whatever smell of cash-grab this may have (thank you Sony)
this year seems to be a time of Dylan setting the record straight
on one of his most controversial and challenged periods...i.e.
the post-mid 60s era of Nashville Skyline
Self Portrait and New Morning
in this period we see for the first time how easily Dylan
could lose the thread of his artistic intentions (The Basement Tapes and John Wesley Harding
form a complete and comprehensive distillation of his mid-60s
creative heights...it's after this that he makes the first return to the wellspring
of his artistic roots to recharge the creative batteries and find a way forward
from those creative and mystic heights achieved in Highway 61 Revisited
and Blonde on Blonde
and more than one astute listener has connected the dots to see
he did this against in the early 90s with Good As I Been To You and World Gone Wrong
to get to his late career renaissance...)
but think...Two!...2!...Bootlegs Series releases in one year...#10 giving us some of the released
material of Self Portrait stripped to their pure basic tracks with other previously unreleased
material (Thirsty Boots, Annies' Going To Sing Her Song) that showcases
some of his all-time best singing
followed mere months later by #11...at long last a complete authorized Basement Tapes
release...every last scrap of salvageable material preserved and presented entire
(originally wrested from Dylan by popular demand and for that reason left years
in the vaults by Dylan to spite these kibitzers who thought they knew better
an artist's works and his intents regarding his own works)
and with the New Basement Tapes Project curated by T-Bone Burnett coming out
concurrently (all these completed and near-completed Basement-era lyrics that Dylan
simply did not get around to setting to music)
you effectively have Dylan settling his creative business from that time
once and for all and restoring all this work to its rightful aesthetic place
in his canon...not so unusual since at age 73 Dylan's days of creating
are winding down no matter how vital he remains so setting things right makes perfect sense
and those cynics who insist on taking the 'cash-grab' view...remember...
Dylan often stated he thinks of himself as a tradesman...a working man
who should be paid his wage...forget how Sony chooses to present it...
and forget that you and yours think of him only as the genius to fill some void in your own lives...
he's a working man in the arts...and would you stand for criticism and meddling
about your own daily toil and its wage?
enough! it's been given Dylan to settle this work and finalize it ultimately
...and the benefit is to all of us going forward....
Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
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