![]() That will settle my brain, it’s my first one today There stands the glass that will ease all my pain This tune may sound corny as shit to you but check out the lyrics. Take, for example, “There Stands the Glass,” by Webb Pierce who, “was an American honky-tonk vocalist, songwriter and guitarist of the 1950s, one of the most popular of the genre, charting more number one hits than any other country artist during the decade.” I think he likes a well-crafted tune that not only tells that story but which also fires up his voluminous imagination and gives him somehting to “philosophize” about. I think what old Zimmy really digs is a good story. (Dylan is a longtime friend of the Fab Four and praised them since Day One.) I’m pleased to state that “Midnight Rider,” made the cut but weirdly, no Beatles. But country really stands out here as do standards like “Mack the Knife,” “Volare,” “Blue Moon,” and “Strangers in the Night.” I count agout 23 or so that come from the rock/soul/R&B genre. And sure, country has both folk and blues elements. To these eyes and ears, the preponderance of tunes seems to be safely embedded in the country genre. (But he does have space for “Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves.”) He does, however, cover Pete Seeger’s “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” which is a metaphor for the disastrous and unnecessary war America fought with Vietnam. He must have a lot of folk songs and a couple of Guthrie songs. Yeah, but – you beseech earnestly – Dylan started out as a folkie. Not unless you’re a fan of songs like “Ruby, Ae You Mad?,” “Take Me From this Garden of Evil,” or the ever popular “Nelly Was a Lady.” ![]() Many of these songs are not only quite a bit older than that but hardly as well-known. Of the 60+ songs he mentions, the most recent is Warren Zevon’s 2003 “Dirty Life and Times” then before that, Elvis Costello’s 1978 “Pump It Up.” As to which songs Dylan writes about, let us just say that his concept of “modern song” is likely quite different than yours or mine. Well, I don’t know how “momentous” it is but it’s a pretty good read. Running throughout the book are nearly 150 carefully curated (and stikingly weird – ME) photos as well as a series of dream-like riffs that, taken together, resemble an epic poem and add to the work’s transcendence.It is a momentous artistic achievement.” And while they are ostensibly about music, they are really meditations and reflections on the human condition. They are mysterious and mercurial, poignant and profound, and often laugh-out-loud funny. These essays are written in Dylan’s unique prose. He analyzes what he calls the trap of easy rhymes, breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song, and even explains how bluegrass relates to heavy metal. He writes over sixty essays focusing on songs by other artists, spanning from Stephen Foster to Elvis Costello, and in between ranging from Hank Williams to Nina Simone. But the blurb on the book liner says, “Dylan, who began working on the book in 2010, offers his extraordinary insight into the nature of popular music. ![]() While we await Volume Two, we now have The Philosophy of Modern Song which is, well, a whole diffeerent beast.ĭylan himself doesn’t give us any insight into what he’s up to as there is no introduction. It was a pretty insightful, entertaining look into the mind of this enigma. Back in 2004, Bob Dylan published a book of (some of) his life called Chronicles: Volume One.
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