What’s Dylan’s “another side?”
Corduroy on Another Side of Bob Dylan.
The following was written in a moment of nocturnal inspiration fueled by both a glass of St. Clement Vineyards Merlot and Dylan’s distinct voice speak-singing, “But if you want me to, I can be just like you / An’ pretend that we never have touched…”
Bob Dylan’s “another side” is his inside. Another Side of Bob Dylan was Dylan’s fourth studio album released in August of 1964, and could quite possibly be his most genuine album. Created not to fit into “the scene”, or to further boost his spokesman image, as he diverted from his previous socially conscious style of songwriting, the songs in Another Side are communicating the sincere thoughts of a heartbroken and perplexed twenty-three-year-old.
Dylan wrote most of the songs in a weeks time, while vacationing in Greece, and recorded it in a single all-night session at Columbia’s Manhattan Studio. While in the early days, Dylan’s lyrics touched on themes of racism, corruption, and poverty, this time around he channeled his lyrics from another source… from his “another side”. Dylan rejected the role of being the voice of a generation saying, “Me, I don’t want to write for people anymore — you know, be a spokesman. From now on, I want to write from inside me… I’m not part of no movement… I just can’t make it with any organization.”
“Ballad in Plain D,” contains Dylan’s most personal lyrics in the album as he speaks about his romance and inevitable breakup with Suze Rotolo, Dylan’s girlfriend from 1961 to 1964, “I think of her often and hope whoever she’s met / Will be fully aware of how precious she is…” He throws salt at Carla, Suze’s sister, as well, “For her parasite sister, I had no respect / Bound by her boredom, her pride to protect”; “It Ain’t Me, Babe,” a harsh worded tune dedicated to perhaps a clingy lover, “I’m not the one you want, babe / I will only let you down…”; “I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) although starting off with a sense of the incomprehension of a love lost, this tune sums up the course of one’s internal thought process about a breakup, “If she ain’t feelin’ well, then why don’t she tell / ‘Stead of turnin’ her back to my face?” These are but a few songs off Another Side.
Two years after Another Side, Dylan would release three more albums that altered the course of songwriting — Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Highway 61 Revisited (1965), and Blonde on Blonde (1966). Although Another Side may not have been his best selling album, it’s quite frankly one of his most important as it spearheaded this change in songwriting forever.
Another Side of Bob Dylan — Track list
- All I Really Want to Do
- Black Crow Blues
- Spanish Harlem Incident
- Chimes of Freedom
- I Shall Be Free №10
- To Ramona
- Motorpsycho Nitemare
- My Black Pages
- I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Met)
- Ballad in Plain D
- It Ain’t Me, Babe
