Product Description
A survey of DylanÂ’s unique approach to harmonica playing through the transcriptions of: BlowinÂ’ In the Wind, DonÂ’t Think Twice ItÂ’s All Right, Baby IÂ’m In the Mood for You, Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35, Just Like A Woman, I Want You, I Shall Be Released, IÂ’ll Be Your Baby Tonight, All Along the Watchtower, Simple Twist of Fate, Dark Eyes, and What Was It You Wanted. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Dylan Harmonica Music Presented Very Well
This book is the only one I have found that gives accurate description of Dylan's harmonica music for those that would like to play it the way he did. For each song, there is a story about the song and how Dylan's choices on harmonica relate to the song. The background material is relevant and interesting. Tips on the different techniques Dylan used in each song are there as well. The author conveys knowledge and generates enthusiasm for the music she presents.

This book is much more than just harp tabs.Appleby give the key of the song (I think they are correct, which is not true for many books out there), and also the key of the harmonica Dylan used. Blows and draws, slurs, slides, bends, trills, throat popping, and wah-wah are indicated. Guitar chords schematics are on each page of music. I only wish the book had more than 12 songs. I would definitely by another if the author creates a similar book with more songs.

honest transcription, but no style at all
From the harp point of view, this book is just a collection of honest transcriptions. If you want to play exactly like Bob Dylan, go ahead, buy this book.

But talking about the "harp styles", it seems that there is no style at all. It says nothing about how to use the harp support, or about any technique, embouchure, etc.

There is ONE single page talking about how Bob start playing rough and amateurish and, that after 5 months, he was a "competent" harp player (I don't agree). Then, the music sheets.

So, what are the "styles" the books claims to talk about? Almost no bends, lots of chords, lots of go-forth-and-back-notes. No harp teacher I know will teach his students to play like that. They will insist for months until their students learn to breathe and how to play single notes, with nice tone and vibrato.

This book may be nice for Dylan's fans, but certainly is not suitable for real harp players. ... Read more

Product Description
Previously published as Invisible Republic and already considered a classic of modern American cultural criticism, The Old, Weird America is Greil Marcus's widely acclaimed book on the secret music (the so-called "Basement Tapes") made by Bob Dylan and the Band while in seclusion in Woodstock, New York, in 1967--a folksy yet funky, furious yet hilarious music that remains as seductive and baffling today as it was more than thirty years ago.

As Mark Sinker observed in The Wire: "Marcus's contention is that there can be found in American folk a community as deep, as electric, as perverse, and as conflicted as all America, and that the songs Dylan recorded out of the public eye, in a basement in Woodstock, are where that community as a whole gets to speak." But the country mapped out in this book, as Bruce Shapiro wrote in The Nation, "is not Woody Guthrie's land for made for you and me . . . It's what Marcus calls 'the old, weird America.'" This odd terrain, this strange yet familiar backdrop to our common cultural history--which Luc Sante (in New York magazine) termed the "playground of God, Satan, tricksters, Puritans, confidence men, illuminati, braggarts, preachers, anonymous poets of all stripes"--is the territory that Marcus has discovered in Dyaln's most mysterious music. And his analysis of that territory "reads like a thriller" (Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly) and exhibits "a mad, sparkling brilliance" (David Remnick, The New Yorker) throughout. This new edition of The Old, Weird America includes an updated discography.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

The Old, Weird America
This is what seems to be a word-for-word reissue of Marcus's Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes, confusingly given a completely different title. In the Author's Note, Marcus says this is the title he originally wanted to give it. I have to say, they still got it wrong. The new subtitle, The World of Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes, is an improvement, but still doesn't completely address the main fault with every title and subtitle given so far - the book isn't really about Dylan, and only tangentially about the Basement Tapes. It's just as much about Harry Smith and his Anthology of American Folk Music, and in fact gives probably as much space to the relatively unknown Dock Boggs as it does Dylan or The Band, and it's just as much an attempt to mythologizes history as it is a work of musical criticism.

This isn't necessarily a complaint - one could argue that folk music's primary function is to mythologize history, and Marcus is simply attempting the same thing as the musicians he writes about. Boggs, for example, would make a logical choice for a book with this intention, as there's not that much written about him (especially compared to Bob Freakin' Dylan) and Harry Smith gives in the liner notes and Boggs gives in his own recorded conversations cloak him in both mystery and danger, two of Marcus's defining elements of the "old, weird America."

And this is what's best about the book, and its intentions - Marcus frequently does succeed at his central aim of showing the ominous mythic undercurrents of not just the music of Dylan, The Band, Dock Boggs, or any of the musicians singing of this old, weird America, but also the irony of, for example, civil rights protesters' sense of betrayal when Dylan essentially denounced his leadership of them and took away their mythic prototype, or the eerie forlornness of the Cumberland Gap or North Carolina tar fields that produced the Carter Family, Frank Hutchison, and of course the eminent Boggs.

But the book has its flaws, most of them stemming from the fact that most music critics (besides Marcus, Nick Tosches and Samuel Charters come to mind) the subject and delivery just aren't up to the task of a book-length work. Marcus's impeccable Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock `n' Roll Music is a thematically cohesive collection of meditations on the relationship between fact and fiction, myth and antecedent which works nearly perfectly, mostly because none of the individual pieces runs over 10 pages. The Old, Weird America feels like one of Marcus's less fastidious editors told him to take a related 10-page article and somehow make a book of it, and Marcus decided to fill in the blanks with tired half-metaphorical imagined Americana like "Smithville" (named after Harry Smith - get it?) and "Kill Devil Hills" that he beats into the ground over the last half of the book. (Unlike Tosches, though, at least Marcus spares his audience the boring and pretentious details of his own personal and professional life to make his word count.)

NOTE: In a strange case of inverted logic, the most solid critical research is provided in the 40-page discography at the back of the book, with some revealing background research on both Dylan and the folk songs mentioned in the body of the book. Dylan and American folk music aficionados looking for something they don't know already will probably want to pick up this volume just for those last pages.

The Good News: You'll Fall Asleep Before Page Two
This book starts as bombastic, bloated, unintelligible drivel--and goes downhill from there. The best thing about it is the cover. The second best thing is that it is biodegradable, so it won't hurt the environment when you toss it into the trash, where it belongs.

Pseudo-Intellectual Myth-Symbol Twaddle
Greil Marcus has somehow parlayed his college degree in the obsolete "myth-symbol" school of American Studies into a career as a philosopher of American music. In the process, he has conjured up some of the worst books ever published on rock and roll. Marcus confuses "myth" with the LSD-fuelled '60s fan dreams of musicians as shamans, elves and hobbits. Imagine Jim Morrison, Marc Bolan & Robert Plant attempting to be critics while still on the Kool Aid that produced "Prophets Seers and Sages, The Angels of the Ages", "Stairway to Heaven" and Morrison's ideas about rock concerts as Dionysian rites. Marcus fashioned "Mystery Train", his first sycophantic journey into over-stimulated ego-crazed fan-boy fantasy. Then, after spending too many nights rolling joints on the sleeves of John Wesley Harding and trying to figure out which one was Quinn The Eskimo, Marcus encountered Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music and completely lost his mind. In this horrible re-issue of "Invisible Republic" Marcus treats early American folk artists like Dock Boggs and Robert Johnson as if they were mythical beings rather than men. He then tries to turn Dylan's Basement Tapes into a natural successor to the "mystery school" of these artists. Mere words cannot express the mediocrity of Marcus's meditations. Please, if you have any soul, avoid this book. But dont let Marcus's mind-rot put you off Dock Boggs and Harry Smith's Anthology and Dylan's Basement Tapes -- Marcus does have good taste in music, he just doesn't have anything worth saying to say about it.

Greil Marcus Should Marry Bob Dylan
Greil Marcus Should Marry Bob Dylan...he's already written a long love-letter.True there are a lot of interesting musical relationships brought out in the author's discussion, but the details of the Basement Tapes are just not there.Marcus' approach is that of an ethno-musicologist, and one who is too close to his subject.Personally, the bias from the start of the book and the torturous prose were very hard to stomach.I can not recommend this book to anyone, and it will keep me away from anything else by Greil Marcus again.I only wish I could have been warned before I bought it.

Strange Paths
Taking Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes as a starting point this book wanders through the foundations of American music investigating some shadowy folk byways.

While the metaphor (actual towns populated by the characters in the songs) is a little overwrought the overall effect of the book is powerful.

