Do You Mr Jones?: Bob Dylan with the Poets & Professors

by Neil Corcoran (Editor)

In "Ballad of a Thin Man" in 1966, Dylan launched a withering attack on the myopic critic of "Something is happening here/ And you don't know what it is,/ Do you, Mister Jones?" Yet Dylan has been a subject of consuming interest to many of the most significant poets and critics writing in Britain and Ireland over the last 20 years. It has even been argued that he is the finest living user of the English language—true to his genius through all his changes of stance, a Romantic, constantly exploring the state of his soul as he dons the cloak of lover, clown, cowboy, priest, bleak prophet of doom. In this collection, poets and professors explore different aspects of Dylan's work, writing about his impact on their own intellectual and artistic lives, as well as his wider influence. Contributors include Simon Armitage, Christopher Butler, Bryan Cheyette, Patrick Crotty, Aidan Day, Mark Ford, Lavinia Greenlaw, Hugh Haughton, Daniel Karlin, Paul Muldoon, Nicholas Roe, Pam Thurschwell and Susan Wheeler. Serious Dylan criticism is rare and these fascinating, specially commissioned essays are rigorous and challenging, at once a celebration and a questioning of a powerful talent, the genius Leonard Cohen called "the Picasso of song."

Genres: Nonfiction, Music

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Allan Heron · Rating 3 out of 5]

A varied bunch of essays from a higher critical perspective provides a mixed bag for this reader.

Written at a time when Love & Theft was Dylan's current album, the essays are somewhat dated but the approach of the contributors can be factored in to subsequent releases.

Some of the essays are hard work but there's only one I'd describe as turgid. Richard Brown, I'm looking at you. One of the most enjoyable was by Simon Armitage. The name rang a bell, and a quick check confirmed that he's our current poet laureate.

In summary, a book for the seriously obsessive and literate Dylan fan

[Brucerob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just to pedantic to me. Perhaps I was just not wanting to challenge my brain but It seems like the writers spent more time talking about other peoples ideas about Bob Dylan than they did about who he was or what he said

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great essays, some not so great.