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Revolution in the Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan, 1957-1973
The first of two volumes, this companion to every song that Bob Dylan ever wrote is by far the most comprehensive book on the words of America’s greatest songwriter. Here you’ll find not just opinionated commentary or literary interpretation, but facts, first and foremost. Clinton Heylin is the world’s leading Dylan biographer and expert, and he has arranged the songs--including a number that have never been performed--in a continually surprising chronology of when they were actually written rather than when they appeared on albums. Using newly discovered manuscripts, anecdotal evidence, and a seemingly limitless knowledge of every Bob Dylan live performance, he has uncovered a wealth of information about the songs, leaving no stone unturned in his research.
Here we learn that the middle verse of “Blowin’ in the Wind” was written much later than the first and third verses; that “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” was based on a complete distortion of the facts of the case; that “Mixed Up Confusion,” despite being Dylan’s first single, was composed later than many of his early masterpieces; that “Fourth Time Around” was a direct response to John Lennon’s “Norwegian Wood”; and much more.
Reading this volume will fundamentally change how you hear Dylan’s songs and will make you want to revisit the man’s lesser-known masterpieces. This is an essential purchase for every true Bob Dylan fan--and perhaps your most essential purchase, for, as a guide to the man’s work, it will never be surpassed.
Here we learn that the middle verse of “Blowin’ in the Wind” was written much later than the first and third verses; that “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” was based on a complete distortion of the facts of the case; that “Mixed Up Confusion,” despite being Dylan’s first single, was composed later than many of his early masterpieces; that “Fourth Time Around” was a direct response to John Lennon’s “Norwegian Wood”; and much more.
Reading this volume will fundamentally change how you hear Dylan’s songs and will make you want to revisit the man’s lesser-known masterpieces. This is an essential purchase for every true Bob Dylan fan--and perhaps your most essential purchase, for, as a guide to the man’s work, it will never be surpassed.
496 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2009
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315 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
May 2, 2010
Clinton Heylin is the like the guy you get your dope from, you hate talking to him so much because he's always boring you for hours with his eye-jabbingly unfunny drug stories, but every now and then you have to put up with all his tedious self-important schtick because he has the stuff no one else has. Mr Heylin clearly considers himself to be the Colossus of Rhodes in the world of Dylanologists which he inhabits so ruthlessly. According to Clint most of the other Dylanologists are contemptible mental pygmies and he's very happy to tell you that in this very book. Which makes him such fun to read. For instance
"one so-called expert produced an encyclopedia on the man (i.e. Dylan). It turned out to be an almanac of prejudices founded on precious little original research, a bringing together of misinformation"
This refers to Michael Gray's "Bob Dylan Encyclopedia". Suze Rotolo's recent Freewheelin' Time memoir gets the curt sideswipe "fleetingly informative and woefully edited". Non Dylan writers also get the boot. He hates rock magazines : "those periodicals that continue to feed fans of a once-fecund form" (yeah, I know), and he hates all the Dylan websites : "the ongoing pandemic of disinformation that is the internet". And he can be quite curt towards Dylan too. And this is all in the introduction. Wotta guy.
Anyway, this pile of bile is clearly a Major Dylan Book, poring through every song, precisely 300, Dylan wrote or claimed to write or is rumoured to have written between 1957 and 1973. Reading it, a story unfolds which runs parallel to the events Dylan lived through - the biography is shot through the songs like a glittering band of quartz or maybe just fool's gold. But you don't get booed at Newport and then write Positively 4th Street and there's no connection. Psychologically it's a compelling tale, from freshfaced folkster frantically paraphrasing every other old American song (1961) to increasingly confident protestor (1962-3) to fractured romantic (1964) to the medicinally-enhanced misanthrope of 1965-6 to the jovial pothead of 1967 to the five years of fitful oblivion which followed (68-73). Dylan is a great denier - he writes With God on Our Side and tells you he isn't the spokesman for his generation, he writes Tombstone Blues and Desolation Row and tells you he never writes drug songs (before playing Mr Tambourine Man in England in 1966 : "This is what your English music press calls a drug song. It is NOT a drug song, I don't do that, I wouldn't know how to, it's just vulgar"). And you can see his point, he's fighting a losing battle against the lazy pigeonholing journos of the time.
