No Skips: D.C Maxwell on Bob Dylan's 'New Morning'
For the inaugural episode of my new weekly series, lone cowboy and Taite Prize nominee D.C Maxwell dives into Bob Dylan’s underrated 1970 album, ‘New Morning’.
Kia Ora everyone! Welcome to the first edition of a new weekly Substack-exclusive series called ‘No Skips’. The premise is simple: I think the advent of music streaming/algorithms has inadvertently made our music tastes very insular. Personally, I’ve found it a lot harder to find new music to fall in love with that’s not just something an algorithm thinks I’d be keen on based on data it’s collected on me.
So to broaden my, and hopefully your, musical horizons, each week I’m reaching out to musicians I love to get their recommendation on an album they believe deserves the title of 'No Skips'— one you can listen to front to back without wanting to skip a single track.
This week I’ve cornered 2023 Taite prize nominee D.C Maxwell to share his love for the album New Morning by, and I quote, “a small indie artist called Bob Dylan.”
Bob Dylan was one of those guys that I never listened to because everyone said he was great. I thought I was too alternative, and that he was too mainstream. Boy was I wrong. I now call this the “Nirvana Principle”.
Nirvana Principal (coined by D.C Maxwell 2024): When a band/artist is so overrated they become underrated. When everyone has heard of this artist, people forget why everyone knows them: how bloody incredible they are.
This was the first Bob Dylan record I properly listened to, and it has never left my all-time top five albums. It simultaneously knocked me out of the park and drew me in with how plain god-damned nice it is to listen to.
Before I heard it I was listening to a lot of Leonard Cohen. I remember sending huge eye-rolls skyward when Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize, thinking Leonard should have it. But then I saw Cohen say that giving Dylan the prize was like "pinning a medal on Mt. Everest for being the highest mountain". Meaning, everyone already knows he's the best. So then I thought, If Cohen says that then maybe I better listen to this guy.
I think I chose New Morning because of his face on the cover. Bob looks grizzled and unkempt, and not at all like the skinny folky New Yorker of his early years, or the denim vest speed freak of later years (the two eras I knew him from).
Behind the piss yellow cowboy sepia tone cover, He had this twinkle in his eyes that was like saying - “c'mere kid, I'm gonna tell you a yarn you ain't gonna soon forget”. He was right.
This record up-ended a lot of opinions I had previously held about Bob Dylan - mainly that his songs were long and complicated. With most songs under 3 minutes, this album is a masterclass in brevity. Every song on the album is a well-crafted country-pop jewel.
The lyrics are weird, and provoke strange images - but it's not nonsense - he is getting to the heart of real things that we experience (e.g. love, loss, boredom, awe) in a way that upends our expectations of songwriting.
This may be cheating, but just to entice people to listen the album includes two of Dylan's most famous love songs: If Not For You (brilliantly covered by George Harrison) and The Man in Me (of The Big Lebowski fame - also a hell of a song).
Went to See The Gypsy his hilariously boring song about meeting Elvis, including lines like: "Went to see the Gypsy - Staying in a big hotel - He smiled when he saw me coming - And he said 'Well, well, well' - His room was dark and crowded - The lights were low and dim - 'How are you?' he said to me, 'I said it back to him'." It's so good and nothing happens. I love it.
Sign on the Window is another incredible song. I do not understand it but it moves me every time I hear it. It taught me that simple descriptions can be just as powerful as straight narrative. Also, Dylan's voice is just beautiful - not something people often say!
I listened to this album shortly after finishing my debut record Lone Rider. But when I think of my next album I definitely think about New Morning. I am trying to follow Bob's lead leaning into shorter pop songs that still pack a punch. Following my songwriting nose into any dungpile necessary to get across the feeling of the song. Following my emotional instinct and not being so married to 'sense', does that make sense haha?
New Morning is also just a lot of fun to listen to. Beautiful warm Sunday morning album to put on while the coffee is brewing and to lay in the sun and ponder what the rest of the day may hold. I have listened to it now hundreds of times and I never get bored or skip a track, it's like a brilliant painting, what do they call it - a masterpiece!
A HUGE thanks to D.C Maxwell for taking the time to delve into his ‘No Skip’ album, take his word for it, and go give ‘New Morning’ a spin! You can also check out D.C Maxwell’s excellent debut ‘Lone Rider’ on all major streaming services, and where all good vinyl is sold (support the arts), and peep the excellent video for ‘Last Stand of the Killer’ below ❤️
Great idea for a series. Like this insight. 👏
Love this