By: David Schultz


Like any artist who’s been active since the Sixties, Dylan has a sizable back catalog and a fan base eager to relive bygone days with trips down memory lane. What sets Dylan apart is the historical significance of many of his prior efforts; “Blowin’ In The Wind,” “Hurricane,” “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” “A Hard Rains A-Gonna Fall” and dozens of others resonate with a poetic radicalism and eloquent defiance that remains emblematic of a generation yet transcends the decades. That sense of importance, while not entirely lost on the inscrutable icon, seems to hold entirely none of his interest. On the second night of the run, “Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again,” “Highway 61 Revisited” and “Ballad Of A Thin Man” retained fleeting references to their familiar versions; Dylan going beyond a tweak or two and simply just crafting new arrangements in line with the tone and style he currently fancies. As Dylan’s vocal delivery leaves much to be desired in the way of intelligibility, his version of “Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)” needed time to develop before it became clear what he was singing.

Inconsequentially, the border town feel of Together Through Life material didn’t quite translate on to the stage. However, Charlie Sexton’s guitar work provided more than an adequate substitute. Along with Larry Campbell, Sexton helped engineer Dylan’s renaissance as a potent live performer in the late Nineties and his return has energized Dylan. With Sexton back in the fold, Dylan has a potent foil to play off on. Dylan doesn’t parry or joust with Sexton as much as he steps back to allow the guitarist to interject a bluesy riff or a unique interpretation. Known for his tightfisted control of his stage, Dylan hasn’t quite given Sexton free reign but he seems to have more freedom to move around the kingdom.

Where Dylan could once enlighten and enliven a crowd with a guitar, arthritis has left him with the ability to comfortably play only a song or two each night. Early in the show, Dylan played electric guitar on “It Ain’t Me Babe” and “Man In The Long Black Coat” but for the most part remained primarily behind his keyboards or stood center stage at the mic, looking slightly awkward without an instrument. The changes brought on by age or temperament are all now part of the show. Much of the excitement comes from being in the same room as Dylan and marveling at his acumen and longevity. His voice may be buried in the mix yet the music is vibrant and remarkably effective. Disdainful as he may be of the burden of pleasing a crowd, he continues to do so. His traditional encores of “Like A Rolling Stone” and “All Along The Watchtower” no longer retain their acerbic political bite, yet they remain timeless and ultimately still as relevant as the man who sings the songs.

Labels: Bob Dylan

By: David Schultz

In 1997, Bob Dylan sent his most ardent fans into career retrospective mode when he entered the hospital with a near-fatal heart infection. At the time, Dylan's career was in one of its cyclical nadirs but upon his release, that would all soon change. In the studio, Dylan put the finishing touches on Time Out Of Mind, which would become a critically lauded, Grammy winning success; on stage, Dylan had once again become a potent force, assembling a band that was his best since The Band. When Dylan resumes touring on October, Charlie Sexton, who along with Larry Campbell anchored his stellar turn-of-the-century crew, will return to the fold.

IN MORE BIZARRE DYLAN NEWS, it appears that he will be following up the Mexican cantina-tinged Together Through Life with Christmas In The Heart, an album of Yuletide classics. While I'm still open to the possibility that this is a hoax, it looks more and more that if this is a put-on, it's a well thought out one. Fueling the "Christmas Creep," the album will be released October 13 with the proceeds going to hunger relief charities.

WITH ENDLESS WIRE, THE WHO tacked on an excellent final refrain, a coda if you will, to their legendary career with "Tea And Theater" possessing the right amount of sentimentality to serve as fitting last words. On his blog, Pete Townshend has revealed that The Who aren't done and he and Daltrey intend to take "the more conventional songs" from an upcoming rock opera, Floss, and compile them for a 2010 release. The new opera seems to revolve around a retired rocker who sheds his role as a house-husband and captures his generation's zeitgeist, much to his wife's chagrin.

Labels: Bob Dylan, The Who

By: David Schultz

For Heroes, the compendium of covers whose proceeds go to War Child International, an organization dedicated to aiding children worldwide afflicted by war, Beck completely reinvented Bob Dylan’s “Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat.” After listening to it for about the 50th time over the past few weeks, it prompted me to start discussions over whether Beck’s version of the Blonde On Blonde classic was the best Dylan cover ever. Of course, whenever such a subjective question comes up, it can mean only one thing: it’s list time.

Some artists have made their careers out of covering Dylan: Peter, Paul & Mary, Richie Havens and The Byrds rode Dylan’s coattails for many years at the expense of writing their own material. Even when Dylan retreated away from anything close to memorable music, his words and music were kept alive. For much of the 80s, the Grateful Dead rarely let a live show go by without a Dylan cover.

