Half a century of Bob's Other Side

[johncorrigan]

50 years ago this week Bob's 'Another Side....' came along complete with Motorpsycho Nightmare, Chimes of Freedom, My Back Pages, I shall be Free no 10 among other gems. What a record!

[cloughie]

50 years ago this week Bob's 'Another Side....' came along complete with Motorpsycho Nightmare, Chimes of Freedom, My Back Pages, I shall be Free no 10 among other gems. What a record!

Indeed so, his 4th studio LP.

1. All I Really Want To Do
2. Black Crow Blues
3. Spanish Harlem Incident
4. Chimes Of Freedom
5. I Shall Be Free No. 10
6. To Ramona
7. Motorpsycho Nightmare
8. My Back Pages
9. I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
10. Ballad In Plain D
11. It Ain't Me Babe

What a rich vein! - where would The Byrds and others have been without it?

[gurnemanz]

Indeed so, his 4th studio LP.

1. All I Really Want To Do
2. Black Crow Blues
3. Spanish Harlem Incident
4. Chimes Of Freedom
5. I Shall Be Free No. 10
6. To Ramona
7. Motorpsycho Nightmare
8. My Back Pages
9. I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
10. Ballad In Plain D
11. It Ain't Me Babe

What a rich vein! - where would The Byrds and others have been without it?

Ramona - one of my absolute favourites. What a great waltz rhythm. I love his little runs down the scale on the end of some of the lines.

My Back Pages - 50 years of them!

It Ain't me Babe - the poison of possessiveness in a relationship. No, no, no! in answer to the Beatles' Yeah, yeah, yeah. I always associate it with Blake's The Sick Rose:

O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.

[cloughie]

Ramona - one of my absolute favourites. What a great waltz rhythm. I love his little runs down the scale on the end of some of the lines.

My Back Pages - 50 years of them!

Thanks for reminding me - To Ramona - there was a really good version of this in the 1990s by Sinead Lohan.

[Richard Tarleton]

Ramona - one of my absolute favourites.

My Back Pages - 50 years of them!

Michael Gray in Song and Dance Man lll says if he could have only about five Bob Dylan albums this would be one of them - his last solo album until the 1990s. To Ramona - a bitter-sweet love song as only Dylan can make them, and one of my absolute favourites. The only time I heard him live (1984) he was on great form and went through the song book in a nearly 2½ hour set. At one point the band (Mick Taylor on guitar) went off leaving him to do an acoustic set, starting with - to my utter delight - To Ramona.

My Back Pages I find intensely personal - one of my top Dylan tracks.

[johncorrigan]

Thought I'd dust off the old Vinyl copy to mark the occasion, though it's certainly not 50 years-old but certainly well into its 40s - it's aged pretty well. Reminded me how hard it was to listen to the records and read the sleeve poems - in the days before multi-tasking it was out of the question, I realised. Still is, for me at least.

The last verse on the sleeve is:
so go joshua
go fit your battle
i have t’ go t’ the woods
for a while
i hope you understand
but if you don’t
it doesn’t matter
i will be with you
nex’ time around
don’t think about me
i’ll be ok
just go ahead out there
right out there
do what you say
you’re gonna do
an’ who knows
someday
someone might even
write
a song
about you

A parting gesture to the protest movement, I suppose.

[Richard Tarleton]

A parting gesture to the protest movement, I suppose.

Michael Gray (whom I heard deliver his standard Dylan lecture a few years ago) regards My Back Pages as "Dylan's specific recantation of the protest phase".

[johncorrigan]

Michael Gray (whom I heard deliver his standard Dylan lecture a few years ago) regards My Back Pages as "Dylan's specific recantation of the protest phase".

With the gift of hindsight, Richard, 'It ain't me Babe' sounds like he's reinforcing the point.

[Richard Tarleton]

With the gift of hindsight, Richard, 'It ain't me Babe' sounds like he's reinforcing the point.

That thought hadn't occurred to me John, thanks!

Bob duetted on that with his surprise special guest at Slane, a Mr Van Morrison

[Richard Tarleton]

Anorak footnote: Seinfeld fans will remember the two-part story The Bottle Deposit, where Newman has an adventure (in Part 2) based on Motorpsycho Mightmare.