Exploring the American Experience Through Bob Dylan's Music
There is something about the NYRB, LRB and Bob Dylan. For some reason he comes up a lot.
Bob Dylan has long been hailed for his ability to capture the American experience in his music, from his influence by Woody Guthrie and Aaron Copland to his Nobel Prize in Literature. His songs combine blues-style vignettes with folk's more complex narrative traditions, and his electrifying performance of "Like a Rolling Stone" in Manchester Free Trade Hall in 1965-66 was a reminder of the transformational power of betrayal.
Bob Dylan After the Fall (NYRB, November 2010)
Giles Harvey
Why Dylan Deserves It (NYRB, December 2016)
Mark Ford
That Wild Mercury Sound (LRB, December 2016)
Bob Dylan, born Robert Zimmerman, exploded onto the music scene in 1961 with his debut album, Bob Dylan, recorded in New York. He had grown up in a small mining town in Minnesota and chose the name "Dylan" possibly after the lawman Matt Dillon from the TV Western Gunsmoke.
Liaisons Dangereuses (NYRB, July 2001)
John Leonard
Positively 4th Street:The Life and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña,and Richard Fariña Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 328 pp., $25.00
Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan Grove, 527 pp., $27.50
Prodigal Bob Dylan (NYRB, February 2015)
Dan Chiasson
Judas’ Gift (LRB, January 2012)
In 1965-66, Bob Dylan revolutionized popular music with his electric tour, culminating in a famous show in Manchester Free Trade Hall. When a disgruntled folkie shouted 'Judas', Dylan responded by ordering his band to 'play fucking loud', and the crowd was left stunned by his rendition of 'Like a Rolling Stone'. This moment was a reminder that betrayal can be a transformational act, and that someone matters to you if they can be betrayed or betray you.