I found it particularly exciting to see links to other musicians I like such as Nick Cave and Kirstin Hersh. ... Read more

Product Description
In his seventh decade and still going strong, Bob Dylan is the ultimate singer-songwriter - hugely revered, baffingly idiosyncratic, an enigma and a music legend responsible for a staggering number of classic songs. Now in it''s second edition, the Rough Guide clarifies the mysteries surrounding the man and the music, looking at the lyrics, the influences, the legends and the musicians he worked with. Features include: The Life - from Minnesota to Manchester, from the Albert Hall to the Never Ending Tour, The Music - 50 essential Dylan songs and the stories behind them and Dylanology - the movies, the sayings, books and websites. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Thorough, concise and user-friendly overview of Mr. D
After a long hiatus, I recently got very deeply back into Dylan. I'd missed 20 years of incomparable music (don't ask) and needed to catch up quickly. Nigel Williamson's crisp and pointed overview was the perfect solution. Done with a good deal of expertise and passion for the man and his music, "Rough Guide" helped me search out and prioritize the albums I would be adding to my library, providing me with context and analysis. The book, highly user-friendly in terms of everything from writing style and chronology to the same level of minutiae baseball lovers crave, will easily serve the needs of anyone new to Dylan, an artist so complex that even with this book and a host of others you'll be both overwhelmed and humbled. Williamson's book can be read front to back, by topic or simply "applied as needed." He covers Dylan's personal life, the songs ad their many versions, the personnel and of course the lyrics. I'm a musician, I covet every dollar and I'm OCD picky and I would still recommend this book to anyone who needs to know more about Bob Dylan.

The single most readable and useful Dylan book
The best book for newcomers to Dylan, but useful even if you already have a Dylan library.

If you are just getting into Dylan, this accessible, balanced book has a straightforward biography, an overview of Dylan's career (all the albums to 2005 with careful dates and sensible assessments), a brief analysis of 50 outstanding songs, and smart suggestions for further exploration.It's peppered with lots of fun and factual one-page 'boxes' on issues such as Dylan and The Beatles, Dylan and Allen Ginsberg, Dylan and Joan Baez, Dylan and drugs--you name it!No other book comes close to it as an introduction to the man and his music, and it's a pleasure to read.

It's useful, too, even if you already have a larger Dylan collection.I have many books on Dylan--I've been listening to him for 45 years, teach a university course on him, and enjoy access to tons of Dylan recordings, books, and films.Whenever I have a quick question, this is the book I always check first (and usually last). To get the facts of the biography, of the official and bootleg recordings, of whatever, it's a convenient and reliable reference.

For anyone interested in Dylan, a great book to have on hand.

Rough Guide to Bob Dylan review
Excellent book on Dylan. Very informative

Sections on books on Dylan, sections on each album, and a list of the best songs by the man

Nice small book, but a very good read!

Solid overview
Nice overview of Dylan and his career and puts a lot in perspective. Not suggested for Dylan freaks, but casual fans will learn plenty.

Rough Guide to Bob Dylan 2
Anyone who has even the slightest interest in Bob Dylan will enjoy this book.It is a very easy read and a complete resource for all fans of the Great One.The sources are clearly noted and the writer goes into great detail.I loved the book. ... Read more

Product Description
Clinton Heylin has devoted his career to Bob Dylan's work and presents here a comprehensive study of all of Dylan's recording sessions. "A must for rabid fans."--Seattle Times. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

How can you do without it?
Heylin's study of Dylan's recording sessions starts in 1960 with the period immediately preceding his signing with Columbia and ends in 1993 with World Gone Wrong (clearly an update is needed).Each chapter, starting with a sessionography, is dedicated to one of Dylan's official studio releases.Four chapters cover sessions that did not lead to official releases and one chapter is dedicated to soundtrack and tribute recordings Dylan contributed to.An appendix listing bootlegs that might have been available at the time of the book's release closes the book.

Heylin is wonderfully opinionated and uses each chapter to highlight the merits and flaws of the released and unreleased content of each album.To his credit, and unlike many who write about Dylan, Heylin is not afraid to separate the dross from the gold.He clearly has a problem with the way Dylan's art has been made available to his fans (the book is amusingly "NOT dedicated to Jeff Rosen," the man responsible for overseeing Columbia's vast archives of Dylan's work).Reading the book both provides a glimpse into what Dylan's official oeuvre might have been and serves as a guide for collectors of unofficial recordings in determining what is worth seeking out.

You might not agree with all of Heylin's opinions, but if you're a Dylan fan, this is essential reading.

For obsessive fans only
Clinton Heylin, one of the leading writers on Bob Dylan (and author of, perhaps, the best biography on the man, Behind The Shades), deserves kudos for the exhausting amount of research he put into this book and the information he has presented. It is essential for obsessive Bob Dylan fans - is there any other kind? - who must have every little tidbit of information about the man and what he did in the studio. It is particulary interesting for collectors as it goes into detail about the many, many songs Dylan has recorded throughout the years and not released. It is a chronicle of absolutely everything that Dylan put to tape between the 1960 recordings made in the apartments of friends when he was still in college up to his Good As I Been To You album, as well as soundtracks and appearance on the albums of others, where relevant. Heylin includes not only a list of every song, but also the different takes, and shows what songs are circulating among collectors and which ones still have not seen the light of day. He also includes other relevant information such as what musicians played on the sessions, as well as several appendices such as a list of Dylan compositions, covers he has recorded, and even the session charts from the Desire sessions. The only thing that brings the book down is Heylin's own constant interjected commentary. It is unfortunate that seemingly every commentator on Dylan seems to see it as their duty to critize certain aspects of the man's work and say what he should have done differently - as if they had any right to question the genius of the greatest songwriter of the 20th century. Certainly, Heylin is entitled to his opinion, and never does he make the claim that this book is entirely objective, but, at times, it happens so often as to get in the way. Still, for the true Dylan fan, this book is still a must-have for the priceless information it gives. Casual fans need not bother.

Good Information, Badly Written
If, like me, you want to know as much as you can about Dylan's recordings, you have to get a copy of this. But that means reading endless badly-written diatribes against Dylan and whomever else Heylin dislikes. Apparently, it's okay for Heylin to prefer the original "Blood on the Tracks" recordings, but for Greil Marcus to prefer the acoustic "Blind Willie McTell" is, to quote Heylin, "wrong."

Dylan Good, Heylin Bad
I must give it to Mr Heylin.He appears to have a wealth of knowledge concerning Bob Dylan.In this book he lays out that knowledge in a straight-forward, understandable way.Had he stopped there this would be a great book filled with insight.As it is, the book is worthy of 3 stars only because the topic is good.

I found it tiresome to have to slough through Mr Heylin's personal comments (often in parenthesis) that gave no value to the book.In fact, I found these comments so regular to be distracting to the subject.I found myself frustrated by Mr Heylin's constant interjection of himself into the book.Often, they transformed a behind the scenes look at the recording life of Bob Dylan into a discussion of what Bob Dylan should have done to create a better work.

Certainly, Mr Heylin's opinion can be well thought out.Certainly, he has a right to his opinion.I was just disappointed that he constantly hid his opinion among good discussions relating to the recording life and style of one of music's most influence songwriters.

(Not to mention, Mr Heylin's constant use of bazaar names for "Mr. D".)

Interesting and Useful
Dylan fans love to read about the recording sessions; especially the songs left off the original albums, and this book gives the relevant and fascinating information wanted...a well written book by an unashamed fan. ... Read more

Product Description
The visual arts have always played a significatn role in Bob Dylan's worldview, and drawing and painting served as an outlet for his huge creative energy. Exquisitely reproduced, these intensely colored works are variations of sketches Bob Dylan completed while touring America, Europe and Asia, revealing a new facet of the artist.

