my opinion on that. Here are the Winterludes...
UK released May
2009 - "New Morning" by BOB DYLAN on Columbia 88697347002 (Barcode
886973470022) is a straightforward CD Remaster of the 12-track 1970 album and
plays out as follows (35:50 minutes):
1. If Not For
You
2. Day Of The
Locusts
3. Time Passes
Slowly
4. Went To See
The Gypsy
5. Winterlude
6. If The Dogs
Run Free
7. New Morning
[Side 2]
8. Sign On The
Window
9. One More
Weekend
10. The Man In
Me
11. Three Angels
12. Father Of
Night
Tracks 1 to 12
are the album "New Morning" - released 21 October 1970 in the USA on
Columbia KC 30290 and November 1970 in the UK on CBS Records S 69001. Produced
by BOB JOHNSTON - it peaked at No. 7 in the USA and No. 1 in the UK.
Given that the
original single-sleeve LP was so staggeringly boring to look at - the new
8-page inlay comes as a blessed relief. It's made up mostly of in-studio photos
- Bob at the microphones - reading lyric sheets - the boys in the band
discussing what to do next with Producer Bob Johnston. There's no new liner notes per say.
Al Kooper plays
Keyboards, Guitar and French Horn - David Bromberg plays Electric Guitar and
Dobro - Buzzy Feiten plays Electric Guitar - Russ Kunkel is on Drums with
Maeretha Stewart guesting on "If Dogs Run Free" on Background Vocals.
But at least we
get that stunning GREG CALBI Remaster - a man whose had his mitts on
McCartney's "Band On The Run", Paul Simon's "Graceland",
Supertramp's "Crime Of The Century" and "Breakfast In
America" and even John Mayer's Remastered catalogue. Calbi has turned in
another winner - these Dylan remasters are all jobs well done it has to be
said.
The photograph
on the rear cover is a youthful Bob in early 1962 with one of his Blues heroes
– the barnstorming big-lunged Victoria Spivey – famous for misery raunchy tunes
like "Furniture Man Blues" and troublesome fools like "Dope Head
Blues" (see my review for the 20CD Box Set "Roots & Blues").
Though in hindsight – it's an odd photo to feature here with precious little on
the album resembling Blues Music except maybe some of "One More
Weekend". Word has it that the "New Morning" project was going
to be another double set – a sort of Part 2 to "Self Portrait"
combining covers that moved him in his youth with new material (some of those
outtakes have turned up on the "Bootleg Series" of CD reissues) - but
perhaps because of the backlash to "Self Portrait" that idea was
paired down to the single LP we now have made up entirely of BD originals.
The album opens
with "If Not For You" – a hooky-as-Hell love song Beatle George
Harrison had debuted to the world only weeks earlier on his 3LP Box Set
"All Things Must Pass" on Apple Records (the opening song). People
love this song to Dylan's wife of the time - perhaps because that weird organ
sound Al Kooper gets harks back to his 60ts sound on "Highway 61
Revisited" and that thinny Harmonica back even further to
"Freewheelin' Bob Dylan". And despite it’s rather slight feel BD
sings - "...without your love I'd be nowhere at all..." and you can't
help but think he actually means it this time (Olivia Newton John would lodge
her first chart hit in February 1971 with "If Not For You" on Uni
Records – No. 25 USA). "Day Of The Locust" feels like a great Bob Dylan
song - while "Time Passes Slowly" was reputedly amongst the first
three tunes recorded for an abandoned musical version of "The Devil And
Daniel Webster" called "Scratch" (the other two were "New
Morning" and "Father Of Night"). I have a very sweet cover of
"Winterlude" by England's Steve Gibbons which he did for his 1998 CD
"Bob Dylan Project" – Gibbons doesn't change its strangely casual
nature and "...this dude thinks you're grand..." lyrics. We go
early-morning smoky barroom Jazz for the spoken "If Dogs Run Free"
that features scat vocals from Maeretha Stewart. As he'd veered away from 'Bob
Dylan' – fans naturally went nuts and slagged off the song as derisory and all
things unholy – but I've always thought it kind of brill. One man's heaven is...
Side 2 opens
with the very Van Morrison sound of "New Morning" – acoustic guitars
and lingering organ – marital bliss clearly keeping him happy (skies of blue –
so happy just to see you smile). The album’s other biggie for me is "Sign
On The Window" – a ballad with lyrics that I still can’t figure out –
three’s a crowd – down on Mean Street – a cabin in Utah – catch rainbow trout.
Whatever you read into the forlorn sad words – I love his piano playing while
the band plays catch up and that impassioned vocal is the strongest on the
whole record. "One More Weekend" is a slippin' and slidin' Bluesy
trollop of a song – the band finally sounding like a cohesive unit as they
boogie in that Bob Dylan way (great Remaster). Some people enjoy "The Man
In Me" but those girly vocals feel forced to me - I much prefer the
simpler almost Gospel spoken song "Three Angels" with its 'concrete
world full of souls'. The album finishes on the piano and voices rumble of
"Father Of Night" - a sound Cat Stevens would tap on his "Foreigner"
album in 1973. The one-and-half-minute song is also an indication of his
emerging beliefs - gorgeous audio as he sings of "...father of air and
father of trees...that grows in our hearts and our memories..."
Good - great -
ordinary - different - the same – I love it – I don’t love it - it's Bob Dylan.
Even now his enigma eludes me...and would we have it any other way...
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