Bob Dylan
Dylan

THE REVIEW

This abortion published in November 1973 is the demonstration of how detrimental the strained relationship between a great musician and the record label can be, especially when it becomes necessary to renegotiate a contract.

Columbia, outraged by Dylan's move to Asylum, releases these 9 extremely modest and unworthy recordings of the artist in question, from the sessions for two minor albums like "Selfportrait" and the underrated "New Morning". Bob himself will later ironically declare that the collection "is not that bad", but objectively, from the cover alone, it is evident that the context is provocative and the choice not to include notes or credits further reinforces this thesis.

Consisting solely of covers, Dylan is marred by trivializations of important political ballads (the unlistenable "Ballad Of Ira Hayes" by Peter La Farge) and even the pieces that might seem more interesting turn out to be excessively mawkish (the dreadful vocal harmony of "Mary Ann", the embarrassing female choruses in Joni Mitchell's cover "Big Yellow Taxi" and the clumsy attempt to reach a country-soul voice on "Spanish Is The Loving Tongue"). The only track that barely reaches a passable level is the classic "Can't Help Falling In Love", which is overall acceptable in the context of the album.

A record for completists, then, whose original has not been available in Italy for a few years now.