Bob Dylan – Another Side Of Bob Dylan

I love the early Bob Dylan albums his later albums aren't as good. Dylan in his prime was a mega superstar

I just picked up a copy of this, and by everything I've seen this is a first press, however, I can't find the side A runout I have
Matrix / Runout (Side A Stamped [Variant 2]): o XSM-77044-1B 1 P

Also, "7" on back cover

Historically and conceptually one should consider this a very good album, though the following year we’d see Bringing It All Back Home and the relentless Highway 61 being released, making Another Side of Bob Dylan sound extremely dated, out of fashion and off of nearly everyone’s radar, save for those diehard folk fans who still to this day adore the first four Dylan albums.

This is one of those heady socially relevant albums, though as I’ve professed many times before, Dylan freely its that this folk consciousness was merely a means of opening the door, allowing him to gain a foothold before he launched into a sonic reality that changed the world. The record was a low budget affair, one where Dylan does his best impression of Ramblin’ Jack Elliot (matter of fact, Jack was at the recording session), nearly an afterthought for Columbia Records, where on the 9th of June 1964, Dylan laid down this record in a single session, with many of these numbers being endlessly, and far better covered by other bands, including the Byrds and their fearless jangle pop styles.

Regarding this album, Dylan said, “There aren’t any finger pointing songs here … you know, pointing to all the things that are wrong. Me, I don’t want to write for people anymore, you know, be someone else’s spokesman, I wanna write for me.” Oddly enough, he tried out “Mr. Tambourine Man” that night, but wasn’t happy with the tenor and movement of the track, so he tucked it away for later.

What he didn’t tuck away for later was , “Ballad In Plain D” a rather bitter song regarding his breakup with Suzie Rotolo, who can be seen on the cover of Freewheelin’. Seems Bob was beginning a lifelong career of songs to women he had or created issues with, he really wasn’t a very nice man, with Dylan in 1985 saying, "I must have been a real schmuck to write that, it’s a vengeful, self-indulgent song.”

On a whole, the record is shows a more romantic side to Bob Dylan, a side that he’s since bared the world from, the album is more developed, more poetic, layered and graceful, with deeper lyrical implications, where Dylan steps over the folk line, even if just barely, signaling what’s impatiently lurking around the corner, where I sense that he needed to get these songs out of his system before he could more on to other more bewildering things. That being said, it’s a very genuine recording.

*** The Fun Facts: When Columbia decided to issue an SACD Dylan box set, archivists discovered that a master tape, or even a good useable copy just didn’t exist. So Michael Bauer and Sony/Legacy producer Steve Berkowitz went back to the source tape, which I assume was a three track and re-mixed it down to a two track analog at Quad Recording Studios in Nashville. So, while Mobile Fidelity says they used the original master tape, that is only true with as asterisk.

The photographer for the occasion was Sandy Speiser, with the image being taken on the southwest corner of 52 Street and Broadway in the Time Square area of New York City. The photo is take looking east, with Dylan looking west.

Review by Jenell Kesler

An album that strikes me as being a collection of publishing demos. Many of the songs would be hits recorded by other artists (notably The Byrds and The Turtles, but many others covered them). Recorded in one day and with several bum notes and mis-steps. Dylan may well have been on his second bottle of red at the session's conclusion. I still rate it as one of his best records, played and sung entirely by himself, and before the sessionmen and 30-takes took over.
I agree with Michael Gray: "if I could have only five Dylan albums, this would be one of them".