Dylan is the thirteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on November 19, 1973 by Columbia Records. Compiled and issued by the label with no input from Dylan himself, it contains no original Dylan songs, the material consisting of two outtakes from Self Portrait and another seven from New Morning. Although Dylan received very poor reviews, it managed to hit #17 in the US and become a gold record. It is the only Columbia Dylan album not to be reissued on compact disc in the North American market at the request of Dylan himself. The first seven tracks were recorded in June 1970 for New Morning sessions; the last two recorded in April 1969 for Self Portrait sessions. (More from Wikipedia)
There is a Bob Dylan album that scores even lower in Allmusic, and here I need to put on my “Under Appreciated” hat – the 1973 release Dylan yields just *. Allmusic mentions that this LP is “[c]ommonly regarded as the worst album in Bob Dylan’s catalog”. The album is described in both Rolling Stone Record Guide and Allmusic as a collection of outtakes from Self Portrait – i.e., songs that didn’t make the cut for that head-scratcher – and that just sent chills up my spine. As I recall, it was also the last release on Columbia Records before Bob Dylan jumped ship to Asylum Records; and record companies are often spiteful in such cases, untold millions of dollars of earnings for the corporation notwithstanding.
Dylan is a recent rescue from Katrina, however, and I found it surprisingly easy to listen to. The album is entirely cover songs, many of them quite familiar; and if Dylan’s performance of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” leaves no impression at all, that is not true of the lesser known songs.
The opening track, a traditional folk song called “Lily of the West” is beautifully performed; and the album is well worth owning for that song alone. Personally I am at least as big a fan of Bob Dylan as a folksinger as I am of Bob Dylan as a rocker, and this song was a welcome return to the performances that I remember so well from his early albums.
(August 2014)
