Re: What Is What Is This ***?


Bound for Story wrote:
Had a chance to meet Greil Marcus up in Hibbing during Dylan Days,
something I've wanted to do for a long time.

You see, I've been a fan of his ever since he reported on the GWW which
I was fortunate enough to acquire way back when it first hit the
streets. To his exhortations in the press, I clocked each track,
guessed the names and listed each with the times. Even today, I look
forward to seeing his byline. His one-off obit in the City Pages was a
scream.

That is why I totally surprised myself when I finally had the chance to
meet him I led with, "What is What is this ***?" referrring of course
to his infamous review of Self Portrait. He repeated the line to me
that Bob had said something to the effect that he purposefully made a
bad record to drive off some of his fans.

Now I know that Bob says some really outrageous things, but I can't
believe that he would actually make a bad recording on purpose for that
reason. To keep it positive, it seems to me like Bob was trying to
expand his listener base by offering some mellower sounds, more in line
with the kind of music he was making with The Band.

Frankly, I think Self Portrait has a lot of good material on it. It
isn't Bob of the sixties, for sure, but it showed amazing foresight for
the time.

Anyone care to comment?

I thought for a second that when you approached him saying, "what is
this ***?" that you were referring to his book about Like A Rolling
Stone. But seriously, SP is a rich record. I like the Isle of Wight
cuts as well as the few originals. Cuts like The Boxer might be lousy,
but the good stuff far outweighs the bad--Copper Kettle, Belle Isle,
Living the Blues, Take a Message to Mary. Probably the contradictory
reasons he gave for making it are all true. When strangers were coming
to live on the guy's roof and he couldn't live in peace, when he wasn't
there to lead some kind of politcal party but they said he must,
releasing a record like this was courageous in that it showed he really
wasn't going to be their monkey. No one in the electric rock world
would have covered those songs back then and I'd say they probably
still wouldn't for fear of being pilloried. I suspect the lameness of
some of the production came from laziness--not a good thing. And like
you say, maybe he was trying to reach a larger audience. Maybe he was
searching for the legitimacy he said he needed so much when he went to
accept that degree at Princeton. One can only allow being identified
with with rebellion, drugs, and anger for so long. I would put it up
there in my top ten of his records.

.

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