Bob Dylan’s excellent solo take on “Pretty Saro” earlier this month proved a hidden gem or two remain uncovered from the Nashville Skyline/Self Portrait/New Morning era, circa 1970. Now here’s another one worthy of plucking from the cutting room floor. One week before his new Bootleg Series collection, Another Self Portrait, hits shelves, NPR have posted 15 highlights. While many of these make for better fodder to Dylan completists like myself (some alternate lyrics and George Harrison guitar work we haven’t heard before, etc.), everyone should give the new solo version of “If Not For You” a spin. Backed only by a piano and solo violin, this take is more tender than its final New Morning incarnation — a bittersweet, heartfelt glimpse into Dylan’s brighter days before that whole Blood On The Tracks storm would blow in a half-decade later. Stream it above.