However, a comprehensive list of Dylan covers is not a novel exercise. Right around the time of Heroes’ release, Paste Magazine offered their all-inclusive, though relatively conservative, take on this idea. For this list of 5, we’re skipping the obvious: Jimi Hendrix’ take on “All Along The Watchtower” will always take the prize for best Dylan cover ever and the joyless droning version that The Dave Matthews Band included in a decades worth of shows just loses out as worst cover to the horrifying version of “Forever Young” that will.i.am cut for that Pepsi commercial.

What follows are the five Dylan covers that never seem to get the praise and discussion they deserve.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience: “Like A Rolling Stone”

From Hendrix’ revelatory set at Monterey Pop in 1967, his version of “Like A Rolling Stone” usually gets overlooked as his closing take on The Troggs’ “Wild Thing” pretty much blew everyone away even before he ritualistically set his guitar on fire. Despite forgetting a verse, something he acknowledges in the midst of the song, Hendrix found the same streetwise state of mind from which to deliver the song as Dylan. In Hendrix’ hands, it still feels like gospel . . . only with awesome guitar solos.

Warren Zevon – “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”

Engaging in an unsettling bit of gallows humor, Zevon covered “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” while dying from mesothelioma. What might have been a sobering take on Dylan’s contribution to Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid, retains a bit of the song's gravitas but turns into a relatively uplifting affair as Zevon hardly seems afraid of death. Near the end of the song, he demands that the doors open up, cause he's coming. Facing his own mortality, Zevon's interpretation is one many wouldn't have the fortitude to try.

Denzel Washington – “The Mighty Quinn”

This cover can only be found within The Mighty Quinn, one of the more underrated Denzel Washington films. A different version appears on the soundtrack, a light peppy reggae take that pales in comparison to the delivery in the film. Playing a detective in a small Caribbean village, coincidentally named Quinn, Washington ambles into a bar and starts Taj Mahal's "Cakewalk Into Town" on the piano before a hushed crowd. The rest of the band has other ideas and to Washington's character's initial dread, they slowly sabotage the song and amble into “The Mighty Quinn,” ultimately sucking Denzel into joining in.

The White Stripes – “Love Sick”

Never recorded in the studio, The White Stripes incorporated the latter-era Dylan classic into their live sets with relative frequency. Jack White’s frantic yawp works wonders with "Love Sick," turning Dylan's wizened delivery on its head and giving the song a hyperactive sheen and a manic edge. As White is want to do, he also adds some guitar pyrotechnics that light up the otherwise patient and deliberate opener to Time Out Of Mind.

Bryan Ferry – “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”

Adding a jaunty hop to The Freewheelin Bob Dylan classic, Ferry's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" seems more like a haughty, breezy taunt than a foreboding warning. From These Foolish Things, Ferry's 1973 coverfest, Ferry chops through the songs concisely poetic descriptions and observations without the sense of sorrow of the original. Like everything Ferry touches, he makes "Hard Rain" distinctly his own.

Labels: Bob Dylan, Bryan Ferry, Jimi Hendrix, Warren Zevon, White Stripes

By: David Schultz

About a year ago, I came across former Rolling Stone editor Greil Marcus’ 1975 opus, Mystery Train. Don’t act too surprised, the Largehearted Boy isn’t the only one who reads, you know. In his influential novel, one of the first extended works of critical music analysis, Marcus sussed out the origins of American rock and roll, recasting the music of the Sixties and early Seventies in the context of its blues and country roots, concluding with the biggest amalgamation of homegrown superstardom: Elvis Presley. In Like A Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan At The Crossroads, Marcus attempts to ply his incisive acumen to a single song, Dylan’s monumental 1965 anthem.

Ostensibly a dissertation on the significance and importance of “Like A Rolling Stone,” Marcus’ prior gift for prose goes horribly and at times embarrassingly askew. He buries his bloated study in senseless digressions on off-topic subjects like the Pet Shop Boys’ “Go West,” verbose explanations of what emotions are conveyed by guitar licks, bass lines and drum shots and speculative extrapolation of the import of a song’s delivery. That’s not to say that Marcus doesn’t ably describe 1965’s musical and sociological landscape but in stretching a subject more apropos of a feature length article into a two hundred page explique, Marcus loses his sense of purpose and never reaches his lofty goal of placing "Like A Rolling Stone" in its proper historical context.

Written forty years after the fact, Marcus’ tome doesn’t offer anything new or insightful to the Dylan canon. Those looking for a compendium of trivia associated with the song’s recording will have found their Bible; the book is awash in minutia as Marcus details each and every take in painstaking detail. Ultimately, to really get the proper feel for “Like A Rolling Stone,” you’re better off setting Marcus’ book aside, putting on a pair of headphones and just chilling out to Highway 61 Revisited.

