Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)390 pages including 14 page introduction,318 pages of text, 28 pages of selected readings/notes/ discography, 23 pages of credits and index. There are many (small) b & w photos of both Dylan and other people mentioned, (many unseen before now) interspersed throughout the body of the book, which add a great deal (especially the early photos) to this analysis of specific songs/albums/concerts of Dylan's work.
This book, by Sean Wilentz (who wrote the liner notes for "The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964, Concert at Philharmonic Hall"), is a combination of fact, interpretations, and constructive criticism. Taken together this gives a good, sometimes unique look into Bob Dylan's music in relation to the era (s) that influenced him. His relationship to Dylan goes back to the early days when his father owned a bookstore important to the "beat" generation of writers (Dylan first met Allen Ginsberg in Wilentz' uncle's apartment, upstairs from the family bookstore), and just down the street from The Gaslight Cafe and Cafe Wha?, important to Dylan's (and many others) burgeoning career. The author places Dylan, beginning in the early 60's, in the context of America and the changes and influences that were already beginning to happen, and would increase rapidly throughout the decade and beyond. Wilentz takes a good, but selected, look at Dylan's writing and his growing performance style throughout specific times in Dylan's career, up to the present time, while not focusing at length on Dylan's place in American life, through the eyes and ears of listeners.
The author had access to unreleased recordings, and even the studio logbooks and notes from Dylan's career, and unseen photographs which help immensely in formulating an in depth look into both Dylan's writings and performances. Wilentz has done a good job in putting all of his research into an easy to read (but not strictly chronological), interesting, and informative book. Of great interest, after writing about Aaron Copland's combination of left-leaning politics and music, in the first portion of the book, is how Wilentz places Dylan's work in the context of "The Beat Generation", writers, particularly Allen Ginsberg, and a number of others from this period. The author makes a strong connection between "the beats" and Dylan's early, burgeoning writing style by going back in history to the 1950's, when Ginsberg et al, were becoming an albeit small, but influential force in America. The author places into this context two of Dylan's best albums-"Bringing It All Back Home", and "Highway 61 Revisited".
The vast portion of the remainder of the book is taken up with selected eras of Dylan's work, beginning with Dylan's mid 60's recordings and concerts, and the recording of "Blonde On Blonde" and later concerts (Rolling Thunder Review for example). The author doesn't dwell on the early 60's to a great extent because so much has already been written about this particular time. Wilentz then looks at Dylan selectively up through and into the 90's after his, arguably, fallow period, and how he looked for inspiration in early forms of folk music and country blues. Using individual songs, ("Delia", "Lone Pilgrim" for example), Wilentz paints a good overview of Dylan during this period with his chosen examples of Dylan's work. The author concludes with his critical look at "Love And Theft" at the turn of the century, and ends with Dylan's "Christmas In The Heart' album in 2009-which created quite strong opinions on both Dylan and his current work.
By using individual compositions or a single event, Wilentz constructs a fairly deep, sometimes unique, look into his subject at specific times throughout his long career as an artist. Examples of this are the song "Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35", which has a drumbeat in the opening, which is very similar sounding to the opening of the 1966 hit song "They're Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Haaa". This is a subtle (and later not so subtle) acknowledgment of Dylan's use of what he hears around him, and how he assimilates those sounds into his own work. Wilentz also ties together Dylan and the country blues singer/guitarist "Blind" Willie McTell, and shows the influence old-time country blues had (has) on Dylan's writing. The author, too, looks at "Renaldo and Clara" (and Dylan's other movies), and the influences found throughout, and his desires to produce a movie. The book is not in any strict chronological order-the author at times skips back and forth to make a particular point. At times this style can seem a bit disjointed-one moment you're reading about a particular song/person/event, only to find yourself reading about something from an entirely different era, which Wilentz uses to make his points. Once understanding the authors method of historical (he's a writer of history) analysis, his placement and observations on both Dylan's writing and live performances comes together into one larger picture. In the end this book is well worth reading for the author's placement, and insight, of Dylan in the contexts he has set out. Using Dylan's interest in history, literature, and of course, music, this book does what Wilentz set out to do-take an in depth look at selected periods of Dylan's work. This book should be read by anyone who has followed Dylan,both live and in the studio, through these many years and changes.
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One of America's finest historians shows us how Bob Dylan, one of the country's greatest and most enduring artists, still surprises and moves us after all these years. Growing up in Greenwich Village, Sean Wilentz discovered the music of Bob Dylan as a young teenager; almost half a century later, he revisits Dylan's work with the skills of an eminent American historian as well as the passion of a fan. Drawn in part from Wilentz's essays as "historian in residence" of Dylan's official website, Bob Dylan in America is a unique blend of fact, interpretation, and affinity—a book that, much like its subject, shifts gears and changes shape as the occasion warrants. Beginning with his explosion onto the scene in 1961, this book follows Dylan as he continues to develop a body of musical and literary work unique in our cultural history. Wilentz's approach places Dylan's music in the context of its time, including the early influences of Popular Front ideology and Beat aesthetics, and offers a larger critical appreciation of Dylan as both a songwriter and performer down to the present. Wilentz has had unprecedented access to studio tapes, recording notes, rare photographs, and other materials, all of which allow him to tell Dylan's story and that of such masterpieces as Blonde on Blonde with an unprecedented authenticity and richness. Bob Dylan in America—groundbreaking, comprehensive, totally absorbing—is the result of an author and a subject brilliantly met.
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