Bob Dylan's watercolors and gouachse recreate scenes of everyday life in riotous color: hotel room and apartment interiors; land- and cityscapes; views of sidewalk cafes, train tracks and wandering rivers. this beautiful collection, which reveals yet another dimension of Bob Dylan's poetic vision, will be treasured by all who respond to his extraordinary talent. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Bob Dylan, the Painter
"BOB DYLAN: The Drawn Blank Series," edited by Ingrid Mossinger & Kerstin Dreschel (288 pgs., 2006, 2007).This book contains 170 painted variations of drawings Bob Dylan did between 1989 & 1992.The original drawings & sketches were published in 1994 in a book entitled "Drawn Blank."The drawings were never publicly exhibited.In the Forward to the book, Dylan wrote that the drawings were intended as sketches for future paintings.The paintings in this book are the result of him following through on his intentions.This book was published in conjunction with the first public exhibition of his works at the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, in Germany.
Along with the artwork, there are four essays (including one by Diana Picasso), a short Dylan bio, a list of all his record releases (including each individual cut), a list of each painting (including how & when they were done) & some other rear of the book information.
All of these paintings are watercolors.Some were done in the gouache method.Dylan studied art during the long convalescence from his motorcycle accident on July 29, 1966.He combined his art training with his unique outlook on the world & life.Many of his works might remind one of Picasso's more abstract pieces.Some might remind others of Marc Chagall, especially the piece on the cover.The works includes nudes, still-lifes, landscapes & views of urban grit out of windows.
This book is one of those oversized coffee table art books which measures 9 ¾" x 12" & costs quite a bit to publish.Would Dylan's art have received such treatment if he was not Bob Dylan?Who knows?In the crazy up & down art world, he might have made a reputation just on his own art work.Did his artwork floor me, just like his songs?No.A big resounding NO!Did I enjoy perusing this book?Yes, and I guess that's enough for any artist.

Very good quality
I was surprised at how good both paper and print quality is. Also, each drawing is showed in multible versions.
- Marc

Excellent drawings
Enjoyed both the original drawings & the new colorized interpretations.Always interesting to share a glimpse inside the mind of a genius.

The Bard Knows No Bounds
Bob Dylan has been painting for decades and his abstract post-modern folk art style does him well. He shows us a seemingly unsophisticatedyet highly evocative presence in his images with the door wide open to interpretation,like much of his poetic lyric. These often haunting pieces speak to me as the will not to you and vice versa - as well they should. Understand however, like his music, Dylan's art is an acquired taste and definitely not for everyone. I paid half the price the museums are charging for this book and I am sure have gotten twice the value from it.

GREAT BOB DYLAN
What an incredible artist he is...in so many ways.A poet, musician, philosopher, artist, humanitarian.I'm looking for a book of photography yet so I may also experience his vision in that medium.BTW....great seller.Shipped fast and packed well.5 STAR***** ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (3)

The political Art of Bob Dylan
I have a lot of Bob Dylan books and this is one of the better ones. He stretches sometimes for a point but overall I thought it very insightfu of Dylan's music.

Interesting articles, lots of typos, alternative-universe timeline
An interesting set of well-written articles taking political perspectives onBob Dylan's career, including his most recent work.HOWEVER: for a second edition, there A LOT of typos and misprints, from misspellings to typesetting errors.And the timeline at the back is a curiosity -- not only for the choice and wording of some of the events, but for the bizarre belief that George Bush was inaugurated as President of the United States in 1985... and began a second term (sic) in 1989.

CONFUSED
I AM TOTALLY CONFUSED ON HOW TO RATE THIS BOOK..I OWN OVER 70 BOOKS ON DYLAN. & WITH A LIST PRICE OF $75.00 I EXPECTED IT TO BE INCREDIBLY GOOD AND HUGE IN SIZE.500 PAGES?NOPE IT IS 178 PAGES,YES I KNOW THERE IS MORE TO THE BOOK THEN JUST THE SIZE. BUT THAT IS A LOT A MONEY FOR JUST A LITTLE INFORMATION.BUT I TRULY ENJOYED THE BOOK. ... Read more

Product Description

Exposing the depth of two major artists' philosophies, creative visions, stylistic tendencies, and contributions to their craft, this unprecedented comparative analysis synthesizes biographical material, critical interpretation, and selected exemplars of the writers' work. Smith reinterprets their work in a new and fascinating light, presenting Dylan as a songwriter of enigmatic wordplay and Springsteen as the melodramatic narrator of a specific community's life struggles.

Both songwriters have had unique responses to the celebrity singer/songwriter tradition begun by Woody Guthrie. Smith reveals the power of authorship and the creative drive necessary to negotiate an artistic vision through the complicated mechanisms of the world of commercial art. Both have discovered their own means of traveling this difficult terrain, and Smith probes their lives and work to reveal the myriad ways in which two distinct, equally significant artists have learned from and contributed to an ongoing and important American musical tradition.

Customer Reviews (2)

Outstanding
Mr. Smith manages to capture the very essence and nature of the two artists' craft and work. A stunningly insightful glimpse into two of America's greatest singer-songwriters!

"Must" reading for the legions of Dylan and Springsteen fans
Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, And American Song is a combination dual biography and musical critique of two great and much beloved modern-day American songwriters and performers. Their distinct flavors, creative drives, and musical works are discussed in detail and contrasted in depth throughout the pages of this respectful, informative, and thoughtfully presented commentary. Simply put, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, And American is "must" reading for the legions of Dylan and Springsteen fans, and a very highly recommended addition to academic and community library American Music History collections. ... Read more

Product Description
The third book in the acclaimed series of critical studies of Bob Dylan by Paul Williams once again turns the microscope on the continuing evolution of rock s master singer and songwriter.After focusing on the start and roots of the Never Ending Tour, Williams surveys Dylan s work in 1990, and the 1997 Time Out Of Mind and 2001 Love & Theft albums. There s also an essay on a fine example of a Never Ending Tour show from 1998. Paul Williamswriting about Bob Dylan has been praised by such distinguished Dylan fans as Sam Shepard, Jerry Garcia, and Allen Ginsberg. One member of Dylan s band says he found reading Williamsbooks on Dylan helpful when he first joined the band and needed to become more familiar with his new bosshuge output of work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The real stuff...again
Paul Williams demonstrated years ago that there is at least one well-known Dylan commentator who is wholly focussed on what the artist does, rather than on theories of his alleged role as mystic, guru or cultural revolutionary. In other words, he understands what Dylan's art form actually is: the writing and performing of classic songs.So an incidental pleasure in reading this book alongside Dylan's recently-released memoirs, `Chronicles' volume 1, is the confirmation that Williams was always closer to understanding what Dylan was up to than the many pretentious, more arty Dylanologists.
This third volume of an already-superb series maintains that focus and meets the high standards set by its two predecessors. Here he takes up the pen again as if he finished the last volume only yesterday, instead of a decade ago. The continuity he achieves is a considerable achievement, and all the more so since the period covered [1986-1990] was almost certainly Dylan's most fallow. These are the days when Bob was struggling - for inspiration, for relevance and for audience. Williams captures that struggle admirably and, as always, he does not shirk the task. When something was awful he says so bluntly. Some of Dylan's low-ebb 1987 shows, for example, are described, as `a painful listening experience'.This type of candour is unusual among his fellow Dylan scribes, always excepting Michael Gray. But when the opposite assessment is made, it means we can have confidence that the enthusiasm is real and follows real assessment of the work. Listening again to the recordings, it is quickly clear that Williams' ratings are a far more reliable pointer to the quality of Dylan's performances than all those routine whoops and shouts that some find so irritating at many concerts.
Ultimately that is the greatest attribute of all Paul Williams writings on Bob Dylan. He inevitably takes the reader back to the recordings - to the music and its performance. And given his mastery over four decades as a `performing artist' isn't that what Bob Dylan is all about? ... Read more