THE NEW YORK METS HAVE left their fans wanting come the end of the last two seasons but when it comes to bringing classic rock to the ball park, they wisely step out of the way and let more competent folks handle matters. (Let's face facts, if Omar Minaya was in charge of booking acts at Citi Field, he'd overpay for the reunion of Menudo and Ricky Martin would injure himself before the show). With an eye towards history, Paul McCartney will christen the stage at the new Mets stadium on July 17 and July 18. In 1965, The Beatles famously played Shea, marking the first time rock and roll occupied the stadium and just last year, he turned my Paul McCartney theory into Schultz' Law of Paul McCartney by treating fans to "Let It Be" in closing out the encore of Billy Joel's Last Play At Shea.

Tickets go on sale on June 15 at 10:00 a.m. through the Mets ticketing system 507TIXX.com. A word of warning, the system was woefully ill equipped to handle the influx of traffic produced by the Billy Joel concerts and there has been no indication the bandwidth problems have been addressed.

Labels: Bob Dylan, Greil Marcus, Paul McCartney

By performing at the Boston Garden the night after Martin Luther King was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee, James Brown is credited with saving Boston. Worried about the violence that had sprouted in other major cities as a result of King’s assassination, Mayor Kevin White considered canceling the concert but was deeply concerned about bringing about the rioting he wanted to avoid by giving the appearance of stifling black expression. The political wrangling and monetary machinations that led to The Godfather of Soul taking the stage that night and permitting the show to be simulcast on public television have been the subject of multiple books and documentaries. More than the music, which included funky classics like “Please Please Please” and “Cold Sweat,” smoldering soul masterpieces like “It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World” and numerous R&B covers sung by other members of the traveling revue, Brown made this show memorable by reminding everyone watching – and there were many - of the immediate importance of King’s non-violent beliefs and imploring Boston’s African-American population to rise above the violence plaguing the other cities. James Brown’s righteous brand of soul might not be the music that would customarily soothe the heart of a city about to explode, but on this night, often referred to as “The Night James Brown Saved Boston,” it kept Beantown from falling apart at the seams.

Labels: Beatles, Bob Dylan, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson, Nirvana, Phish, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, U2

Bob Dylan, like Clapton below, is putting out a "new" collection of "old" music. But, like fine wine, Dylans' catalog gets better with age. While there are a few handfuls of rock legends, few earn the "genius" moniker that people hang around Dylan's neck. I think he's earned it. His influence is enormous and his lyrics are unrivaled in rock and roll. He's received many deserving accolades over the years and now he's the subject of a multi media marketing blitz. If it seems like Dylan is popping up everywhere these days, it is because he is.

His "If You See Her, Say Hello" was recently featured in David Duchovny's Californication and there is even a Bob Dylan Facebook application. Yesterday, Dylan hit stores with the boast of being the definitive collection of the ultimate troubadour's mastery. From Blowin' in the Wind to Tangled Up in Blue, it's all there wrapped for you in one little 18 track package. Unless, of course, you want to splurge for the 3 cd box set version.

And, of course, if you weren't already convinced that 2007 is the year for all things Dylan, I'm Not There, the Dylan biopic starring Cate Blanchette and many others, will be shown this week at the New York Film Festival and then hit movie theaters nationwide on November 21st. Some will say all this is overkill. I say you can never get enough of a great thing. Keep it coming Bob!

Labels: Bob Dylan

Norah Jones got a film career boost when it was announced that My Blueberry Nights, which is the first English language film from Wong Kar-Wai, will open the 60th Cannes Film Festival. According to IMDB, Jones stars as "A young woman [who] takes a soul-searching journey across America to resolve her questions about love while encountering a series of offbeat characters along the way." Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Ed Harris and Rachel Weisz are also in the film.

Speaking of films, Cary Brothers, a Zach Braff favorite, has a new record coming out. Who You Are will hit stores May 29th and Cary kicks off a tour in support of the record in late April. You can dates here. Check out some Cary Brothers tracks below.

Cary Brothers Mp3s: Ride & Who You Are

Since we're on kind of a film theme, I've been overlooking this Snow Patrol video from the new Spiderman movie that has been sitting in my in box for a couple days. If you haven't seen it yet, check out "Signal Fire" here. The soundtrack is out May 1st and is said to contain 14 original tracks from The Walkmen, Wolfmother, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Flaming Lips, Jet, The Killers and if you can do math, obviously a few more, including actor Jason Schwartzman performing as "Coconut Records."

O.A.R. announced details of their upcoming new album, "Live From Madison Square Garden." The two-CD set is a live recording from January 2007 and will hit stores on June 5th. Catch a preview of the disc here. As expected, the band will be touring extensively this spring and throughout the summer.

XM Radio has extended it's relationship with Bob Dylan for another season. Dylan's "Theme Time Radio Hour" where he plays songs related to a theme - hence the name - wrapped the first season yesterday and will return in September. In case you've missed, XM will air a "Theme Time Radio Hour" marathon during Memorial Day weekend, broadcasting every episode from the first season, beginning May 26 at 6 p.m. ET on The Village (XM 15).

