BOB DYLAN : 1970

BOB DYLAN : 1970

Disc One (62:45)

I Can't Help but Wonder Where I'm Bound
Universal Soldier
Spanish Is the Loving Tongue
Went to See the Gypsy
Went to See the Gypsy
Woogie Boogie
Went to See the Gypsy
Thirsty Boots
Little Moses
Alberta
Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies
Things About Comin' My Way
Went to See the Gypsy
Untitled 1970 Instrumental #1
Come a Little Bit Closer
Alberta
Sign on the Window
Sign on the Window
If Not for You
Time Passes Slowly
If Not for You
If Not for You
Song to Woody
Mama, You Been on My Mind
Yesterday

Disc Two (70:55)

Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
I Met Him on a Sunday (Ronde-Ronde)
One Too Many Mornings
Ghost Riders in the Sky
Cupid
All I Have to Do Is Dream
Gates of Eden
I Threw It All Away
I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
Matchbox
Your True Love
Telephone Wire
Fishing Blues
Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
It Ain't Me Babe
If Not for You
Sign on the Window
Sign on the Window
Sign on the Window
Alligator Man
Alligator Man
Alligator Man
Day of the Locusts
Sarah Jane
Sign on the Window
Sarah Jane

Disc Three (73:56)

If Not for You
If Not for You
Jamaica Farewell
Can't Help Falling in Love
Long Black Veil
One More Weekend
Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie
Three Angels
Tomorrow Is a Long Time
Tomorrow Is a Long Time
New Morning
Untitled 1970 Instrumental #2
Went to See the Gypsy
Sign on the Window
Winterlude
I Forgot to Remember to Forget
I Forgot to Remember to Forget
Lily of the West
Father of Night
Lily of the West
If Not for You
If Not for You
Day Of The Locusts

Label : Columbia Records

Release Date : February 26, 2021

Review (AllMusic) : Originally intended as a semi-secret copyright extension dump - a limited-edition release designed as a way for the label to exercise their rights on recordings, not something for general consumption - 1970 wound up getting an official release in February 2021 due to overwhelming consumer demand. Much of that demand is certainly due to the presence of a complete session with George Harrison, a jam that happened on the first day of May 1970. Bob Dylan and Harrison play a few oldies - some written by Dylan, most shared favorite tunes - strolling through their performance with convivial ease; it never seems like they're recording with an eye on a finished record, they're just playing for fun. The same could be said of the rest of this triple-disc, 74-track set, all capturing sessions that were later parceled out on Self Portrait and New Morning. Some of the songs are new compositions intended for a new record - there are outtakes of "New Morning," "Went to See the Gypsy," "Winterlude," and "If Not for You" - yet most of this collection is devoted to covers and revived older Dylan songs. Not everything was played to completion, some songs were played just for fun, and the kicker is that the best material from these sessions already appeared either on the finished albums or on such archival releases as 2013's revelatory Another Self Portrait (1969-1971). So why is 1970 an enjoyable listen, much more enjoyable than these copyright extension collections usually are? A lot of that is due to freewheeling ease of a band that usually features Charlie Daniels on bass and Russ Kunkel on drums, with David Bromberg, Al Kooper, Ron Cornelius, and producer Bob Johnston making appearances alongside several unknown musicians. Listening to Dylan lead these groups through a loose rendition of Harry Belafonte's "Jamaica Farewell," an extended, almost funky jam on "Long Black Veil," a friendly boogie through "Matchbox," and competing versions of Jimmy C. Newman's Cajun country stomp "Alligator Man" is a hoot, plus there's something almost touching in hearing Bob tentatively sing Paul McCartney's "Yesterday" on the same session where Harrison jammed. Nothing major, then, but the modest pleasures of 1970 are certainly worthwhile.

