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86 of 95 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"no direction home," 40 years later, April 2, 2005
A whole book about one song? If there's a song that deserves it, it's Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone," but this is Greil Marcus, and there's a lot of history, social context and cultural detritus here beyond the song, no surprise. The first section of the book is on the social context into which the song was launched, the middle section is about the making of the song itself, and the last section is about its reception and effects.
I found some of Marcus's cultural commentary compelling and some not so compelling -- the highlights for me are the less disputable "facts" about the great song itself, recorded on June 15, 1965 and released on July 24, 1965. It stormed the pop charts, unprecedented for a 6-minute song, and reached #2 in the USA. What was #1, you ask? It was the Beatles' "Help!" Al Kooper's story of how he ended up playing organ is quite amusing, and Dylan's recruitment and use of Michael Bloomfield in the session is fascinating. Also superb is Marcus's account of the ensuing tour of the new electric Dylan, with the booing in the U.S. and the large-scale disruption of the U.K. concerts, some of it quite purposefully organized by the old British Communist Party, as it turns out, which controlled a network of stodgy folk clubs. "Like a Rolling Stone" was the last song every night on that tour, a perfect howl of anger for Dylan to wreak vengeance on his recalcitrant fans. (See my 9/5/04 review of the LIVE 1966 disc, the official release of the famous "Royal Albert Hall" bootleg of the Manchester concert.)
Once you realize the scope of Marcus's musings, it becomes clear that this book could have been much longer. He never devotes any attention to the fact that the song was an existentialist anthem, for instance, which might have involved analysis of the existentialists and their influence on Dylan. He doesn't have much to say about the class resentment that drives much of the song's powerful angry energy, or the vast and growing inequality in the the U.S. that might make that resentment more and more relevant at 40 years on, as the old New Deal programs are under full-scale assault by the president and congress. Dylan himself said "I was hungry, and it was your world" ("Just Like a Woman"), he also said "Papa's bankbook wasn't big enough" ("Tangled Up In Blue"), both references to the fact that he, a middle class boy, had entered a higher status world, and experienced class resentment. Much could have been made of the social context of the Vietnam War, and Dylan's refusal to address it. The turn from the left-wing politics of his folk period (for civil rights, against war) to the apolitical, surrealist stance he took in 1964-5 is never seriously tackled. Some of Marcus's musings are quite idiosyncratic -- of all the music that has followed "Like a Rolling Stone" he chooses the Village People and the Pet Shop Boys for special treatment. I would have chosen at least a thousand others first, but there you go, it's a wide world for cultural influence, and there's 40 years to work with. He mentions, and includes the entire text of, a great old early '70s comedy skit that they used to play on WXRT in Chicago with Dylan pitching a K-Tel album of Golden Protest. An Italian rap group's version of The Song from MASKED AND ANONYMOUS is analyzed at some length.
I can now easily imagine books about Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" quite different from this one. But they haven't been written. I'll close with a quote from Dylan himself from 2004:
"It's like a ghost is writing a song like that. It gives you the song, and then it goes away, it goes away."
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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The biography of a song..., June 26, 2005
Here lies a biography of a single song. Of course, not just any song, but the "how does it feeeeeel?" song that refuses to disappear since its release as a two-sided 45 in 1965. Has any other or, maybe a better question would be, can any other song receive the in-depth, subterranean, data mined, ultra-nuanced treatment that Greil Marcus gives to Bob Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone"?
That the song remains legendary no one probably doubts. That it stands as one of the greatest rock songs ever recorded may also not meet with much dissidence. But over two-hundred pages on a single song? The idea alone entices a read.
So what happens in this book? And why should anyone read it? First off, this book likely won't appeal to those who don't see a connection between popular music, popular culture, how it potentially affects our lives as consumers/listeners, and how a song can take on a life of its own (which explains the "biography" moniker - this book really tries to capture the life the song took on all by itself). Some of the claims this book makes seem a little far out. Did "Like A Rolling Stone" contain seeds for a "strange revolution"? Does the song have, for lack of a better term, a metaphysical category all of its own (as some of the descriptions and rhapsodies in this book suggest) that seems unreachable and ineffable? Those who like to put on music, dance to it, and not think about it will probably close this book quickly. In other words, it's a heady book for those who want to dig into the mystique of popular music and theorize about what makes it tick. Marcus descends to levels of granularity that don't seem possible when chatting about popular music. Some of the chapters read thickly, and, without a share of Marcus' knowledge, some of the references approach the incomprehensible.
