Share Your Dylan Obsession Here

I've noticed a lot of Bob Dylan books on LibraryThing. Let's discuss!

I was thouroughly amazed by the breadth and depth of the Bob Dylan Encyclopedia ,if a little dissapointed that it didn'y delve a little more in depth into various album tracks. I suppose that would've made the book weigh an extra twenty pounds,but...interesting to find that Dylan's high school library keeps the 1957 high school yearbook under lock and key.

Ryan: check out the new book, "Bob Dylan: The Never Ending Star" -- it is the best Dylan book I've read in a decade.

Encyclopedia was great, but I agree, the actual albums and songs were unevenly covered.

Just recently I have fallen in love with the 33 1/3 series of books from Continuum Publishers. They profile one album per small volume, normally by an interesting writer. The only Dylan title so far is for Highway 61 Revisited and it was written by Mark Polizzotti. It's not only a great take on that seminal album it's one of the best books on Dylan, period.

sorry, couldn't get the youtube to work.

dylan's "Love minus zero, no limit"

the best love song there is.

and, if you're a real hunter, there's a clapton version that is wonderful.

my girlfriend bought me a Dylan scrapbook bokk for christmas that covers his early days, another treasure . . .

My love she speaks like silence
Without ideals or violence
She doesn't have to say she's faithful
But she's true like ice like fire.

Those were the days my friend
I thought they'd never end
Those were the days
Oh yes, those were the days.

was recently debating over whether or not to buy a copy of "Eat the Document"...ive heard there arent too many good quality versions floating around

Ryan: there are some reasonable copies in circulation. Of course, it can also be downloaded ...

Hey - thanks for having Bobfest!

Heres a new topic for us.....is "Self Portrait" really that horrible an album? i always thought it was ok....ive heard worse

Ryan: I don't mind it! I prefer it to, say, New Morning or even Knocked Out Loaded (Brownsville Girl excepted).

And now Dylan wins a Pulitzer!

I have a CD of Judy Sings Dylan...Just Like A Woman has anyone else heard this CD? And if so, what do you think of it? I am a Judy Collins fan and I have a lot of her LP's at home. She did a great job on his songs.

beatles1864

i loved new morning, just so we're clear, i still hum some of those songs!
but yeah, I thought critics were too harsh on dylan for self portrait at the time. there really was a lot of crap being put out at the time, and dylan's double album was a nice break. Over time, i think it's not amoung his great albums, but it holds a special place in my memorybank, i remember driving around searching for that farm

and never finding it, of course.

anyway, i'm glad he did it, glad he moved on ...

I think for many people Dylan reached the mountain top with his great trio of Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. Pretty much anything produced until Blood on the Tracks was judged against the standard of the Great Triumvirate, which of course was a mistake since Bob was moving on. People didn't realize that Bob was an ever moving dynamo, reinventing and re-exploring his music every few years, so the albums between John Wesley Harding and Blood on the Tracks were not well received.

nashville skyline was well received. but yeah, john Wesley Harding slipped in under the radar, got almost no promo. after New Morning, Dylan attempted to make it on his own, leaving Capital to put out Planet Waves. Capital countered with "Dylan", that terrible album of covers, and threatened to put out more until dylan finally relented and came back in to the fold with Before The Flood which got great reviews at the time.
But it is true, Dylan was wading in the country-folk area for a number of years, (even playing sidekick to Doug Sahm) before finally getting back to form with Blood on The tracks.

Yeah, I had forgotten about Nashville Skyline. Capital? All my Dylan albums through Nashville Skyline were on Columbia. Planet Waves was when I got out of the Dylan business. The next Dylan I got was a Christmas gift several years ago: Time Out of Mind, which I love.

I was the first kid in my part of North Carolina to own a Dylan album in 1961 with Freewheelin' followed almost immediately by Bob Dylan. By the time Planet Waves came out I was musically in a different place than Bob. Rock and Roll and I parted ways with Kiss. Not that I didn't like them, but for someone who cut his musical teeth on Bill Haley, Gene Vincent, early Elvis, Clyde McPhatter, etc. I was leaving mid-70's - present Rock behind.

If I get some details wrong, (Yes I owned a copy of Nashville Skyline), even though I sort of date the beginning of his less interesting period with JWH it's a jumble. If you were there, you understand. If not, take my advice, don't do drugs, they'll make a hash of your mind.

>17 tcw: - not sure I agree completely with your analysis - JWH was one of Dylan's most successful (it was his highest charting album in the US until Blood on the Tracks), and well-reviewed, albums.

Nashville Skyline is a good album as well - it introduced some Dylan classics, and the duet with Johnny Cash works really well.

His really bad years were the 80s, where he seemed intent on sabotaging his own career. If you listen to the Bootleg Series, he was ignoring his best songs/versions at the time. The nadir was Dylan and the Dead which was completely appalling - the worst album either act was involved in.

But if you just take his BEST songs from the 80s: "I and I", "Blind Willie Mctell", "Every Grain of Sand", "Foot of Pride", "Dark Eyes", "Brownsville Girl", "Jokerman", "Ring Then Bells", "Man In The Long Black Coat", etc. -- they still add up to stronger work than anybody else.

Has anyone else had the luxury of reading Greil Marcus Old weird america? i find it fascinating the way marcus ties the Basement Tapes with all facets of American folk culture. Also, Levon Helm's this Wheels on Fire is a great,if somewhat naturally biased book on his days with The Band. (thought id throw it in).

Ryan, yes I have that book. Very good, though of course Marcus goes off on some odd tangents. Another good one on the Basement Tapes is "Million Dollar Bash", which is pretty new. An invaluable resource if you're into the Basement Tapes (I am).

The BEST recent Dylan book, though, is "The Never Ending Star" by Lee Marshall (I think) -- a truly great Dylan book.

Hello, Can anybody explain to me why none of the shared books in this group is a book about Dylan? Sure, I've read most of the 19th century books that are mentioned in the profile of these group too but I thought that the only reason for this group is the shared Dylan collection. Or do I missed the point?

I think, maybe, as you say, you miss the point.

BTW, Suze Rotolo has a book out about life in the Village with Bob in the early Sixties"A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties. I, myself, having little memory of that time (If you can remember it, you weren't there) need all the books I can get. Otherwise, I'll never know what I did then.

I just got the Rotolo book yesterday as a birthday present. Looking forward to digging into it.

Another good recent Dylan book is the one by Keith Negus, simply called "Bob Dylan". It is very good and well considered.

I've just read ad reviewed the Rotolo book and it is superb. It's categorically not about Dylan (nor should it be) but the glimpses it provides into the 'mixed up confusion' of that era are worth every moment spent reading it.

#22 The book that you're talking about, The Neverending Star, is that written by the drummer of Bob Dylan's band?

Ophlia, no no. It's by someone named Lee Marshall.

Dylan's ex-drummer, Winston Watson, has released a DVD diary, not a book.

I recently read (and reviewed) Christopher Ricks' Dylan's Visions of Sin, a magnificent literary analysis. I keep putting off reading Aidan Day's Jokerman because it is so dense! (Maybe this time).