Some stats: of the 300 songs 57 are lost (just rumours or just fragmentary lyrics with no tune and no existing recording by anyone). Of the remaining 243, 74 are very bad and no one but a mental Dylan completist would want to have them within a ten miles of his or her ears. Only a handful of the bad ones made it onto record, one stunning example being the only song Dylan has publicly regretted ever writing, Ballad in Plain D - here's a sample verse
Of the two sisters, I loved the young.
With sensitive instincts, she was the creative one.
The constant scapegoat, she was easily undone
By the jealousy of others around her.
For her parasite sister, I had no respect,
Bound by her boredom, her pride to protect.
Countless visions of the other she'd reflect
As a crutch for her scenes and her society.
So that leaves a whole 169 good or great songs written between 1962 and 1973 by this one individual. That's it right there. Well, okay, when we say "written", with a good half of these we mean "adapted from folk and blues sources with mostly new words". Because I don't think Dylan actually composed an original tune until 1964. I could chip away at these 169 good ones because what Dylan often did during 1962-3 was steal some other folky's arrangement of a folk song and rewrite the words. Arranging a folk song was a very big thing. Anyone can jam their finger in their ear and belt forth. But editing the original words and improving the tune and then placing the song in tender pretty bed of guitar filigree, that was arranging, and people were very fierce about whose arrangements were whose. But sometimes bad folk singers just STOLE other people's arrangements. STOLE them. For instance you have your Scarborough Fair sung by a toothless old lad from Hampshire, then you have a spiffy posh young sprog called Martin Carthy arranging the song for guitar, then you have Dylan making a weird visit to London in his pre-fame 1962 period, and lo and behold, you have Girl from the North Country on Freewheelin'. Then a year later you have American No 2 arriving also pre-fame in Britain in 1963 - we could call him Paul Simon for it was he - and he also sits at the friendly feet of Martin Carthy, and lo and behold, two years later you have Scarborough Fair as a track on an S&G's album, also a single, also on the soundtrack of The Graduate, thank you Martin Carthy, but of course these versions of the same song are copyright Dylan and Simon respectively, and Carthy copyrights nothing and continues playing folk clubs and have other people sit around his friendly feet and learn his songs. Which aren't his. Anyway, Dylan did this to various folkies and it's all a bit lost in the mists, only demented historians of Bleecker Street ever gave a stuff about it anyway, these were storms that would get lost in a teacup.
Watching Dylan's evolution from horrid to torrid over this handful of years is invigorating. In many ways every Dylan song is problematic, cramful as they are with gaucherie, mangled language, muffed aphorisms, would-be profundities, silly surrealism, blatant audience-baiting, temper tantrums and patience-thinning harmonica breaks. But none of that really matters, you get used to it, as a few wasps and ants don't ruin a generous picnic.
"one so-called expert produced an encyclopedia on the man (i.e. Dylan). It turned out to be an almanac of prejudices founded on precious little original research, a bringing together of misinformation"
This refers to Michael Gray's "Bob Dylan Encyclopedia". Suze Rotolo's recent Freewheelin' Time memoir gets the curt sideswipe "fleetingly informative and woefully edited". Non Dylan writers also get the boot. He hates rock magazines : "those periodicals that continue to feed fans of a once-fecund form" (yeah, I know), and he hates all the Dylan websites : "the ongoing pandemic of disinformation that is the internet". And he can be quite curt towards Dylan too. And this is all in the introduction. Wotta guy.
Anyway, this pile of bile is clearly a Major Dylan Book, poring through every song, precisely 300, Dylan wrote or claimed to write or is rumoured to have written between 1957 and 1973. Reading it, a story unfolds which runs parallel to the events Dylan lived through - the biography is shot through the songs like a glittering band of quartz or maybe just fool's gold. But you don't get booed at Newport and then write Positively 4th Street and there's no connection. Psychologically it's a compelling tale, from freshfaced folkster frantically paraphrasing every other old American song (1961) to increasingly confident protestor (1962-3) to fractured romantic (1964) to the medicinally-enhanced misanthrope of 1965-6 to the jovial pothead of 1967 to the five years of fitful oblivion which followed (68-73). Dylan is a great denier - he writes With God on Our Side and tells you he isn't the spokesman for his generation, he writes Tombstone Blues and Desolation Row and tells you he never writes drug songs (before playing Mr Tambourine Man in England in 1966 : "This is what your English music press calls a drug song. It is NOT a drug song, I don't do that, I wouldn't know how to, it's just vulgar"). And you can see his point, he's fighting a losing battle against the lazy pigeonholing journos of the time.
