so-soIt took me a long time to commit to this. It‘s a beautifully designed book, and I love, love, love Dylan, but this wasn‘t what I expected. Perhaps if it were titled “Bob Dylan‘s Playlist” it would have been less underwhelming.
His pieces about the Grateful Dead‘s “Truckin‘” or Webb Pierce‘s “There Stands the Glass,” are examples of what could have made this great. Unfortunately the bulk of it are rambling synopses that offer little “philosophy.”
Did anyone check their #AudibleStats? Will be posting some more highlights for me…
Such a Dylan thing to say: “no matter how many chairs you have, you only have one ass.” 😅
pickObviously it was the novelty of reading Bob Dylan‘s thoughts on pop songs that made me want to read this, which is to say it‘s probably not for everyone. I enjoyed the full cast recording, which includes Bob‘s own narration of his somewhat rambling poetic thought pieces followed by a notable actor narrating the full essay.
I did find myself skipping some of the songs I was least interested in, but Bob‘s take on Witchy Woman was worth it 🤣
Birthday today!
Time for some Sixties and Bob Dylan! ✌️☮️🍄🌼🌈
so-so
Painstaking, song-by-song trawl through Dylan's back pages, including every song recorded up to Planet Waves plus outtakes and fragments. Lots of detail about when and where each song was written, recording sessions, and the afterlife of the song in performance. Invaluable for filling in the gaps in one's knowledge but it makes for less than riveting reading over 400-plus pages. His bitchy asides at other Dylanologists are always fun, mind you.
