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Dylan's Visions of Sin

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Bob Dylan changed music (and the art of songwriting) forever in the 1960s. His continuing popularity is a testament both to the timelessness of his art, as well as to his uncanny ability to remake himself and his music, year after year. Dubbed the "poet laureate of rock-n-roll," Dylan's work has received more serious academic attention than any other folk/folk-rock musician out there, and for very good reason. Now comes Christopher Ricks, a well-known poetry scholar, to compare Dylan to some of the greatest poets ever: Wordsworth, Donne, Tennyson. The result is fascinating. I find it hard to believe that anyone could read this book and walk away from it without a renewed admiration for Bob Dylan and his music.

The book's structure has Ricks analyzing Dylan's songs according to the seven deadly sins, the four virtues and the three graces. This somewhat arbitrary classification feels sometimes strained, as Ricks struggles to pigeon-hole songs into one category or another. But far more fascinating than this academic chore is Ricks' exploration of the deep poetic and Biblical roots of some of Dylan's most popular tunes. With obvious love for his subject (and subject matter), Ricks shows, time and again, how Dylan makes use of the Great Poets in fashioning his unique and often haunted lyrics. Revealed is a musician who is not only a poet in his own right, but a well-read and thoughtful writer, who somehow accomplished the impossible: fashioning intelligent, thought-provoking music for a world obsessed with vapid vocals and meaningless "pop" standards.

Two minor flaws with the book. First: Ricks neglects a number of Bob's best songs--songs with fantastic lyrics and rhyme, songs that would seem to fit into his sin/virtue/grace framework perfectly (i.e., "Visions of Johanna," "Where Are You Tonight?", "Foot of Pride," "Black Diamond Bay," "Jokerman"). Of course, with over 500 songs to choose from, I suppose it's inevitable that some will be neglected. Still...

Second: Ricks is a fan of wordplay. Every page of the book is pregnant with puns, to the point where it becomes annoying. Too often, one is distracted from Dylan's brilliance by Ricks' literary showboating. Clearly a follower of the Vladimir Nabokov School of Alliterative Prose, Ricks struggles mightily for the appearance of cleverness, but his textual twists and turns frequently fall flat.

All in all, however, a wonderful (and serious) analysis of our greatest poet/songwriter, by a well-respected scholar. May Ricks' book be a launching pad for further serious studies of Dylan's work.

You'll be a little jealous, of course, wishing you had the literary storehouse of information and insight that Christopher Ricks has at his disposal from which to gather literary parallels, borrowings, and coincidences. I have never been more impressed by ANY book of criticism written about a modern writer or musician. To be honest, I have not yet finished "Dylan's Visions of Sin," but I couldn't wait to comment here after reading the detailed comparison of "Not Dark Yet" and Ode to a Nightingale (yes, KEATS' Ode to a Nightingale) on pages 359-374. Sound ridiculous? It won't after you've spent the first 350 pages getting to this tour de force reading of a deceptively simple song from Time Out of Mind. But not only is the close reading of these lyrics/poems (the distinction won't matter after awhile in the author's pleasant company) impressive, but this is also a very funny and very warm book. There's nothing cold or academic about it. And there's no psychobiography, or any biography at all. This is Bob Dylan stripped to his most essential gift, his words. It's an absolute joy to read and I recommend it unreservedly, even to those of you (or especially to those of you) who may have been put off by the singer's voice, or his associations with Christianity, Victoria's Secret, and the Traveling Wilburys. I'm finding myself pulling out all my old LPs, even the scratchy bootlegs in their plain white sleeves, and listening to them with brand new ears.

Christopher Ricks is very well known for taking Dylan seriously as a poet and this is the long awaited product of many years of reflection. The basic idea of dealing with Dylan's corpus in terms of sins, virtues and graces is imaginative and promises a well structured and coherent work. Ricks' approach is clever and almost obsessive in searching for hidden meanings. It is the sort of obsession that Dylan himself finds futile and at which he frequently gets angry in interviews. There is great emphasis upon word-play and word association, and a great deal of reference to what a particular line in a song reminds the writer of in a poet like Shelley or Wordsworth. His approach, while very like that of Gray's, is much more sophisticated, but nevertheless slightly irritating at times because it says more about the cleverness of the author than it does about the subject of the book. The interpretations are idiosyncratic and largely imaginery, but nevertheless executed with grace and charm. I found Dylan and Cohen: Poets of Rock and Roll very clear in its criticism of this type of approach, which I think the author of it calls the concordance approach to literary criticism. Boucher explains why you just don't ask of some songs what they mean, such as Losing my Religion by REM or Whiter Shade of Pale by Procul Harem, you just 'delight' in the images. Nevertheless Ricks' book is a must for Dylan fans and well worth reading.

