The Philosophy of Modern Song

by Bob Dylan

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

This is a masterclass on songcraft thoughtfully curated by one of the greatest living songwriters today. With sixty essays that break down songs from his favorite artists, Dylan explores why certain songs are so memorable, making connections across musical genres. With his unique prose and style, Dylan offers as much insight on music as he does reflections on the human condition.

The Philosophy of Modern Song is Bob Dylan’s first book of new writing since 2004’s Chronicles: Volume One—and since winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016.

Dylan, who began working on the book in 2010, offers his extraordinary insight into the nature of popular music. 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. 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. These essays are written in Dylan’s unique prose. They are mysterious and mercurial, poignant and profound, and often laugh-out-loud funny. And while they are ostensibly about music, they are really meditations and reflections on the human condition. Running throughout the book are nearly 150 carefully curated photos as well as a series of dream-like riffs that, taken together, resemble an epic poem and add to the work’s transcendence.

In 2020, with the release of his outstanding album Rough and Rowdy Ways, Dylan became the first artist to have an album hit the Billboard Top 40 in each decade since the 1960s. The Philosophy of Modern Song contains much of what he has learned about his craft in all those years, and like everything that Dylan does, it is a momentous artistic achievement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781451648706
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	11/01/2022
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	37,341
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Bob Dylan has released thirty-nine studio albums, which collectively have sold over 125 million copies around the world. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature and has been awarded the French Legion of Honor, a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor. His memoir, Chronicles: Volume One, spent a year on the New York Times bestseller list.

Date of Birth:

May 24, 1941

Place of Birth:

Duluth, MN

Website:

http://www.bobdylan.com/

Table of Contents

Detroit City 1

Pump It Up 7

Without a Song 11

Take me from this Garden of Evil 15

There Stands the Glass 21

Willy the Wandering Gypsy and Me 25

Tutti Frutti 29

Money Honey 33

My Generation 41

Jesse James 45

Poor Little Fool 49

Pancho and Lefty 55

The Pretender 61

Mack the Knife 65

Whiffenpoof Song 69

You Don't Know Me 71

Ball of Confusion 75

Poison Love 81

Beyond the Sea 85

On the Road Again 91

If You Don't Know me by Now 95

The Little White Cloud that Cried 99

El Paso 105

Nelly was a Lady 113

Cheaper to Keep Her 117

I Got a Woman 123

Cia Man 127

On the Street Where You Live 131

Truckin' 137

Ruby, Are You Mad? 141

Old Violin 147

Volare 153

London Calling 159

Your Cheatin' Heart 163

Blue Bayou 169

Midnight Rider 173

Blue Suede Shoes 177

My Prayer 183

Dirty Life and Times 191

Doesn't Hurt Anymore 195

Key to the Highway 201

Everybody Cryin' Mercy 205

War 211

Big River 217

Feel So Good 219

Blue Moon 225

Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves 231

Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy 237

It's all in the Game 243

A Certain Girl 247

I've Always been Crazy 249

Witchy Woman 253

Big Boss Man 259

Long Tall Sally 263

Old and Only in the Way 265

Black Magic Woman 269

By the Time I Get to Phoenix 277

Come on-a My House 279

Don't take Your Guns to Town 285

Come Rain or Come Shine 289

Don't Let me be Misunderstood 293

Strangers in the Night 301

Viva Las Vegas 305

Saturday Night at the Movies 313

Waist Deep in the Big Muddy 319

Where or When 327

Editorial Reviews

★ 01/09/2023

Nobel-winning songwriter Dylan (Chronicles: Volume One) offers a marvelous survey of the recordings he loves. Across 66 chapters—each delving into a song recorded between 1924 and 2004—Dylan considers what a particular number might mean to listeners of many stripes: “Knowing a singer’s life story doesn’t particularly help your understanding of a song,” he writes. “It’s what a song makes you feel about your own life that’s important.” The passage on Carl Perkins’s “Blue Suede Shoes” pulls this off brilliantly, drawing a line from 1950s rockabilly through the past four decades of hip-hop and giving voice to the aggression required to protect one’s “point of pride”: “If you want to live and know how to live, you’ll stay off my shoes.” Chronicles: Volume Two this is not, but there’s plenty of unfiltered Dylan; his entry on Johnnie Taylor’s “Cheaper to Keep Her” swerves into a riotous screed on the divorce litigation industry, while his ode to the Grateful Dead’s “Truckin’ ” praises Bob Weir’s performance in a way that fans might describe Dylan himself: “The guy singing the song acts and talks like who he is, and not the way others would want him to talk and act.” There’s no end to the joy of joining this elusive and voracious artist in musical appreciation. Agent: Andrew Wylie, Wiley Agency. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"This is absolutely one of the best books about popular music ever written." —Chris Willman, Variety

