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Decoding Dylan: Making Sense of the Songs That Changed Modern Culture
Taking readers behind Bob Dylan's familiar image as the enigmatic rebel of the 1960s, this book reveals a different view--that of a careful craftsman and student of the art of songwriting. Drawing on revelations from Dylan's memoir Chronicles and a variety of other sources, the author arrives at a radically new interpretation of his body of work, which revolutionized American music and won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. Dylan's songs are viewed as collages, ingeniously combining themes and images from American popular culture and European high culture.
178 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 16, 2019
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January 9, 2024
I wasn't sure what to expect from this with the word "decoding" in the title but I ended up getting a lot out of it. I have read a ton of books about Dylan but this was the first one to point out what I consider some crucial details and perspectives. Even though Jim Curtis is an academic and he made too many assumptions on what Dylan has read and watched, overall he was able to go past what other academics have concluded and provide some refreshing perspectives. This was well written and I took a lot of notes. I may not have agreed 100% with every point he made but some chapters were full of great insight that I think any serious Dylan fan would enjoy reading.
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