As a die-hard Dylan fan, I tend to try and get my hands on new stuff as soon as it appears. As a lover of English lit. I thought this book would be right up my alley. And it is...sort of. The content is solid, an interesting take, even if I disagree with Prof. Ricks that the concept of sin is the best way to "get hold of the bundle" of Dylan's songs. The book is an interesting read nonetheless, although of course what we have here is Chris Ricks' vision of Dylan's vision of sin, and the seven deadly sin grid we have here, while interesting, reveals little of Dylan's vision of sin. The biggest qualm I have with the book is Ricks' language. As if to prove he knows all the songs, even though many seemingly appropriate ones are omitted, he frequently includes song titles in descriptive sentences about other songs. The language is all too frequently all too clever and obfuscates rather than illuminates the point being made. The book would be much more enjoyable were it written in a more straightforward manner. The good Dr. covers interesting territory with a wealth of background knowledge, especially revealing are the connections to Keats and Melville...yet you can open up to almost any page and cringe at the unnecessarily "clever" passages and excessive parenthetical asides (and no, I am not wearing Boots of Spanish Leather as I write this review). See what I mean? Annoying. Sooo, thanks Christopher Ricks...buuuut...

Christopher Ricks' enthusiam for Dylan and the English language mirrors Dylan's enthusiasm for his music. Other reviewers have complained about Ricks' punny style getting in the way of the reading. All it showed me was that he was having a good time writing about his subject. Reading the book brought me back to the Dylan songbook and I found myself wishing that Ricks had covered this song or that song along with the many ones he did analyze. If you don't know or don't care about a particular song, or find yourself getting bogged down, you can always skip the discussion of that one and start again somewhere else in the book. I found myself not agreeing with every one of his interpretations, but what the heck, isn't that what the interpretation of complex work is all about? I liked the book and am more likely to pick up a copy of "Chronicles", because of it.

****1/2*

This book forms a kind of other bookend for Greil Marcus's matchless "Invisible Republic". That deeply perceptive study placed Dylan's work in the myth and paradox laden context of American folk and country and blues, especially its most obscure corners. This one looks at its literary context, noting echoes of Blake and Keats and the rest. And most of those echoes are really there.

Better yet, it examines Dylan's entire body of work as poetry. And it does that out of the most worthwhile tradition of poetic criticism, the "close reading" of Helen Vendler and others. What close readings do is to take each poem entirely on its own internal terms, without getting bogged down in biography and gossip and the psychosocial picking-apart of presumed ideologies which constitutes the Higher Gossip of much of academe. It looks at the poem line by line, word by word, asks how the words and images connect to other words and images within the same work, why the poet made the choices (s)he made, and by what technical means the poem acheives its effects on the reader.

That may sound dry, but it's the liveliest way of approaching a poem, because it assumes the poem is alive in its own right, and doesn't need extraneous issues dragged into it to bring it to life. In this spirit, Ricks examines songs from every stage of Dylan's career, always assuming the songwriter, consciously or by instinct, knew what he was doing.

Ricks has a habit of free-associating on particular snippets from the songs, in pyrotechnic wordplay aimed at divining what Dylan's own associations may have or must have been. It's annoying, but it also seems to be inseparable from his method of taking a loose step back from the lyrics in order to find tight connections that really do lie in their heart.

The results are worth that cost. The method foreordains that he will find genius in every piece he looks at, so that he seems to give the same weight to minor works like "If Not For You" and the whole Slow Train Coming period as he gives to the masterpieces. That's okay; much of the minor work deserved some of that rehabilitation. When it comes to the big stuff, his insights are deep and dead on. You'll never listen to "Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" again without being aware of how Bob used feminine half-rhymes to create its sense of sober understatement, nor fail to hear in "Lay Down Your Weary Tune" its yearning for humility as a refuge.

After the songs themselves, Marcus, Chronicles Volume I, and Scorsese's "No Direction Home" are the core necessities for the Zimmerman collection. Ricks is a good bet for the next acquisition after those.

Do not get this book if you want to read about Bob Dylan the musician.

DO get this book if you love ananlyzing literature and want to read literary criticism by one of the best, Christopher Ricks. His analysis of Dylan's lyrics is witty and insightful. It really is very funny at times but is definately grounded in his expertise of analyzing poetry.

It is amazing to see how varied Dylan's influences are (from the Bible and the book of virtues to nursery rhymes and wallace stevens...) I enjoyed it tremendously but admit it's not for everyone.

