Bob Dylan Wrote an Album to Make His Fans Forget About Him, But It Completely ‘Backfired’
Bob Dylan has always had a fraught relationship with his fans, and he once wrote an album that he hoped would disappoint them. After a motorcycle accident in 1966, Dylan stepped out of the public eye but still couldn’t escape his most dedicated fans. Finally, a fed-up Dylan released the album Self Portrait, which he hoped would disappoint even his most ardent fans. Unfortunately for him, it didn’t shake out that way.
Bob Dylan released the album ‘Self Portrait’ after growing frustrated with his fans
By the end of the 1960s, Dylan was massively successful, celebrated both by fans and his fellow musicians. Soon, though, this attention became too much. He believed people saw him as a leader. Fans began seeking out his home in Woodstock, New York, at all hours of the day. Dylan said this became so “dark and depressing” that he decided to move his family back to Manhattan. When they arrived, though, he found the same problems.
“Lookin’ back, it really was a stupid thing to do,” he told Rolling Stone in 1984. “But there was a house available on MacDougal Street, and I always remembered that as a nice place. So I just bought this house, sight unseen. But it wasn’t the same when we got back. The Woodstock Nation had overtaken MacDougal Street also. There’d be crowds outside my house.”
In response to the constant attention, Dylan decided to release an album that alienated his fans.
“I said, ‘Well, f*** it. I wish these people would just forget about me. I wanna do something they can’t possibly like, they can’t relate to,'” he said. “‘They’ll see it, and they’ll listen, and they’ll say, “Well, let’s go on to the next person. He ain’t sayin’ it no more. He ain’t givin’ us what we want,” you know? They’ll go on to somebody else.'”
It didn’t quite work out that way.
“But the whole idea backfired,” he said, “because the album went out there, and the people said, ‘This ain’t what we want,’ and they got more resentful.”
Bob Dylan shouldn’t have expected fans to forget about him after the album
While Dylan can’t be blamed for trying to divert attention from himself, it was a bit naïve to expect that an album would help with this. By 1970, when he released Self Portrait, he was simply too famous. Fans and musicians adored him; even The Beatles practically worshiped him. People who called themselves Dylanologists dedicated themselves to lyrical interpretation. An unrelatable album was not going to completely dry up a fan base like this.
In addition, Dylan had been relatively reclusive since 1966. While he had released albums and put on a few live performances, he hadn’t toured in years. People were curious about him.
The commercial and critical success of Nashville Skyline in 1969, coupled with his long line of well-received albums since 1963, meant people had certain expectations of him. They were upset with Self Portrait, but not enough to abandon Dylan as an artist.
His follow-up album ‘New Morning’ still received criticism
Just a few months after Self Portrait, Dylan released the album New Morning. People viewed it as a welcome return to form for Dylan, and it generally received positive reviews. At least one person wasn’t happy with it, though. John Lennon, who had long admired Dylan, wasn’t a fan.
“I thought it wasn’t much. Because I expect more – maybe I expect too much from people – but I expect more,” he told Rolling Stone. “I haven’t been a Dylan follower since he stopped rocking. I liked ‘Rolling Stone’ and a few things he did then; I like a few things he did in the early days. The rest of it is just like Lennon-McCartney or something. It’s no different, its a myth.”
