Bob Dylan

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.

Bob Dylan is not a blues musician, of course, and this album is not, as its title might imply, a disc on which he performs a set of traditional blues songs. It is, rather, a compilation of previously released Dylan originals spanning more than 35 years that illustrates the influence of the blues on his music…

This album was unusual on several counts. For starters, it was a soundtrack (for Sam Peckinpah's movie of the same title), a first venture of its kind for Bob Dylan. For another, it was Dylan's first new LP in three years – he hadn't been heard from in any form other than the single "George Jackson," his appearance at the Bangladesh benefit concert in 1971, in all of that time…

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.

While it doesn't take many chances, the U.K.-only Best of Bob Dylan is an adequate collection of familiar items – "Blowin' in the Wind," "The Times They Are a-Changin'," "Mr. Tambourine Man," "Like a Rolling Stone," "Just Like a Woman," "All Along the Watchtower," "Lay Lady Lay," "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," "Forever Young," "Tangled Up in Blue," "Gotta Serve Somebody" – highlighted by the inclusion of the alternate take of "Shelter From the Storm," which was originally released on the Jerry Maguire soundtrack.

The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966 is a compilation album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on Legacy Records in November 2015. The tenth installment in the ongoing Bob Dylan Bootleg Series, it comprises recordings from 1965 and 1966, mostly unreleased demos and outtakes from recording sessions for his ground-breaking albums Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde…