Dylan:
The Revenge of Columbia

The “Revenge of Columbia” is a nickname given the thirteenth studio album by Bob Dylan, which says it all. The album was released with no input from Dylan himself. In fact, it was issued by the record company against his will. Dylan is the result of a dispute. The album contains no original Dylan songs, but traditional or pop music hits that would probably never have been released if Dylan had stayed in the Columbia stable.

The facts: In 1972, a few months after the release of [att1]Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol. II, Dylan renewed his contract with Columbia. In it Clive Davis, director of the music division, included a particularly generous clause: $400,000 guaranteed minimum for the soundtrack of Sam Peckinpah’s film Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid and for each of the following two albums.

But even though the soundtrack sold fairly well, reaching number 13 on the US charts, it received very negative reviews. Hence, the relationship between Columbia and Dylan turned sour, even more so after Clive Davis was laid off by CBS on May 29, 1973. CBS canceled the $400,000 clause, and Dylan immediately signed with another label. At the end of 1973 at Columbia’s annual sales meeting, Goddard Lieberson, president of Columbia, hit the nail on the head in saying, “I don’t doubt that there were times when record companies exploited artists, but it [has] come to the point where the artists [are] exploiting the record companies.”7 Lieberson and his colleagues soon regretted Dylan’s departure and his signing with David Geffen’s fledgling Los Angeles–based label Asylum Records (the Eagles, Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell, the Byrds), which, according to some sources, was under the unofficial auspices of Clive Davis.

Dylan without Dylan

For now, however, Columbia had to do without Bob Dylan or, more accurately, without his consent. On November 16, 1973, a month and a half before the release of Planet Waves (Dylan’s first album for Asylum Records) and the beginning of his first major tour with the Band since 1966, Columbia released the new Dylan album, called Dylan in the United States and Dylan—A Fool Such as I in Europe. The album is not a compilation, but consists of outtakes from old sessions: with the exception of “A Fool Such as I” and “Spanish Is the Loving Tongue” from the sessions for Self Portrait, all seven other songs are from New Morning.

Upon its release, the album received very poor reviews. It was strongly criticized by the critics as tasteless and “technically incompetent.” Yet the album Dylan did not result in a bitter commercial failure, even if it was the first Dylan album to fail to make it onto the UK charts. It managed to reach number 17 in the United States and become a gold record.

For technical details and the list of instruments, please see the discussion of the albums Self Portrait and New Morning.