The whole performance, with the sound so well mixed and the band so good that night, argues that the mid-1990s Bob Dylan can stand in the same room with the Dylans of the past. He is alive, alert, fully into his jazz-improvisational vocals and making some wonderful noises: and not imitating himself but singing—phrasing—afresh. Woodstock II is a real performance.
-Michael Gray (The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia)
This is a quirky album, from a Dylan not pointing a way for anyone, but from a great artist remaining at his work knowingly in the face of not being creatively on top form in the phenomenal way he had been in the period 1964–68.Warm and abiding, it sounds better and better as the years go by.
~Michael Gray (The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia)
Wikipedia: Dylan ultimately decided to re-record “If Not for You” and “Time Passes Slowly”, holding one final session on August 12. During that session, he also recorded “Day of the Locusts,” which by now had been finished.For the album’s final sequence, the three August 12 recordings were placed at the beginning of New Morning, while covers of “Ballad of Ira Hayes” and “Mr. Bojangles” were dropped.
Studio E Columbia Recording Studios New York City, New York 12 August 1970 8th and last New Morning recording session, produced by Bob Johnston.
Well, protest songs are really love songs, too. They were my most brilliant love songs.
~Bob Dylan (Press conference, International Airport Haneda, Tokyo, Japan – Feb 17, 1978)
Historic event
Feb 17, 1965
Dylan gives a hilarious performance on Les Crane’s one-hour show for W ABC TV, singing a song at the beginning (“It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”) and end of the show (“It’s Alright, Ma”), accompanied by Bruce Langhorne on second guitar. Between the songs, Dylan chats with Crane and his other guests. Crane finds it difficult to deal with Dylan’s razor-sharp repartee. Asking Dylan what his main message is, he is told: “Eat … Be. Period.”
~Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995)
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