Another Side of Bob Dylan: A Personal History on the Road and off the Tracks

by Victor Maymudes, Jacob Maymudes

A Los Angeles Times Best seller!

August 2014 marks 50 years since Bob Dylan released his fourth album, Another Side of Bob Dylan. Recorded in one night, in the middle of a turbulent year in his life, the music marked a departure from Dylan's socially-conscious folk songs and began his evolution toward other directions.
During the years they spent together, few people outside of Dylan's immediate family were closer than Victor Maymudes, who was Dylan's tour manager, personal friend, and travelling companion from the early days in 1960s Greenwich Village through the late 90's. Another Side of Bob Dylan recounts landmark events including Dylan's infamous motorcycle crash; meeting the Beatles on their first US tour; his marriage to Sara Lownds, his romances with Suze Rotolo, Joan Baez, and others; fellow travelers Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Wavy Gravy, Dennis Hopper, The Band, The Traveling Wilburys, and more; memorable concerts, and insights on Dylan's songwriting process.

On January 26th, 2001, after recording more than 24 hours of taped memories in preparation for writing this book, Victor Maymudes suffered an aneurysm and died. His son Jacob has written the book, using the tapes to shape the story. The result is a vivid, first-hand account of Dylan as an artist, friend, and celebrity, illustrated with never-before-seen photographs, and told by an engaging raconteur who cut his own swathe through the turbulent counterculture.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography Memoir, Audiobook, Autobiography

288 pages, Hardcover

First published September 9, 2014

Reviews

[Paul Secor · Rating 1 out of 5]

A friend gave me an advance reading copy of Another Side and I decided to set aside the books I was reading to delve into it. BIG mistake. This book consists of the tape recorded ramblings of Bob Dylan's tour manager for a number of years. (He may have been Dylan's tour manager but, to me, he comes off more as a stoned go-fer and hanger-on.)

Maymudes' memoir is filled with gems like: "All the heavy hitters seemed to be in the Village now: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Frederic Remington, Steve McQueen, Barbra Streisand, and Woody Allen, all moving in and out of the clubs and listening to the new music coming of age." (I guess the ghosts of Pollock and Remington were moving in and out of the clubs and listening to that music.)

And: "Walking around the Village we (my italics) would explore our minds while analyzing everything. We would talk about the socks and shoelaces and personality traits of people and how they fall into categories"

And on meeting the Beatles: "With Bob sleeping on the floor, one by one, John, Paul, George and Ringo talked to me. We discussed life and politics. They wanted to know about everyone and everything."

And: "There was only one person who could partake in Bob's and my existential conversations and really contribute to the way we spoke and maintain our style of dialogue, and that was Bob Neuwirth. Our talks would expand the boundaries of our philosophy; we would push the limits of the meaning of words and bend ideas around new phrases." (Dylan may have done some of that, Victor, but from the way this book reads, I doubt you contributed much.)

And then we're treated to two pages of Victor Maymudes' "poetry". Herewith a sample:

"Lost on Goodbyes"

Though the day fades away
continuing my struggle you can see me go my way
having waved all my goodbyes
I stumbled down the road
wiping the tears from my eyes
carrying my thoughts far out loud
my ghost of yesterday stands so proud

Oh, if you're looking for some inside views of Dylan's recording sessions, they're not here. (I guess as tour manager, Malmudes wasn't welcome in the studio, even if he does portray himself as Dylan's closest confidant.)
If you're looking for an inside view of what went on at Newport in 1965 - not here.
If you're looking for an account of Dylan getting together with The Hawks - not here.
If you're looking for accounts of the '65 and '66 English concerts, you won't find them here.
But if you want to read about what a cool guy Victor Malmudes was, you've come to the right place.

I put this book down for good when I came to the part where Malmudes leaves his two children, ages four and seven, alone in a parking lot at night for several hours because Dylan didn't want them riding in the van with him. But then, Victor Malmudes was a cool guy.

If this is the book for you, I'll just say, "Good luck."

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a memoir of Victor Maymudes (with commentary by his son) complied from tapes he made before his untimely death. I have to admit having Bob Dylan in the title pulled me in, but the book is more than that.

Son Jacob begins with portraits of his mother and paternal grandparents. You may wonder where this is going. You see later that they are critical. To understand Victor (whom the book is actually about) you need to understand his roots and his milieu.

If the tapes are an actual transcription, Victor has an amazing recall for sequence, places and names. The times without Dylan are as interesting as the times with. Victor was an active participant in the post war opening up of communication, the changing formats for the arts and the protest movements before (and after) meeting his eventual friend and boss, Bob Dylan. Victor’s coffee house and the entertainment he presented spawned careers and gave Victor producer experience, connections and cred. Because of Jacob’s portraits of his grandparents, you can appreciate Victor’s awe when he met Dylan and why he gave him large pieces of his life.

