Music / Another Side of Bob Dylan

I must remember that I, too, play guitar.

Another Side of Bob Dylan is the fourth studio album by Bob Dylan, released in 1964. It marked his transition from protest songs to impressionistic, expressive lyrics, which caused his first major backlash from fans and critics. The album is best remembered for "It Ain't Me Babe", "Chimes of Freedom" and "My Back Pages".

It would be his last solo acoustic studio album for many decades, until the arrival of Good as I Been to You from 1992.

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Tracklist:

Side One

1. "All I Really Want to Do" (4:04)
2. "Black Crow Blues" (3:14)
3. "Spanish Harlem Incident" (2:24)
4. "Chimes of Freedom" (7:10)
5. "I Shall Be Free No. 10" (4:47)
6. "To Ramona" (3:52)

Side Two

1. "Motorpsycho Nitemare" (4:33)
2. "My Back Pages" (4:22)
3. "I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)" (4:22)
4. "Ballad in Plain D" (8:16)
5. "It Ain't Me Babe" (3:33)

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Motorpsycho Tropes:

• Added Alliterative Appeal: "Black Crow Blues".
  I woke in the mornin' wandrin'
  Worried and worn out
  Wishin' my long l lover"
  Will walk to me, talk to me
• Arc Words: "My Back Pages".
  Ah, but I was so much older then
  I'm younger than that now.
• Anti-Love Song: "I Ain't Me Babe".
  I'm not the one you want, babe
  I will only let your down
  You say you're lookin' for someone
  Who will promise never to part
  Someone to close his eyes for you
  Someone to close his heart
  Someone who will die for you an' more
  But it ain't me, babe
  No, no, no, it ain't me babe
  It ain't me you're lookin' for, babe.
• Break Up Song:
  • "I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)" has Dylan get over a former partner who ignores him:
  And if anybody asks me, "Is it easy to forget?"
  I'll say: "It's easily done. You just pick anyone and pretend that you never have met."
  • "Ballad In Plain D."
  I courted her proudly, but now she is gone
  Gone as the season she's taken
  • "It Ain't Me Babe"
  Go 'way from my window
  Leave at your own chosen speed
  I'm not the one you want, babe
  I'm not the one you need
• Captain Morgan Pose: Dylan strikes a casual version of this in the cover photo.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The cover of this album can also be seen on the cover of Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home from 1965.
  • "I Shall Be Free #10" is one to "I Shall Be Free" on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The black-and-white album cover.
• Drinking on Duty: The album was recorded over one single night with Dylan polishing off a few bottles of wine, and he's noticeably loose, and several songs end up with completely different chord progressions in different verses.
• Epic Rocking: The 8:16 "Ballad In Plain D".
• Face on the Cover: Dylan resting on one knee.
• New Sound Album: As indicated by the title; while the sound isn't much changed from his previous albums, the lyrics certainly are.
• One-Woman Song: "To Ramona"
• Papa Bear: "Motorpsycho Nightmare", where Dylan spends the night at a farmer's home.
  He said, "I got a bed for you
  Underneath the stove
  Just one condition
  You got to sleep right now
  That you don't touch my daughter
  And in the morning, milk the cow"
• The Power of Friendship: "All I Really Want To Do".
  I ain't lookin' to block you up
  Shock or knock or lock you up
  Analyse you, categorize you
  Finalize you or advertise you
  All I really want to do
  Is, baby, be friends with you.
• Product Placement:
  • "I Shall Be Free, No. 10".
  Carry the New York Times, shoot a few holes, blow their minds
  • "Motorpsycho Nightmare".
  Well, he threw a Readers Digest at my head and I did run
• Protest Song:
  • "My Back Pages" has Dylan disowning his status as a protest singer, so in a sense it's a protest song of its own.
  • "Motorpsycho Nightmare" is a story about a man being persecuted by a farmer for expressing admiration for Fidel Castro, but despite him threatening to turn him to the FBI Dylan assures us:
    Me, I romp and stomping
    Thankful as a romp
    Without freedom of speech I might be in the swamp
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: "To Ramona".
  I've heard you say many times
  That you're better 'n no one
  And no one is better 'n you
  If you really believe that
  You know you have nothing to win and nothing to lose
• Record Producer: Tom Wilson.
• Red Scare: Dylan pretends to like Fidel Castro in "Motorpsycho Nightmare" and gets attacked by the farmer who gave him a place to rest for the night.
  He said he's going to kill me
  If I don't get out of the door in two seconds flat
  "You unpatriotic rotten doctor Commie rat!"
• Refuge in Audacity: In "Motorpsycho Nightmare" Dylan tries to be thrown out by the farmer by expressing admiration for Fidel Castro, which has the desired effect.
• Rhyming List: "All I Really Want To Do"
• Self-Titled Album: "Another Side Of Bob Dylan".
• Shout-Out:
  • "Motorpsycho Nightmare".
  Then in comes his daughter, whose name was Rita
  She looked like she stepped out of La Dolce Vita
  (...) There stood Rita lookin' just like Tony Perkins ^note Actor Anthony Perkins, who played Norman Bates in Psycho
  (...) "I like Fidel Castro and his beard"
  • "I Shall Be Free No. 10".
  I was shadow-boxing earlier in the day
  I figured I was ready for Cassius Clay
  I said "Fee, fie, fo, fum, Cassius Clay here I come
  26, 27, 28, 29, I'm gonna make your face look just like mine
  Five, four, three, two, one, Cassius Clay you'd better run
  99, 100 101, 102, your ma won't even recognize you
  14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, gonna knock him clean right out of his spleen
  (...) But if you think that I'll let Barry Goldwater
  Move in next door and marry my daughter
  You must think I'm crazy
  I wouldn't let him do it for all the farms in Cuba
  • The Byrds covered "Spanish Harlem Incident", "Chimes Of Freedom" and "All I Really Want To Do" on their album Mr. Tambourine Man from 1965 and "My Back Pages" on their album "Younger Than Yesterday".
  • R.E.M. referenced My Back Pages in their song King of Birds:
    Old man, don`t lay so still, you`re not yet young, there`s time to teach...
• Something Blues: "Black Crow Blues".
• Time Marches On: "I Shall Be Free No. 10" references the American Russian space race, US politician Barry Goldwater and boxer Cassius Clay, who would rename himself as Muhammad Ali in 1965.
• With Friends Like These...: "I Shall Be Free No. 10"
  Now I gotta friend who spends his life
  Stabbing my picture with a bowie-knife
  Dreams of strangling me with a scarf
  When my name comes up he pretends to barf
  I've got a million friends !
• Word Salad Lyrics: "I Shall Be Free No. 10", lamp-shaded by Dylan in the final lines:
  You're probably wondering by now
  Just what this song is all about?
  What's probably got you baffled more
  What this thing here is for
  It's nothing
  It's something I learned over in England

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