Expecting Rain

An attempt to listen to all of Bob Dylan's studio albums in order over the summer, climaxing approximately with the release of the newest Bob Dylan album sometime in September. There will be about 2 albums per week. As a wise man once said, "what a weird trip this will be for anyone who can keep listening!"

Part 4:
Another Side of Bob Dylan
Release: August 8, 1964

Listen and get back to us!

allmusic review:
The other side of Bob Dylan referred to in the title is presumably his romantic, absurdist, and whimsical one -- anything that wasn't featured on the staunchly folky, protest-heavy Times They Are a-Changin', really. Because of this, Another Side of Bob Dylan is a more varied record and it's more successful, too, since it captures Dylan expanding his music, turning in imaginative, poetic performances on love songs and protest tunes alike. This has an equal number of classics to its predecessor, actually, with "All I Really Want to Do," "Chimes of Freedom," "My Back Pages," "I Don't' Believe You," and "It Ain't Me Babe" standing among his standards, but the key to the record's success is the album tracks, which are graceful, poetic, and layered. Both the lyrics and music have gotten deeper and Dylan's trying more things -- this, in its construction and attitude, is hardly strictly folk, as it encompasses far more than that. The result is one of his very best records, a lovely intimate affair.


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Bob Dylan
Release: March 19, 1962
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The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Release: May 27, 1963
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The Times They Are a-Changin'
Release: January 13, 1964
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Another Side of Bob Dylan
Release: August 8, 1964

Bringing It All Back Home
Release: March 22, 1965

Highway 61 Revisited
Release: August 30, 1965

Blonde on Blonde
Release: June 20, 1966

John Wesley Harding
Release: December 27, 1967

Nashville Skyline
Release: April 9, 1969

Self Portrait
Release: June 8, 1970

New Morning
Release: October 21, 1970

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
Release: July 13, 1973

Dylan
Release: November 16, 1973

Planet Waves
Release: January 17, 1974

Blood on the Tracks
Release: January 17, 1975

The Basement Tapes
Release: June 26, 1975

Desire
Release: January 16, 1976

Street Legal
Release: June 15, 1978

Slow Train Coming
Release: August 20, 1979

Saved
Release: June 20, 1980

Shot of Love
Release: August 12, 1981

Infidels
Release: November 1, 1983

Empire Burlesque
Release: June 8, 1985

Knocked Out Loaded
Release: August 8, 1986

Down in the Groove
Release: May 31, 1988

Oh Mercy
Release: September 22, 1989

Under the Red Sky
Release: September 11, 1990

Good as I Been to You
Release: October 27, 1992

World Gone Wrong
Release: October 28, 1993

Time Out of Mind
Release: September 30, 1997

"Love and Theft"
Release: September 11, 2001

Modern Times
Release: August 29, 2006

Together Through Life
Release: April 28, 2009

Christmas in the Heart
Release: October 13, 2009[/quote]

All I Really Want To Do standing among his standards?

blame the folks at allmusic.

I just wanted to say, smoke, that my shrink is cool with me participating in this too. My wife on the other hand...

Looking forward to giving this another spin, I don't dig these early albums out too often.


A standard? Yeah, sort of...
I ain't lookin' to compete with you
Beat or cheat or mistreat you
Simplify you, classify you
Deny, defy or crucify you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

No, and I ain't lookin' to fight with you
Frighten you or tighten you
Drag you down or drain you down
Chain you down or bring you down
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I ain't lookin' to block you up
Shock or knock or lock you up
Analyze you, categorize you
Finalize you or advertise you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I don't want to straight-face you
Race or chase you, track or trace you
Or disgrace you or displace you
Or define you or confine you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I don't want to meet your kin
Make you spin or do you in
Or select you or dissect you
Or inspect you or reject you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I don't want to fake you out
Take or shake or forsake you out
I ain't lookin' for you to feel like me
See like me or be like me
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

Just seems like one of those tunes that was sort of prominent back in 1960's, (see it's inclusion on the ancient Greatest Hits Vol. 2) but got left there. No biggie, anyway.

The Bukokan version was a real hoot - but, yeah, it's sort of got lost along the way. A "list" song but a fun one.

