Customer Reviews

A Darker Shade of Pale: A Backdrop to Bob Dylan

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A Darker Shade of Pale is a very good book for anyone who likes Bob Dylan or is interested in early influences on modern music. The book deals with many aspects, especially influences on Dylan. It tells about people such as Blind Lemon Johnson, who were essential to Dylan's music. It also gives a sort of history of Dylan's life, from his humble beginnings near Hibbing, Minnesota up to his stardom at the time of the books publishing. The only potential problem with the book is that it isn't the easiest read. Many younger readers will be certain to have problems with the books content, and may even stop reading it. Older readers, especially Dylan fans, will probably enjoy the book much more. On a positive note, unlike most books about music stars, this book lacks the fluff. It tells the story how it was, no holds barred.

The books out on rock stars like Jim Morrison in No One Here Gets Out Alive by Jerry Hopkins, Bob Marley in Catch A Fire by Timothy White or Kurt Kobain in Come As You Are by Michael Azerrad are each great books - but they each lack a deeper look into the musical traditions just ahead of the musicians rise to popular and critical success. It is their only failing because each one is an excellent and definitive record of the men behind the music.

In 1984, music history professor Wilifrid Mellers wrote A Darker Shade of Pale. His book sets the standard for critical analysis of popular music. He looks at very specific artists like Roscoe Holcomb (banjo, guitarist, singer of Daisy, Kentucky), musical traditions from the Appalachians and a unwavering look at the musical record of strife, struggle and suffering in white and black people in rural America. These factors shaped the nomadic trials and spiritual search of a humble, wry Bob Zimmerman as he journeyed into the cold "steel canyons" of NYC.

In 20 years of reading about rock history, I have to give this book the highest of all possible marks. This in an Oxford release and you will need a dictionary but is accompanied by a great deal of rare photos and accessible insight.