Track Listing

1. If Not for You
2. Day of the Locusts
3. Time Passes Slowly
4. Went to See the Gypsy
5. Winterlude
6. If Dogs Run Free
7. New Morning
8. Sign on the Window
9. One More Weekend
10. Man in Me
11. Three Angels
12. Father of Night

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4293 in Music
• Brand: Dig
• Released on: 2009-03-31
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .13 pounds

Customer Reviews

Superb remaster adds lustre to overlooked gem
I have always had a soft spot for New Morning, since hearing "Went to See the Gypsy" on a college radio station one night shortly after the record was first released. Dylan is in fine voice on this album; his unique and eloquent style of piano playing dominates many of the songs, giving it a unique vibe; and it may be his "happiest" record, celebrating the joys of domesticity, family life, and country living. "Gypsy," "Day of the Locusts," "Sign on a Window," "Time Passes Slowly," "If Dogs Run Free" are all examples of Dylan contentedly working on miniatures in the light. Fans of The Big Lebowski will have a Dude-dream flashback when "The Man in Me" rolls along. At the time of its release this album was hailed as a return to form by a counterculture intelligentsia worried by the inscrutable mess that was Self-Portrait, following hard upon the MOR countrypolitan smoothness of Nashville Skyline. "New Morning" marks the beginning of the peak period of his mature singing voice; he sounds gritty, with a manlier edge to his voice, and for better or worse the "velvet sneer" of the mid-60s masterpieces is gone forever. For all the variety of his material in the 70s, he went from strength to strength vocally; after "New Morning," there came "Planet Waves," "Blood on the Tracks," the overrated "Desire," the underrated "Street Legal," and "Slow Train Coming" all of which feature some of Dylan's most powerful singing. "New Morning" was never his best-produced album, being rather ramshackle sonically with sometimes slapdash arrangements, but this superb remaster lets you hear it all more clearly and in greater detail. Highly recommended.

A unique gem in Dylan's career
New Morning is a forgotten treasure which I gladly review here. This remastered version was long overdue since it clearly marks a renaissance in Dylan's career and life.

He'd been roughly 10 years in the public eye and all around things had changed. He'd changed. Nowhere else will we find Dylan so sure of being married, living in the country, trying to raise a family. This is where you get the impression of a happy frozen moment in his life as he wouldn't be this sure a mere three years later with Planet Waves.

Bob was definitely immersed in his life with Sara and most songs serve as a fitting tribute to his marriage and kids. His heartfelt lyrics on Sign On The Window go on like this: "Build me a cabin in Utah/marry me a wife/catch rainbow trout/have a bunch of kids who call me 'Pa'/that must be what it's all about/that must be what it's all about", he sings enthusiastically.
On Time Passes Slowly, he states: "Ain't no reason to go in a wagon to town/Ain't no reason to go to the fair/Ain't no reason to go up, ain't no reason to go down/Ain't no reason to go anywhere".
And on New Morning, he opens his heart: "So happy just to be alive/Underneath the sky of blue/On this new morning, new morning...with you".
If Not For You and The Man In Me are also obvious favourites.

Dylan plays quite a lot of piano on New Morning, seven tracks in total, which also helps to give it quite a distinctive flavour. All adds up to a set of strong songs, all belonging to each other just like the music on Blood On The Tracks does. It appears he'd found a new way which eventually took him to all the anger, frustration and beauty of his aforementioned 1974 masterpiece. This alone is a reason to dive into these tracks of love - this ode to raising a family fitting as a counterpoint to his infamous broken marriage a few years later.

It also seems he just felt lucky to be alive and well after his years of turbulence in the sixties and that feeling of a new beginning is very much alive on this album. I'd place this as a unique gem in Dylan's career so - if you're curious - grab it with no hesitation.

It is also worthy of mention that Father Of Night even ended up covered by Manfred Mann on Solar Fire in 1973 as a great progressive rock opus!

Praise for the Remastering
I agree strongly with the positive comments on the sound of this remaster. Although New Morning was well-received at the time and has generally been considered a strong effort by the fans, the remaster was somehow skipped over when the SACD remasters came out in 03. That was a crime, because the old CD version was one of the worst in the catalogue, muddy, muddled, and almost unlistenable (the original vinyl was no great shakes either). Well guess what, this sounds as good as any of the SACDs, even though it is standard 16 bit redbook. The great music is like bird released from its cage, and now it really sings.