More BobbyZ

Another Side Of Bob Dylan. So, what side is Dylan showing us on this album ? Not so many "protest songs" as the sixties media loved to call them, with only Chimes Of Freedom really falling into that category. There are several jokey tracks such as All I Really Want To Do, I Shall Be Free - No 10 and Motorpsycho Nightmare, plus what appear to be more personal love songs. Although being Dylan, he is suitably cagety about To Ramona and Ballad In Plain D. It's still a very sparse album musically, just Dylan's guitar and harmonica apart from clunky piano ( played by Dylan ? ) on Black Crow Blues. I think that Dylan's voice on the early records and in live performance from this time ( at the Newport Festival for instance ) is a very powerful and moving instrument but there are a couple of occasions here where he wavers. it says something for the standards and expectations of those days that no retakes were done. Apart from Chimes Of Freedom, the other standout and important tracks on this disk are the enigmatic My Back Pages and It Ain't Me Babe, ostensibly a relationship song but perhaps an early indication of his abdication from being the "voice of a generation". Another noteworthy aspect of this release was the inclusion of several poems by Dylan in the sleeve notes which give a further insight into his art of this period.