Some stats: of the 300 songs 57 are lost (just rumours or just fragmentary lyrics with no tune and no existing recording by anyone). Of the remaining 243, 74 are very bad and no one but a mental Dylan completist would want to have them within a ten miles of his or her ears. Only a handful of the bad ones made it onto record, one stunning example being the only song Dylan has publicly regretted ever writing, Ballad in Plain D - here's a sample verse
Of the two sisters, I loved the young.
With sensitive instincts, she was the creative one.
The constant scapegoat, she was easily undone
By the jealousy of others around her.
For her parasite sister, I had no respect,
Bound by her boredom, her pride to protect.
Countless visions of the other she'd reflect
As a crutch for her scenes and her society.
So that leaves a whole 169 good or great songs written between 1962 and 1973 by this one individual. That's it right there. Well, okay, when we say "written", with a good half of these we mean "adapted from folk and blues sources with mostly new words". Because I don't think Dylan actually composed an original tune until 1964. I could chip away at these 169 good ones because what Dylan often did during 1962-3 was steal some other folky's arrangement of a folk song and rewrite the words. Arranging a folk song was a very big thing. Anyone can jam their finger in their ear and belt forth. But editing the original words and improving the tune and then placing the song in tender pretty bed of guitar filigree, that was arranging, and people were very fierce about whose arrangements were whose. But sometimes bad folk singers just STOLE other people's arrangements. STOLE them. For instance you have your Scarborough Fair sung by a toothless old lad from Hampshire, then you have a spiffy posh young sprog called Martin Carthy arranging the song for guitar, then you have Dylan making a weird visit to London in his pre-fame 1962 period, and lo and behold, you have Girl from the North Country on Freewheelin'. Then a year later you have American No 2 arriving also pre-fame in Britain in 1963 - we could call him Paul Simon for it was he - and he also sits at the friendly feet of Martin Carthy, and lo and behold, two years later you have Scarborough Fair as a track on an S&G's album, also a single, also on the soundtrack of The Graduate, thank you Martin Carthy, but of course these versions of the same song are copyright Dylan and Simon respectively, and Carthy copyrights nothing and continues playing folk clubs and have other people sit around his friendly feet and learn his songs. Which aren't his. Anyway, Dylan did this to various folkies and it's all a bit lost in the mists, only demented historians of Bleecker Street ever gave a stuff about it anyway, these were storms that would get lost in a teacup.
Watching Dylan's evolution from horrid to torrid over this handful of years is invigorating. In many ways every Dylan song is problematic, cramful as they are with gaucherie, mangled language, muffed aphorisms, would-be profundities, silly surrealism, blatant audience-baiting, temper tantrums and patience-thinning harmonica breaks. But none of that really matters, you get used to it, as a few wasps and ants don't ruin a generous picnic.
March 5, 2012
A thoroughly enjoyable read by a thoroughly unenjoyable author. Heylin comes across as that most evil blend of know-it-all hipster douchebag and pompous psuedo-intellectual. However, he does know his shit, so if you can stomach his style, it's an interesting read for all Dylan fans and provides fascinating insight into the creative process.
March 21, 2010
Useful, but a bit pompous.
February 10, 2009
Amazing work in the scholarly sense. Dude cross-references copyright dates, lyric scraps, interviews, session logs, bootlegs, etc., to create a linear history of Dylan's songwriting. He's totally bitchy and petty (especially about other Dylanologists), but it's the same OCD that makes the work so damn good in showing how Dylan's songwriting evoled. Unlike Michael Gray, who's covered similar territory, Heylin rarely lets his opinions get in the work. Maybe the truest possible bio of Dylan.
