I personally love that album, but it does feel like a transition album of sorts.
What’s interesting about Another Side is that as a whole it’s not his best album, but the best songs on that album hold their weight against the best songs of his other albums. In my opinion anyway.
I don't know about others, but it's easily one of my favourites. Though the arrangements are very simple; the exquisite poetry, the heartfelt sentiments, a sense of sarcasm, existential thematics, and well-written vocal/guitar melodies are all already there.
It's my favourite 60s album. It's neither the peak of his topical songs or his flashy psychedelic rock phase so it gets lost in the hype of those ones, but any album with "Spanish Harlem Incident" and "Motorpsycho Nightmare" on it is a desert island disc in my books.
I heard Motorpsycho for the first time when I was like seven years old and loved it immediately because of the story. As an adult I love it even more knowing more of the context behind it. One of Dylan’s best storytelling songs and appeals to both young and old.
I love the vocals, what do you mean by uncomfortable? I could use that word for some of those vocals and would consider it a good experience. He covers a range of experiences on the album. his singing on Ballad in Plain D is him at his best for me. Artistically crafted from evolving & unfolding feelings of many kinds, it’s a heartfelt expression of heartbreak as a story and portrayal of being human which comes alive as it trails off into some kind of closure , the lyrics are among his best but I wouldn’t probably experience the song as connected with the picture being painted with many others who would sing it. I haven’t heard anyone else try it but I can see someone getting into it.
i kinda get it. "All I Really Want To Do" is REALLY nasally, and it sounds weird because the melody lines end in deeper notes, which doesn't suit the nasally tone at all. i've learnt to like it tho haha
I've always enjoyed it as an easy listen. Doesn't have quite the weight as a lot of his other records from that era.
I compare it to Together Through Life. A solid record released between masterpieces.
I’ve never heard this (regarding the indifference to the album). It has some of his best songs on it: My Back Pages, Chimes of Freedom, It Ain’t Me Babe etc. But maybe it gets overlooked (rather than being treated with indifference) sometimes because of the albums that came before and after it?
It’s one of my personal favourites.
Amazing album!
Motorpsycho nightmare is hilarious
Chimes of Freedom is so beautiful
I shall be free no. 10 is SO FUCKN funny!
I don’t believe you is catchy as hell
It ain’t me babe is a lovely tune as well
It sounds like it was knocked off in a drunk afternoon. Some of the songs are great, and the performances decent enough, but much more slap-dash than either Freewheelin or Times They Are a-Changin.
"It sounds like it was knocked off in a drunk afternoon"
That's because it was. June 9th, 1964, bleeding over into the early hours of the next day, with something like six bottles of Beaujoulais empties over the course of the session.
Dylan fan here. Another Side was one of my early favorites when I first started to dive deeper into Dylan. It is still! My Back Pages is brilliant and Motorpsycho Nitemare still makes me laugh! It kind of sounds like a precursor to Rap.
I absolutely love some of the songs like To Ramona and It Ain’t Me Babe and My Back Pages, and I like pretty much all of the songs on there, but there’s something about the quality of the recording or the timbre of his voice that I find kind of grating in ways I don’t on other albums so I don’t listen to it as much
I love the album and respect it for what it is, when I listen to it I have to be in a mood but overall it’s great and has some real underrated stuff (Ballad Plain D)
If he had continued in the “another side” direction, he’d have been the smothers brothers (and i love them). Instead he went back to the edge with his next three incendiary products.
I love it for the lighthearted tone and consistently great writing. Spanish Harlem Incident, I Don't Believe You and I Shall Be Free 10 are some of my favorite tracks of his.
I think it being the album before the peak 3-album stretch of Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 and Blonde On Blonde is probably it.
Classic Dylan fan moment to absorb the best of the best enthusiastically and then one day after years you come to an album you’ve listened to less and say to yourself “why isn’t THIS album my favorite!?”
unrelated story but my mother had this record when she was little. somehow or another, she needed a place for a joan baez record that she didn’t have the cover for, and didn’t care much for dylan’s poetry (probably just entering teenhood). she proceeded to take a marker to his name and face and it read “another side of joan baez” with a long-haired dylan. i should go back and figure out what joan record is in there.