Still, this rather short book bloats with interesting historical tidbits about Dylan, the song, the origins of the song, multifarious perspectives on the song, readings of the song's lyrics, the recording of the song, and some of its concert history. Some of these contain new information (songs in which "Rolling Stone" have appeared, the history of Highway 61 - the actual physical highway, the pop and culture scene of the early 1960s - for those of us who weren't there, at least). Others will seem very familiar to hard core Dylan fans (the 1965 Newport Folk Festival where the crowd booed Dylan, Al Kooper sneaking into the studio, the infamous "Judas!" remark). The book's epilogue contains almost a play-by-play of the recording session for the song. It reveals glimpses of how it almost got away from the group. But was take 4 an "accident" as Marcus claims?
A few things don't receive mention: Dylan included a strange and sloppy version of "Like A Rolling Stone" on the monolithic and bizarre "Self-Portrait". What was that all about? And what about Dylan's song "Highway 51 Blues" from his first album. What highway was that and can any connection be drawn from that song to the 1965 album? Also, Marcus quotes the line "Highway 61, go right past my baby's door" on page 167. This line appears in the song "Highway 51 Blues" but as "Highway 51, go right past my baby's door." Did he mix the two up or is there some assumed and implied historical knowledge in that passage?
It's hard to describe what this book offers. For one, it contains loads of philosophical speculation about the song. It also bequeaths a wealth of information on this single subject. So much so, that upon finishing it, the loads of information mingle in the brain with other facts and snippets of the song (try not singing "how does it feeeel" continuously). Is the song as significant as Marcus makes it out to be? The answer to and degree of that question depends on the person asking it. In the end, this book is not for everyone. It's a specialist's book. Those who find themselves wondering about how a song goes from studio to legend or how an artist deals or struggles with a song as it takes on legendary water will likely love every page. Those that want to dance or groove should close the book and turn on their stereos. Nonetheless, it may also shine a light on the phenomema of popular music and its mystical and capricious side. There's more to a great song than notes, after all.
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18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Overblown, September 2, 2005
I have read (elsewhere) that at the height of his reign as King of Greenwich Village in 1963-64, Bob Dylan literally couldn't order lunch without fans looking for a deeper meaning in his words. "Gimme a ham and cheese on pumpernickel, hold the mayo, please." "What does he MEAN by that?" After reading this book, I have to wonder if Greil Marcus was among those who were so obsessed.
Which is not to say I didn't like the book. Marcus' evocation of what transpired in Columbia's Studio A on June 16, 1965 is quite possibly the best account I've ever read of any recording session. He really makes a gallant effort not only to describe the atmosphere at the creation of "Like A Rolling Stone" down to its minor details, but to demonstrate how many seemingly irrelevant circumstances played as much of a part in the song's greatness as the words and chords did. I would have liked to hear more about how Al Kooper (whom Marcus interviewed extensively for the book) created his fabled organ riff out of scratch, reportedly without having ever played the instrument before; but of course that subject has been covered extensively elsewhere.
Marcus' analysis of the music as well as the words is also impressive, although sometimes he necessarily resorts to "it's just brilliant because it is." In discussing the gunshot-like drumbeat that opens the song, he acknowledges that numerous other songs have used the same effect (notably The Beatles' "Any Time at All," which preceded "Like A Rolling Stone" by almost a year, and Dylan's own "From a Buick 6"), but concludes, "I am sticking to my guns. There is nothing like it." I agree, and I must admit I couldn't explain why any better than Marcus does.
The problem is, none of this occurs until about 80 pages into the book. Before that point, there are some interesting thoughts on earlier works like "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream;" but you also have to slog through a chapter length recount of Dylan's movie, "Masked and Anonymous," which is unnecessary if you've seen the movie and impenetrable if you haven't. His setting of the stage for the music world that "Like A Rolling Stone" changed is also less than convincing. Yes, as he notes, the top 40 in the spring of 1965 had its share of inanities from the likes of Herman's Hermits and Gary Lewis and the Playboys. But every era in music history has produced some wonderful songs and some terrible ones, and there's nothing unusual about the latter being the bigger hits. (If anything, the `60s probably had the lowest rate of that unfortunate phenomenon in rock history.) "Like A Rolling Stone" was magnificent, but it wasn't nearly that earth-shattering.
The book rambles on for about 50 pages after the story behind the song, but what follows is more worthy than what came before. His account of Dylan's 1965-66 tour is quite good, and if he sheds no new light on the "Did they boo him at Newport?" controversy, he also doesn't repeat any of the many discredited rumors about that fateful performance. His analysis of "Desolation Row" is also terrific, if not really relevant to the book's official subject.
It's worth reading, but be prepared to want to yell "A sandwich is just a sandwich, Mr. Marcus!" on occasion.
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