...bobs entry into th'70s was typically a dylan move, givin' th'customer what they weren't expectin'n they sure weren't expectin' 'self portrait', possibly th'zimms most perplexin' move up until that time, more alienatin' than his electric jaunt back in th'mind fryin' daze o'65/6, more off puttin' than goin' to record in nashville, home o' reactionary gun totin' hicks, th'natural enemy o' draft dodgin' hippys'n lefty student layabouts...what was dylan doin' with this hodge podge o' what seemed like studio leftovers from th'bottom shelf o' a long lost dusty cupboard, full o' failed experiments...th'whole thing gets underway with a fake gospel lounge groove with lady vocalists askin' hows any ridin'(writin')gonna get done, dylan aint even on th'trk, he's kinda gettin' into a andy warhol groove, just lendin' his name to product, is he takin' money under false pretenses?not bein' on his own record,or is he sayin', again, that hes not what his audience thinks he is, that they dont need him, they can get along without him, he's got confidence they can make it'n he wishes them well...more lounge 'n bloozy folk ditties follow on, this is dylan in th'natural groove, goin' wherever th'vibes take him, be they las vegas neon lights or pre-war pre-urban folk from some dark hollow...this is dylan spinnin' disks on a juke box from th'twilight zone, from a time long past, from generations that bought th'amerikkkan myth o'blind obidience to th'new colonial masters, to th'feudal barons o' th'new world, from th'generation that was sendin' its children to kill for capitalism, dylan was singin' th'songs o' th'enemy, not th'songs o' resistance he'shoulda' been singin'...maybe th'goverment had replaced him with a doppelganger(th'same as th'fabs had done when macca 'died') to stop th'anti war/civil rights movement from enterin' a new decade'n renewin' th'effort to spread some sanity across uncle sams autocracy, certainly th'FBI had investigated him, along with countless others who spoke off different things, who spoke o' righteous times to come..dylan was singin' country'n soundin' relaxed'n happy with th'situation, was he bein' serious or was this some kinda code that needed to be cracked for th'whole picture to come alive, was dylans message now so important for th'hippy generation'n so potentially dangerous to th'consumer society that bob had to cloak it in th'sounds o'th'enemy to disguise it but he had confidence that th'heads would break through'n get th'message...but dylan wasn't supposed to be writin' message songs anymore(he denied he ever wrote a message song at all) so there couldn't be any message to decode, therefore where was he at?what did he want to get across, was he just passin' time lookin' for another better label deal, keepin' hot toons'n poetry ramblin's for these better days to come...th'live trx from th'69 I.O.W festival give this more weight as dylans answer to th'great white wonder' boot that had recently appeared(then promptly rebooted a coupla more times in as many months), but could he really be bothered about a bootleg o'poor quality when he'd allowed all those big pink tunes to be sent out to london'n L.A in late 67/8...was dylan legitamisin' th'boot by givin' it a companion so a cat could have choice...if dylan hadn't been replaced by a double then maybe he was turnin' into a patriot'n sellin' out to th'machine or maybe his children had been kidnapped by C.I.A warriors'n he had to tow th'patriot line to sway th'hippy/yippie rabble to give up ideas o' bombin' banks'n army recruitment centres...what did dylan hope to achieve with this wax(a double), what would dylan gain from this move to squaresville, had all th'rewirin' o' his circuits back in th'amphetamine hazy daze finally knocked all th'fight outta him, was he now just a shell, a backwoods hick with dreams o' vegas casinos'n lounge appearances...was dylan tryin' to tell th'NOW generation to be careful, th'government was gonna kill them through recreational drugs'n mindless entertainment, he was givin' them an injection o' cuboidness to innoculate them for th'comin' struggle to free themselves o' th'downpressor man...was this th'true desolation row from where th'new beginnin' was gonna come, was this disk a place to look out from or a window to look into...was dylan sneerin'n sayin' his audience deserved nothin' more, they didn't understand what he was sayin' for th'whole decade so now they could listen to th'music they really wanted only were too 'hip' to admit to th'liberal'society they wanted to belong to, they had made him do this, they had inflicted this upon their very own god, they destroyed their own creation, he showed them to look further or don't look at all, stay oblivious to th' world around them, it no longer mattered to dylan...this wax is certainly more than it seemed or indeed it seems more than it is, a continuin' circle that goes round with th'changin' seasons, it never stays long in any one place, continuin' its journey to th'very end o' who knows where...