8th of August, 1964: 'Another Side of Bob Dylan' by Bob Dylan Was Released

After the success of the albums The Times They Are A-Changin' and The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan had really made a name for himself as the singer of the protest song or the bard of the 60s. He then went on to create this severely underrated masterpiece. Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964) was the guitar-strumming, nasal-singing, poetic-balance that met the previous albums with a slightly less serious sound and yet, has some songs on it that are considered a few of Bob Dylan’s greatest masterpieces. This is also where Bob Dylan experiments with sounds that he’ll revisit on Bringing it All Back Home (1965). I mean just listen to the song “Black Crow Blues” from Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964) and then listen to the songs “On the Road Again” and “Outlaw Blues” from Bringing it All Back Home (1965). I mean the latter songs may be electric, but they have the same basic bluesy concept. What I’m going to do in this article is explain to you five things about the album Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964) that I love in celebration of its birthday. I feel like sometimes this album is overlooked because of the success of Freewheelin’ and the iconic status of The Times They Are a-Changin’. But it is the first album that really begins the myth of the ever-changing Bob Dylan and here are the five things I’ve chosen to go through today.

5. "Chimes of Freedom"

I love this song because it is just so damn poetic. I love it because Bob Dylan wrote it with his heart and not his hand and you can really tell from just the chorus: “And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing…”—I mean, it’s iconic. Just like the song “The Times They Are A-Changin,’” this is one of Bob Dylan’s most iconic refrains that every Bob Dylan fan, whether a bobcat or a Dylanologist, knows off by heart. The song itself is a brilliant achievement of the 1960s protest anthem and, though it may not be "A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall"—it still presents itself as a beautiful icon of a song.

4. "I Don't Believe You"

This song, I always say, has a better version which was included on the bootleg album of the live concert “The Royal Albert Hall, 1966.” The song always fascinated me because of the fact it’s his first real attempt at the anti-love song. He hasn’t really done much of it before off his own hand and I guess that’s why they call this “Another Side of Bob Dylan”—because it is literally another side to his writing style, lyricism, and music production. It’s a brilliant song and yet, I have still met people who don’t like it (and they don’t like the live version either—that is simply not on).

3. "I Shall Be Free No. 10"

This song is part funny and part highly political. There’s something really satirical about this song that I have to say always makes me laugh. I love the fact that Bob Dylan is trying to get us to see the funny side of the situation, but I will always relate this song back to the older song “I Shall Be Free” or to “Talkin’ World War III Blues.” It is a strange rap-like, almost blues song that builds and morphs and finally, it becomes “Subterranean Homesick Blues.”

2. "It Ain't Me Babe"

This is normally cited as everyone’s favourite song from the album. It has also been covered by many different artists over the years to absolutely no avail whatsoever because Bob Dylan’s is the best. But, even though there are many covers of the song and even though some people may not like Bob Dylan’s crooning—the line goes “nobody sings Dylan like Dylan” (unless you’re talking about Nina Simone singing “I Shall be Released”—that song just belongs to her now, Bobby). Nobody sings this song quite like Bob Dylan because of the fact nobody can really put the same emotion into it as he does. There’s something raw and very coarse about this song that I feel like covers of the song deliberately try to smooth out and when I hear that, that’s when I turn the cover off and listen to the real song. I especially didn’t like Joan Baez’s version, it was awful to listen to. This song is deliberately anti-commitment and is basically the anthem to my life.

1. "My Back Pages"

My favourite song from the entire album is “My Back Pages.” I love this song because it sounds very classic Dylan, and sounds as if it would fit perfectly fine on the album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan as well. I love the thought-provoking nature of the refrain of the song and how it really makes you think about the political impacts upon the world heavily changing the social viewpoint of the younger generation. It is a brilliant and beautiful song with an iconic sound on par with “Chimes of Freedom.” But most of all, it has that acoustic strumming which makes for an amazing simplicity to the song to juxtapose the deep themes.

Conclusion

As I have already said, I feel that this album is constantly overshadowed by The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and The Times They Are A-Changin,’ but it still stands independently. It has its own individuality because of the mixture between satire, protest anthem, love song and anti-love song that it gives us in preparation for the next step Bob Dylan may take. This album really marks where he begins to change and, is rightly named to be showing us another side to him. It is a masterpiece of music that will endure as that iconic moment when Bob Dylan went from being our protest anthem king, to becoming the folk rock god we know and love.