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

by Neil Corcoran (Editor)

In this collection of essays, poets and professors explore different aspects of Bob Dylan’s work, his impact on their own intellectual and artistic lives, as well as his wider influence. Rigorous and challenging, these writings are at once a tribute to and a questioning of the genius Leonard Cohen called “the Picasso of song.” Among the contributors are Oxford professor Christopher Butler, Princeton professors Paul Muldoon and Sean Wilentz, and writer Susan Wheeler, faculty member of Princeton and the New School in New York.

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.