If you read this for something about the “other side” of Dylan you will be disappointed. There is nothing you would not imagine: He is very private. His eyes are bad. He drank a lot before quitting one day. He plays chess. He could be hurtfully brusque. He boxes. He is more interested in money than he appears.

What you get from this is a portrait of a friendship taking place inside a work relationship. There are some very stirring episodes such as the concert in Poland; stories of daily life as tour moved from city to city; and narratives that reveal the friendship’s inequality such as getting and outfitting Dylan's own tour bus and Victor’s sacrifices and split decisions that protected Dylan and his privacy.

How the “job”, but not the friendship, ends is not surprising given the minimized, but present, backdrop of sexism. You see how Dylan speaks to Suzie and why marries Sara and Victor’s attitude towards marriage. There are undoubtedly women on the tours, but unless they have a notable name or can be called "X's girlfriend", even if they are a significant other, they are hardly mentioned. With the exception of Jacob’s mother, an almost exclusively male world is portrayed.

This is a quick read. Don’t read it to find an “other side” to Bob Dylan, it isn’t here. Read it to get insight into the post-war music industry, the day to day life of musical tours and a glimpse of life in the counter-culture of New Mexico and California.

[Tanya · Rating 1 out of 5]

Once you've read one book about Bob Dylan, you've read them all.

[T. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got this as a gift from a well-meaning friend, so I gave this book a chance. Mistake. First, this book is badly written, both the transcribed remarks of Victor M. and the bridges by his son. Awkward, repetitive. And the story he tells is without interest. Maymudes was a roadie for Dylan at various points in Dylan's career. Victor M wandered through the experience but comes up with very few unique insights. His reflections on touring are bland and undistinguished. He drops a lot of names of people he saw or met, but oddly gives little or no insight on anyone's character. He spends a lot pages relating a pointless tale about some second- hand bus he had rigged up for a Dylan tour. Just not significant.

And throughout, Victor comes off as a n'er do well, always hustling and somehow not making a living when not attached to Dylan. He seems like a parasite of sorts--clinging to the Great Artist, providing vague roadie services. He refers to "we" a lot in terms of the concerts, and other things he did with Dylan. But it is clear that he was just another hanger-on that Dylan employed. Not an especially appealing guy. Why Dylan took pity on him and hired him again and again, we have no idea.

And of course, Dylan floats through inscrutable as ever. Victor M. may have spent years trailing around after Dylan, but had no insight into the man. Which is fine--Dylan has no obligation to reveal any more of himself than he chooses. It is interesting that Victor spends years in the company of Dylan and yet Dylan remains a cypher. You go, Dylan.

This critique may be unfair given that Victor only left a bunch of audio tapes, not a manuscript and his son published the transcript after the death of his father. I imagine some money exchanged hands.

But this book isn't worth much. Not recommended.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Apparently the "[..]other Side of Bob Dylan" was named Victor. I learned more about Dylan's tour bus by reading this book than I learned about Dylan.

[Joseph Spuckler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another Side of Bob Dylan: A Personal History on the Road and off the Tracks voice recorded by Victor Maymudes and edited and written by Jacob Maymudes.

Victor Maymudes was Bob Dylan’s tour manager for many years and according to Victor a close friend. Jacob is Victor’s son and discovered the audio tapes that this book is based on after a fire destroyed Linda's, Victor’s mother, home. The house contained many of Victor’s relics from his life on the road. The tapes, however, were in the possession of Jacob’s sister.

The book opens with a sad picture of Victor Maymudes’ ashes (he died in 2001) in the ashes of Linda’s house. Jacob tells of the difficulty and hardship of writing this book and listening to his father’s voice after his death. He laments that his father is been written out of any official Bob Dylan histories. There is a build up that this will be a very touching and personal biography.

Victor Maymudes opened the Unicorn Coffee Shop for the beatniks and proto-hippies to hang out at. A clever and successful idea to give this large group of people a place to hang out. Through friends he meets Bob Dylan, and here is when the reader thinks this is going to turn into a Bob Dylan biography. It does for a short time, but quickly turns into a biography about Victor Maymudes. Much of Victor’s stories are about what he did, how smart he was, and what others did wrong. I also realized that there may be some credibility issues with the original author. He smoked massive amounts of marijuana and carried a vial of LSD noting that he shared, but not everyone was up to taking LSD daily like he was. Drugs in rock and roll are pretty common place and still Keith Richards and Gregg Allman wrote coherent autobiographies.