Product Description
The third book in the acclaimed series of critical studies of Bob Dylan by Paul Williams once again turns the microscope on the continuing evolution of rock s master singer and songwriter.After focusing on the start and roots of the Never Ending Tour, Williams surveys Dylan s work in 1990, and the 1997 Time Out Of Mind and 2001 Love & Theft albums. There s also an essay on a fine example of a Never Ending Tour show from 1998. Paul Williamswriting about Bob Dylan has been praised by such distinguished Dylan fans as Sam Shepard, Jerry Garcia, and Allen Ginsberg. One member of Dylan s band says he found reading Williamsbooks on Dylan helpful when he first joined the band and needed to become more familiar with his new bosshuge output of work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The real stuff...again
Paul Williams demonstrated years ago that there is at least one well-known Dylan commentator who is wholly focussed on what the artist does, rather than on theories of his alleged role as mystic, guru or cultural revolutionary. In other words, he understands what Dylan's art form actually is: the writing and performing of classic songs.So an incidental pleasure in reading this book alongside Dylan's recently-released memoirs, `Chronicles' volume 1, is the confirmation that Williams was always closer to understanding what Dylan was up to than the many pretentious, more arty Dylanologists.
This third volume of an already-superb series maintains that focus and meets the high standards set by its two predecessors. Here he takes up the pen again as if he finished the last volume only yesterday, instead of a decade ago. The continuity he achieves is a considerable achievement, and all the more so since the period covered [1986-1990] was almost certainly Dylan's most fallow. These are the days when Bob was struggling - for inspiration, for relevance and for audience. Williams captures that struggle admirably and, as always, he does not shirk the task. When something was awful he says so bluntly. Some of Dylan's low-ebb 1987 shows, for example, are described, as `a painful listening experience'.This type of candour is unusual among his fellow Dylan scribes, always excepting Michael Gray. But when the opposite assessment is made, it means we can have confidence that the enthusiasm is real and follows real assessment of the work. Listening again to the recordings, it is quickly clear that Williams' ratings are a far more reliable pointer to the quality of Dylan's performances than all those routine whoops and shouts that some find so irritating at many concerts.
Ultimately that is the greatest attribute of all Paul Williams writings on Bob Dylan. He inevitably takes the reader back to the recordings - to the music and its performance. And given his mastery over four decades as a `performing artist' isn't that what Bob Dylan is all about? ... Read more

Product Description
This is a remarkably fresh piece of Dylan scholarship, focusing on the profound impact that his Midwestern roots have had on his songs, politics, and prophetic character. In the 1966 "Playboy" interview, Dylan said, 'I'm North Dakota-Minnesota-Midwestern...I speak that way. I'm from someplace called Iron Range. My brains and feelings have come from there'. ... Read more

Product Description
Between the fitfully brilliant Bringing It All Back Home and the sprawling masterwork that is Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61 Revisited stands as the defining moment in both Dylan’s career and the musical evolution of the mid-1960s. But beyond its place in history, Highway 61 works because of its enduring emotional appeal. Few songwriters before Dylan or since have combined so effectively the intensely personal with the spectacularly universal. In this incisive book, Mark Polizzotti shines a critical light on these remarkable songs and shows us the timeless qualities that make them – and the album as a whole – so affecting. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Breezy, interesting read
The tone of the book is chatty.Specific information in abundance.I enjoyed the read.

Classic Dylan
I just finished up another 33 1/3 book on Bob Dylan's seminal Highway 61 Revisited by Mark Polizzotti. It is another exhaustively research look at how this great record came together. I think it has three of his greatest songs: " Like A Rolling Stone" (recently voted as the greatest rock song of all time), the underrated "Tom Thumb Blues," and dark "Desolation Row."I need to go back and watch the film Don't Look Back since it was made during this period and has many of the players mentioned in this book. I saw it at the urging of a roommate back in college but I wasn't as invest in Dylan or this record as I am now so it should be a revelation this time around. Another observation I have made is that I am drawn to the surly nature of Dylan's song writing where it seems as though he is trying to get back at al those hypocrites, back stabbers, and people who have tried to drag him down, from "Like A Rolling Stone": Once upon a time you dressed so fine /You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you? / People'd call, say, "Beware doll, you're bound to fall" / You thought they were all kiddin' you / You used to laugh about / Everybody that was hangin' out / Now you don't talk so loud / Now you don't seem so proud / About having to be scrounging for your next meal. Another stray observation, Dylan like Patti Smith was heavily influenced by Arthur Rimbaud-"the rock poet."

Everything the 33 1/3 books should be
I have read a handful of the 33 1/3 line of books, each devoted to a landmark album, and Polizzotti's may be the best.

For starters, it's well-researched, adds original research by Polizzotti himself-- including interviews with the Highway 61 session musicians-- and seeks to settle any mysteries or contradictions extant in previous sources (like who played second guitar on Desolation Row). This is unsurprising, as Polizzotti has proven himself a rigorous scholar in such works as Revolution of the Mind: The Life of Andre Breton, which was clearly assembled from a mountain of primary sources and original research (and done in French, no less!).

But in addition to solid research, Polizzotti has written an intensely personal book on his history with and interpretation of Highway 61. He walks a fine line, never letting his obviously large vocabulary lead him too far into questionable interpretive territory. His interpretations are convincing, or at least always well-reasoned and explained. When it's impossible or difficult to say what Dylan means by a certain lyric or song (which, as Dylan fans know, is pretty much all the time), Polizzotti has no problem admitting it. He does not force or stretch his interpretations over Dylan's many enigmas.

And this, I believe, is what makes this the perfect 33 1/3 book. If Polizzotti were writing a traditional biographical or journalistic account of Highway 61's creation, his personal descriptions and interpretations would intrude on the narrative. But here, they are not only welcome but epitomize the spirit of the 33 1/3 line. An excellent piece of Dylan scholarship and a fine read for anyone seeking to decode Highway 61 (as far as such a task is possible).

A Magnificent Achievement
This is the best book ever written about Bob Dylan, and one of the best books I've ever read.Polizzotti writes beautifully; he also knows more and understands more than any other Dylanologist I know.

Charles Kaiser

Best of the series
This is the best of the 331/3 series - I'm a dylan freak who's read all the books, yet this has new information (from interviews with Bob Johnston, Al Kooper and others) and insights galore into what was going on in dylan's private and public life and how that found it's way into the lyrics and music of Highway 61.I was sorry to reach the end and wish Mark would write a similar volume on Blonde on Blonde. ... Read more

Product Description
A celebration of the great songsmith's political engagement.

"Keep a good head and carry a light bulb."—Bob Dylan's response to the question "What is your advice for young people?", London 1962.

Bob Dylan's lyrics are at once abstruse and evocative, urgent and timeless. But, as Mike Marqusee's compelling new book makes clear, behind the anarchy and playfulness of Dylan's imagery lie meanings that are often highly charged with political and social concerns.

It was blues and folk songs that first led Bob Dylan to politics. But it was politics that unlocked his own astonishing songwriting ability, evidenced by dazzling responses in the early 1960s to the civil rights movement and the threat of nuclear war. Marqusee traces the young song-writer's subsequent reluctance to be pigeonholed, his rejection of "protest," and his turn to electric rock at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. He shows the way folk tradition, modernism, and commercial popular culture are sublimely fused in Dylan's masterworks of the mid-1960s, notably on the albums Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde, and discusses the artist's quest for American identity—amid the continuing carnage in Vietnam and growing chaos at home—in The Basement Tapes.

Following his acclaimed study of Muhammad Ali, Redemption Song, Mike Marqusee again demonstrates an engaging ability to fuse biography and politics, storytelling and original insight. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

a history book that tells you how the people feel
In his Chronicles, Dylan states that he has never read a history book that tells how people feel. Chimes of Freedom, however, is such a history book. In researching Dylan, this is by far the best source I have come across, but more than that, Chimes of Freedom relates the brutal realities of civil rights oppression in the South of the 60's. Marqusee analyzes not just Dylan but also the incredible struggles that the singer witnessed, causing the reader to feel the same anger and sorrow that these protesters felt.

excellent
This is an excellent book. It is especially reccomended for serious Dylan fans.very easy to read, incredibly insightful. Tremendous assimilation of history and music. if this was a test the author would get a 96%. he rarely gets it wrong. one of the best dylan books that i have ever read.

What a remarkable book
I have been waiting a for a book with this level of political sophistication for a long time.It's finally here.Marqusee sees the politics in America in the 1960s in its complexity, and Dylan's music equally so.As a result, he avoids the cliches about both and teases out many new insights and comments.Bravo! An especially important book for young activists.Marqusee clears away the romance and the clutter of those years so that you can better appreciate the difficulty of struggle today.And at the same time, he clears the way for you to find companionship in Dylan's music from that time.

