Bob Dylan

Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964)

 

  1. All I Really Want To Do
  2. Black Crow Blues
  3. Spanish Harlem Incident
  4. Chimes of Freedom
  5. I Shall Be Free No. 10
  6. To Ramona
  7. Motorpsycho Nightmare
  8. My Back Pages
  9. I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We 
     Never Met)
  10.Ballad in Plain D
  11.It Ain't Me, Babe
   
  

The last album where Bob played exclusively simple folk music accompanied by only guitar, harmonica and a rare piano or two. This album finds himself doing a 180 degree turn from the serious, protest heavy The Times The Are A-Changin", being a much more lighthearted and, in places, humorous affair.

Apart from the seven plus minutes The Chimes of Freedom, he stays away from anything radically resembling discontent. The title of this album, however, may be a bit misleading. This isn't really another side of him that we haven't seen before. As a matter of fact, many of these songs resemble his album before last, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, which you could now say was about half serious and half fun.

He does go for the downright jugular in terms of humor on such songs of Motorpsycho Nitemare, and I Shall Be Free, No. 10. He could almost pass as a comedy act. He also plays the sweet sentimental on such songs as To Ramona, All I Really Want to Do and the now classic It Ain't Me Babe.

So, yes, the whole album is quite innocent and simple. Dylan even leaves some of the gaffes in the final pressing - as to confirm that we really shouldn't take Bob too seriously, regardless of what he was singing about at the time. Some of the songs seem to run a bit long, but with its light atmospheric feel, it sometimes get a bit overlooked, which it shouldn't. This is Dylan at his best.

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