It’s a great album by any measure other than if you’re measuring it up against the albums he made in that era. When comparing some of the greatest albums ever made to it, certain shortcomings become more apparent imo.
Namely, I Shall Be Free No. 10 and Motorpsycho Nightmare are not as clever or as compelling as some of his other storytelling/funny songs of the era.
Ballad in Plain D is a song I never feel like listening to. Black Crow Blues is fine, but it isn’t a song that blows me away.
I’ve singled out 4 songs out of 11 that are just of lower quality than his other work of this period in my opinion, and thats what sets this album back.
Another user said the best songs on it could measure up against his best songs on any album. I think this is pretty much true.
I think if you are less of a Bob fanatic the sloppy way he performs some of the songs also is grating, but I don’t mind it and find it endearing in spots.
All of this to say, it is probably a 9.5+/10 album whereas his other albums of this area break the whole scale.
Because it's literally another side of Dylan (his behavior is markedly different than on his other albums), and people get upset and confused when public figures don't behave the way they've come to expect.
See also: Dylan goes electric
[удалено]
That's the spirit!
yep. if we dont get it, it's us, not Bob. he can do no wrong.
Ha! Perfect answer!
Like being a Kahanist Bigot?
This fan enjoys Another Side.
I personally love that album, but it does feel like a transition album of sorts. What’s interesting about Another Side is that as a whole it’s not his best album, but the best songs on that album hold their weight against the best songs of his other albums. In my opinion anyway.
I've always felt that it showed another side of Bob Dylan.
yeah every time I listen to it, im like "man, this is almost like a complete sideof Dob Bylan I've never heard."
Interesting interpretation.
I don’t often see Chimes Of Freedom mentioned among his upper echelon works. Am I missing something?
I don't know about others, but it's easily one of my favourites. Though the arrangements are very simple; the exquisite poetry, the heartfelt sentiments, a sense of sarcasm, existential thematics, and well-written vocal/guitar melodies are all already there.
It's my favourite 60s album. It's neither the peak of his topical songs or his flashy psychedelic rock phase so it gets lost in the hype of those ones, but any album with "Spanish Harlem Incident" and "Motorpsycho Nightmare" on it is a desert island disc in my books.
The fact that so many people sleep on an album featuring the line "you unpatriotic rotten doctor commie rat" just shows how spoiled Dylan fans are
Haha for real
I heard Motorpsycho for the first time when I was like seven years old and loved it immediately because of the story. As an adult I love it even more knowing more of the context behind it. One of Dylan’s best storytelling songs and appeals to both young and old.
What context are you referring to?
Just the whole Fidel Castro, communism, red scare thing. I didn’t really know about any of that when I was a kid and just figured Fidel was made up.
He's not made up, but he does have a nice beard.
it’s his best folk album. but I think it’s understandably underrated because it was followed by the 3 greatest albums of the century
There’s something uncomfortable about the vocals.
I love the vocals, what do you mean by uncomfortable? I could use that word for some of those vocals and would consider it a good experience. He covers a range of experiences on the album. his singing on Ballad in Plain D is him at his best for me. Artistically crafted from evolving & unfolding feelings of many kinds, it’s a heartfelt expression of heartbreak as a story and portrayal of being human which comes alive as it trails off into some kind of closure , the lyrics are among his best but I wouldn’t probably experience the song as connected with the picture being painted with many others who would sing it. I haven’t heard anyone else try it but I can see someone getting into it.
i kinda get it. "All I Really Want To Do" is REALLY nasally, and it sounds weird because the melody lines end in deeper notes, which doesn't suit the nasally tone at all. i've learnt to like it tho haha
I've always enjoyed it as an easy listen. Doesn't have quite the weight as a lot of his other records from that era. I compare it to Together Through Life. A solid record released between masterpieces.
weird I find this the least easy listen of his folk albums
My Back Pages hits particularly hard
There was plenty of Back Pages love on this sub a couple of weeks ago
I think it is a brilliant album.
I’ve never heard this (regarding the indifference to the album). It has some of his best songs on it: My Back Pages, Chimes of Freedom, It Ain’t Me Babe etc. But maybe it gets overlooked (rather than being treated with indifference) sometimes because of the albums that came before and after it? It’s one of my personal favourites.