Freedom Chimes
This is the third book on Dylan I have read in the last couple of weeks, and by coincidence they all take quite different approaches that serve to sharpen the contrasts in how Dylan's lyrics are interpreted. The first two, by Marqusee and Ricks are essentially contextualist. Ricks' context is the canon of Anglo Saxon poetry and literature which, I presume, he thinks enables us to understand better Dylan's lyrics (his choice of what is great poetry in Dylan is eccentric). Marqusee takes a different form of contextualism, and sees the events, political and social as providing the context for understanding Bob Dylan's lyrics. I found his elaboration on political events and movements extremely illuminating, but at times they were not wholly integrated and appeared instead as juxapostions against the lyrics rather than serving to clarify them. The third book is on both Dylan and Leonard Cohen (much underrated in the States but huge in Europe). The author, I see, has also edited a book with Gary Browning due out in November 2004 with a similr title to Marqusee's The Political Art of Bob Dylan). Boucher in his Dylan and Cohen appraises the two types of contextualism just mentioned, and with reference to the statements of Dylan and Cohen show how referents often serve to obscure rather than illuminate meaning. In many of the songs it is the images rather than the meanings that are evocative. Here a prime example would be 'Desolution Row'. Anyway, all three books are well worth a read.

Vanguard Into Rearguard
In "Chimes of Freedom: The Politics of Bob Dylan's Art," Mike Marqusee treats us to a full-on analysis of the cultural, political and historical significance of Bob Dylan in the context of the early-to-mid 60s when Dylan was at the height of his powers.But even more, he shows how Dylan, at the vanguard of the social protest movement, was in the vanguard of the next development as well -- the turn away from the mass politics of the left, the social patriotism of Guthrie, toward the private politics of expressive individualism, the search for "authenticity" in an increasingly inauthentic world. With psychological nuance and sensitivity, he explores Dylan's defensiveness and arrogance, his sometimes convoluted and confused politics and his attempts to cope with nearly overwhelming fame and notoriety in the midst of social and political turmoil.

Essentially, Dylan is the core around which the story of the decline of the American Left is told. Marqusee provides insight in the factors that gave rise to the sense of hopefulness of the early 60s, a hopefulness that could not be sustained by most of the new white college kid converts to the civil rights and other social justice movements. Dense, packed with insight, this is a cogent corrective to the many misconceptions and platitudes that have come to describe this turbulent time in American history. In Marqusee's reading of the time, in the contextual backdrops he weaves, rescues a complex era from the oversimplifications of the media, e.g., the Woodstock Nation.

Emblematic of Dylan's break with the Old Left was his adoption of rock and roll instrumentation at Newport.Launched into new sonic and social spaces, Dylan cleared the way for all kinds of experimentation, the explosion of creativity that ensued in such performers as Hendrix.But in the explosion, Marqusee insists, the consumer state, sniffing around for new game, created an entire new marketing segment out of the excitement and wild extravagance of the ethos of personal freedom.Soon, he shows, protests were uncool. The struggle did not provide the instant gratification that young white America had come to expect from the consumer state. Soon, the enormous wave of civil disobedience and protest against the Vietnam War subsided into the cynical selling of rebellious culture and its many accoutrements.

Marqusee suggests, perhaps a bit too patly, that consumer culture and its mechanisms swamped the last vestiges of leftist New Deal politics.Still, he convincingly defends the notion that Dylan after emulating the social patriotism of the folk-singers in the generation before his, began to form a more profound and more withering critique of the "system," a critique which eventually pitted him against the Old Left, who still believed in the possiblity of the Popular Front.Eventually, the New Left took up the notion of a revolution in consciousness as the only way to defeat the Establishment -- and as they did mimicked Dylan's search for the authentic.A vexed notion, authenticity, as Marqusee notes, all the more sought after as it become harder and harder to find in the midst of the expolsion of the consumer state.He shows us this tension in Dylan, who, after his early anthemic songs in the style of Guthrie, moved toward the imagistic, the satirical, the non-sequitur, the private hipster moves of Kerouac and Ginsberg and their in-crowd critique of (consumer) society as a way to distance himself from the Seeger and Baez crowd.

Another strategy Marqusee employs well is the examination of Dylan's evolution against other music and other performers.He does a particularly insightful job with Curtis Mayfield, showing how the music of protest came from gospel and was given new life by artists like Mayfield.He also contrasts Phil Ochs with Dylan, who remained until the end a protest singer in the more generally accepted mold. In the epilogue, he cannily examines Dylan's decline through the rise of one of John Hammonds "New Dylan" -- Springsteen.He suggest that Springsteen started out by aping the moves of the imagistic, stream-of-consciousness era Dylan, then, after studying some history and the some of the roots of popular music, began to align himself with the older stream of social protest music in the "Tom Joad" album.

No book of left social criticism is able to avoid mentioning Adorno and the Frankfurt School.Thus Marquesee cites Adorno's views on popular music in his analysis.Quite rightly disputes Adorno's views on the exploitation by capital of "popular" music in the case of early Dylan, but suggests Adorno's view of the impossibility of popular music remaining truly of the people in a consumer state. Adorno's grand and paranoid theories still a bit redolent of the determinism of his Marxist heritage, but there is more than a little truth in his theory. Still, more to my taste are the citations from Adorno's sometime friend and colleague, Walter Benjamin.More Dylanesque, more elliptical, more paradoxical, less programmatic.

Dylan, an unwilling accomplice of the exploitation of rebel culture, troubled by his fame and its implications, grew conservative after "John Wesley Harding." His great period came to an end just as the mass of young people began to experience the 60s, to "question authority."Marqusee has gone deep into this chaotic, watershed time, and pulled from it through his examination of Dylan, an historical and cultural vision which is bracing, balanced, and thoughtful.Incidentally, a good companion read is "Power and Protest" by Jeremi Suri which shows how the leaders of both the free and unfree worlds after promising good times in the late 50s and early 60s, all moved toward conservative agendas in the face of a protest movement among youth, a movement in some ways fueled by the grand gestures and promises made -- "The New Frontier" and "The Great Leap Forward" -- and upon which they had not been able to deliver during the nuclear stalemate. ... Read more

Product Description
Fifty first-person accounts of fans who have had a closeencounter (usually face-to-face) with Bob Dylan, one our mostenigmatic and reclusive public figures and the 20th Century's mostinfluential songwriter.

The contributors come from around the world, and some even haverecognizable names, such as mandolinist David Grisman, journalist NatHentoff, the late Hall-of-Fame pitcher Jim "Catfish" Hunter, rapperKurtis Blow, and noted groupie/author Pamela Des Barres. Collectively,their stories provide compelling, sometimes amusing, insight intoDylan and his long and complicated relationship with his legion ofdevoted admirers.

The book also includes 24 photographs, many of them previouslyunpublished images of Dylan. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Interesting and fun, could have been better.
Bob Dylan fans will enjoy this book. It holds several surprises with some of its well-known contributors. If you have ever met Bob Dylan you will recognize yourself in some of these reminiscences. Others are a little eccentric, and a few illustrate the obsession with which some fans will carry out their desire to meet, touch, encounter Bob Dylan. For the most part, the recollections are limited by the insights, or lack of them, presented by the writers. The editing is very hands off, with both benefits and disadvantages to the reader. This is a book that in the hands of a more resourceful and perceptive editor could have been a lot better than it is. Yet, it's worthwhile.

fan's recollections, fan's delights
Tracy Johnson has done a very good job of finding a variety of diverse people in her compilation of Dylan fans and the stories they tell of meeting, seeing and being inspired by Bob Dylan. Certainly a must read for any Dylan fan.

Interesting if you're a fan
As the greatest - not to mention most important, in every sense of the word - songwriter of the 20th century, Bob Dylan has, unsurprisingly, inspired a legion of devoted fans. Although every major artist has their share of obsessives and fanatics, the ones who follow Dylan have far surpassed mere "groupie" or "hard-core" status: they reside in a legendary status - even mythological. Some of these, branded "Dylanologists", have achieved a level of notoriety compared in a small way with the artist himself. Many fans know of the famous (or infamous) "Garbologist", A. J. Weberman, who even went so far as searching through the dumpsters outside Bob's house for his baby's soiled diapers - allegedly looking for clues to obscure lyrics, and even conjuring up a paranoid fantasy conspiracy that the government was out to get Dylan for raising sentiment against the Vietnam War, and that Dylan knew it, and alluded to it, through subtle messages in his songs. Bob Dylan's history is filled with many other such characters and ancedotes. Perhaps it comes as no surprise, then, that Dylan is a very mysterious character, and known for his ambivalence towards fans. Securing a personal meeting with Dylan is a difficult thing to do, and those fans who do manage it are held in a kind of revered awe by the faithful. This book is a record of such encounters. There are many books available on Dylan (certainly more serious and scholarly works than on any other rock musician), but this is just about the only one where the air of pretentious intellectual refinement is removed, and you hear it straight from the mouth of the ones who really matter: the fans. These are the fans personal reminisces of meeting Dylan, or otherwise coming close in some way. These are the normal, everyday fans - people like you and me (although there are certainly a few obsessives - such as the man who keeps a "Dylan shrine" in his house), although there are a handful of semi-famous names in here as well. The accounts range from revelatory (people being personally invited backstage by Dylan, a record store employee purporting not to know who he is, a man who retrieves Dylan's stolen cap); to hilarous (a fan who meets Dylan in a cafe and asks him a strange question, a meeting between Dylan and a fan in an alley before a concert), to just plain boring and inane. You are hearing these recollections as told straight from the fans - granted, then, the prose is often crude, and some stories are better than others. This, then, is a book you'll want if you're looking for personal, often funny, sometimes touching stories from the fans themselves - rather than pseudo-intellectual exposition from so-called "rock scholars." I would not rate this as an essential Dylan book: rather I reccommend it if you are a fan and want a slightly more personal and unique book about Dylan than you normally find.

