That is indeed a puzzler. He doesn't need the money or the exposure. He's not short of work. I think maybe he did it out of a sheer contrariness. He likes doing things that people don't expect him to do. He is the eternal inconoclast, forever shattering his own public image so as not to be defined or trapped by it. His album "Self-Portrait", for example, seems to have been calculated in order to alienate his more fanatical fans in the late 60's and make them just go away and leave him alone. I liked some of the stuff on it, though.

- LH