information:highlighting
Protest and Another Side

In May 1963, Dylan's political profile rose when he walked out of The Ed Sullivan Show. During rehearsals, Dylan had been told by CBS television's head of program practices that " Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues " was potentially libelous to the John Birch Society. Rather than comply with censorship, Dylan refused to appear.

Dylan and Baez were prominent in the civil rights movement, singing together at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. Dylan performed " Only a Pawn in Their Game " and " When the Ship Comes In ".

Dylan's third album, The Times They Are a-Changin', reflected a more politicized Dylan. The songs often took as their subject matter contemporary stories, with " Only a Pawn in Their Game " addressing the murder of civil rights worker Medgar Evers, and the Brechtian " The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll " the death of Black hotel barmaid Hattie Carroll at the hands of young White socialite William Zantzinger. " Ballad of Hollis Brown " and " North Country Blues " addressed despair engendered by the breakdown of farming and mining communities. This political material was accompanied by two personal love songs, " Boots of Spanish Leather " and " One Too Many Mornings ".

By the end of 1963, Dylan felt manipulated and constrained by the folk and protest movements. Accepting the " Tom Paine Award" from the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee shortly after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, an intoxicated Dylan questioned the role of the committee, characterized the members as old and balding, and claimed to see something of himself and of every man in Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.

Another Side of Bob Dylan, recorded in a single evening on June 9, 1964, had a lighter mood. The humorous Dylan reemerged on " I Shall Be Free No. 10 " and "Motorpsycho Nightmare". " Spanish Harlem Incident " and " To Ramona " are passionate love songs, while " Black Crow Blues " and " I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met) " suggest the rock and roll soon to dominate Dylan's music. " It Ain't Me Babe ", on the surface a song about spurned love, has been described as a rejection of the role of political spokesman thrust upon him. His new direction was signaled by two lengthy songs: the impressionistic " Chimes of Freedom ", which sets social commentary against a metaphorical landscape in a style characterized by Allen Ginsberg as "chains of flashing images," and " My Back Pages ", which attacks the simplistic and arch seriousness of his own earlier topical songs and seems to predict the backlash he was about to encounter from his former champions.

In the latter half of 1964 and into 1965, Dylan moved from folk songwriter to folk-rock pop-music star. His jeans and work shirts were replaced by a Carnaby Street wardrobe, sunglasses day or night, and pointed " Beatle boots ". A London reporter noted "Hair that would set the teeth of a comb on edge. A loud shirt that would dim the neon lights of Leicester Square. He looks like an undernourished cockatoo." Dylan began to spar with interviewers. Asked about a movie he planned while on Les Crane 's television show, he told Crane it would be a "cowboy horror movie." Asked if he played the cowboy, Dylan replied, "No, I play my mother."