Review (Humo) : De kolos wordt straks 80 en heeft, als voorafname op zijn pensioen, zijn hele catalogus aan Universal verkocht. 'Pay, lady, payday,' zong zijn boekhouder zachtjes. Dat hij met de verkoop ook zijn vetorecht op het gebruik van zijn songs in reclamefilms heeft weggetekend, kan leuke gevolgen hebben. Naar verluidt heeft de grootste uienfabrikant ter wereld al geïnformeerd wat het moet kosten om 'Blowing in the Wind' te gebruiken. Maar dat heb ik van horen zeggen. Ondertussen blijft Dylan platen maken: 'Rough and Rowdy Ways' kwam vorig jaar uit en was uitstekelbaars. Ook oude opnames worden opnieuw beluisterd, stijlvol verpakt en met veel fanfare weer uitgebracht. Vijftig jaar geleden zat hij in de studio ter voorbereiding van wat later 'Self Portrait' en 'New Morning' zouden worden. Twee platen waarvan vooral de eerste, met voornamelijk covers, op gemengde gevoelens werd onthaald. 'What is this shit,' bromde de recensent van Rolling Stone helemaal ontstemd. Als Dylan een kok was, dan is deze plaat de mise-en-place: de studio is een keuken en je mag erbij zijn als hij in zijn potten staat te roeren. Snuifje zout, maestro? Was hij een schrijver, dan zijn dit kladjes. Vingeroefeningen, waarbij geen fout is weggegomd: je hoort de muzikanten stemmetjes proberen en pianopartijen oefenen, fouten maken, lachen en weer iets anders proberen. Maar het is gelukkig soms meer dan dat: er staan mooie versies op van liederen die in andere versies op officiële releases bekend zijn geworden, maar die in hun ruwe staat al heel charmant waren, zo blijkt. Veel folk, maar ook Sam Cooke, 'Da Doo Ron Ron' van The Crystals en 'All I Have to Do Is Dream' van de Everly Brothers passeren de revue. En vijf versies van 'If Not for You': overdaad schaadt, zelfs bij een Nobelprijswinnaar. Het handvol liederen dat Dylan met George Harrison heeft opgenomen, is interessant, maar niet veel meer dan dat, wat moge blijken uit een rare versie van 'Yesterday', dat halverwege zelfs een soort van reggae feel krijgt. Was deze plaat een reis, dan zou ik het een niet echt essentiële verplaatsing noemen.

Review (No Depression) : A person could be forgiven for wondering how much is still hidden away in Bob Dylan's vaults that is worth hearing, and even more to the point, what's left to say about Dylan's music that hasn't been said a thousand times already. Surely, there's no contemporary artist - with the possible exception of the Grateful Dead - who has released as much archival material to the public as Dylan has. The steady stream of "official bootlegs" that began with Biograph, a 5-LP box set of rarities that came out in 1985, has illuminated every phase and aspect of Dylan's career with an attention to detail that could only be described as obsessive. Some of these releases, like The Complete Basement Tapes and The Rolling Thunder Revue, presented high-quality versions of much bootlegged material that had taken on a legendary aspect. Others, like The Cutting Edge, provided new insights into Dylan's songwriting and studio process as he shifted his emphasis from acoustic folk to a more edgy sound he described as "thin white mercury" music. Still others, such as Trouble No More, a stunning compendium of his Christian recordings, and Another Self-Portrait, cast often maligned and misunderstood material in a new light. So, what's up with Bob Dylan 1970? As the songs on these three discs cover much of the same territory - minus his recording sessions with George Harrison - as Another Self-Portrait did, their inclusion in the official Bootleg series seemed a little superfluous at first glance. As it turns out, the primary motivation for this collection was precipitated by external pressures that had little to do with music. A few months before Bob Dylan 1970 was announced, a high-quality unofficial version of the Dylan-Harrison recordings was pressed and distributed in England, taking advantage of European copyright laws that put recordings more than 50 years old into the public domain. The officially released Bob Dylan 1970 ups the ante and includes dozens more songs than the European version. Drawing from 11 different recording sessions held between March and August 1970, this chronologically arranged musician's diary gives listeners fascinating insights into Dylan's creative process at a transitional stage of his career. Covering the ground between Self-Portrait and New Morning, albums that it turns out he was working on at virtually the same time, Bob Dylan 1970 offers an intimate portrait of an artist revisiting his musical roots while searching for new sounds to explore. The history is well known. Self-Portrait was his first bomb. Critics and listeners almost universally hated it. When asked about the album years later, Dylan offered that he had purposely made a record that would alienate his fans and give him a break from the pressure their expectations imposed on both his creative and personal life. Somehow this explanation has never rung true. Every song on Bob Dylan 1970 communicates a loose and spontaneous sense of joy. Dylan was clearly having a good time, and if fans that had cut their teeth on "Desolation Row" and "Visions of Johanna" couldn't adjust their expectations, they were sorely missing out. Very few of the performances on Bob Dylan 1970 are polished. Rather, he seemed to pull these songs out of his hat and sing them from memory. His versions of "Universal Soldier," "Can't Help Falling in Love," and "Long Black Veil" sound like one-offs, designed to shake off the dust as he made space for new material to emerge. Whatever faults these performances may have in terms of fumbled chords and missed lyrics are more than made up for by the joy and enthusiasm they communicate. The same levity of spirit comes across in the featured recordings Dylan made with George Harrison on May 1, 1970. Viewed critically, not much of any substance came from this session, but the opportunity to hear the pair toss off songs with sitting-around-the-campfire enthusiasm is not to be missed. The songs they played range from old rock chestnuts like "All I have to Do is Dream," "Da Doo Ron Ron," and "Matchbox" to a selection of Dylan originals. "One Too Many Mornings," "It Ain't Me Babe," and "Time Passes Slowly" are given intimate and enjoyable readings, with the highlight of the session being a version "Gates of Eden" that features one of the most beautiful guitar solos Harrison ever played. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if the reasons for releasing the music on Bob Dylan 1970 were more practical than artistic. Listening to these songs so many years later, it's impossible not to be thankful, not just for the fact that Bob Dylan is still with us, but also for the mutability of time that allows for the beauty of this often overlooked and misunderstood music to come shining through.

