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Everything and its opposite has been said about Bob Dylan.
Some have dubbed him a folksinger, many have labeled him a traitor, and still others have praised his virtues, only to later, sneakily, distance themselves from him.
In 1964, the chubby and smiling young man, guitar in hand and courage for sale, sings to the world (and thus to America) that "The times they are a changin" and vehemently rails against the hypocrites, the know-it-alls, the professors, and even against the songwriters. The invective, of course, hits the mark perfectly, and the powers that be (Government, deputies, religious authorities) fiercely lash out against this spirited and gritty twenty-year-old, capable, in just under three minutes, of daring the undareable. And since "The times they are a changin" was a huge success, Dylan, also in 1964, tries again with "Another Side of Bob Dylan" ("The other side of Bob Dylan", which is actually the other side of America). Dylan momentarily abandons the invectives against Power and against the Vietnam War and has fun playing the very dangerous card of introspection and emotional fragility. Social issues almost completely disappear, what stands out is mainly the personal and the strength of rock.
The Dylanian rock turn (contested by millions of fans) will be fully realized only starting from 1965 thanks to the album "Highway 61 Revisited", but this "Another Side of Bob Dylan" can be considered, without malice, the first true step towards rock and towards complete musical maturity. The album opens beautifully with the splendid "All I Really Want to Do" and concludes, equally splendidly, with the famous "It Ain't Me Babe". In between, a bunch of masterpieces: "Chimes of Freedom", "Motorpsycho Nitemare", and the very curious "To Ramona and Ballad in Plain D". The sound is still a bit rough and superficial, but the music, vaguely futuristic, immediately appears effective and courageous. Columbia, which has produced Dylan since the very first album (for the record, "Bob Dylan", 1962) understands that this likable and seemingly naive young man is actually a genius with creativity bordering on enviable. Naturally, Dylan is no fool; he knows to what extent he can and must dare.
The introspection and inner analysis are actually extremely complicated metaphors of the political situation of that period: Dylan is not a proud man, self-assured; he is, on the contrary, fragile and emotional, shy and self-contained. Yet, it seems to want to tell us, this character closure is due to the fact that America is now a free ground of battles and compromises, it is no longer the naive and dreamy America that the Beach Boys chanted, as a form of exorcism. It is a harsh, suffering, cruel, wild, as well as backward America, and even Dylan, in his subconscious, is suffering, cruel, harsh, wild, provincial. Thus, the other side of Bob Dylan, as already mentioned earlier, is actually the other side of the United States of America. In "Another Side of Bob Dylan", the Polish-American singer-songwriter sings, for the first time, magnificently. The nasal and guttural voice is, for once, a strength and not a musical flaw. More so than in "The times they are a changin", and even more than in the bold "Blowin' in the Wind", Dylan magnificently enunciates all the splendid verses (personally created by him) in a tender and bittersweet manner, faint and powerful. To be fair, Dylan will sing beautifully also in albums such as "Highway 61 Revisited", "Blonde on Blonde", "Desiré", while he will pull out the worst of the worst in bad jobs like, for example, "Under the Red Sky" (1990).
Anyone who does not own, for various reasons, this epochal "Another Side of Bob Dylan" should try to get it as soon as possible. You can't love Bob Dylan, especially the revolutionary and rocking Dylan of the mid-Sixties, if you don't know this small intimate and definitive jewel.
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