"Dylan's Visions of Sin" by Christopher Ricks is a thick tome of 500 words. OK so "Sin" on the title page was attractive. So was the author's pedigree: he was the editor of the "Oxford Book of English Verse" a book I have owned since university and a professor at Oxford University. People steal my OBEV and I buy another. He has also written on some of my fave poets like T S Elliot, Keats, Tennyson, and A E Houseman. Why is he writing about Bob Dylan?

Let's get past the canard that you like his songs but he can't sing, or you like his singing but his looks stink, or he isn't a poet, etc. ad nauseum. Bob Dylan is the single most influential singer/songwriter to hit this planet ever. He copied everyone before him and added to it his own genius. What kind of a genius steals from the Bible, Shakespeare, Milton and TS Elliot with impunity?

Without Dylan there would be no Bruce Springsteen (a pale imitation), John Prine, Neil Young, no anybody who is doing what music is about today - relevant songs that the singer wrote himself. When I listen to his progeny it's painfully clear they think Dylan authorized guitar accompanied introspection. Most of their lyrics are mundane, prosaic, and forgettable.

He has written 500 plus songs over 5 decades many of which define how we have felt along the way. If you want to see an artist in the middle of self-recreation, check out one of his concerts. It's like Picasso re-painting his paintings over and over.

OK so what about the book? Ricks is a proponent of the "close reading" of poetry. How close? Very close - you will go on wonderful trips where he compares "Not Dark Yet" from "Time Out of Mind" to Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale" line for line. After you digest that he points out how Keats was inspired by Shakespeare's "Sonnet 73." I would love to have his grasp of poetry and literature for he also brings in Becket and others. Word for word, line by line he draws out the beauty and significance of Dylan's work.

The popular press and pundits are constantly judging Dylan: such is the lot of an artist. It reminds me of the people who critiqued Van Gogh (too much yellow and blue) or Gauguin (who are those naked natives). You can tell Ricks is impressed by Dylan during every period of his artistic career.

Ricks makes you appreciate Dylan, even in his missteps, as the great artist he is.

This book is not an easy read. I guarantee if you like poetry, are a poet, or songwriter it will make interest you. My songwriting has improved from a single read. I've got to read it, no study it song by song, instead of trying read to get to the end.

There are other scholarly books on Bob Dylan: this one is my favourite for its emphasis of poetry and song structure independent of the music. Next: "Song and Dance Man" by Michael Gray.

Ricks' tome is like the curate's egg: good in parts.

At times it is superb - as in the discussion of The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll. At others it is remarkably blind to the real tone of the songs - for example, in its abject failure to see that Most of the Time is a classic portrayal of 'I get along without you very well' attempts at self-delusion.

Much too often the author is self-indulgent; and his obsession with [often self-focussed] punning is almost too irritating for words. For all Ricks' close-reading skills and his awesome knowledge of literature, the book frequently fails to convince in its connections. Where two writers both resort to common-usage terms or forms of words it surely need not mean the latter user is necessarily quoting, referring or alluding to the former. Ricks does not seem to acknowledge that ideas and phrases pass down through many hands. Latter-day useage is just as likely to reflect the 55th user as the original [if original use can ever be determined]. Ricks over-eggs the pudding. As Dylan correctly said of Greil Marcus, he 'over-intellectualises'.

Above all, Rick's study is diminished by its clear lack of musical context. This is a shortcoming made all the more significant by the subject's immense skills in interpretation and phrasing in performance. Primarily, it is this absence of the music that makes the book a disappointment.

If comparisons must be made, Ricks' effort does not match up to the work of Michael Gray or Paul Williams, both of whom consistently demonstrate a precise understanding of what Dylan's art form actually is: the writing and PERFORMING of wonderful songs.

Phil Teece
WANNIASSA
Australia

The first and most important thing to know about this book is that it will interest only truly hard-core Bob Dylan fans. It is not enough to have most or all of his many albums. One must also have to know his lyrics well, own many bootlegs, have attended multiple shows, and perhaps most importantly, read several other Dylan books. Others should start with a more accessible, general book like Michael Gray's The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia.

As for those who qualify, this book is certainly not for everyone but may well be nearly everything for someone. Dylan fans and critics have of course long attested that his lyrics constitute true poetry. An increasing number of literary critics and other highbrow judges have come to agree, but there are always snobs who refuse to admit the increasingly obvious. The many who are passionate about this have long desired a book about Dylan's lyrics by a mainstream literary critic to further "legitimize" Dylan the poet. Christopher Ricks - professor at Oxford and elsewhere; one of the leading critics of recent decades; author of books about the works of John Milton, John Keats, Alfred Tennyson, and other prestigious poets; and editor of the highly influential Oxford Book of English Verse among many other collections - had long seemed the ideal person to write it. His status aside, he has been a fan and expert for decades, working Dylan into numerous writings, speeches, interviews, etc. He soon promised a Dylan book, but it took about two decades to materialize.