October 22, 2023
Still attacking the massive TBR pile from both ends, it's the turn of a sort of music biography that came off the shelves of A Certain Music Shop back in the day. I say "sort of biography" because Clinton Heylin is tracing Dylan's career song by song, forensically, retentively, analysing the man through his words. Dylan, for the most part, is not there. Heylin, however, most definitely is there.
To say Heylin is opinionated would be like calling Sheffield a bit hilly. Half the fun in reading this book is in Heylin slagging off his fellow Dylanologists in turn and in batches. He thoroughly hates the scholars crowding his field and the literati claiming inspiration from Dylan himself ("Simon Armitage? Who he?"). Sometimes Heylin doesn't even much like Dylan. He seems a bit nuts, railing against being chained to his subject even though he's got the keys in his own pocket.
It isn't really a book to read cover to cover, but if you want the fine detail and gossip on particular songs as you listen to them, or to discover just why Dylan gave so many good songs away rather than record them himself, it's a good volume to dip into.
To say Heylin is opinionated would be like calling Sheffield a bit hilly. Half the fun in reading this book is in Heylin slagging off his fellow Dylanologists in turn and in batches. He thoroughly hates the scholars crowding his field and the literati claiming inspiration from Dylan himself ("Simon Armitage? Who he?"). Sometimes Heylin doesn't even much like Dylan. He seems a bit nuts, railing against being chained to his subject even though he's got the keys in his own pocket.
It isn't really a book to read cover to cover, but if you want the fine detail and gossip on particular songs as you listen to them, or to discover just why Dylan gave so many good songs away rather than record them himself, it's a good volume to dip into.
May 24, 2020
Focusing on the songs in the order that they were written provides a fascinating biography of Dylan the writer.
As fascinating as the process which turned out his classic run of 1960's albums is, Dylan's struggles for inspiration from 1968 are equally engaging.
Heylin more than justifies his reputation as one of the, if not the pre-eminent writer/commentators on all things Bob.
As fascinating as the process which turned out his classic run of 1960's albums is, Dylan's struggles for inspiration from 1968 are equally engaging.
Heylin more than justifies his reputation as one of the, if not the pre-eminent writer/commentators on all things Bob.
August 2, 2009
Some good information, but there are SO many glaring mistakes that I have a hard time believing any of it. Heylin, as usual, spends entirely too much time taking pot-shots at "Dylanologists" who are, in fact, much better at their jobs than he is.
April 2, 2025
This is a great resource, and a great read, just let down by the author’s constant snotty comments about anyone else who has written about Dylan. In those- frequent- moments, you can’t help but feel you’re reading the work of a real prick.
May 26, 2009
even though I couldn't put it down, I found it dissatisfying... and i'm not sure why.
July 2, 2012
Thorough, entertaining,and insightful. A must-have for any major Dylan fan.
I'm sure I'll revisit/refer to this text many times in the coming years.
I'm sure I'll revisit/refer to this text many times in the coming years.
July 1, 2023
The Bob Chronicle (Part 1)
Clinton Heylin is not only a British rock eccentric, but a trained historian. His meticulous chronicle of every Dylan song written from 1957-1973 is simply extraordinary for its precision, insight and frequent snark. One emerges from this deluge soaking wet with the notion asserted by Heylin at the beginning, that Bob Dylan is the 20th Century's greatest songwriter by some distance. Whatever comparisons come to mind, read this and you'll be nodding your head like a toy dog in the back of a car window.
Heylin asserts, rightly, that Bob cared much more for the words than the music at first, and that it took his transition to creative rock in late 1964 to balance the books. It's not that I agree with his assertions that, for example, Another Side was mediocre (nope) or that John Wesley Harding was his most coherent album (maybe, but who cares). But he gets the big ones right and is extremely insightful about the Big 3 (BIABH, 61 and BOB) - they are literally, the most creative output of anyone, like, ever and revolutionised popular music (think She Loves You into Day in the Life). Even his friends the Beatles worshipped him like a God, though they were the opposite - all packaged, produced, and commercial, when he was organic, live and producing songs no one could ever call commercial. Navigating the highs and lows of Dylan's output, Heylin's account is diamond hard on the bard. He delves into the depths of Dylan's weakest efforts, unveiling his writer's block and frustrations.