Labels: Bob Dylan, Cary Brothers, Mp3s, Norah Jones, OAR, Snow Patrol

Via Large Hearted Boy, I noticed that the Shins front man James Mercer made a great observation about the music industry that a lot of young bands seem to not get: you don't have to be a superstar to be a star or more importantly make a living playing music. Mercer is quoted saying: "You can have a real niche audience these days. A small percentage of the population is buying your records, but you can make a living off that. We sold out Madison Square Garden theater and the caterers don't know who the hell we are!"

The University of Nebraska has sent a bill to the RIAA seeking reimbursement for their troubles in helping the record labels track down alleged illegal downloading on campus. The RIAA tells them to go jump in a lake.

Aquarium Drunkard takes a look at Bob Dylan: Dont Look Back - 65 Tour Deluxe Edition. The DVD set includes includes the remastered classic film by D.A. Pennebaker, a brand-new, hour-long look at Dylan, and the original 168-page companion book to the film. AD says: "65 Revisited allows Pennebaker to efficiently paint a parallel universe of the tour illuminating, what, in my opinion, constitutes a more lighthearted side of Dylan than how he was ultimately portrayed in the '67 release of Don't Look Back. This makes perfect sense as dark, brooding, characters, whether it be fiction, documentaries or "reality tv," always make more compelling/interesting viewing."

Mp3 Offerings:
Fair to Midland: Vice Versa
Ruby Isle: Teenage Riot (Sonic Youth cover)
Dead Heart Bloom: Chelsea Song
U-Melt: 415
Pawnshop Roses: Fadin' Out

Black Crowes brothers Chris & Rich Robinson will be performing two "Brothers Of A Feather" shows in Atlanta: Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007 at Center Stage & Wednesday, April 4th, 2007 at Variety Playhouse. For tapers, be warned that these are NO TAPING performances. The Crowes new studio record is set for an April release as well.

Blabbermouth reports that Guns 'N Roses are now in the "mixing stage" for their Chinese Democracy release. How long that will take, only Axl Rose knows. Meanwhile, the current version of Guns is scheduled to headline South Africa's My Coke Festival in Johannesburg on April 27 and Cape Town on May 1. Just think it wasn't that long ago when it wasn't cool to play in South Africa.

Labels: Bob Dylan, Guns N' Roses, The Black Crowes, The Shins

Bob Dylan has reportedly bought a sweet new pad. The troubadour is reportedly ready to nestle into a Scottish mansion that sits on 25 acres of woodland near the village of Nethy Bridge, Inverness-shire. Sounds like quite the place! Enjoy it Bob, you've earned it.

Reports also have a new Dylan tune called "Huck's Theme," appearing on the soundtrack for the film Lucky You. The movie, which stars Drew Barrymore, is also said to feature a pair of Bruce Springsteen tunes, including old school track "The Fever."

Labels: Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Scotland

The preliminary line-up for the 10,000 Lakes Festival includes Bob Weir & RatDog, Trey Anastasio, Umphrey's McGee, Gov't Mule, Little Feat & The Derek Trucks Band.

Slate will premiere the new Bob Dylan video for "Thunder on the Mountain," from his latest Modern Times tomorrow. The video features archival footage of Dylan performing over the past four decades and Slate will also be hosting a contest where you can try to identify the years various pieces of footage were shot with the winner getting a guitar signed by Dylan.

Mp3s worth checking out -

Kristoffer Ragnstam: "Breakfast By The Mattress"

The Slip: "Even Rats"

Jeremy Enigk: "Been Here Before"

Robbers On High Street: "The Fatalist"

Pablo: "Loser Crew"

Glasgow's The Cinematics - a band I think we'll hear a lot more of in 2007 - will include this cover of Beck's "Sunday Sun" on their debut full length A Strange Education is due out in February and the lads hope to do some extensive US touring in support. That's a show I will surely try to catch. Viva Scotland!

Keller Williams is about to kick off a winter tour and announced his new record will hit stores February 7th - dream will feature appearances from various luminaries including Béla Fleck, Bob Weir, Martin Sexton, Michael Franti, Steve Kimock, The String Cheese Incident and Victor Wooten.

Labels: Bob Dylan, Jeremy Enigk, Michael Franti, Mp3s, Robbers on High Street, Scotland, Spearhead, The Slip, Trey Anastasio

The last time Bob Dylan had a record at number one the U.S. was facing a looming energy crisis at home and uncertainty abroad. Well, 30 years later history is repeating itself. Dylan's Modern Times is at number one, beating out some artists who weren't even born yet in 1976, and the U.S. is obviously facing trouble abroad and our pocketbooks are reeling from high gas prices.