Dylan's Visions of Sin was thus met with high expectations when it finally came in 2003. Many were overjoyed, thinking it worth the wait, but more than a few were disappointed. It is easy to see why. Ricks' distinctive style and some of his content choices mean the book is likely to provoke varying and often extreme reactions. Even true hard-cores who wanted it for years might not find it to their taste, while others may think it the definitive Dylan critical work. It has many pros and cons, and while some may think the latter predominate, the former are numerous and significant enough that all serious fans should at least give the book a try.

The book has many undeniable merits. The most obvious and perhaps biggest is Ricks' sheer critical skill. Extremely well-read and able to deftly command the most important critical tools, he is the kind of critic many writers dream of having analyze their work. His readings of various songs are fascinating for hard-cores; nearly always insightful and often simply revelatory, they add a different angle to long-held views and offer many new ones. I have studied Dylan's lyrics for years and read a great number of evaluations, but Ricks' fresh approach pointed out many things I had never seen or thought of and made me think of the songs in new ways. This is the highest praise any critic can get - the rare example that shows criticism can be truly worthwhile despite its often parasitic reputation. Even those who dislike Ricks' style must admit that some of the best critical Dylan writing is here. Ricks also avoids most of the pits into which so many Dylan critics fall. Most importantly, he is never preachy and refrains from forcing a pre-conceived ideological analysis onto Dylan's often ambiguous songs. He also knows to stay out of the often petty debates about which songs are best and Dylan's merits relative to other artists as well as squabbles over other minutia that account for such a sickeningly large percentage of Dylan writing. Finally, though Ricks uses many interview quotes and works in biography when relevant, he wisely refuses to participate in the obsession with biographical readings that Dylan has always decried. Those who have read a lot about Dylan will find all this very refreshing.

The more subjective Ricks characteristics will determine how much one likes the book. Most Dylan writing comes from the music world, but Ricks is a literary critic, which inevitably affects his writing. To a large degree, this is undeniably to the good; rather than relying on the same tired Woody Guthrie and Robert Johnson comparisons, Ricks analyzes Dylan in an essentially literary context. He cites a large number of English poets from various centuries, comparing and contrasting with Dylan. (Ironically, some may think he does not go far enough, as he relies almost entirely on the "dead white men" who have traditionally made up English literature curricula but whom it is now not politically correct to idealize. Whatever one's view, it is certainly true that Dylan's literary influences, like his musical ones, range far beyond this. Even so, it is somewhat silly to criticize Ricks for not going far enough when few have gone as far.) Many analogies are very insightful, shedding new light by focusing on neglected areas, while some seem near-random. The latter may lead the cynical to think Ricks is simply showing off, but they are clearly worth it for the rest even if so. It was high time that Dylan was put in such company, which not only opens new critical doors but also goes some way toward raising his conventional critical status. Some may wish to thank Ricks for putting Dylan there, but the fact is that Dylan puts himself there, though Ricks should be credited for noticing what so many have somehow failed to see. Ricks' use of literary terminology and techniques also makes him stand out from most Dylan writers, again opening previously undertraveled paths and giving an air of seriousness sometimes lacking in Dylan criticism. On the other hand, that he often uses these terms with little or no explanation may alienate some.

The literary angle may also disappoint for other reasons. Nearly all Dylan criticism inevitably focuses on lyrics, but Ricks is sometimes criticized for virtually ignoring the vocal, musical, and other aspects that are an integral part of Dylan. It should be emphasized that this is somewhat unfair; he often mentions the vocals and brings up music surprisingly often while giving weight to other performance aspects. Indeed, his frequent comments about the differences between reading the words on paper and hearing them sung are some of the best and most valuable parts of the book. That said, some may still think his focus too narrow.