“[The Philosophy of Modern Song] is less a rigorous study of craft than a series of rhapsodic observations on what gives great songs their power to fascinate us. Dylan, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016, worked on these for more than a decade, though they flow more like extemporaneous sermons.”—Ben Sisario, The New York Times

“[A] rich, riffy, funny, and completely engaging book of essays.” —David Remnick, The New Yorker

“An homage to songwriting by the master of the art”—AARP

"THE great book of 2022....utterly extraordinary....not only one of the great books of the year, but of the past decade...It is unexpected in every way...a magnificent book of music criticism disguised as a memoir and a set of off-the-cuff fantasies and confidences...That's its genius. It is not framed as a work of music criticism; it is a lifelong performer's attempt to get deeply into a pop song panorama and a lifelong consumer of other singers' takes as a member of their audiences. He is talking to the reader in a way that is unique and immediate and familiar to us. He is saying things that are fresh—even wild and radical—on every other page of the book...The book has gobsmacked me...In these pieces of unique music criticism, he's doing something with his voice few of us ever imagined he would do...If the Swedes want to go ahead and give him still another Nobel Prize for Literature, I for one, will applaud vigorously. Let any possible objector read this book first."—Jeff Simon, The Buffalo News

From the Publisher

★ 11/18/2022

Dylan (Chronicles, Vol. 1) won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature for creating new poetic expressions within the American song tradition, and he extends these expressions into this new collection of 60 essays on the nature of popular music. One origin for this project may be World Gone Wrong, Dylan's 1993 album of folk song covers with self-penned liner notes that described each song in great detail. Then, as now, the writing is authoritative and from a lifetime of memories and experiences that have informed his perspective and opinions, not as a professional historian or reporter. It is this unique outlook that colors every opinion and fact throughout the book. Consequently, the reader's interest in Dylan's music is likely to match their attraction to Dylan's opinions on music. VERDICT This is a fascinating and personalized journey through 20th-century popular music that's guided by one of its luminaries.—Gregory Stall

Library Journal

★ 2022-10-31
The iconic singer/songwriter reflects on a lifetime of listening to music.

Nostalgia abounds in Bob Dylan’s eclectic and eccentric collection of impressive musical appreciations. Examining 66 songs across numerous genres, going back to Stephen Foster’s “Nelly Was a Lady” (1849), the author offers an extensive hodgepodge of illustrations and photographs alongside rich, image-laden, impressionistic prose. There is no introduction or foreword. Instead, Dylan dives right in with “Detroit City,” Bobby Blare’s 1963 single: “What is it about lapsing into narration in a song that makes you think the singer is suddenly revealing the truth?” Throughout the text, the author is consistently engaging and often provocative in his explorations. Regarding “Witchy Woman” by the Eagles, he writes, “The lips of her cunt are a steel trap, and she covers you with cow shit—a real killer-diller and you regard her with suspicion and fear, rightly so. Homely enough to stop a clock, she’s no pussycat.” Deconstructing Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard’s “Pancho and Lefty,” Dylan describes songwriting as “editing—distilling thought down to essentials.” We can see the author’s mind working, reminiscing, but there’s little autobiography here. Where needed, he tosses in some prodigious music history and biography, and some appreciations read like short stories. Often, Dylan straightforwardly recounts what a specific song is about: “By the time you get to Phoenix it will be morning where she is, and she’ll be just getting out of bed.” Pete Seeger’s “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” is a “remembrance of things past,” and Dion and the Belmonts’ version of the Rodgers and Hart song “Where or When” is about “reincarnation.” Also making appearances are Carl Perkins, Perry Como, The Clash, Roy Orbison, Cher, Rosemary Clooney, Johnny Cash, Judy Garland, Nina Simone, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, the Allman Brothers, and the Grateful Dead. Bobby Darin and Willie Nelson appear twice.

“A record is so much better when you can believe it.” Dylan is clearly a believer, and he will convince readers to follow.

Kirkus Reviews

This momentous work takes listeners deep inside the emotional narratives and cultural ethos behind 60 pop songs created over the past seven decades. Dylan’s narration is quick and occasionally indistinct—a by-product of his intensity and in-the-moment engagement. It’s a moving experience to hear this musical and literary giant deliver his takes on these iconic songs. His artistic and social sensibilities are in high gear, and the other remarkable cast members all narrate with equal engagement and charisma. They capture what Dylan says about each song, its cultural context, and the life of the writer(s) and artist(s) who wrote and/or performed it. Almost as one voice, the narrators create a flow of energy that adds immeasurably to the impact of Dylan’s poetic writing. T.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2022 Best Audiobook © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2022 - AudioFile