This account finished 50 years ago - and already, Dylan stood alone with a stupefying number of firsts and classic songs and albums. I can't wait to read volume 2, which covers up to 2008. This is the peak of contemporary music writing.
Clinton Heylin is not only a British rock eccentric, but a trained historian. His meticulous chronicle of every Dylan song written from 1957-1973 is simply extraordinary for its precision, insight and frequent snark. One emerges from this deluge soaking wet with the notion asserted by Heylin at the beginning, that Bob Dylan is the 20th Century's greatest songwriter by some distance. Whatever comparisons come to mind, read this and you'll be nodding your head like a toy dog in the back of a car window.
Heylin asserts, rightly, that Bob cared much more for the words than the music at first, and that it took his transition to creative rock in late 1964 to balance the books. It's not that I agree with his assertions that, for example, Another Side was mediocre (nope) or that John Wesley Harding was his most coherent album (maybe, but who cares). But he gets the big ones right and is extremely insightful about the Big 3 (BIABH, 61 and BOB) - they are literally, the most creative output of anyone, like, ever and revolutionised popular music (think She Loves You into Day in the Life). Even his friends the Beatles worshipped him like a God, though they were the opposite - all packaged, produced, and commercial, when he was organic, live and producing songs no one could ever call commercial. Navigating the highs and lows of Dylan's output, Heylin's account is diamond hard on the bard. He delves into the depths of Dylan's weakest efforts, unveiling his writer's block and frustrations.
This account finished 50 years ago - and already, Dylan stood alone with a stupefying number of firsts and classic songs and albums. I can't wait to read volume 2, which covers up to 2008. This is the peak of contemporary music writing.
November 2, 2020
Although I am very much into pop/soul/country/rock-music of the 60s and 70s I never read books about it. It seems I am just not interested in reading about music. I do admit that I study CD-booklets in detail, I do go on the internet to research certain artists or albums, if there's anything I desperately need to know, but that's about it. I like Dylan and I know his albums from the period covered in this book well enough, but I am far from being a super-fan or a "Dylanologist" or anything close to it. So why this book? I got it as a present a few years ago, I started reading it at a moment when I thought I didn't have anything else to read, and over the course of a few years I came back to it every few months to read 30 or 40 pages. And now that I finally finished it, I have to say this was surprisingly interesting throughout. I don't know if I will ever come back to anything like it, but this one was a pretty good book in every way.
July 26, 2021
Painstaking, song-by-song trawl through Dylan's back pages, including every song recorded from the eponymous debut album to Planet Waves plus a whole heap of outtakes and fragments.
Heylin goes into detail about when and where each song was written, as far as is known, recording sessions, and the afterlife of the song in performance. He's not long on analysis or interpretation, and his critical evaluations are fairly superficial, though maybe that's just not the aim of the book. Invaluable for filling in the gaps in one's knowledge but it makes for less than riveting reading over 400-plus pages. His bitchy asides at other Dylanologists are always fun, mind you. 3 stars.
Heylin goes into detail about when and where each song was written, as far as is known, recording sessions, and the afterlife of the song in performance. He's not long on analysis or interpretation, and his critical evaluations are fairly superficial, though maybe that's just not the aim of the book. Invaluable for filling in the gaps in one's knowledge but it makes for less than riveting reading over 400-plus pages. His bitchy asides at other Dylanologists are always fun, mind you. 3 stars.
June 11, 2018
Clinton Heylin knows his stuff about Bob Dylan and he's not afraid to let you know it. Revolution in the Air has some interesting insights into the mind of Dylan but in many ways its like many books that go through an artist's discography song by song.
If you're obsessed with Dylan, this is probably worth a read through.
If you've only really listened to "Like a Rolling Stone" or the Dylan you hear on the classic rock radio, this book will probably bore you.
If you're obsessed with Dylan, this is probably worth a read through.
If you've only really listened to "Like a Rolling Stone" or the Dylan you hear on the classic rock radio, this book will probably bore you.
April 10, 2023
I find this book to be neither tea nor coffee, but a blend of the two (and we all know what that's like).
It kind-of does a Revolution In The Head, with more recording information, but I wasn't satisfied by either.
I'm not sure I feel much more informed about this period of Dylan's work after reading it.
