Customer Reviews

Bob Dylan Anthology: Guitar Tab Edition

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1 star:		(4)

 

 

Being not only an avid guitarist but also HUGE fan of the extensive works of Mr. Dylan's I was thrilled to receive this book. Unfortunately my excitement quickly turned to dismay as I began to play through some of the tablature. I immediately discovered from pre-existing knowledge that many of the songs were in the wrong key to start with. On top of that the complete lack of use of a capo or alternate tunings set off a huge red flag, being well aware that Dylan constantly used both. If all of this wasn't bad enough many of the songs aren't even playable. Many of the songs at best slightly (and that is an overstatement) resemble their original counterparts. As a matter of fact I was so angered by the poor quality of this book that I wrote a letter to the publishing company. In this letter I covered many of the things I have said in this review, and also mentioned that the transcriptions would be more at home in a book that is labeled "for easy guitar". This is the ambiguous response I received from Music Sales Editor; Heather Rammage:

When presenting the works of great songwriters it is often the song, not the performance, which is considered most important. In the case of Bob Dylan, whose prolific career spans several decades and whose songs have been recorded by him and countless others many times, it is difficult, if not impossible, to decide upon a definitive version. Throughout his career, Bob Dylan has played the same song in many different keys, with or without a capo, in standard or altered tuning, and with completely different arrangements or entirely new melodies. Dylan¹s ³free² folk style also contributes to the difficulty in transcribing his performances.
These arrangements are meant to be accessible to everyone, in the case of piano/vocal/guitar arrangements, or in other cases to present the most playable versions of classic tunes, with obvious mistakes or questionable anomalies edited out to stay true to the intent, rather than the execution, of each song.

: Apparently this is the best way they could excuse themselves for their rancid piece of literature. Will somebody please explain to me 1. how other people's performances of Dylan's songs would have anything to do with a Bob Dylan tablature book? 2. Although Dylan does perform his songs in different ways, isn't it considered pretty standard to transcribe the version on studio album? 3. If the book states in the title it is arranged for guitar, why does the access of piano and voice matter at all? Heather Rammage, one of the head editors at the book's publishing company, clearly couldn't explain. Do yourself a favor and get a different Bob Dylan guitar book and avoid this set of loose interpretations.

Some of these songs seem different than the studio versions that I am used to from Highway 61 and Blonde on Blonde. For example, on "Visions of Johanna" this book has it in the key of G. As far as I can tell it's in the key of A. You don't even use the G chord to play the song. The fact that they never tell you when to use a capo is also suspicious. I know it's hard to find tab for some of Dylan's classics but this book is no more helpful than some tab you might find on the internet. It just costs more.

This book left me so frustrated. I tried for a week to play some of the songs while listening to the cd's of his, but after some time I just gave up. The tabs are just wrong (supposedly they are right somewhere, but they don't come close the cd versions)

Now then. You have no options but to search the internet and try to find something that sounds close, and then try very hard to listen to the cd and add in little details that you won't find in the internet tab. This is probably a better route anyway because you are growing musically.

So.. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME, MONEY, AND HAPPINESS ON THIS BOOK.

I was very excited about this book when I first saw it -- as a relatively new guitarist and Dylan buff, it looked like it was a good anthology to learn how to play most of Dylan's songs. It does have strumming patterns, chord diagrams, and picking patterns.

However, they dumbed it down even more than that. They ignored the actual way that the song is played, and opted instead for a standard tuning, uncapo'd 'this kind of sounds like the song' approach. (I think they only mention capo'ing one song in the whole book, and I've never seen any manner of alternate tunings in it at all.) It's possible that these are all faithful to some live performance Dylan did some time, as he does have a tendency to play things differently quite often, but many of the tabs seem especially dubious.

The bottom line, if you want to buy a book to play the songs the way Dylan did in the studio recordings, or even in the more prevalent live recordings, pass on this book. Or buy a different book. Or buy the book to get help on rhythm, but consult a webpage (Eyolf Østrem has an excellent such page) for actual tunings, capo's, chords, and, well, everything else. Just don't buy the book expecting it to tell you how to faithfully play the songs, because you'll be sorely disappointed.

This is an excellent book covering all of the most popular Bob Dylan songs you are likely to play. It includes all the lyics, the cords, and tablature. The tablature also includes information on when to strum up and down, which is very good for the new guitarist who is having trouble picking up the type of strumming used on the album. I did not give it 5 stars because this type of book really should have a coil binding so it will lay flat when referring to it and playing.

The tab is aweful! You can't really even call it tab because it bears no relation to the notation. It is simply a generic pattern to strum the chords. Ridiculous. Don't be fooled.