Similarly, the book's structure, while novel, ambitious, and interesting, will inevitably split readers. Dylan's canon is so large and varied that it is almost impossible to write about it meaningfully without some kind of overarching framework. Ricks' structure - categorizing and analyzing the songs according to the seven deadly sins, four cardinal virtues, and three heavenly graces - is very relevant, and its uniqueness leads to much freshness and insight, but inherent limitations keep the book from being all it could be. Anyone familiar with Dylan will immediately see how relevant the divisions are - and not just to gospel songs -, and Ricks makes a good case for his scheme. Yet it is undeniable that much of Dylan does not fit. Ricks is the first to see this, which means he leaves many songs unmentioned - more on this later. He also struggles to fill several categories, giving up on Greed almost entirely. Perhaps more disturbingly, some of his choices - e.g., "Only a Pawn in Their Game" under Anger - are highly questionable. Most sections begin with some general comments relating the heading to Dylan's work before preceding to specific songs. They make a good case for Ricks' perspective and provide some of the most interesting material. However, some of the song-specific entries commit the sin that Edgar Allan dubbed the "Procrustean bed" - stretching a pre-conceived idea to fit ambiguous material to the extent that it can easily become all but unrecognizable and even absurd. All schemes are of course limited, and nothing but a truly comprehensive, song-by-song approach could ever even hope to do full justice to a corpus like Dylan's, but this structure's limitations sometimes become so obvious that one wishes Ricks had not restricted himself so overtly. Using multiple schemes or being fully comprehensive would of course have made the book far longer - arguably beyond manageable length -, but some would say Dylan deserves no less. Even so, the book at its best shows the idea has much merit, and we can perhaps hope for another Ricks book that looks at Dylan more broadly. The forty-page "Songs, Poems, Rhymes" section preceding the scheme is also a sort of compensation. Perhaps the best part of the book, it shows just how good Ricks can be when writing about Dylan free of thematic shackles.

Song selection is the most debatable issue and will probably be the biggest problem for many. The book is about five hundred pages and, though mentioning many songs in passing, has a close reading of only a few dozen out of Dylan's more than five hundred. Ricks of course does not claim all-inclusiveness, but it is easy to question his picks. Unavoidable subjective issues make it nearly impossible to satisfy all, but Ricks notably excludes most of Dylan's best and best known songs - most cuts on his Greatest Hits albums as well as fan favorites like "Desolation Row" and "Visions of Johanna." This is one of he main reasons the book is not for casuals, but many hard-cores will also be disappointed. Some may even see his selection as a virtue; one can legitimately argue that some songs have been discussed so often and long that little else can be said. Ricks mentions this in regard to the few famous works that he tackles, but the ease with which he disproves it makes us wish he had used more.

Relatedly, Ricks seems to go out of his proverbial way to pick obscure songs - e.g., "Clothes Line Saga" - and even further to choose some of Dylan's worst and least significant: "All the Tired Horses," "Disease of Conceit," etc. Again, some may find this refreshing, especially those who think such works are overlooked. I agree to a certain extent; Ricks shines much-needed light on some unfairly neglected songs, and much of his most revelatory comments come here. His analysis of "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll," one of Dylan's best songs in many ways but not one of his most famous, is near-legendary - a great example of what he can do in this area and perhaps the best critical writing on a single Dylan song. He never quite makes an obscure work seem great but comes tantalizingly close on "Do Right to Me Baby." Indeed, much of the book's best writing, especially on overlooked songs, is for the much-derided gospel work. Ricks makes a great argument for these songs as major works, painstakingly detailing merits and clearing up many misconceptions. Perhaps most notably, content to take them on their own terms, he avoids the highly emotional, heavy-handed partisanship that almost always sinks discussion of these songs. Nearly all Dylan writers - including most of the best - could learn much from him here. This is all the more remarkable in that Ricks is an admitted atheist. He is also strong when writing about the much-maligned Under the Red Sky album. Even so, the strength and clarity with which he writes about lesser known works only makes us wish all the more that he tackled more famous ones. On the other side, Ricks also sometimes goes too far by any reasonable standard in trying to make great works out of songs that do not even pretend to greatness; his "Lay Lady Lay" entry is particularly overreaching. Unconventionality saves him from the dreaded pretentiousness charge, but one does with he had more restraint at times.

Finally, we come to the most subjective element of all - Ricks' writing style, a curious and unique mix of literary formalism and a sort of high-brow silliness. Ricks delights in wordplay, puns, self-deprecating jokes, and plays on song titles and other Dylan minutia. Readers will probably find this either unexpectedly hilarious or tediously annoying and distracting. I was amused by quite a few of these instances, especially early on, but soon found them tiresome; well before book's end I wished they would cease, though I was still occasionally amused. Some may think they add liveliness and variety, and they certainly keep the book from being dry or overly academic, which might pacify some who know Ricks' pedigree. However, they also make the book longer than it had to be and arguably distract from the real purpose. Even most of those annoyed by this will be able to overlook it, but Ricks hammers so hard that it might even come close to ruining the book for a few readers.

All serious fans should give this book a try because of its undeniably invaluable material, and those whose taste it suits may even be enthralled. A good number may not be able to finish - or may even throw the book away in disgust -, but its nature is such that all must find out for themselves.