I wish he'd replaced Ballad in Plain D with Mama You Been on My Mind.

agreed! 'Mama you been on my mind' is one of my favourite songs, it has a lot of personal and sentimental value for me. although it must be said, it sounds a lot like 'Don't think twice, its alright' (especially during the NET).

I love this album, 'To Ramona', 'It aint me babe' and 'Spanish Harlem Incident' are my favourites. But i always skip 'Chimes of Freedom', its a lovely song, but there's something about the performance i dont like. he's not quite nailing it.

I have to admit i love this Summer Listening Challenge . I'm still listening to the debut album every day

It a bipolar album really - half is good, half shit.

Bit of an anomaly among those classic 60s albums....

He should have waited till he was sober to record the songs - sloppy aint the word. Coming from the mastery of voice that was 'Times..', this is chocful of borderline nails-down-blackboard carelessness.

And you know what? I've actively grown to hate 'My Back Pages'. God that song annoys the living shit out of me.

Nah , it's intentionally like that . Nothing bad about it . It's careless , it's poetic , it's a masterpiece

Yes, yes, yes and yes. I prefer the Chimes from Newport--it's an incredible song though--the album version just sounds shouted and I find it abrasive. Ramona, It Aint Me are wonderful. It is about half great.

The album as recorded has a mood that's just right, though, coming off of the seriousness of Times. Listening in order, it's kind of perfect. Shifting from Times to Bringing it All Back Home. I wonder if anyone listening in 1964 could have guessed what was to come?

Clearly (right?), Ballad in Plain D is the song Bob's referring to in the Biograph liner notes when he says that there is only one song he regrets writing and recording.

The Byrds have a nice, albeit short version of "Chimes of Freedom" on their Live at the Fillmore February 1969 album.

"Another Side of Bob Dylan" has always been one of my favorites. It's not perfect, of course, but that's part of its charm.

I think Bob called Carla some time in the mid-'80s to try and make up for it, but it was too late.

cher did a kick ass version; better than the byrds

Another side marks dylan's first turn away from the tide. setting up both musically and contextually the next sequence of changes that would be so cataclysmic and influential.

we hear new voices and a prevalent inward perspective and introspective rumination in the lyrical content. still pulling on the 'wise sage' voice from the previous two albums, heard in Chimes of Freedom, It ain't me babe, and My Back pages, and Ballad in plain D, there's also an effort to be singerly as well as sagelike in his delivery in a few places - as witnessed in Spanish Harlem incident and All I really wanna do

We also hear the voice that becomes his blues voice - a thinner more spirited version of his ghosty appalacian voice of his earlier albums, with a comical twist - this is heard in I shall be free and motorpsycho nightmare

my favorite two songs on the album are To Ramona and Motorpsycho Nightmare. Many of this songs are performed better live during this period i think.

Motorpsycho demonstrates his interest in wordplay to drive the song - again, characteristic of his first surreal blues songs. also significant is the departure from sophisticated guitar play - the anthemic strums of The Times they are a changin' have devolved to what sounds like an often out of tune guitar that could accompany a campfire sing-along. this may be heightened for me by only having a stereo vinyl copy of this one, but the guitar really doesn't do much in most of the songs other that get out of the way of the lyrics and melody.

Ballad in Plain D demonstrates the danger of turning a topical songwriter loose on contemporary occurrences. it's failure as a song rationalizes the need to grow more metaphorical and cryptic in his professed observational writing he maintains in the next three albums...

The Album is Dylan's first big left foot statement - as if to say 'my thoughts are as important as my social concerns. this is what i'm pondering right now, this i where i'm at. catch up.' My back pages is dylan's first, cryptic 'papa's got a brand new bag' song - to be followed by baby blue and positively fourth street.

each of his albums have had at least one song that is sort of like a soliloquy - a statement hinting towards his world view. 'my back pages' is that song here, 'restless farewell' comes the closest on times, 'Bob Dylan's dream' on Freewheelin', and 'Song to Woody' on the debut. it will be interesting if this trend continues...

the critical response was strong and divisive - and a little lost in history after the explosion of the electric movement. here's the infamous Sing out! letter, 'An Open Letter to Bob Dylan,' by Irwin Silber.

