‘Self Portrait’: The album Bob Dylan wrote to make people forget about him
Dubbed by fans as the voice of his generation, Bob Dylan has earned the right to experiment with his sound. A once-in-a-generation talent, across his career, Dylan has blended his incisive poetic skill with a range of different sonic palettes that convey his position as an authentic artist of the highest order.
Not afraid to try his hand at most genres, Dylan has dipped his toes into everything from hard rock to jazz, gospel and even reggae throughout his career. Although this experimental proclivity has produced varying results, for the most part, he has managed to keep the bar relatively high. This aspect is confirmed as a remarkable feat when noting how many albums Minnesotan troubadour has released.
However, as Dylan himself has made clear, on occasion, he’s undertaken stark artistic changes not to reach his ultimate goal of complete creative enlightenment. Sometimes, he’s utilised his skill for more cynical and complex means, offering insight into the inner workings of one of the most influential musicians of all time. As if it wasn’t already clear, there’s much more than what meets the eye with Bob Dylan.
Dylan has even admitted that he once wrote an entire album to offend his fans so they would leave him alone. This came from a period when he had experienced the intense trappings of fame for nearly a decade and was starting to grow increasingly tired of people troubling him at his home on MacDougal Street in New York City’s Greenwich Village, which they had done previously during his famous retreat in Woodstock.
Per Dylan’s account, 1970’s Self Portrait is such a departure from what came before it, 1969’s widely celebrated Nashville Skyline, as he wanted people to forget about him and leave him in peace. This is why the record features numerous cover versions of well-known songs, with most of it performed in a surreal, country crooning voice that evidently lampooned the style introduced on his previous album. He wanted people to react negatively.
Dylan was successful in realising his aim for this body of work, which received extremely poor reviews after release. Still, unfortunately, people didn’t forget about him. You cannot escape being the voice of a generation.
He explained the motivation behind the album to Rolling Stone in 1984. “I said, ‘Well, fuck it,'” Dylan told the publication. “I wish these people would just forget about me. I wanna do something they can’t possibly like, they can’t relate to.”
Listen to Self Portrait below.
Never Miss A Tale
The Far Out Bob Dylan Newsletter
All the latest stories about Bob Dylan from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.