“Euw, Bob Dylan, isn’t he the guy with the weird, croaky voice?” I heard a young girl comment on the last bus home the other night. Suddenly I felt very old. So I decided I’d go hunting in my shelves and dig out a couple of Dylan records, and see if the old man still had some sense. And the conclusion must be, yes, he most certainly does. Universal truths die hard.

Dylan is poetry embodied. Maybe we should start teaching analysis of Dylan’s lyrics in English class. That should liven things up a little - and I insist, he makes as much sense if not more to angry youths tired of Shakespeare and classical romanticism, but hungry for learning and literature and poetical impulses. And when I put on “Another side of Bob Dylan” I know I’ve got a good one between my hands - sometimes I like to judge records on the basis of how much fun I think the artist or band has had recording the damn thing. In the case of Bob Dylan, I’m almost certain that he’s always feeling great when he pounds that piano or strums, plucks those strings. It also helps that he has a number of intelligent things to say, and you get used to the voice after a while.

I’m not going to try and write an objective account of what “Another Side…” is like musically etc. It’s been done to death in more skillful ways than I could a million other places a million times before. Yeah, a lot of the songs make very little sense, such as “Spanish Harlem Incident”, but you can’t help but sense the overall, overriding theme in all his songs on this record, which is that world-weary romantic feeling. Bob Dylan has lived a life worthy of telling, you can sense it in the form if not the actual content of his words and the sleepy sound of his tired voice (imagine: put this record on after the party has gone home and the last few remaining are tired and just sitting around looking at the floor). Unlike his previous “The Times They Are A’Changin’”, this record does show another side of Bob Dylan, and it’s a good side to see and hear really.

Year Released: 1964
Label: Columbia
Related Link: Bob Dylan
Date Reviewed: 2004-07-02
Author: Andreas