I lost faith in the storytelling early one when Victor tells how he introduced the Beatles to marijuana and told John Lennon to stay away from the pharmaceuticals he was prescribed because they just hid the symptoms. Although nothing else seems to reach that peak of improbability in the book, there is nothing that really restores any credibility. A search on the internet reveals little on Victor Maymudes. His Wikipedia page reads like a book jacket summary and at the bottom of the page is a link to Jacob’s unsuccessful Kickstarter page for this project, but titled Victor Maymudes: Biography. Other links are to this book. It is impossible for the reader to fact check many events.

The title of the book is misleading. It is a Victor Maymudes’ biography. Although he was a friend, possibly a close friend of Bob Dylan, there is not enough connection to consider this book a Dylan biography. Patti Smith had a starring role in her biography of Robert Mapplethorpe, but many people bought the book because of her role and writing. The same cannot be said for Another Side. Victor Maymudes does with this book what he does throughout his life: promote Victor Maymudes. I do feel terrible for Jacob Maymudes for the loss of his father and the conditions of losing him. Jacob seems to be a devoted son and held his father in high esteem. I, however, cannot buy into the book. Sorry.

[Bill Keithler · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading many reviews of this book I went into it with my expectations not very high. The book turned out to be a positive surprise. Although Bob Dylan is a significant character he is not really the focus of this book – it is a memoir of Victor Maymudes' very interesting life. The book is far from an 'exploitative, tell-all.' In fact, some readers may be disappointed that it is not all about Bob Dylan.

While he spent considerable time working for Dylan and simply being his friend, Maymudes lived a colorful, if often irresponsible life, often on the fringes of, or in the background helping to create concerts, films, events and establishments which became, at least by some standards, legendary. He preferred to be in the background--greasing the skids to make things happen, and protecting his charges--artists mainly, so they could do their jobs

Dylan comes across far more human than in most portrayals--i.e., you see the asshole side of Dylan, but you also see snippets of a more or less regular person, who becomes distorted by the tremendous warping of reality which the level of fame he obtained would do to anyone. Dylan for the most part reciprocates the loyalty and friendship which Victor Maymudes showed him.

The book is predominantly transcriptions of taped recordings made by Maymudel in anticipation of writing a memoir. He died before this could be completed. These transcriptions are interspersed with commentary by Victor's son Jacob, who provides some context for things, but also slips into personal observations which would probably be best left out of the book. They are fairly minor distractions.

[Leslie Sully · Rating 1 out of 5]

Got an advanced copy. This book was TERRIBLE! As a Dylan fan, I as least expected some interesting inside info. The dad Victor Maymudes was such a hanger-on and his son Jake has followed in his footsteps. Trying to cash in on Dylan. Shameful. I just read that this was an attempted/failed Kickstarter campaign. Should have taken a hint to shelve this book.

[Kevin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cheating somewhat because I listened to the audio version via Durham Co. Library but this is a terrible book.

[Lesley Tilling · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has the wrong name. It should be 'Memoir of Victor Maymudes, hippie and roadie to Bob Dylan'. Clearly the publishers wanted it to be bought by Bob's legion of fans, but that's a mistake, as you can tell from the other reviews on Goodreads.

I enjoyed this autobiography /biography of Victor Maymudes, roadie, a man who knew Dylan way back when he was about 20 in New York. He was an old-school, pot-head, acid-dropping, mantra-chanting hippie. But he also thought well on his feet and managed security. It's difficult to be sure whether he was as brilliant a roadie as he thought, but he certainly made friends with all Bob's gang and hung out with them.

He thought hard about Bob and what Bob needed to survive life on the road, and always tried to supply Bob with what he liked. Victor was an empathetic friend whereas Bob is autistic, I think. They liked to hang out playing chess. Bob has a number of hobbies - he also liked going to a boxing gym and sparring.

I found Victor's life interesting, because he was a thinker and wanted to live an alternative life. I wish he had given more of a flavour of the day-to-day lifestyle of the hippie communes he knew. He did his best to make a living away from the rock and roll scene by investing in land in New Mexico and building houses to sell. He tried communal living. Although he liked the single life he also tried to settle down with a family. This didn't last, which was sad for all concerned.

The book is a transcript of audio tapes. I ended by wondering whether there had been content edited out that really spilled the beans about Bob and drugs, Bob and women, etc. Victor was a witness to Bob's first marriage falling apart but he doesn't tell what really caused the breach. Victor was known to keep shtum about private matters and was trusted, and the habit must have stuck even in his memoir. Victor's son transcribes the tapes and he contributes memories he has of when he was a child of how Bob behaved to him. There is one memory which is particularly disturbing and wouldn't win Victor Maymudes 'Father of the Year'!!!!

