"Another Side" is an album on which people remain split to this day. Critics largely hated it. Fans at the Newport Festival accepted it warmly when he played there (prior to the album's release). It didn't sell as well as his previous record, indicating that there may not have been as warm a reception elsewhere. And when I've talked to people about it in recent weeks, I've got a lot of "meh" and "there are a couple good songs," and I've got a couple of emphatic, "BEST ALBUM OF THAT ERA" responses. It's a divisive listen. Some of the background of the album might explain why.
At the same time the US was losing their goddamned minds about the Fab Four, Dylan was going through some personal turmoil. The breakup of his relationship with Suze Rotolo (of which too much has already been written, so I'm keeping it brief) definitely had a major impact. "To Ramona" is probably heavily informed by that. The ongoing affair with Joan Baez was probably a major factor too. He also spent some time writing for/with Nico, who would later go on to release music with The Velvet Underground. Pile on top of this a lot of traveling, and hard work, including a book deal that took years to complete and endless gigging... It's easy to see that this was a weird time in Dylan's life, and it makes sense that the album he would put out would eventually get hit with the term "transitional." Transition was a big part of his day-to-day at that point.
The transitions weren't all personal. While still an album constructed of Dylan playing/sing solo, there were some serious musical transitions, too. Listening to the album for the first time I noticed that he'd stopped finger-picking. That might not mean a lot to people who don't play guitar, but suffice to say that if you've listened to folk music, you're used to hearing it finger-picked. He also played piano on the album for the first time. Thematically, the lyrics moved away from protest songs and toward a more poetic structure. The songs felt more personal. Although it is worth noting that while the album is *less* political, there are lines in "Chimes of Freedom" that are known to have been written about the day John Kennedy died--though in the context of that song it's open-ended.
Perhaps the biggest "transitional" piece is found in one of the better known phrases on the album: "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now." This was a Bob Dylan who was stepping down from his post as the voice of a generation. A Dylan who didn't want to be Messiah, but just wanted to write his songs. But like any transition, it was misunderstood by critics who instead wrote that he was beginning to sound like the fame had gone to his head. Because...of course that's what they said.
Favorite Tracks:
- "All I Really Want to Do"
- "Chimes of Freedom"
- "To Ramona" - Which I'm not as fond of as a lot of Dylan fans, but it's a song about saving ones lover from oneself and I get that. Plus balanced against what was going on in his personal life, I think if nothing else, it's an important track.
- "My Back Pages"
- "It Ain't Me Babe" - I was familiar with this as a Johnny Cash song long before I knew it was a Dylan song. I don't prefer either version. They're both great. The way Dylan tells the story of meeting Cash, he says they were both so excited, they were jumping up and down on beds like kids. I'm sure that's not 100% true...but don't you want it to be? Don't you WANT to see Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan jumping up and down on a bed, giggling together?
I've said a few times in this post that opinions are divided on this album. So here's mine. On my first listen, I didn't feel much about the album other than recognizing a couple of the tunes. But on subsequent listens, it grew on me a lot. It's a sadder tone than we're used to from Dylan up to this point. I can see why some would've found it jarring--boy did they have no idea what was coming next! I think this is one you've got to spend some time with to appreciate. So of course critics didn't get it.
I can't blame anyone who doesn't love this album. But I think people who get up in arms about tearing it down probably don't have real problems in their lives like Bob Dylan did at the time.
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