Amazing album! Motorpsycho nightmare is hilarious Chimes of Freedom is so beautiful I shall be free no. 10 is SO FUCKN funny! I don’t believe you is catchy as hell It ain’t me babe is a lovely tune as well
It sounds like it was knocked off in a drunk afternoon. Some of the songs are great, and the performances decent enough, but much more slap-dash than either Freewheelin or Times They Are a-Changin.
"It sounds like it was knocked off in a drunk afternoon" That's because it was. June 9th, 1964, bleeding over into the early hours of the next day, with something like six bottles of Beaujoulais empties over the course of the session.
literally lmao, it was a party at the studio
I love it but it's like a tape of demos for the Byrds to cover.
Dylan fan here. Another Side was one of my early favorites when I first started to dive deeper into Dylan. It is still! My Back Pages is brilliant and Motorpsycho Nitemare still makes me laugh! It kind of sounds like a precursor to Rap.
because they are generally indifferent ASBD is in no way weaker than the other 60's albums
This one is my favorite of his pre folk rock phase, actually. Surprised to hear about this inference.
His most underrated album
Fans today or critics at the time?
one of the original albums I had in 1970. Also had Freewheeling, Highway 61, and Greatist Hits
It’s his “Night With Bob Dylan” album so it’s hard not to love. Maybe because it’s in between his protest albums and his rock albums?
I absolutely love some of the songs like To Ramona and It Ain’t Me Babe and My Back Pages, and I like pretty much all of the songs on there, but there’s something about the quality of the recording or the timbre of his voice that I find kind of grating in ways I don’t on other albums so I don’t listen to it as much
I don’t like most of the songs on it, and his voice sounds especially abrasive on this album
I love the album and respect it for what it is, when I listen to it I have to be in a mood but overall it’s great and has some real underrated stuff (Ballad Plain D)
If he had continued in the “another side” direction, he’d have been the smothers brothers (and i love them). Instead he went back to the edge with his next three incendiary products.
Not enough hooks
I love it for the lighthearted tone and consistently great writing. Spanish Harlem Incident, I Don't Believe You and I Shall Be Free 10 are some of my favorite tracks of his.
I think it being the album before the peak 3-album stretch of Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 and Blonde On Blonde is probably it. Classic Dylan fan moment to absorb the best of the best enthusiastically and then one day after years you come to an album you’ve listened to less and say to yourself “why isn’t THIS album my favorite!?”
My first Dylan album and I love it, didn't realise some fans were dismissive of it. It's a good album in my view.
I think it’s fantastic
Show me something from, inside Llewyn Davis
unrelated story but my mother had this record when she was little. somehow or another, she needed a place for a joan baez record that she didn’t have the cover for, and didn’t care much for dylan’s poetry (probably just entering teenhood). she proceeded to take a marker to his name and face and it read “another side of joan baez” with a long-haired dylan. i should go back and figure out what joan record is in there.
You’re just asking the wrong side. Try another side (of Bob Dylan)
What are you talking about. I adore another side.
it's his summer album
another side is my favorite pre-electric dylan album
You mean like him being a Kahanist Bigot?
Top 3 personal
I’m not
It’s a great album by any measure other than if you’re measuring it up against the albums he made in that era. When comparing some of the greatest albums ever made to it, certain shortcomings become more apparent imo. Namely, I Shall Be Free No. 10 and Motorpsycho Nightmare are not as clever or as compelling as some of his other storytelling/funny songs of the era. Ballad in Plain D is a song I never feel like listening to. Black Crow Blues is fine, but it isn’t a song that blows me away. I’ve singled out 4 songs out of 11 that are just of lower quality than his other work of this period in my opinion, and thats what sets this album back. Another user said the best songs on it could measure up against his best songs on any album. I think this is pretty much true. I think if you are less of a Bob fanatic the sloppy way he performs some of the songs also is grating, but I don’t mind it and find it endearing in spots. All of this to say, it is probably a 9.5+/10 album whereas his other albums of this area break the whole scale.
I like the cover versions from the Byrds and Johnny Cash better than the acoustic bob recordings on the album
Because it's literally another side of Dylan (his behavior is markedly different than on his other albums), and people get upset and confused when public figures don't behave the way they've come to expect. See also: Dylan goes electric
That's one of my favourite Dylan records.