Dylan's Visions of Sin
by Christopher Ricks
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 91)
Read in February, 2008
I appreciated that Ricks doesn't ask the same silly questions that many do when they listen to Dylan's songs. Don't ask me who Isis is, or why his Bob-ness would make her wedding date the fifth day of May. I don't give a hoot, and Ricks doesn't seem to either. He sticks to wordplay. (Although I could have used less wordplay at times. He didn't need to spend so much ink punning on lyrics. You are very well read, it's well known.)
I liked the way Ricks would bring in Keats o...more
I liked the way Ricks would bring in Keats o...more
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Read in November, 2005
A noted literary scholar takes on Dylan’s songbook in a context of the Seven Deadly Sins, the Four Cardinal Virtues, and the Three Graces. Into the mix he throws the Bible (naturally), Milton, Dryden, Shakespeare, Keats, Tennyson and others. Also into the mix are jumbled puns, word plays of various stripes and spots, Dylan-quoting both blind and paraphrased (don’t be reading this book if you can’t spot ‘em, Mr. Jones!) and cultural references wide and varied. In the end it is too much an...more
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Read in July, 2008
A useful thing to have on the shelf for those times when the Dylan itch strikes. Ricks is a serious scholar, and makes comparisons to poets that I haven't thought of of read in years, but his analysis is, it seems to me, pretty spot-on. I have no doubt that Dylan has some familiarity with Gerald Manley Hopkins, for example, and that his familiarity has influenced and informed his work as much as his familiarity with Buddy Holly. That's the point of Bob Dylan, isn't it? It takes a serious stud...more
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recommends it for:
dylan fans and literary critics
If you don't think Dylan is a poetic genius, read this book and see if you don't change your mind. Be warned, this is not a light read, this is an intense literary criticism of his poetry and showcases how Dylan embraces, masters and pushes the limit of American and European literary tradition. If you don't know the works or at least the styles of some of the writers and poets referenced in this book, I think it would be a tough read. However, by extrapolating Dylan's literary inspiration and ...more
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Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
Dylan fans
Great close-reading, the best of its kind I've read on pop music. He also avoids being academic-y, and he's playful with language in a fun way. It's a massive undertaking, though, and some of the selections seem a little forced into his schema.
Highlights: the section on rhyme, the reading of Larkin's "Love Songs in Age", "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll," and "Like a Rolling Stone."
Well worth it, and more enjoyable than you'd expect.
Highlights: the section on rhyme, the reading of Larkin's "Love Songs in Age", "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll," and "Like a Rolling Stone."
Well worth it, and more enjoyable than you'd expect.
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Rick's explanations can be a bit to close as far as close readings go, but he does add some interesting insights into some of the songs, and while the organizing premise of the book -- the seven deadly sins, the four virtues (or whatever) seems a bit forced, as a sort of piecemeal read (what does he say about this song) its fun.
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Read in September, 2007
This was perhaps a little much for my taste. Ricks' writing of how Dylan's songs reflect the sins/graces/virtues was interesting but at times I got bored reading at how the actual structure and rhyming scheme of the song worked.
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Hey, I liked it. It's no masterpiece but I can get pretty excited about really serious rocksnobbery. It's fun to read while listening to Dylan and it did contain a lot of insight that hadn't occured to me before.
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I'm a huge Bob Dylan fan, and this was a bit hard to get through
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recommends it for:
thin men
I'm lying... I never got past the intro
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