Haven't read it yet but suspect Michael Gray's Song and Dance Man is more my cup of meat.
This was Not For Me. If I see Vol II going cheap I might pick it up but won't go out of my way.
It kind-of does a Revolution In The Head, with more recording information, but I wasn't satisfied by either.
I'm not sure I feel much more informed about this period of Dylan's work after reading it.
Haven't read it yet but suspect Michael Gray's Song and Dance Man is more my cup of meat.
This was Not For Me. If I see Vol II going cheap I might pick it up but won't go out of my way.
December 27, 2018
Great concept for a book. However, I struggled to get through it and ultimately stopped about halfway through. I read Heylin’s biography of Dylan and found it to be good, though Heylin’s crankiness got in the way there too. Here, I just found him to be totally frustrating - digressive, unclear, and weirdly combative.
October 26, 2025
The inside story of the writing and recording of a bunch of Bob Dylan songs. Okay.
April 19, 2021
A book for nerds! Heylin analyses all the songs Dylan wrote (up to 1973), including the different studio takes and releases, and the consequent word changes that Dylan frequently indulged in, and even the sources he drew upon. It was strangely addictive reading, but the author's bitching about other Dylan writers palled after a while.
May 4, 2009
This is the first of a two-volume series discussing each of the songs Dylan has written, in chronological order; this volume 1 covers the first 300 songs, from his high school efforts through the songs that appeared on Planet Waves. Heylin discusses the genesis of each song, the circumstances around its writing and recording. In may cases, Heylin talks about meaningful rewrites and reimaginings of the songs in performance. Other books, and even a current blog, have attempted the same thing. The previous book covered only a few songs, and the follow-up titles never appeared; ita and the current blog fail because the authors aren't in good command of the material.
You can't say Clinton Heylin is not in command of the material; his knowledge of Dylan's life, the recording history, and the Dylan's musical and literary influences, is second to none, and he shares all that here. He draws on (and cites, frequently) his earlier biographies and recording history.
So if he's a bit opinionated, that's fine -- he's earned his opinions. He's also an often very funny writer (his frequent references to Dylan's Chronicles are a riot). There's a lot of important work here; unless you've been down this road before, there will be a few surprises, such as learning that Bob held Mr Tambourine Man off Another Side of Bob Dylan and saved it for Bringing It All Back Home, mostly because his first studio attempt at recording it was not all he knew he could do. The sequencing of the writing of the Blonde on Blonde and Basement Tapes/John Wesley Harding songs is also fascinating.
Bob Dylan wrote 50 songs in 1962. Many, if not most, of these songs are of amazing quality. There are at least several real masterpieces in that number -- A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, Blowing in the Wind, Girl of the North Country, Don't Think Twice, It's Alright, for example. The next few years, through 1967 were all amazingly productive. Dylan loses something, starts mis-stepping sometime in 1968, and falls into a strange slump. Planet Waves was something different, a supposed "comeback." Dylan's arc through these years thus becomes Heylin's arc, and even he can hardly make the writing if New Morning interesting. That'll be a problem, too, in the second volume, which will open with a bang of genius with Blood On The Tracks, and the Jesus years should be interesting. But I don't expect much from the discussion of how the songs on Down in The Groove came to be written.
You can't say Clinton Heylin is not in command of the material; his knowledge of Dylan's life, the recording history, and the Dylan's musical and literary influences, is second to none, and he shares all that here. He draws on (and cites, frequently) his earlier biographies and recording history.
So if he's a bit opinionated, that's fine -- he's earned his opinions. He's also an often very funny writer (his frequent references to Dylan's Chronicles are a riot). There's a lot of important work here; unless you've been down this road before, there will be a few surprises, such as learning that Bob held Mr Tambourine Man off Another Side of Bob Dylan and saved it for Bringing It All Back Home, mostly because his first studio attempt at recording it was not all he knew he could do. The sequencing of the writing of the Blonde on Blonde and Basement Tapes/John Wesley Harding songs is also fascinating.