Song and Dance Man
Ms. Johnson has done a wonderful job in illustrating the fanatic nature of Dylan's fans combined with the reclusive nature of their hero.As the lights have burned ever brightly on Dylan in the latter stages of his career, Bob has increasingly receded into the shadows, content to let his son Jabob bask in the spotlight for the family.This book, though, shows the connection that Dylan's fans still feel towards him, whether they have met him or just been touched by him in some small way.I especially enjoyed the story of the young man who had Dylan autograph his tattoo of Bob's likeness.

Whether you are a Dylan fanatic or just a reader who enjoys touching anecdotes, this book is for you.It is refreshing to see that not every entertainment star has forgotten that it is the fans that make or break your career.Buy the book.You'll love it.

Another Side of Bob Dylan
Let's face it:Bob can be a jerk to his fans.But then again, it's got to be hell being accosted by obsessive fans everywhere you go.If you've read some of the Dylan biographies out there you have an idea of Dylan's life and work.This book gives you a glimpse into what it's like to be a Dylan fan.Some of the accounts are more engaging than others and some don't even involve meeting Dylan at all.I wish they'd left those out...Anyway, this is interesting but very brief.You can read the whole thing in a day and I think there are just as many stories out there (for free) on the internet at the many Dylan sites. ... Read more

Product Description
The images and text in this book chronicle the public life of a unique talent. Bob Dylan has written some of the most memorable popular songs of the twentieth century, as well as being a charismatic performer and cultural influence on succeeding generations of audiences and artists. Yet Dylan remains an enigma: a shy, retiring man who hardly speaks to audiences, yet now hosts a weekly radio show; a performer who, in his own words, is 'mortified' to go out on stage, yet continues a punishing tour schedule as he heads towards his seventh decade because he believes it's what he was born to do. Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman on 24th May 1941 in Duluth Minnesota. His early years were spent in a conventional and middle class Jewish household. In his teens, Dylan began to play and sing in local bands and when he left school his main ambition, as recorded in his high school yearbook was 'to join Little Richard.' But it was folk, not rock 'n' roll, which gave the young Dylan his first taste of fame, when he moved to New York, became part of the burgeoning folk music scene and recorded a series of albums cementing his fame as a leading light of the early sixties protest movement.In 1965 Dylan famously 'went electric' at the Newport Folk Festival, outraging purist fans, but finding a new and ever growing rock audience. Dylan toured the world with a rock backing band, creating music of an intensity never been heard before in rock, once again outraging some fans and thrilling others with the power of the music. A mysterious motorcycle accident put paid to the touring in 1966 and Dylan retired to Woodstock to raise a family. It was not until 1974 that he returned to touring and began to make great music again, notably the "Blood on the Tracks" album which many consider to be his finest. In 1979 Dylan was 'born again' and made several albums of overtly Christian music, yet again dividing his fans. Through the 1980s Dylan struggled to find his way musically and personally, although embarking on what has since become known as the never-ending tour: a punishing schedule of touring around the world, unprecedented in size and scope, all the more surprising for a man of his age. The 1990s saw another creative renaissance and Bob Dylan today has rarely been more feted critically and commercially.His last three albums have been acclaimed, his autobiography "Chronicles" was both a critical and popular success and his "Theme Time Radio Hour" radio show a joy to fans and new listeners alike. And the never-ending tour continues... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Photography Book Without Photo Credits!
My wife and I are avid Dylan fans. He's the best. My wife purchased this book. The photos are wonderful, and printed beautifully. Evidently Bob Dylan was a magnet for photographic talent. Notably missing from this collection are Avedon's photos of early Dylan. What I find disgraceful and offensive is that there aren't any real photo credits other than Getty Images. Screw Getty Images. Who are they? Just a corporation that usurps the works of artists to make an obscene profit and to brand these works with their corporate identity. The so called author Chris Rushby should be ashamed of himself. Why does he have an author credit? He's not an author, merely someone who sent a photo request to Getty, negotiated a deal to screw the photographers and advance himself. It must be a bitter pill for the photographers whose work was "acquired" for this collection to see it printed and then not see any credit. Chris, I hope you read this review and get hip to your creepy self. ... Read more

Product Description
Discusses the evolution of Dylan’s style and concerns. The most informed interpretation available of Dylan’s mature work. B/w photos. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Personal and universal
If you love Paul Williams and if you love Dylan this is an unbeatable experience, focusing as it does on what some might call "lost years" of highs and lows of Bob's career.It is all the same for Paul Williams who takes it ALL in and lovingly dissects every speck of Dylan's output.Paul Williams was a lone voice in the wilderness back in the "Dylan: What Happened" days so this serves as an extension of that important book.

An Amazing Dylan Book
The second volume of "Bob Dylan, Performing Artist" covers theless understood, less appreciated, but often more rewarding second part ofDylan's career. Williams convincingly argues that much of Dylan's finestwork came during this period, and his writing may have you digging out yourold copy of "Shot of Love" or "Empire Burlesque" (oryour bootleg tapes of those 1979-80 "born again" shows) to hearwhat he's talking about. ... Read more

Product Description
Bob Dylan's contribution to popular music is immeasurable. Venerated as rock's one true genius, Dylan is considered responsible for introducing a new range of topics and new lyrical complexity into popular music. Without Bob Dylan, rock critic Dave Marsh once claimed, there would be no popular music as we understand it today.

As such an exalted figure, Dylan has been the subject of countless books and intricate scholarship considering various dimensions of both the man and his music. This book places new emphasis on Dylan as a rock star. Whatever else Dylan is, he is a star - iconic, charismatic, legendary, enigmatic. No one else in popular music has maintained such star status for so long a period of time.

Showing how theories of stardom can help us understand both Bob Dylan and the history of rock music, Lee Marshall provides new insight into how Dylan's songs acquire meaning and affects his relationship with his fans, his critics and the recording industry. Marshall discusses Dylan's emergence as a star in the folk revival (the "spokesman for a generation") and the formative role that Dylan plays in creating a new type of music - rock - and a new type of star. Bringing the book right up to date, he also sheds new light on how Dylan's later career has been shaped by his earlier star image and how Dylan repeatedly tried to throw off the limitations and responsibilities of his stardom.

The book concludes by considering the revival of Dylan over the past ten years and how Dylan's stardom has developed in a way that contains, but is not overshadowed by, his achievements in the 1960s. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Powerful Analysis of Bob's Stardom
I've read more than 30 Bob books, and this is among the best.

Intellectual yet accessible, this sociological analysis of what made and continues to make Bob a star is an insightful look into how Dylan's stardom changed over the course of his career and how the social context and his audience facilitated and inhibited his stardom. One thing I truly appreciate about this book is that it does not stop in 1966!