There is another layer to the book - Victor's son finds out something about his father that hurts him a great deal, and he can't ask his father about it because he's dead. Victor's son conveys his hurt, confusion and love very well.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read about Victor Maymudes relationship with Bob Dylan. What starts out as a friendship based on intellectual musings, chess, and artistic interests slowly fades for a period of time once Bob makes his meteoric rise to stardom. Bob and Victor remain friends over time and Victor is finally brought back into the brood as an unofficial road manager. All of this history is revealed through Victor's memoirs which are brought to light through Victor's son and co-author Jacob.

For me, books about the life and times of iconic musicians such as Bob Dylan are fascinating, however, I do believe that some will find this particular book tedious at times. I liked how honest and basic the memoirs came across. These were Victor's day to day musings, not yet manipulated into a bigger version of what really happened had the memoirs stories been used exclusively as a framework for Victor's own book. Some of it was quite interesting while other parts were somewhat tedious, but, that was what made the book genuine. Day-to-day life on the road as a rock star becomes quite monotonous and it was interesting to see that it is not all glamour and shine.

If you are a big Bob fan there is no doubt you will enjoy this book, but be warned there is a fairly large section of it where Bob is seldom mentioned. Victor's life does not stand up as well without Bob, but you become acquainted with him enough to realize that he is a character himself. You may not be as enamored with Victor's story as you are with Bob, but his life is still as entertaining as some of the wilder family members in your life that you and yours repeat stories about. So, if you think of Victor this way, his story is entertaining as well.

The unreleased cassette recorded memoir put in print by Victor's son gave Victor's perspective on Bob Dylan a certain authenticity in my view. A worthy read.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 1st book about Bob, I’ve read. For over the past 50+ years, I’ve gone in & out of Bob phases. I’ve been in one now for awhile .
When I heard news of the Pat Garrett sessions being released in Europe last summer, that did it for me, since that’s my favorite Bob album. Hopefully they’ll release it in the states this year or next.
Whenever my cousins come to visit, we always listen to a lil Dylan late 60s through 70s stuff.
Also check out the beautiful Margot Cotten on YouTube . She covers many Dylan songs https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI...

The reason I read this is I was curious to learn more about the Pat Garrett sessions. It turns out Victor Maymudes & Dylan parted ways in 68, so there was nothing mentioned about the Garrett sessions. However, there was about New Mexico in the late 60s-70s, which was very interesting. My friends moved out there in the early 80s, and I’ve visited all of the same places mentioned in the book, so it brought back memories.
I also enjoyed the parts about the 50s in the village & then the stories about The Unicorn & Lenny Bruce etc. He mentioned how Bob emulated Rambling Jack Elliot who emulated Woody Guthrie. He also talks about the history of Wavy Gravy & the Hog Farm
I was gonna read Chronicles until I read in this book Dylan totally omitted any mention of Victor Maymudes, his friend for 40 years
Next Bob book , Down the Highway
the Life of Bob Dylan
by Howard Sounes 2001

[Rick Zinn]

A true interesting book that goes from is Bob Dylan even more than a minor character to something that is touching and has some definitely interesting Bob Dylan stories. It’s a mixed bag, so let me explain …

The centerpiece of the book is a number of tapes made by Victor Maymudes who was the tour manger for Dylan in the 60s and the 90s. He was working on outlines of a book before he had a stroke, his son finishes the book as such. It is a little while into the book before Dylan appears. Dylan disappears for a whole middle section of the book.

The tour stories from the 80s/90s are wonderful. The stories from the 60s are great, being in a car traveling the Deep South as Dylan writes Chimes of Freedom. The book is a gold mine for this stuff, it’s relatively short and exactly what I was looking for in a short book about Bob Dylan before diving into something longer.

This is a good book about a son connecting with a father through the tapes and the story of the fathers final days were gripping.

Other than the middle section of the book which seemed to be more about Dennis Hopper, selling pot , hippies in New Mexico and financing bad movies this is a great book. If you are interested in that, you probably will like it, but those stories were not what drew me to the book in the first place.

[Caponato · Rating 2 out of 5]

Victor Maymudes fue el tour manager de Bob Dylan desde 1964 (eso dicen por ahí, porque en realidad era más bien un amigo y sobre todo su guardaspaldas). Maymudes había llegado a un acuerdo con la editorial para escribir un libro sobre su historia con Dylan, y a tal objeto grabó una serie de cintas de audio a fin de que un "negro" de la editorial se encargara de escribirlo. La repentina muerte de Victor Maymudes, hizo que el proyecto se paralizara por un tiempo, siendo retomado años más tarde por su hijo Jacob Maymudes.