Bob Dylan wrote 50 songs in 1962. Many, if not most, of these songs are of amazing quality. There are at least several real masterpieces in that number -- A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, Blowing in the Wind, Girl of the North Country, Don't Think Twice, It's Alright, for example. The next few years, through 1967 were all amazingly productive. Dylan loses something, starts mis-stepping sometime in 1968, and falls into a strange slump. Planet Waves was something different, a supposed "comeback." Dylan's arc through these years thus becomes Heylin's arc, and even he can hardly make the writing if New Morning interesting. That'll be a problem, too, in the second volume, which will open with a bang of genius with Blood On The Tracks, and the Jesus years should be interesting. But I don't expect much from the discussion of how the songs on Down in The Groove came to be written.
October 5, 2013
Song-by-song books can be really hit or miss, but it's Bob Dylan and Clinton Heylin here, so there wasn't any way I was going to skip this, or its companion volume.
I treated this mostly as bedtime reading, partly because it's broken up so conveniently, and partly because I'm starting to find Heylin's gigantic ego and barbs at fellow Dylan critics less charming than I did when I was twenty. The whole "if you don't agree with me it's because you're an idiot" thing gets really old. But there's also a lot of insight here, and the man does his research, and this is a good complement to Behind the Shades and the recording sessions book.
As a window into Dylan's process (or at least what Heylin imagines that process to be), this is fascinating stuff. It's pretty easy to get on board with his conclusions about when the songs were written, when Dylan was making his big breakthroughs as a writer, etc. The discussion of the Highway 61 and Blonde on Blonde material is especially great, and surprisingly so, particularly given the ink already spilled on those records. I expected a little more on the Basement Tapes songs, honestly, but I guess there's not as much documentation of that period, relatively speaking. And the book is a little slow at first, mostly because Dylan was writing so many songs in the early '60s, many of them great, of course, but a lot of them derivative and mediocre, too.
Although this volume covers the "classic" years, stopping at "Wedding Song" and leaving the next volume to pick up with Blood on the Tracks, I'm actually looking forward to the next book precisely because the '60s stuff has been so well-documented already. Which is not to say that there weren't some surprises here, just that I suspect the next book will have more of them. I guess the big takeaway, for me, is the re-confirmation of the rapid and considerable shifts in Dylan's songwriting from album to album. I tend to think of some of the albums in the next book -- Blood on the Tracks, Desire, and Street Legal, in particular -- as being especially unique and self-contained, so I'm excited to hear what Heylin thinks of them.
I treated this mostly as bedtime reading, partly because it's broken up so conveniently, and partly because I'm starting to find Heylin's gigantic ego and barbs at fellow Dylan critics less charming than I did when I was twenty. The whole "if you don't agree with me it's because you're an idiot" thing gets really old. But there's also a lot of insight here, and the man does his research, and this is a good complement to Behind the Shades and the recording sessions book.
As a window into Dylan's process (or at least what Heylin imagines that process to be), this is fascinating stuff. It's pretty easy to get on board with his conclusions about when the songs were written, when Dylan was making his big breakthroughs as a writer, etc. The discussion of the Highway 61 and Blonde on Blonde material is especially great, and surprisingly so, particularly given the ink already spilled on those records. I expected a little more on the Basement Tapes songs, honestly, but I guess there's not as much documentation of that period, relatively speaking. And the book is a little slow at first, mostly because Dylan was writing so many songs in the early '60s, many of them great, of course, but a lot of them derivative and mediocre, too.
Although this volume covers the "classic" years, stopping at "Wedding Song" and leaving the next volume to pick up with Blood on the Tracks, I'm actually looking forward to the next book precisely because the '60s stuff has been so well-documented already. Which is not to say that there weren't some surprises here, just that I suspect the next book will have more of them. I guess the big takeaway, for me, is the re-confirmation of the rapid and considerable shifts in Dylan's songwriting from album to album. I tend to think of some of the albums in the next book -- Blood on the Tracks, Desire, and Street Legal, in particular -- as being especially unique and self-contained, so I'm excited to hear what Heylin thinks of them.
August 19, 2009
My library books are all due back tomorrow, so I was really pushing to finish everything before I have to return it. I FINALLY finished the Bob Dylan book.