Lee Marshall divides the book into seven major chapters separated by bulleted snapshots of the major events in Dylan's life:

(1) Introduction - Here he looks at stardom as a social system with distinctive functions and characteristics, and identifies those things that make a rock star unique. In other words, he lays out the conceptual framework he will use to analyze Dylan's career.
(2) Stardom, Authorship and the Meaning of Songs - In this chapter he argues that attempts to understand the meaning of Bob's songs through textual analysis or biographical inference are limiting. He argues that how the reader, listener, or audience generates meaning is what really matters. This meaning changes as the social context changes and as the individual's experience with the music deepens. This is especially true for Dylan, whose expression of the music continues to evolve. It's not just the words; it's also the voice, the personality, the music...everything that shapes our feelings and the meanings we construct.
(3) Folk Stardom - Dylan became a star during the second folk revival in this country, at a time when youth were deeply concerned about the possibility of nuclear holocaust, the Vietnam war, and civil rights. Dylan found a way to powerfully express the collective consciousness of the time and developed an image as a political leader (whether he wanted to or not). He broke from the union collectivist notions of the traditional folk movement to "empathetic individualism" - a "belief that only by developing one's individual self-awareness could one change society." He told tales to create an image of an everyman figure, reinforcing the sense that an ordinary person with talent (specialness) can become a star with some luck and hard work. He was ordinary and special.
(4) Rock Stardom - When Dylan went electric, he outraged folk purists who viewed him as "selling out" or going commercial. Marshall asserts that "rock did not exist before Dylan's shift to electric music" - pretty audacious of him! He's referring to the ideology of rock, not the musical structure. He argues that Dylan changed the way songs were written, rock was criticized, and what fans were seeking. He was cool, confident, and authentic. He was "an individual who rejects politics in favour of inner-consciousness yet still manages to be political; an artist who follows his own unique vision regardless of the consequences yet found new audiences and commercial success; a self-conscious artist speaking for no one except his own self yet upheld as the leader of a youth movement." He was a perfect ideological fit for the times.
(5) Beyond Stardom - Dylan's work was canonized after the 1966 World Tour and motorcycle accident in much the same way Marilyn Monroe and James Dean were canonized after their deaths. Fortunately for us, Dylan didn't have to die. As Marshall points out, the idealization of Dylan that occurred in his silence, also contributed to a post-sixties image of a star who never quite lives up to expectations.
(6) Declining Stardom - When Dylan returned to the public in the 1970s, his work was overshadowed by the mythological past and by social changes. His meaning was as a "living legend" and interpreted in nostalgic terms. In the early 1980s, with the release of the gospel albums, his image became increasingly unclear. Meanwhile, the music industry began seeing declining record sales, and looked for major sellers like Michael Jackson's Thriller, which sold 47 million copies worldwide. MTV emerged to help construct star-images. Bob's albums were rarely big sellers, and pop videos never were his medium. Neither of these trends served him well. Dylan seemed out of sync with this new world. As Dylan sang, "But it's like I'm stuck inside a painting / That's hanging in the Louvre. / My throat starts to tickle and my nose itches / But I know that I can't move." Marshall suggests that Dylan developed a deliberate strategy to get out of being a legend - The Never Ending Tour (NET).
(7) Redefining Stardom - The NET (from June 1988 to now) was intended to "transform his relationship with his audience." The audience who came to see the legend wanted to hear familiar songs, and wanted them to sound the way they remembered them. He wanted an audience that was there to engage with the music now. In his first 22 years, Dylan performed 525 concerts, an average of 34.5 per year. In the first 18 years of the NET, he played 1909 shows, averaging 100 per year. While some still show up to see the legend, more keep coming back to engage with the music. His fans are now multi-generational and often attend multiple shows, due to their variety. Less than 50% of the songs are from 1961-66. He finally has the audience he deserves.
(8) Never Ending Stardom - Time Out of Mind and Dylan's hospitalization in 1997 changed things once again. The themes of Time Out of Mind - constant movement, having nothing to say, and aging and mortality - were in sync with his transformed star-image. Many international and national awards followed, including an Oscar for Things Have Changed. His next two albums - Love & Theft and Modern Times - were critically acclaimed and commercially successful. These three albums integrate the rich traditions of American roots music in a way that makes them timeless. Chronicles, No Direction Home, and Theme Time Radio all show a "wise man offering an omiscient view of history." He has managed to find endlessly creative ways of renewing the past.

This is an insightful look at an amazing star. Can't wait for the next concert...
Bob Dylan: No Direction Home - The SoundtrackChronicles: Volume One (Chronicles)Bob Dylan: The Drawn Blank SeriesTime Out of Mind"Love and Theft"Modern Times (Special Limited Edition)

The most interesting book in years
Lee Marshall's is the most interesting book i read about Dylan in years.
Anyway, regiarding to the comments above, I don't think jg wanted to say that Dylan should be an example as lifestyle... he just said that the christian period is underestimated. I agree with this, in terms of art quality, but even in the book terms of stardom construction/de-construction.
In some way Dylan conversion was partly a research for the immortality of his work and strictly connected with the GOSPEL tradition. TIMHO.
Many others important aspects in this book are absent, but nobody can be omnicomprehensive in such a vast matter. BD is really bigger than life.

Bruno
Rome IT

A comment on the commentator
My reaction to the "Christian" reviewer is that a few Dylan freaks or phobes or supporters or whatever they decided to be called project their particular feelings onto Dylan.They don't know Dylan, they just want to believe they do and everything they write is colored by these suppositions. If we all agree that Dylan's music and poetry is superb we can then agree to disagree about him as a person. His lifestyle is not something I would point to as an example of a happy, fulfilled life. To me he appears chronically dissatisfied and that may be my projection.However to confuse the Dylan character and personality with his work is to do just that.They are not the same but Dylan has hidden his true self or displayed it in various guises. Do we know him, hardly. Do we want to, that is a different question.

genius, pure genius
this book is like a punch in the face. you won't forget it for a long time. i read it in just a few days. the book is especially reccomended for anyone who loves bob and his work. i have read many dylan books. this one is absolutely brilliant. Marshall's analysis of dylan and his career is apocalyptic. he puts dylan's career in perspective in so many ways. dylan's importance to the world cannot be overstated. i have no doubt that his prophet status will continue to grow throughout time. the only critique i will make is with Marshall's inability to analyze the importance of dylan's christian music. he never really deals with it. i strongly reccomend that anyone reading this book also reads Stephen Webb's book, From Highway 61 to Saved. i think that people don't understand dylan's christianity. they think that bob abandoned his free-spirited creative artistry for rigid christian dogma. it is not true. when bob embraced god he acknowledged the source of his artistry. in god, bob found universal truth that liberated him completely from the emptiness that haunted him and it gave birth to his truest understanding of life and of himself. god saved bob. bob has always tried to use that power to save us. i think that people can't see this because it can't be understood as an outsider. The power of faith in god and Christ cannot be appreciated as an observer. bob's artistry has always been tied to faith in a higher power and he took it to the next level. one other point i would make concerns bob's "comeback" starting with his pericarditis and the release of Time Out of Mind. When bob got sick people stopped taking him for granted because they were faced with the reality of his mortality. it's like giving awards to artists when they get old to make sure that they understand how much they are appreciated and loved before the opportunity is missed. This type of public appreciation is sincere but it was somewhat contrived and long over-due. Dylan's greatness has always been evident to the true-believer and he would have continued to produce sublime and important work without the recognition that he got. As long as i'm on a soap box about my favorite subject, this scenario reminds me of the standing ovation that bob got when he sang his christian music at the grammy awards many years ago. I think alot of people were clapping for the wrong reasons. I think that they were happy that bob had accepted Christ and in essence their side had won an important endorsement. They were not celebrating bob's joy at finding
the love and truth that he had always been looking for. i was struck by the schism and shallowness of the moment. ... Read more

Product Description
'I change during the course of a day. I wake and I'm one person, and when I go to sleep I know for certain I'm somebody else.' Bob Dylan DYLAN ON DYLAN gathers together for the first time twenty-nine of the most significant and revealing conversations with the singer, stretching over forty years from the earliest days of his career in 1962 through to 2004. Among the highlights are the seminal Rolling Stone interviews by Jann Wenner, Jonathan Cott, Kurt Loder and Mikal Gilmore, as well as the legendary 1966 Playboy interview. In-depth and intimate, these interviews cover the gaps left by the Chronicles: Volume 1. Dylan expert Jonathan Cott writes an introduction to this must-have collection of the artist in his own words. 'Edited by Jonathan Cott, one of the original editors of Rolling Stone and arguably the most simpatico writer ever to converse with Mr Dylan, the interview format remains eminently readable ...Mr. Cott identifies the major sea changes in Mr Dylan's life via conversational format, without undue commentary ...Nobody can explain Mr Dylan as well as he, when he cares to do it, can explain himself' The New York Times ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Promo material with minimal info
Bob Dylan recorded, by my count, about 400 songs from, say, 1962 to 2008. Say one in six weeks. For my taste there are about 4 types - what might be called 'tales' (various people and the Jack of Hearts etc), a few perfunctory social comment, the intimate occasions type, both unaffectionate (Thin Man) and affectionate (Lay Lady Lay), and the meaningless but effective songs (Gates of Eden -'The motorcycle black madonna/ Two-wheeled gypsy queen).

