Rate this book

Revolution In The Air: The Songs Of Bob Dylan, 1957-1973 (2009)

by Clinton Heylin(Favorite Author)

3.84 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1556528434 (ISBN13: 9781556528439)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Chicago Review Press

review 1: 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.
review 2: My library books are all due back tomorrow, so I was really pushing ... moreto 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. less

Download links for: Revolution in the Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan, 1957-1973

Advertising