Modern Times sold nearly 200,000 units its first week out. Dylan's poetic abilities are in full form and his legend status, along with what I hope is a renewed appreciation for real artistry among American consumers, is propelling record sales. And, old Bob seems to know a thing or too about modern marketing as well: like sex sells. Hence, the featuring of starlet Scarlett Johansson in the video for "When the Deal Goes Down." It is not an overtly sexual video, but anything with Scarlett in it has an undeniable sexual component. The song is great and although the word "haunting" is cliche, it is an apt description of Dylan's lyrics and delivery. Whether you agree or disagree with that assessment, one thing is for sure, Dylan's return to the top is a welcome event in these sometimes trying modern times.

Labels: Bob Dylan

Beginning Wednesday, August 30 at 10:00 a.m., AOL Radio will commence simulcasting Bob Dylan's weekly XM Satellite Radio show, Theme Time Radio Hour. The program, which features Dylan playing an hour's worth of selections devoted to a themes like death or drinking, has received a warm response from listeners as well as critics. While Dylan's ability to select choice cuts from albums both popular and obscure would satiate most listeners, it has been his banter, similar in style to the autobiographical Chronicles: Volume 1, that has been the show's standout feature.

If simulcasting the mercurial singer isn't enough Dylan for AOL's listeners, they will comply with such demands. In conjunction with the release of the legendary folk singer's new album, Modern Times, AOL will stream the album for all curious listeners.

Labels: Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan tells Rolling Stone that he understands why kids today are illegally downloading songs instead of buying records. He says he understands because modern records aren't "worth nothing anyway."

The legendary troubadour went even further, "You listen to these modern records, they're atrocious, they have sound all over them," he added. "There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like ... static."

Dylan isn't even happy with the sound of his own cd, preferring the big sound you hear in the studio. His Modern Times hits stores next week.

Labels: Bob Dylan

While most trivia oriented classic rock fans remembered that August 1 would have been Jerry Garcia's 64th birthday, others recalled that it also marked the 35th anniversary of George Harrison and Ravi Shankar's "Concert For Bangladesh." The 1971 benefit took place at New York City's Madison Square Garden; featuring performances by Harrison, Shankar, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Leon Russell, Billy Preston and a reticent Bob Dylan.

One of the first concerts put together to raise money and awareness for a humanitarian cause, The Concert For Bangladesh showed that the platitudes preached by the hippie generation were not simply words; they could be transformed into good deeds. Despite the passing of more than three decades, the concert still generates donations: all artists' royalties from DVD and CD sales related to the show continue to go to UNICEF. Without question, the Concert For Bangladesh set the stage for larger and grander benefit shows like Live Aid.

"When new Bangla Desh was born and hundreds of thousands of refugees started pouring into India, I was so pained at seeing the suffering of these innocent people and my heart went out to them," said sitarist Shankar. "I wanted to help in whatever way I could and do something to raise money for the refugees. I was going to arrange a concert and play myself with perhaps a few friends. Dear George was in Los Angeles at that time and was visiting me. He saw the pain and anguish in me and was very concerned. Seeing my plight, he started to phone everyone. What happened afterwards is history. One day no one knew of Bangla Desh and the next day the whole world was talking about it."

Madison Square Garden marked the anniversary of the historic concert by unveiling a permanent plaque on their "Walk Of Fame."

Labels: Bob Dylan, George Harrison

Bob Dylan's first new studio album in five years, Modern Times, hits stores and online shops August 29th. This is Dylan's 44th album and features 10 new songs recorded last winter with Dylan on keyboards, guitars, harmonica and vocals, accompanied by his touring band. Song titles on Modern Times include "Thunder On The Mountain," "Spirit On The Water," "Workingman's Blues," and "When The Deal Goes Down."

Columbia Records Chairman Steve Barnett states, "A new Bob Dylan record is an event. Bob is that rare artist whose music defies all trends and resonates throughout all levels of our culture, and he continues to be as contemporary and relevant as any artist in music."

To get you primed, you can listen to archived Dylan tunes here.

Labels: Bob Dylan

By: David Schultz

Every fledgling rock and roll fan goes through the same phase. Whether passed down from an older sibling, a hipper friend or simply found on one's own, some time after getting your first real dose of classic rock, copies of No One Here Gets Out Alive, the lurid Jim Morrison biography; 'Scuse Me While I Kiss The Sky, a tell-all about the legendary Jimi Hendrix and Legend, Tim White's well researched biography of Bob Marley, inevitably make their way into your hands. However, as Bon Jovi once said, "it's all the same, only the names have changed." The same decadent tales contained in the Led Zeppelin memoir Hammer Of The Gods are echoed in Danny Sugerman's Appetite For Destruction: The Days Of Guns N' Roses only to be retold in the chronicles of Motley Crue compiled in The Dirt: Confessions Of The World's Most Notorious Rock Band.

While there will always be an allure to tales of sex, drugs and rock and roll, especially amongst the high school set, stories of Satanism, sharks and groupies only present a small albeit colorful aspect of rock and roll. While any one of those "unauthorized" tomes of "literature," may give a sense of the artist's origins and human failings, they rarely provide any perspective on the larger world of rock and roll.