El contenido en general es un disparate continuo, aunque hay alguna anécdota que otra (faltaría más). Maymudes (que se autoproclama heredero de Maimónides, ahí con dos OO), cae en la tentación de escribir sobre sí mismo constantemente, cuando su persona importa cero a cualquiera que no sea su familia y amigos. Le pongo dos estrellas, porque se lee fácil y el final es enternecedor.

[Karen Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a Dylan fan and appreciated the insights that Victor Maymudes (chess-playing friend and often tour manager) provides here. For example, near the end of Dylan's CHRONICLES: VOLUME ONE, he casually mentions his introversion. Maymudes expands on this, hypothesizing that what Dylan experiences in his head - a sunset, for example - may be more vivid than actually seeing it. Interesting.

I also found it interesting and laudable that when Victor badly needed a job, he called Dylan - who said that although he already had a full staff for the next tour, Victor had a job and he would figure it out. That takes empathy.

Parts of it were slow and, IMO, unnecessary - maybe there to plump up the book length. For example, the co-author, Victor's son Jacob, spends a LONG time at the beginning of the book (10% of the audio) discussing his family's destructive fire. That's a shame - but it's not on topic. Once it gets into Victor's tapes, though, it rolls along.

[Grant Stover · Rating 2 out of 5]

There’s some interesting new parts of Dylan’s life that come out of this book, but this book is aimed for those who know those stories and it doesn’t actually bring out that much more information. I’d like to believe the authors honest goals about uncovering his father but at times it reads as trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. I did appreciate what he wrote regarding finding some of his dad’s skeletons. That might’ve been the best part of the book.

[Tyler Presley · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Another Side of Bob Dylan” offers stories and anecdotes about the legendary songwriter from a unique perspective—that of his longtime friend and employee, Victor Maymudes.

While these accounts are mildly intriguing, they lack the compelling revelations or gripping narratives one would expect from a book with such a title.

That being said, I still enjoyed learning about Victor Maymudes, an interesting figure in his own right, and the role he played in Dylan’s storied career.

[S H · Rating 2 out of 5]

Personally I think Victor had delusions of grandeur. He didn’t have much (if any) talent but clung like a limpet to someone who did and made himself useful. What I didn’t like was Victor claiming Bob’s shows as “our shows” and his fans as “our fans”. Dude, you were nothing but a glorified roadie. Barely any mentions of Joan Baez either which took my rating down to a 2.

[Harm Van · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's more about Victor Maymudes's son talking about his father than about ob Dylan but since Victor was an interesting man leading an amazing life I had no trouble reading this cover to cover and have enjoyed it very much.

[Ciaran McLarnon · Rating 1 out of 5]

A mundane catalogue of events with a lot of name-dropping and too many unimportant details and unnecessary description. Seemed like the author didn't want to reveal too much, so he played it safe and revealed nothing surprising.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read. Author based book on his father's memoirs, while adding a few memories of his own.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very intimate and telling portrayal from another perspective of a mythical man.

[Candice Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and explore the relationship Victor and Bob had. Aswell as the ERA and lifestyle they lived in. My imagination was able to visional create the stories in my head. Victors discription of the events really made you feel like you were there.

[Greg Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read. Stories of the road.

[Gerald J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting look at Bob Dylan

[Matt Casas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating look into the artist through a more focused view on a family who worked close to him

[Seth Rogovoy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nothing (of consequence) is revealed, other than Victor Maymudes' narcissism.

[Barrett Gough · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a bad book about a son who misses his late father and wishes he knew his father better. Bob Dylan’s name is in the title to trick dupes like me into reading it.

[Bruce Ballan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable close up and personal look at Dylan but not enough focus on his music.

[Tom McInnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title is both misleading and kind of perfect.

Misleading in that Bob’s barely in this, passing in and out of Victor’s life like some kind of bad drunk fairy godmother, granting wishes and moaning about interior design choices. Perfect in that this truly is a side of Bob Dylan we haven’t seen before - not the one that records century-defining music and confounds all easy definitions like ‘artist’, ‘rock star’, ‘icon’, ‘genius’... but the side that buys and sells property in New Mexico, moans about bus suspension, spills coffee on himself, yells at other people’s kids, walks into sliding glass doors and occasionally even puts his neck out to help an old friend.

This book provides a rare and genuinely intimate look at Dylan the man, through the eyes of someone whose own story is complex, heart-rending, and just as emblematic of this unique time and place that we’re all still so enamoured by. I’ve never felt more ‘there’, and I really loved it for that.