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Dylan on Dylan

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Much of Bob Dylan's work is mysterious, but the man lurking behind this famous alias even more so? "Dylan on Dylan" might be as close as we can get to understanding something of what makes this great artist tick, until Bob completes Chronicles, which is obstensibly his autobiography. I think it fair to say that there is a public perception of Bob Dylan as aloof, perhaps even surly at times, but this collection of interviews and some short articles should deepen our appreciation of him. At times he is outrageously funny, insightful, direct and honest. You get the sense of Bob Dylan as the self made artist, uncomfortable with the conformity of institutional learning, and who eschews the over categorizing of his work. He demonstrates a satisfaction with his accomplishments, but seems not to be preoccupied with them. He seems to have been downright uncomfortable with his fame at times, particularly the Woodstock period when so-called fans refused to respect his need for privacy. His humility is palpable throughout, and he comes across as an artist engaged in a process of continual growth and renewal. These interviews are as profoundly interesting as his catalogue of amazing music. A lot of the credit belongs, of course, to the brilliant line up of interviewers, each of whom were able to draw something special out of Bob. "Dylan on Dylan" will, I predict, become a classic of the genre.

Bob Dylan once wrote "Nothing is revealed", and he appears to try to live up to that saying in each of the interviews selected here. Actually, bits and pieces of the man, the motives, the poetry, the philosophy, and the sheer genius gradually emerge over the course of dozens of interviews given over more than 40 years.

The frustrating thing about being an admirer of Bob Dylan is that the man refuses to acknowledge his own legacy. Bob was very consistent from the beginning, stating more than once, "I just sing and play guitar". Well, that's a little bit like a prophet saying "I just give the occasional lecture". On one level, yes, Mr. Dylan is just a singer and songwriter (and some would claim he's not even really a singer). On another level, Bob has an amazing ability, or perhaps a God-given talent for taking intangible, nebulous thoughts and ideas that may exist only in a subconscious form, and putting these formless ideas into tangible words and music. Bob seems to be able to pick up something in the air, thoughts and feelings that people may not even be able to express themselves, and then he's put it all into a neat and simple package called a song.

I believe Bob Dylan puts down his own talent because he's not consciously aware of how he writes songs. (He certainly appears to be unable or unwilling to interpret the meaning of his own work.) I don't want to read too much into his lyrics, but I think that his songs will stand the test of time in 100, 200, 300 years.

I think an artist like Dylan is like Mozart - who just did what came naturally, and wasn't able to explain just how he was able to compose music that seemed to arrive straight from heaven. Like Mozart, Dylan is probably more of a messenger than a songwriter.

This book is coming from the UK and it is my understanding that it takes longer. I have yet to receive this purchase.

Bob Dylan recorded, by my count, about 400 songs from, say, 1962 to 2008. Say one in six weeks. For my taste there are about 4 types - what might be called 'tales' (various people and the Jack of Hearts etc), a few perfunctory social comment, the intimate occasions type, both unaffectionate (Thin Man) and affectionate (Lay Lady Lay), and the meaningless but effective songs (Gates of Eden -'The motorcycle black madonna/ Two-wheeled gypsy queen).

Most or all of these thirty-one interviews coincide with tours, films, records; recently Dylan had an art exhibition but this postdates the final 2004 interview. They are all very polite- nobody says he's a disappointing ghastly little man, for example, to see what happens. All the background work - agents, contracts - is missing and it's impossible to know what information has been suppressed. The largest amount of data is about other musicians - notably early influences, and then musicians who accreted to him as became or was mad famous - and studio work, which he compared to working in a coal mine. He seems very generous about influences - there's quite a huge list of people he listened to. There's also quite a bit on poetry and writers - but whether deliberately or not it's a bit of a shambles - it's hard to believe Rimbaud, Byron, Shakespeare etc has any serious effect. It seemed possible to me he might have read Dylan Thomas - 'petrol blind face to the wind', 'Bible black night' seem Bob Dylanesque. At any rate the words are the thing here and there's very little on his writing technique, if he has/had one. The impression given is he used a portable typewriter and because this is an effort left most of the words the way they emerged. He doesn't seem to have ever designed songs in the sense of selecting some emotion or reaction or outlook, and trying to embody it in works, reworking it to make it more or less subtle.

I'm sure Dylan fans will buy this book and similar ones, and they are I suppose right to do so, but the nutritional content isn't very satisfactory - whether he has unrevealed depths, or basically is just another entertainer, who knows?