What follows is a list, in no particular order, of the ten greatest books ever written about rock and roll. As you will see, it doesn't always have to be non-fiction to delve into the psyche of rock music, grasp the artistic essence of a generation or provide insight into the music that probably plays too large a role in some of our lives. It's only rock and roll, but we like it.

Chronicles: Volume 1 - Bob Dylan (2004)

Only a handful of musicians have ever been as socially relevant as Bob Dylan. Even fewer have been as puzzling and enigmatic about their own music and concomitant celebrity as the mercurial folk singer from Minnesota. In Chronicles: Volume 1 (which gives hope that there will be more volumes forthcoming), Dylan makes no effort to tell his story in chronological order; picking and choosing select points from his illustrious career on which to finally offer his definitive insights. Inspired by the writing style found in Douglas Brinkley's compilation of Hunter S. Thompson's correspondence, Dylan's discourses are practically streams of consciousness. Although his story starts at the beginning - covering his travels to New York, his formative years in the folk clubs on the Lower East Side and the influence of Dave Van Ronk - he soon bounces around to various points of his storied legacy. Anyone looking for a narrative tale on the genesis of "Blowin' In The Wind" or the making of Blonde On Blonde will be deeply disappointed by Chronicles: Volume 1; Dylan apparently doesn't find these stories interesting. Assuming that you already know who he is and what he’s done, Dylan tells his story the way he wishes to tell it: with disjointed eloquence. During the lengthy section devoted to the recording of Oh Mercy under Daniel Lanois' supervision, he not once mentions the name of the album. The most fascinating revelations in the book come early on: having unwillingly become the voice of his generation, Dylan's unease at the attempts to position him as the leader of a revolution in which he had no interest only adds another level of depth to an already complicated persona.

FM: The Rise And Fall Of Rock Radio - Richard Neer (2001)

In telling the story about the rise and fall of 102.7 WNEW, New York City's greatest FM classic rock station, Richard Neer, who served as a DJ as well as the station's program director, also tells the tale of the shift from DJ oriented free-form radio shows to playlists dictated by programming directors. Throughout the book, Neer relates anecdotes of the heyday of New York classic rock radio when DJs like Scott Muni and The Nightbird Allison Steele were given free reign to play the music that spoke to them, effectively becoming the link between artists and their audience. In relating WNEW's history, Neer mourns the bygone days when a DJ and a radio station had a bond with their listeners and could be responsible, through the simple act of playing a song, make a star. Of course, with such responsibility comes corruption; Neer doesn't shy away from that aspect of the business, confronting the payola issue head on and showing its effect on the creation, development and eventual dominance of the position of the program director. Having been at WNEW through the best and worst of times, Neer shares his excitement of broadcasting young Bruce Springsteen's legendary concerts from The Bottom Line, his shock over John Lennon's murder and the difficulties of remaining on the air and of course, the emergence of Howard Stern and the industry-changing effect his success had on non-talk radio. Neer revels in the fertile times in which radio played a vital role in the rock and roll community, offering a eulogy for what has been lost in the commercialization and homogenization of the industry. If anything, Neer gets bonus points for telling the true life story that inspired WKRP In Cincinnati's classic episode involving the Thanksgiving Day turkey drop that inspired the classic line, "As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

The Commitments - Roddy Doyle (1987)

Better known to most from Alan Parker's fantastic cinematic adaptation, The Commitments originally came to life in the first novel of Roddy Doyle's Barrytown Trilogy (the only one to focus on the would-be manager Jimmy Rabbitte). Doyle's basic story of a remarkably talented soul troupe that comes together in the ghettoes of Dublin, Ireland, only to burn out brightly instead of fading away, remains substantially untouched in Parker's film, only some of the particulars are changed. While the story of The Commitments may be universal, oft-told tale, it is one that has multiple fictional and non-fictional variations. While Doyle's narrative style wouldn’t put the book on this list, his description of the music does. Most novels with music at the thematic core fail to captivate the reader because the writer lacks the skill to have the music sing on the page. In describing the music played by The Commitments, especially James Brown's "Night Train," Doyle's syntax, grammar and wordplay reproduce on paper the exact notes heard in the concert hall. To enjoy The Commitments, you don't need to have ever heard any of the songs in order to hear them in your mind; not an easy task under any circumstances. If you have heard the songs, Doyle's literary accomplishment in making the audio component of music vibrant on the page becomes abundantly clear.

