"Even by Dylan standards, this album has had a strange, difficult birth", wrote Rolling Stone critic David Fricke.

If the musician credits are any indication, the songs that made the final cut come from half a dozen different recording sessions spread out over six years."

In a review published in his Consumer Guide column, Robert Christgau wrote, "Where Self Portrait was at least weird, splitting the difference between horrible and hilarious, [Dylan is now] forever professional—not a single remake honors or desecrates the original.

"[9] In the book Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions, 1960–1994, author Clinton Heylin offers an explanation for the style and layout of the album's tracks.

"[10] The author goes on further to describe how the album was a sensible step for Dylan, suggesting his issues with creative writing had hampered his ability to produce new material.

"[12] Artist Rick Griffin, primarily known for the Grateful Dead's logos and poster art, was commissioned to design the cover of the record jacket.

Griffin's drawing of a man playing a guitar while riding a horse backwards was rejected by Columbia Records who instead used a photograph of Dylan.

In recent years, Dylan had relied on larger ensembles, often staffed with high-profile artists like Mick Taylor, Ian McLagan, the Grateful Dead and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

(There was a notable exception in the early June shows; those concerts featured a second, lead guitarist in Neil Young, whose own career was also in a downturn at the time.)