There have been a few different versions of "conventional wisdom" about New Morning down through the years. When it was 1st released, people rushed to proclaim it a return to form after the disastrous Self Portrait. Later, a lot of those same people decided that Dylan fans were so desperate for a return to form that they overhyped something slight & mediocre simply because it wasn't Self Portrait. Personally, I always enjoyed this album for, not despite, its mundane modesty. The textless cream-colored cover with unadorned black & white photo speaks volumes to me about the simple pleasures found within.
When he can get out of his own way & resist the temptation to treat women like porcelain dolls, Bob Dylan has always been able to write a beautiful love song. On this album he pulls off 2 that are absolute classics. "If Not For You" was covered to great acclaim by both George Harrison & Olivia Newton-John, & I'd be lying if I didn't admit to preferring Harrison's version to Dylan's, but it's a great song in any version. Taken together with "The Man In Me," it reveals his approach on this album: the minimalism of Nashville Skyline continues but without its pop sheen. He's dedicated to being plainspoken & gentle here: lines like "Without your love I'd be nowhere at all, I'd be lost if not for you" & "Oh, what a wonderful feeling just to know that you are near" are heartfelt, not particularly showy but not artless either. The whole album's mood is domestic & pastoral, with songs like "Time Passes Slowly," "Sign on the Window" & the title track extolling the virtues of country living, home & hearth. I know that Dylan was feeling a lot of pressure from all that "voice of a generation" bullshit & just wanted to be left alone with his family. This album is the purest expression of that.
Another thing people make a big deal out of is the return of his nasal singing voice after a few albums' crooning sojourn. I'd say this is more of a new era than a return, as it foresees the open-throated roar of Blood on the Tracks & Before the Flood. He hasn't fully let go of the smooth (see the soulful affectations of "Time Passes Slowly")--honestly I'd say this is halfway between his Nashville & Blood voices. As another bit of backpedaling from his poppier last few records, the production is rough & in your face, with less subtlety than we've been used to. Everything is on the same level, & it's noticeable because of how piano-dominated this album is. In some ways I think of it as Dylan's "piano album": "Day of the Locusts," "Time Passes Slowly," "Went to See the Gypsy," "Winterlude," "If Dogs Run Free," "Sign on the Window," "The Man In Me," "Father of Night" . . . shit I typed out that whole list before realizing that it would be easier to just say which songs aren't piano led. It's cool, Bob was always better on the piano than he was on the guitar or harmonica. (Even though Al Kooper is responsible for all that tasty jazz comping on "If Dogs Run Free.")
Speaking of "If Dogs Run Free," Dylan, the songwriter that everybody insists on calling a poet, here dips his toe into the world of spoken-word songs with that one & "Three Angels." The fact is that Dylan was always a great writer of melodies but not always a great singer of them, & I've been interested in how he navigated his melodic & less-melodic impulses. This album is relatively tuneful, so including 2 spoken-word tracks makes for a nice compromise. Meanwhile, the closing solo piano & choir microsong "Father of Night" points the way forward about a decade to Dylan's born-again period, while at the same time being better than anything on any of this Christian albums.
Even if you took away the heavy hitters "If Not For You" & "The Man In Me," New Morning would still be a good album, brief & a pleasant listen. With them included, I think it deserves to be mentioned, if not in the top tier of Dylan albums, definitely in the runners-up circle. I'll throw it on when I feel like some Dylan but don't want anything particularly heavy or challenging. We need records like that.
Now there are 5 Dylan albums left in this series & I really hope the random number generator takes mercy on me & gives me a break for a while because I'm starting to get sick of writing about Bob Dylan.
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