New Morning is the eleventh studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on October 21, 1970[2][5][6] by Columbia Records.

"If Dogs Run Free", made its live debut on October 1, 2000, within weeks of the 30th anniversary of the album's original release.

During the March sessions that yielded most of Self Portrait, Dylan attempted three songs that he later rerecorded for New Morning: "Went to See the Gypsy", "Time Passes Slowly", and "If Not for You."

[1][2] Held in Studio B, the first session was accompanied by George Harrison, bassist Charlie Daniels, and drummer Russ Kunkel.

Eventually, a conflict with the producer over "Father of Night" prompted Dylan to leave the production, withdrawing his songs in the process.

The June 1 session was devoted entirely to covers, but Peter La Farge's "Ballad of Ira Hayes" was the only one given any serious consideration for inclusion.

The June 2 session produced a solo piano rendition of "Spanish Is the Loving Tongue"; Al Kooper felt it was a strong candidate for New Morning, but it was ultimately set aside.

The first sequence of New Morning included a few covers as well as a new version of "Tomorrow is a Long Time," an original composition dating back to 1962.

"I was cheesed off at how difficult [the whole thing was]...He just changed his mind every three seconds so I just ended up doing the work of three albums...We'd get a side order and we'd go in and master it and he'd say, 'No, no, no.

For the album's final sequencing, these three recordings were placed at the beginning of New Morning, while covers of "Ballad of Ira Hayes" and "Mr. Bojangles" were dropped.

While New Morning neared completion, Dylan and his manager, Albert Grossman, formally dissolved their business relationship on July 17, 1970.

The song's lyrics refer to Brood X of the 17-year periodical cicada (often misidentified as "locusts"), whose sounds blanketed Princeton at the time of his visit: "Sure was glad to get out of there alive.

There is some sense with lyrics like 'ain't no reason to go anywhere' and 'time passes slowly and fades away' that maybe Dylan is not as satisfied with inaction as he appears on the surface.

An alternate version of the song featuring George Harrison's guitar playing and harmony vocal appears on The Bootleg Series Vol.

It is often assumed that Dylan wrote "Went to See the Gypsy" after meeting Elvis Presley,[8] as the song mentions visiting with a mysterious and important man in a hotel.

This lyric was seen by some as a reference to Elvis' record-breaking run of performances in Las Vegas (his series of concerts at the International Hotel commenced on July 31, 1969).

"[9] In the final lines of the song, Dylan makes mention of a "little Minnesota town," a rare reference to his own childhood in Hibbing.

"Winterlude" is followed by "If Dogs Run Free", a beat jazz paean, featuring scat-singing Maeretha Stewart as a guest vocalist and Al Kooper on piano.

"Beginning hesitantly, the last verse of 'Sign on the Window' builds towards its repeated last line not as a forced projection of false hope but as simple, matter-of-fact acceptance of middle-age sentiment," writes music critic Tim Riley.

The antithesis of the family man, at thirty a father of four, begins broaching homeliness without irony—and still convinces you not to hear it as strict autobiography."

"He's not trying to impress this lover, so the title hook resonates enough to carry things... 'Take a woman like you to get through/To the man in me' is so direct in its expression of the unflinching cues of intimacy, you forgive him the occasional forced rhyme."

"Three Angels" is gospel-tinged track limning sights on an urban street, including "a man with a badge", a "U-Haul trailer", and "three fellas crawling their way back to work".

Ward lauded "Went to See the Gypsy" and "Sign on the Window" as "masterpieces"; he said that the former was "the hardest rocker from Dylan in a 'coon's age", with the singer's voice "back in its raspy, rowdy glory", while the latter "ranks with the best work he's done", including "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands", "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" and "Like a Rolling Stone".

"[24] Geoffrey Cannon of The Guardian found New Morning a departure from all of the artist's previous albums and commented on the range of styles and influences while highlighting Dylan's "dynamite piano".

According to biographer Howard Sounes, these more dispassionate listeners found it "a little self-satisfied" and, further to Nashville Skyline and Self Portrait, evidence of the singer's descent into commercialism and conservative values.

[27] Morgan Ames of High Fidelity wrote that Dylan remained an intermittently interesting songwriter, but he was no longer "a Force in the way he once was and everyone knows it".

Christgau highlighted "Winterlude" and "If Dogs Run Free", but panned "Three Angels" and "Father of Night", saying they "make religion seem dumber than it already is".

[14] In his contemporaneous review for The Times, Richard Williams wrote that New Morning showed Dylan left behind by recent trends and "a newer generation finds it hard to understand what the fuss is about".

[30] Writing for Rough Guides, Nigel Williamson says that music historian Sean Egan "astutely" summarized the issue when he commented: "[Dylan's] music was no longer an elemental thing ... his world view was limited to the end of the driveway of the home that his wife baked in and his children caroused through."

Williamson calls New Morning a "fine album" but, despite the excitement of Dylan's supporters at Rolling Stone, "more of a false dawn".