Most or all of these thirty-one interviews coincide with tours, films, records; recently Dylan had an art exhibition but this postdates the final 2004 interview. They are all very polite- nobody says he's a disappointing ghastly little man, for example, to see what happens. All the background work - agents, contracts - is missing and it's impossible to know what information has been suppressed. The largest amount of data is about other musicians - notably early influences, and then musicians who accreted to him as became or was mad famous - and studio work, which he compared to working in a coal mine. He seems very generous about influences - there's quite a huge list of people he listened to. There's also quite a bit on poetry and writers - but whether deliberately or not it's a bit of a shambles - it's hard to believe Rimbaud, Byron, Shakespeare etc has any serious effect. It seemed possible to me he might have read Dylan Thomas - 'petrol blind face to the wind', 'Bible black night' seem Bob Dylanesque. At any rate the words are the thing here and there's very little on his writing technique, if he has/had one. The impression given is he used a portable typewriter and because this is an effort left most of the words the way they emerged. He doesn't seem to have ever designed songs in the sense of selecting some emotion or reaction or outlook, and trying to embody it in works, reworking it to make it more or less subtle.

I'm sure Dylan fans will buy this book and similar ones, and they are I suppose right to do so, but the nutritional content isn't very satisfactory - whether he has unrevealed depths, or basically is just another entertainer, who knows?

Dylan Revealed (Mostly) In His Own Words
Bob Dylan once wrote "Nothing is revealed", and he appears to try to live up to that saying in each of the interviews selected here.Actually, bits and pieces of the man, the motives, the poetry, the philosophy, and the sheer genius gradually emerge over the course of dozens of interviews given over more than 40 years.

The frustrating thing about being an admirer of Bob Dylan is that the man refuses to acknowledge his own legacy.Bob was very consistent from the beginning, stating more than once, "I just sing and play guitar".Well, that's a little bit like a prophet saying "I just give the occasional lecture".On one level, yes, Mr. Dylan is just a singer and songwriter (and some would claim he's not even really a singer).On another level, Bob has an amazing ability, or perhaps a God-given talent for taking intangible, nebulous thoughts and ideas that may exist only in a subconscious form, and putting these formless ideas into tangible words and music.Bob seems to be able to pick up something in the air, thoughts and feelings that people may not even be able to express themselves, and then he's put it all into a neat and simple package called a song.

I believe Bob Dylan puts down his own talent because he's not consciously aware of how he writes songs. (He certainly appears to be unable or unwilling to interpret the meaning of his own work.) I don't want to read too much into his lyrics, but I think that his songs will stand the test of time in 100, 200, 300 years.

I think an artist like Dylan is like Mozart - who just did what came naturally, and wasn't able to explain just how he was able to compose music that seemed to arrive straight from heaven.Like Mozart, Dylan is probably more of a messenger than a songwriter.

Indispensable Collection of Interviews
Much of Bob Dylan's work is mysterious, but the man lurking behind this famous alias even more so?"Dylan on Dylan" might be as close as we can get to understanding something of what makes this great artist tick, until Bob completes Chronicles, which is obstensibly hisautobiography.I think it fair to say that there is a public perception of Bob Dylan as aloof, perhaps even surly at times, but this collection of interviews and some short articles should deepen our appreciation of him. At times he is outrageously funny, insightful, direct and honest.You get the sense of Bob Dylan as the self made artist, uncomfortable with the conformity of institutional learning, and who eschews the over categorizing of his work.He demonstrates a satisfaction with his accomplishments, but seems not to be preoccupied with them. He seems to have been downright uncomfortable with his fame at times, particularly the Woodstock period when so-called fans refused to respect his need for privacy.His humility is palpable throughout, and he comes across as an artist engaged in a process of continual growth and renewal.These interviews are as profoundly interesting as his catalogue of amazing music. A lot of the credit belongs, of course, to the brilliant line up of interviewers, each of whom were able to draw something special out of Bob. "Dylan on Dylan" will, I predict, become a classic of the genre. ... Read more

Product Description
In 1962, a young John Cohen and the young songwriter Bob Dylan went to Cohen's East Village loft and rooftop for a few hours to make some photos in "a moment of invention…without planning, and with the freedom that comes from uncertainty," recalls Cohen. The never-before-published, black-and-white photographs in Young Bob: John Cohen's Early Photographs of Bob Dylan reveal the soon-to-be-legendary musician of the cusp of fame, just before the release of his revolutionary self-titled first album. "These are pictures from a more innocent time at the beginning of Bob Dylan's career," Cohen recalled. "his is what he might have looked like when he first arrived in New York…. the making of these photographs was quite naïve. We weren't into creating a persona for Bob. I was more interested in documenting what was before the camera, and what I was seeing wasn't so clear. The session was just a free-flowing pursuit of picture making and taking poses. We didn't know what he was going to look like." To complement the images, Cohen has painstakingly transcribed and edited forgotten radio interviews that aired between 1961 and 1963. The interviews conjure up voices from the past, where you can hear a youthful Dylan joking and quipping with WBAI's Cynthia Gooding, WNYC's Oscar Brand, and WFMT's Studs Terkel. With a flourish of color, Cohen's recently rediscovered Ektachromes shot in 1970 for the album "Self Portrait" appear at the end of Young Bob. These finely constructed "self portraits," art directed by Dylan himself, offer a contrast to the uninhibited loft and rooftop photos and serve as a reminder that just a few years later the famed persona of Dylan had truly been formed and that the young Bob we caught a glimpse of on Cohen's rooftop was now and forever gone. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

fast and honest
only minor damages to the spine, but something to be expected when buying a used book. Seller was fast and honest

QUALITY PICTURES
This is a quality book of great pictures--not "Forever Young" that I wouldn't buy even if the price was right since I got it from the library first as one customer review recommended.This book is first class in clarity, paper quality, and quality of pictures.You also get three transcribed radio interviews which coincide with the times of the photographs.

The first photographs (black and white) were done at Cohen's place when Bob was just starting out in New York City, and he was 20 years old.You will see a few real stunners, some casual ones, funny offbeat ones, and then some color 1970 snapshots of him (probably on his property and just walking across the street).

The first photograph inside is the one offered in the booklet that goes with Bootleg #7, which is a real stunner only here you get a full photo and it's clearer and bigger.Then on page 6 is the one I like even more than the first one (maybe).I, being female, can tell you that this makes Bob look like a model.Guys may be shy of pointing out his good looks, but I can do that.So gals and guys who see Bob as a hero or idol should like this book.There is a casual photo of Bob strolling alongside his baby in a buggy, and I really like this one too because it reveals his high forehead--FINALLY!!!!!!!!

(Some movie-type small photos also.)

You will not be disappointed.

Get this book instead of wasting your money on "Forever Young."

Superb photos & splendid edition
I bought this book together with Douglas R. Gilbert's 'Forever Young' and they are both interesting portraits of Bob Dylan as a young artist. Yet taken as a book, John Cohen's is in a different league altogether. The paper on which this book is printed is wonderful (compared with the cheap seeming one used for 'Forever Young') and the printing of both B&W and colour images is first-rate.

As accompanying text there are three transcribed radios interviews with Bob Dylan which are contemporaneous to the photographs. This is also a winning point of this book; having both the photographs and the young Dylan speak for themselves.


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Product Description
Bob Dylan has been a prolific graphic artist since the 1960s, and his graphic art is marked by the same constant drive for renewal that characterises his music. Never content to remain static in a single form of expression that he has already cultivated, he is constantly experimenting and testing new artistic techniques and expressions. This book of the exhibition at the National Gallery of Denmark encompasses some 100 works, including completely new works to be seen in public for the first time. Bob Dylan has recently delved into painting in acrylic, and the exhibition is the first to document this new direction in the artist's work, showing larger format paintings alongside drawings. Dylan's works are often created during his exhaustive touring, and his motifs bear corresponding imprints of the environments and people that he crosses in his life. As a graphic artist he functions as a phenomenal observer who depicts the immediately banal and everyday facets of life in such a way that they appear fresh and new for the viewer. ... Read more