But for now letâs listen to Another Side of Bob Dylan
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Three or four on here that I havenât sought out in years, along with some absolute all-timers. Looking forward to listening to it.
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First flush is the same vibe as the last one for being musically sparse, but with a more melodic, lighter, less polemic edge. Loads on here I donât know, clearly never listened to this album through
If I were to critique Bobâs whole discog I would say the start is too strong and he should have got some of the shit ones out the way early here, if only to give a bit more variety to the listening club.
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But no, here is another 8/10 record. Thanks Bob.
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Another one I managed to pick up cheaply on vinyl a couple of years ago when record shops had a lot of cheap Dylan via those magazine reissues
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Really love the Newport 64 live version of Chimes of Freedom. Video isnât on youtube anymore for some reason, just the audio, but thereâs a Dailymotion video
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1qa67c
Audio:
Dylan at his most nasal and grating, I love it.
Text from gf: âgod, all I bloody hear when youâre in another room is a tinny harmonica and bob dylan croaking alongâ
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well soon sheâll hear drums and bass as well! Lucky her
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I hope she shouts âJudas!â through the wall when this happens
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Really like Another Side. Good strategy on behalf of him and the label to put this out after The Times because, I think, ultimately what makes for great music is an ability to deal with devastating and light-hearted themes. Life isnât one or the other.
So yeah, Another Side just happened to be the first Dylan I explored properly off my own back. I liked the stripped-down-ness of it but also the immediacy. And still appreciate that part of it, even if as an older listener I do want some more of the heavy commentary too.
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Another Side is pretty excellent - Chimes of Freedom in particular (although possibly more The Byrds cover) seems to have set a template for BIG ârock can change the worldâ songs in both a good way (Patti Smith) and occasionally a less good way (U2).
Ballad in Plain D seems to go down as one of his worst songs and it is incredibly petty (basically 8 mins of how much he hates his exâs sister) but I kind of love that itâs on the same record as something as universally humanist as Chimes - very Bob
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Petty music is underrated
Another Side is I think a pretty noticeable step down. Chimes of freedom aside. It is interesting cross moment as well. The songs are largely not political at all and there is an obvious experimentation with blues and delivery what is developed in his 60s period.
It is still a very good album. But maybe a 7. Rather then a 9/10 of the last two.
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I was instantly more engaged with his livlier vocals on the first track
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An interesting transitional record - heâs lost interest in the political stuff but is still essentially making folk music. The âgoing electricâ stuff is so often presented as if it was a sudden transformation out of nowhere that nobody expected rather than the logicial conclusion of a gradual shift - this record is sort of brushed over in the narrative of that even though itâs sort of the first stage of it, Iâve always wondered a bit how this was received at the time.
I was reading the liner notes recently to the 1964 live bootleg series album last week and in that itâs stated that this album got some terrible reviews in the folk press, the folkies were already feeling betrayed here (I can see why theyâd be dismayed at hearing him decry his political material as naive idealism in My Back Pages), apparently Johnny Cash wrote in to one magazine to defend the album after it got a kicking. And yet listening to that live record, the songs from this album go seem to go down just as well as anything from the last two, particularly It Ainât Me Babe. There must have been a bit of a divide between the folkies and the general public at this point? The folkies heard the lyrics changing here, the general public didnât notice so much of a change until the electric guitars came in?
Quite a good album imo, less essential than what came before or after, but a couple of all timers, Chimes of Freedom feels as powerful as the best of his 60s stuff and a lot of the rest is pretty fun and lighthearted, brings back a lot of the humour of The Freewheelinâ. It was all recorded in a single summer night with many bottles of wine and it really gives off that vibe, in a good way.
Big fan of I Donât Believe You and Spanish Harlem Incident, Black Crow Blues is very underrated as well, the piano is a nice change.
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Quite surprising that Ballad in Plain D made the cut over this live favourite
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It would be a better album that way
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I like Fidel Castro and his beard
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really like âanother side ofâŚâ, sort of a scrappy underdog album sandwiched between what went before and what was to come. ic-smic basically posted all my thoughts already although he skipped over âto ramonaâ which is a great song imo
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