Home › Books › The Philosophy of Modern Song
The Philosophy of Modern Song
by
9/99
Critics' Rating Index
44/99
Readers' Rating Index
88/99
Scholars' Citation Index
99/99
Volume of Reviews
85/99
Volume of Reader Ratings
Sign in to add to your shelf, rate, or review this book.
About This Book
The Philosophy of Modern Song is Bob Dylan's first book of new writing since 2004's Chronicles: Volume One—and since winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. Dylan, who began working on the book in 2010, offers his extraordinary insight into the nature of popular music. He writes over sixty essays focusing on songs by other artists, spanning from Stephen Foster to Elvis Costello, and in between ranging from Hank Williams to Nina Simone. He analyzes what he calls the trap of easy rhymes, breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song, and even explains how bluegrass relates to heavy metal. These essays are written in Dylan's unique prose. They are mysterious and mercurial, poignant and profound, and often laugh-out-loud funny. And while they are ostensibly about music, they are really meditations and reflections on the human condition. Running throughout the book are nearly 150 carefully curated photos as well as a series of dream-like riffs that, taken together, resemble an epic poem and add to the work's transcendence. In 2020, with the release of his outstanding album Rough and Rowdy Ways, Dylan became the first artist to have an album hit the Billboard Top 40 in each decade since the 1960s. The Philosophy of Modern Song contains much of what he has learned about his craft in all those years, and like everything that Dylan does, it is a momentous artistic achievement.
Reviews
"More confounding, and much more fun, is Dylan's weakness for schmaltz ..."
"A collection of short essays, lyrical riffs, chunks of facts, and unpredictable digressions, generously illustrated with historical photos suitable for enjoyment at the coffee table ..."
"It's obvious that Dylan did not tweak his preferences to suit a cultural narrative...Yet that the book contains only four songs performed by women—let that sink in!—is both grim and astounding."
"The author is consistently engaging and often provocative in his explorations ..."
"Absurd truisms are invented ..."
"But Dylan presses on, undaunted."
"Not quite a philosophy of modern song, or at least not a coherent one."
"Not likely to lead to any distinguished literature awards."
"At times...feels like a sci-fi project set in a parallel universe where Bob Dylan stayed home in Hibbing and inherited his father's electrical supply store ..."
"There is not much strictly musicological analysis, and only occasional (if always intriguing) dissections of lyrical form ..."
Preview
Reader Reviews
0 reviewsSign in to write a review.
No reader reviews yet. Be the first!