Review (Exclaim!) : How big is Bob Dylan's basement and exactly how many more tapes has he got down there? That's one of the intriguing questions this "copyright extension" three-CD set raises for fans clamouring for as much of the man's work as they can get and, for now, the stewards of his archives continue to oblige. With tracks featuring George Harrison and culled from New York City sessions that took place March 3 to 5, May 1, June 1 to 5 and August 12 of the titular year, 1970 is a loose and revelatory glimpse of an artist trying to figure himself and some new songs out. The era in question eventually spawned the pleasant lark of sweet-voiced covers and originals that was Self Portrait and the more earnest (but still rather weird) New Morning. Initially released in limited quantities late in 2020 to avoid a copyright issue where recorded works enter the public domain after 50 years, this 1970 stuff wasn't likely ever meant for public consumption. Ostensibly rehearsal and workshop sessions to get Dylan and assorted players familiar with each other and some new works, the May 1 gathering gained infamy and interest because Harrison sat in on at least nine songs (though, not the scrappy version of the Beatles' "Yesterday" found here, which, who knows, maybe Dylan pulled Paul McCartney's most popular song out as a playful jab, since the band were breaking up badly over business fractures and all of the other Beatles weren't huge Paul fans at this point). On vocals and guitar, Harrison's presence is not overtly perceptible to any but those who have studied his style closely; as was his wont, the Dark Horse simply melted into the background. Still, there's a lift in this version of "One Too Many Mornings," or Basement Tapes-style song explorations like "All I Have to Do Is Dream" by the Everly Brothers, whom Dylan and Harrison both admired. Surely the players in the room must've been altered, trying to do their jobs with these two icons in their midst, messing around with covers by Carl Perkins or reimagining Dylan songs. In another curio, Harrison does not appear on this collection's different takes of "If Not for You," which he and Dylan actually exchanged; he recorded it for his own All Things Must Pass before Dylan did a version for New Morning. The "supergroup" implications notwithstanding, Harrison was just kind of there that day, quietly lending a helping hand as his Jedi training had taught him to do. For Dylan fans, this is more of a window into his process, much as some other iterations of his Bootleg Series have been. In fact, this may not fall under that umbrella (for some reason), but it's in the spirit of an "official bootleg" for sure, sequenced in such a way where the same song is presented in consecutive takes, marking its subtle and overt evolution. There are some cool and very fun pieces here, like versions of Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Universal Soldier," a rollicking and then more country-tinged "Alligator Man" by Jimmy C. Newman, and "Jamaica Farewell" as popularized by Harry Belafonte, but ultimately 1970 is not meant for us to puzzle over too much. As usual, fascinating choices abound when a lost Bob Dylan session is unearthed (and, excitingly, signalling that maybe there's way more of this kind of stuff to come), but this one feels particularly prototypical and casual, and, with good humour, was intended to warm folks up - to each other and the material - more than get its hypothetical audience hot and bothered.