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Why it matters
Columbia assembled this album of cover versions from old outtakes after Dylan left the label for Asylum, without his involvement.
In 1973 Dylan's Columbia contract ran out and he signed with David Geffen's Asylum label. Columbia responded by putting together this album from leftover studio performances, mainly from the Self Portrait and New Morning sessions of 1969 and 1970, and releasing it late that year without his involvement. It is made entirely of covers: an Elvis Presley ballad, songs by Joni Mitchell and Jerry Jeff Walker, Peter La Farge's ballad about Ira Hayes, and several traditional folk songs. The performances lean on his Nashville-era croon and on backing singers, and many sound like warm-ups never meant for release. Critics widely regarded it as a low point and as a label's revenge on a departing star. Dylan returned to Columbia in 1974, and the album was long left out of print in many markets. Its tracks were eventually reissued as part of a large collection of his complete albums.
Track list · 9 songs
A cheerful man sings of his devotion to Sarah Jane and the happy, crowded home they share.
love
Its page ›A narrator remembers meeting an old wandering dancer in a jail cell who told the story of his life.
time · loss · freedom
Its page ›A Native American war hero comes home to neglect and drink, and dies forgotten by the country that praised him.
war · America · death
Its page ›A man about to sail away mourns the woman he must leave behind on the shore.
love · loss · the road
Its page ›A bright, catchy complaint that we only value the natural world, and the people we love, once they are gone.
loss · time · love
Its page ›A jilted man admits he is still devoted to the woman who left him and will go on loving her.
love · loss
Its page ›A cowboy remembers a Mexican girl he once loved and lost, and still hears her tender words.
love · loss · time
Its page ›
Where its songs lead
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