Revolution in the Air The Songs of Bob Dylan, 1957-1973 by Clinton Heylin was a ridiculously comprehensive examination of the method and mentality behind each of several hundred songs written but not necessarily performed by Dylan. It is organized chronologically, so that as you discover the circumstances surrounding each artistic conception, you learn a bit more of the tragic life of an American icon. Heylin discusses, both through inference and quotes directly from Dylan, the methodology of composing music and lyrics as well as the personal influences on this process.
While the book is definitely well written (Heylin turns the mundane details into a fairly compelling narrative), it is also very long and poorly indexed. The songs are presented according to the album they were recorded for, and not mentioned by title in the index. Also it is fucking 500 pages.
And in a FREAKY turn of events, I was just reading the passage about Like a Rolling Stone which says, "Just as John Lennon needed to write two books of offbeat poetry to get to 'Nowhere Man' and 'In My Life', Dylan's year-long jag of speed-writing helped him adopt a more intuitive approach to the song form, integrating everything around the malleable framework of a tune and arrangement," of the several thousand songs in my iTunes library (which is on shuffle at the moment), In My Life came on.
Revolution in the Air The Songs of Bob Dylan, 1957-1973 by Clinton Heylin was a ridiculously comprehensive examination of the method and mentality behind each of several hundred songs written but not necessarily performed by Dylan. It is organized chronologically, so that as you discover the circumstances surrounding each artistic conception, you learn a bit more of the tragic life of an American icon. Heylin discusses, both through inference and quotes directly from Dylan, the methodology of composing music and lyrics as well as the personal influences on this process.
While the book is definitely well written (Heylin turns the mundane details into a fairly compelling narrative), it is also very long and poorly indexed. The songs are presented according to the album they were recorded for, and not mentioned by title in the index. Also it is fucking 500 pages.
And in a FREAKY turn of events, I was just reading the passage about Like a Rolling Stone which says, "Just as John Lennon needed to write two books of offbeat poetry to get to 'Nowhere Man' and 'In My Life', Dylan's year-long jag of speed-writing helped him adopt a more intuitive approach to the song form, integrating everything around the malleable framework of a tune and arrangement," of the several thousand songs in my iTunes library (which is on shuffle at the moment), In My Life came on.
May 11, 2015
Heylin gets full marks for the thoroughness of his research, for sure, as he tracks, song by song and in as close to compositional sequence as he can determine, all of Dylan's compositions from his teens to 1973 (including even ones known only by name or reputation). He often provides the sort of insights only the most thorough and obsessive of researchers can provide. On the other hand, he often comes across as arrogant, specially in some of his cutting remarks about others who have dared to attempt to write about Dylan. Even if he's right to be critical, his tone can grate. Hence the lower rating than the book really merits, content-wise. It is a book for Dylanophiles only, though.
April 8, 2009
Just getting going on this one and its at the too-dang-much-detail level that I like. So far its ranking up there with "Like a Rolling Stone", "Chronicles", "Positively 4th Street" and "Invisible Republic" as a Dylan Minutiae feast. What's going on here is a highly-researched, no-bullshit blow by blow chronology of every song that Bob ever wrote. Boing, outta the park!
February 16, 2014
Finally, a book that gives full attention and painstaking detail to each song in the Dylan catalog (part one of two). A fascinating read that adds definition to the finer points of Dylan's songwriting and the evolution of his craft, though I can't disagree with others here who have criticized Heylin's holier-than-thou tone.
August 13, 2009
A fascinating book to skim through documenting Dylan's first 300 songs. Disagreeing with Heylin's opinion of a song seems par for the course and makes for a lively read.
Read
October 4, 2009It's one of those that you just have to skip around and read about the songs your curious about!
Want to read
September 24, 2009Another Dylan reference book that shouldn't be read cover to cover but I got it from the library. Again, too many other books to have time to finish it.
May 7, 2010
Again, Heylin is my hero.
This book is great, even amazing!
This book is great, even amazing!
September 10, 2010
just skipped around, picked it up because of the Basement Tapes.
it was interesting.
it was interesting.
July 12, 2012
C C7 Cdim Ddim* C C9
I thought I heard Buddy Bolden shout
F Ebdim C
Open up the window, let that bad air out
I thought I heard Buddy Bolden shout
F Ebdim C
Open up the window, let that bad air out
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