The Mansion On The Hill: Dylan, Young, Geffen and Springsteen and the Head-On Collision Of Rock and Commerce - Fred Goodman (1997)

In the late sixties and early seventies, major record companies sensed the tremendous amount of money to be made from rock and roll. With The Beatles and The Rolling Stones paving the way, the earning potential of major superstar acts was just being tapped. In this era, music became an industry. Fred Goodman's book tells the story of how rock and roll moved from a communal experience between the artist and their fans to a business full of management agreements and onerous one-sided record deals. In turning grass roots, populist sensations into mainstream superstar attractions, the square peg that was rock and roll got crammed, kicking and screaming, into the round hole of corporate America. The Mansion On The Hill tells the major stories of this time, beginning with the inculcation of the iconoclastic Bob Dylan into the corporate sphere. The erosion of the manager/musician relationship gets full treatment; best typified by the irreconcilable differences between Bruce Springsteen and his original manager, Mike Appel that delayed the release of Born To Run for years and helped give birth to the modern day management agreement. Through Neil Young and Don Henley, Goodman tackles the thorny issues of art-for-hire: examining the conflict between the artist wanting to create music that appeals to them and the label's potentially competing desire for a marketable "product" to sell. All of the contractual conventions prevalent between managers, record labels and the artists evolved slowly, arising from the natural conflict that exists between art and commerce. Goodman's book covers the maturation of the music industry with a detached but well-informed interest, making The Mansion On The Hill required reading for anyone with an interest in finding a career in the music industry.

Death Of A Rebel - The Phil Ochs Story - Marc Eliot (1989)

Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan get the lion's share of the credit for nurturing the rebellious spirit of folk music. Phil Ochs, one of the greatest voices of the sixties, rarely gets the accolades lauded on his Greenwich Village peers even though he played an extraordinarily significant role in giving folk music its politically perceptive outspokenness. Possessed with a caustic and unwavering belief in his ideals, Ochs antagonized an older generation's beliefs and challenged the morality of the Vietnam War with timeless anti-war songs like "I Ain't Marching Anymore" and "Cops Of The World." Evidencing Ochs' timeless breadth, his Vietnam era protest songs still resonate and find relevance in today's political climate. Ochs also trained his penetrating intellect on social issues, skewering racist attitudes in "Here's To The State Of Mississippi" and outing the public's apathy to events like the Kitty Genovese murder in "Outside Of A Small Circle Of Friends." Unfortunately, Ochs' forthrightness and candor had a price: quickly targeted as a subversive by the FBI, Ochs descended into the depths of debilitating paranoia and depression. In his well-researched biography Death Of A Rebel, Marc Eliot delves into Ochs' life, describing the events and circumstances that fueled his confrontational nature as well as documenting their effects on Ochs' state of mind. Death Of A Rebel doesn't shy away from Ochs' shortcomings, unhappiness or mental illness, which caused him to develop an alternative personality. The toll on Ochs' mental state ultimately proved too dear; he committed suicide in 1976, hanging himself in his sister's bathroom. Ochs' influence on the defiant nature of folk music can't be understated and Eliot's book places Ochs' life, music and the public and political reactions to it into the proper historical context.

The Ground Beneath Her Feet - Salman Rushdie (1999)

Rushdie's retelling of the myth of Orpheus focuses on Ormus Cama and his wife Vina Aspara - think Ike & Tina Turner without the spousal abuse - that possesses the same hold on a marginally alternative reality's music scene as The Beatles do in ours. Cama's muse, giving him visions of music long before the rest of the world, makes this story one of rock and roll. As a child in India, Cama hears Elvis Presley's music in his head long before the world would fall under the sway of "The King." After recognizing his muse's genius, he rises to stardom with Aspara by his side. Along the way, Cama gets a visit from Brian Epstein. After hearing Cama play some of his new songs in a café, Epstein informs Cama that his charges are in seclusion recording their new album and that none of the new music has been heard outside of the studio. That being so, Epstein doesn't know where Cama heard "Yesterday" or how he learned it so quickly but if he ever hears Cama play it in public again, he'll have his legs broken. Anyone who solely knows Rushdie from his battle with Islam over The Satanic Verses will be astounded by the author's grasp of popular music. Although it should not be that surprising: after all, he did write a U2 song with Bono. The emotional scars Cama and Aspara inflict upon each other as well as their inability to live happily apart come right out of the memoirs of any real life couple joined by love and rock and roll. Of all the books on this list, The Ground Beneath Her Feet focuses on music the least but Rushdie's phenomenal writing and other meditations won't starve your intellect.

Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey In Rural North Dakota - Chuck Klosterman (2001)

Klosterman begins Fargo Rock City intent on explaining and defending his fascination with heavy metal, especially hair metal. Acknowledging that his love of Motley Crue and KISS often bring puzzled, disappointed looks to his friends' faces, Klosterman refuses to apologize or retreat from the music he unabashedly loves. In addressing the arguments of the genre's detractors head-on, Klosterman focuses on the inclusiveness of the themes found in heavy metal, contrasting them to the exclusive, "we're cooler than you" motif present in other genres. Klosterman disproves, or at least rationalizes in fascinating detail, the misconceptions about male chauvinism and Satanism always attributed to the genre, taking delight in pointing out the fallacies or logical missteps in the contrarian views. In defining why this music spoke to him as a teenager in rural North Dakota and explaining why it still does, Klosterman steps into the role of everyman; stretching beyond the singular, Klosterman explains the appeal of the genre in such simple, easy-to-understand terms, you'll find yourself tempted to purchase Shout At The Devil based solely on his love for his favorite Crue album. Klosterman, a pop culture maven, doesn't limit his discussion to bands like Van Halen, Guns N' Roses, Skid Row and Warrant; he discusses practically every relevant or remotely popular band from the eighties to the present. By the end of Fargo Rock City, Klosterman has gone beyond explaining his love of metal and written a treatise of why we like the music we like. In answering the question of why we are attracted to certain music, Klosterman may very well have written the best book ever about rock and roll.

Psychotic Reactions And Carburetor Dung - Lester Bangs (1988)

One of the preeminent music critics of his era, Lester Bangs will probably be known to most casual music fans through Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of the socially dysfunctional writer in Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous. Between 1973 and 1982, Bangs, who is credited with coining the term "punk rock," worked as a freelance writer, appearing in publications like Rolling Stone, Creem, The Village Voice and New Music Express. Bangs wrote with an earthy but earnest eloquence usually reserved for poets and playwrights. Bangs not only captured the aura of the artist or the substance of the music but also its importance and relevance. Bangs possessed the ability to write about music in a way with which music fanatics could immediately identify and casual fans could understand. Bangs wrote with a sense of urgency; he believed that music could be vital to one's existential well-being. Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung is a compilation of some of Bangs' finer articles, containing the best of his album reviews, interviews and screeds. Of course, no Bangs reader would be complete without a couple dissertations on the genius of Lou Reed. The review of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks that opens the book is not only a fine example of Bangs' scholarly manic writing but one of the most intelligently crafted, insightful album reviews ever written. Where Klosterman succeeds in explaining why music matters to us as individuals, Bangs goes further: explaining why music matters to us as a society.

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe (1968)

Tom Wolfe's iconic book about the LSD tests conducted around the country by Ken Kesey and The Merry Pranksters encapsulated the anti-establishment undercurrent of the sixties. Where Buffalo Springfield described the sentiment as one of "battle lines being drawn," Wolfe gave the prevailing belief much more considered treatment, ultimately describing the feelings of the times with the salvo, "you're either on the bus or off the bus." The phrase stemmed from Furthur, the Day-Glo painted bus that carted the Pranksters around the country. This attitude inspired much of the early classic rock from the sixties and seventies that endures today and Wolfe shows how the rebelliousness and experimentation of the sixties mixed with the acid tests to create the perfect, less visceral, mixture of sex, drugs and rock and roll. Amongst the characters populating Wolfe's tale: Jack Kerouac inspiration Neal Cassady, Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, The Hells Angels and The Warlocks, who after their first set of high-profile gigs at the Acid Tests became the Grateful Dead. Within Wolfe's insightful, descriptive pages lies the intellectual inspiration for the "acid rock" genre.

Parental Advisory: Music Censorship In America - Eric Nuzum (2001)

Ice-T's "Cop Killer" and Bob Marley/Eric Clapton's "I Shot The Sheriff" both described and celebrated the killing of law enforcement authorities: one became a lightning rod for censorship in music; the other became a #1 hit. Noting that censorship has less to do with defining appropriate expression than it does with defining appropriate people, Eric Nuzum boils all censorship movements down to their basic ingredients: racism, classism and elitism. In his treatise, Nuzum covers the multitude of censorship movements that have beset rock and roll since the mid-fifties, giving extensive treatment to Tipper Gore's poorly devised and conceived Parents Music Resource Council and the congressional hearings that made Frank Zappa and Dee Snider First Amendment poster boys. Nuzum also addresses the "Suicide Solution" and Judas Priest lawsuits that threatened to chill free expression in rock music. In a daring venture that goes hand in hand with a discussion of the various efforts to censor Marilyn Manson in the aftermath of the Columbine Shootings, Nuzum delivers an interesting aside on the Alistair Crowley's Church of Satan that dispels some of the more popularly held myths about the institution. More than just fascinating anecdotes, Nuzum explores censorship's root causes showing how the sociological conditions that have given rise to battles against the First Amendment in the past will continue to persist into the future.

Labels: Bob Dylan, The Merry Pranksters

What? Yes, Cate Blanchett is one of several actors who will play Bob Dylan in the movie I'm Not There. Blanchett will take on the role as one of seven actors portraying a different aspect of the Dylan's life and work. Apparently someone thinks Dylan was a woman at some point?

Christian Bale, Colin Farrell and Richard Gere are also listed in the pre-production credits. The film was written by Oren Moverman and will be directed by Todd Hanes, who also directed The Karen Carpenter Story, and is set to begin production this summer in Romania.

Labels: Bob Dylan