Title: Self Portrait (1970)

Length: 73m, 15s

Number of songs: 24

Best tracks: Days of 49, Early Mornin’ Rain, Living the Blues, Gotta Travel On, Like a Rolling Stone, It Hurts Me Too, The Mighty Quinn, Woogie Boogie

If I could choose just one track: Days of 49

Freshlyworded rating: 7.5/10

Here’s a bit of quirky pop culture trivia for you, oh faithful reader…What do Bob Dylan, classic Hollywood musical Grease and cult-horror comedy An American Werewolf in London have in common?

The answer: Blue Moon.

The 1930s crooner song written by Lorenz Hart (the subject of a 2025 movie starring Ethan Hawke) and composed by Richard Rodgers is covered by Bob Dylan on his eclectic 10th studio album Self Portrait. It’s also sung by Sha Na Na in the hit 1970s movie and a slow, soothing version by Bobby Vinton plays during the opening credits of An American Werewolf in London.t

Dylan returns to his softer “crooner” voice on this track (and a number of others on this album) and does a good job of the song. But it is certainly a rather surprising choice. It’s by no means the only one in an album that contains just four new Dylan songs and great live versions of classic songs, Like a Rolling Stone and The Mighty Quinn.

He employs the crooner voice on the Cecil Null country ballad “I Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know“, another country song “Let it Be Me”, on “Copper Kettle”, a folk song about making moonshine and “Take a message to Mary”, about a man in jail writing to his sweetheart.

I have a theory about who Dylan is trying to imitate when he sings in his crooner style, it reminds of the great Roy Orbison whom Dylan sang alongside in super group, The Travelling Wilburys.

Another surprising song covered by Dylan and his band is the famous Simon & Garfunkel folk rock ballad “The Boxer” (released by the duo as a single the previous year). Dylan gives the song an infusion of country with some twanging guitars in an overall pleasing take of the classic track.

There are also two versions of the classic and very beautiful blues song “Alberta” and two versions of the murderous and ominous folk song “Little Sadie”, one sang slow and the other sped up. I guess you could say this is an album of experimentation and Dylan trying different things and mostly pulling them off.

My favourite track is another cover song, “Days of 49” told from the perspective of “old Tom Moore” during the “good old golden days” of California Gold Rush. Whilst old (the exact origins of the song appear unknown), it seems written for Dylan with lyrics like:

Here was new york Jake, the butcher’s boy, he was always getting tight
And every time that he’d get full he was spoiling for a fight
But Jake rampaged against a knife in the hands of old Bob Stein
And over Jake they held a wake in the days of ’49

I can only imagine Dylan loved recording this song and making it his own, with an up tempo, but gnarlier version sung in a minor key. (Here’s a very early country version by Jules Vern Allen to compare).

I also really liked Dylan’s version of the Billy Grammar 1959 folk-country song “Gotta Travel On”. I listened to the original on YouTube, which is fantastic, a really rollicking almost pop like ballad that reminded me of Johnny Cash. Dylan’s more emotive version takes the song into a more modern era (the start of the 1970s).

Overall, it took me a while to get into Self Portrait, partly because it is so long (almost feature movie length) but there is a lot to enjoy about this album.

Not all songs are winners (in my opinion). “All the Tired Horses”, one of the four new Dylan songs recorded for the album has a gospel feel and has just two lines – All the tired horses in the sun/How’m I s’posed to get any ridin’ done? Hmm. song by a chorus of female voices. I guess it kind of introduces the eclectic-ness of the album but is a tad annoying.

Another new Dylan track, Woogie Boogie is an instrumental, bluesy tune with an upbeat tempo. I really liked it. Another original track WigWam, I have since learned became a top ten hit. It features just the phrase “la la” and is kind of sing-along song (the type you might sing around a campfire). It reminds me a bit of the ending of the Beatles track “Hey Jude” which repeats the phrase “Na, na, na, na na na nah/na-na-na ha/Hey Jude.

Overall, this is a very enjoyable, if somewhat uneven album. It showcases Dylan’s musical range and his interests and influences from country to blues and modern songwriters like Simon & Garfunkel. Make sure you give it a listen.