There are plenty of misconceptions about Self Portrait — more than enough to prevent even some hardcore Dylan fans from seeing the appeal of a compilation compromised largely of its outtakes. Most importantly, there’s the common rumor (partially propagated by the artist himself in the 1980s) that Dylan became suddenly interested in recording other people’s songs in an effort to make a deliberately “bad” album. But the move toward other people’s material was not a sudden one: The first sessions for the album began less than two years after the recording of the reverent, cover-heavy, Band-backed sessions that resulted in The Basement Tapes. In the cultural imagination, those recordings are profound, whisky-drenched explorations of American “roots” music (complete with quaint tape hiss), whereas Self Portrait is just Dylan’s misbegotten “covers album” (“Pretty Saro” rubbing shoulders with Gordon Lightfoot and an Everly Brothers tune?).

In truth, Dylan, Danko, Robertson and Co. paraphrased everything from Curtis Mayfield to “One for My Baby” during those 1967 get-togethers. All songs were fair game, as they were during the Self Portrait sessions. Despite the inclusion of several live performances with The Band on the album, critics and Dylanologists rarely connect the two, and… read more »