...As with anyone who ventures down uncharted paths, you've aroused a growing number of petty critics. some don't like the way you wear your hair or your clothes. Some don't like the way you sing. Some don't like the fact that you've chosen your name and recast your past. But all of that, in the long run, is trivial. We both know that many of these criticisms are simply coverups for embarrassment at hearing songs that speak directly, personally and urgently about where it's all really at.

But - and this is the reason for this letter, Bob -- I think that the times they are a-changing. You seem to be in a different bag now, Bob -- and I'm worried about it...

You said you weren't a writer of 'protest' songs -- or any other category, for that matter -- but you just wrote songs. Well, okay, call it anything you want. But any songwriter who tries to deal honestly with reality in this world is bound to write 'protest' songs. How can he help himself?

Your new songs seem to be all inner-directed now, inner probing, self-conscious - maybe even a little maudlin or a little cruel on occasion. And it's all happening on stage, too. You seem to be related to a handful of cronies behind the scenes now - rather than to the rest of us out in front.

Now, that's okay -- if that's the way you want it, Bob. But then you're a different Bob Dylan from the one we knew. The old one never wasted our precious time.

Perhaps this letter has been long overdue. I think, in a sense, that we are all responsible for what's been happening to you -- and to many other fine young artists. The American Success Machinery chews up geniuses at a rate of one a day and still hungers for more. Unable to produce real art on its own, the Establishment breeds creativity in protest against nonconformity to the System. And then, through notoriety, fast money, and status, it makes it almost impossible for the artist to function and grow. It is a process that must be constantly guarded against and fought.

Give it some thought, Bob. Believe me when I say that this letter is written out of love and deep concern. I wouldn't be sticking my neck out like this otherwise

yikes. some of that is laughable...

it ain't me babe indeed

^
Didn't Johnny Cash write a letter in response to that?

he did indeed !

Can you find it, Troub? I've been looking for it, but have only found references to it, not the letter itself.

LOVE Countdown Kid's write up on Ballad in Plain D which is precisely how I feel about this song

http://countdownkid.wordpress.com/2012/ ... n-plain-d/

did a search on google and it led me back to Expecting Rain. the source of all good things:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12829

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=21420

ha
Thanks.
I'll post it here:

Sing Out! March 10, 1964, Issue 38

A Letter From Johnny Cash

Hi Broadside:
I got hung, but didn’t choke . . . Bob Dylan slung his rope.
I sat down and listened quick . . . Gravy from that brain is thick.
He began by startin’ alright . . . But the place he started . . .
Was way ahead, out of sight!
In the night there’s a light.
A lamp is burning in all our dark . . . But . . . We must open our eyes to see it . . .
As he listened for the wind . . . To hear it.
Near my shores of mental dying, Grasping straws and twigs, and drowning,
Worthless I, But crying loudest. Came a Poet Troubadour, Singing fine familiar things.
Sang a hundred thousand lyrics, Right as Rain, Sweet as Sleep,
Words to thrill you . . . And to kill you.
Don’t bad-mouth him, till you hear him,
Let him start by continuing, He’s almost brand new,
SHUP UP! . . . AND LET HIM SING!
. . . . . JOHNNY CASH

Btw, isn't Irwin Silver the same doofus who dismissed him at first and wouldn't sign him for some folk label?

Thanks for that, Raging - it's exactly how I feel about that song, too - never understood the animosity. He actually allowed us a glimpse into his own life. I'll never forget hearing these words "The wind knocks my window, the room it is wet/The words to say I’m sorry I haven’t found yet.”

I think it was in Shelton's book I read some other letters that were written in Sing Out! and maybe Broadside that were vicious. I never realized the depth of their stupidity and their desire to own or control him until I read that book (I think that is where I read about them.) Kind of sick, really.

yw, doomed. of course we think alike

I think someone mentioned the Irwin Silber thing in NDH, maybe John Cohen?
Yeah, everyone knows about what happened after he plugged in, but the bullsh*t started way before that.