Bob Dylan has always regarded himself as a songwriter: 'I am my words', he wrote in 1964. Distilling a lifetime's passion and study, leading Dylan author, Clinton Heylin charts the development and first moments of genius of this unique artist whose songs changed the world. From his first attempts at writing, "Song to Bridget", in 1957, (apparently for Brigitte Bardot) Bob Dylan always aspired to poetry, yet his role as a writer rather than a performer of his own songs is often overlooked. In over fifty years of creativity he had penned some of the most iconic, and perfect, songs in popular history. Arriving in New York in 1961, the city had an enormous impact on the young artist and, as he established himself amongst the folk clubs and artists, he would produce songs that spoke for a whole generation: "Blowing in the Wind", "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall", "The Times They Are a Changin", "Like a Rolling Stone", and "Forever Young". In "Revolution in the Air", Clinton Heylin recounts the story of each song as it is written, giving a full appreciation of the songs themselves as well as Dylan the emerging artist. Unlike any other book on Dylan, it charts his rise as a writer, where he gained his inspiration, the burst of energy which produced some of his most famous songs as well as the lesser known stories behind the more iconic verses. This is an essential book for anyone interested in Dylan and his place in literature. Informative, opinionated, packed with new insights and revelations, this is an instant classic. Praise for Clinton Heylin: 'The only Dylanologist worth reading' - "The New York Times'. 'Arguably the world's greatest rock biographer' - "The Irish Independent".
Revolution in the Air
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle.
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Prolific Dylanologist Heylin makes his arguably greatest contribution with a painstakingly researched consideration of every song Dylan is known to have written, some 600, all told. Drawing from manuscripts, studio logs, concert recordings, and other sources, Heylin traces Dylan’s career by listing the songs in order of writing rather than public presentation. This first of two volumes collects everything from juvenilia predating his 1961 arrival in New York to his 1974 comeback album, Planet Waves. Even songs that were never recorded or performed are noted, but the major ones receive multipage write-ups that are, in essence, insightful, revelatory mini-essays. Documenting the mercurial performer’s transitions from Guthrie-influenced folkie to raging rocker to laid-back country singer, Heylin, who appears to have heard virtually all of the concerts Dylan has performed during the past 20 years of what has come to be known as the “Neverending Tour,” reveals how vintage songs take on new meanings as they’re recast by their author on stage decades later. --Gordon Flagg
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
Review
"The only Dylanologist worth reading." - The New York Times. "Arguably the world's greatest rock biographer." - The Irish Independent. "The most exhaustive, balanced and intelligent account of Dylan's accomplishments that anybody is likely to provide." - Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph. "This epic portrait could hardly be bettered." - The Independent."
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
44 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Sadly disappointing,
This review is from: Revolution in the Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan, 1957-1973 (Cappella Books) (Hardcover)
Just received this today (from amazon.de) - and I'm sadly disappointed by the pretentious and rather sloppy research.
Nothing really new here - no really new insights, but mostly a repetition of material found elsewhere already and treated in a more reliable and considerably more scholarly way in books like Michael Gray's The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia or Oliver Trager's Keys to the Rain. Add to this Heylin's rather condescending tone, everybody else's research (in his eyes) seems to be faulty and cannot be trusted - just savor this rather pompous statement: "Needless to say, the Internet has also provided endless opportunities for the unpublishable, self-appointed "expert" to pontificate on the man and his art, but I have felt little inclination to fuel their self-importance, with a citation here." (p. 451) As condescending (or outright arrogant) Heylin is in (several) statements like these throughout the book whenever other people's research/work is concerned, he obviously has no scruples whatsoever to exploit the websites of these "unpublishable" peons (in his eyes) rather extensively, presenting their findings in a way that suggests that these are his own without crediting his sources appropriately, thus rendering his book as academically rather useless, even bordering on plagiarism. A particularly blatant example is to be found on p. 136. Heylin writes that "Judy Collins, in a 1996 email regarding the two songs, confirms that 'the Seven Curses are related to Anathea'" and extensively quotes from this email, creating the impression that he had been the recipient of it, whereas he "lifted" this email (without credit to his source and proper attribution) verbatim from [...] whose webmaster (and not Heylin) had received it from Judy Collins back in 1996. It is this obvious lack of scholarly ethics (not crediting sources that one considers "below par" while at the same time using and exploiting them for one's own gain and "glory") which exposes Clinton Heylin as what he claims others to be: a basically "unpublishable" (his book is rather boring to boot), mostly self-appointed "expert". Do yourselves a favor and do not fuel Heylin's self-importance by buying this hyped and pretentious product (except for a comparison to those by Michael Gray, Oliver Trager, or Derek Barker's Bob Dylan: The Songs He Didn't Write and Todd Harvey's The Formative Dylan -- all of those present an unbiased scholarly approach devoid of the obvious hybris found throughout Heylin's book, a clear distinction between these authors' own research with properly attributed and credited citations from sources and websites consulted and not merely "exploited" without proper credit as in Heylin's case). To sum it up: Pretentious and hyped in advance but found to be scholarly totally unreliable (sources not credited properly in academic fashion). Sadly disappointing....
17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Could have used a fact checker (and an ego checker),
By
This review is from: Revolution in the Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan, 1957-1973 (Cappella Books) (Hardcover)
Clinton Heylin is notorious for editorializing in works that are supposed to be scholarly, as well as for spending a lot of time bad-mouthing everyone ELSE who writes about Dylan. Here, he's in rare form, lodging one complaint after another about Dylan critics (who are, in many cases, actually better writers AND better historians than he is). While there is some new information here that will make the book useful for Dylan fans, there is so much inaccuracy among the known facts that the new information has to be considered questionable (in particular, when he mentions whether a song was performed on the Neverending Tour, when it was first performed, or how often it was performed, the information given is often demonstratably false, despite the fact that the information is VERY easy to obtain). As usual, though, it's not the inaccuracy that makes this book hard to read, it's Heylin's usual sniveling, self-satisfied tone. The act of writing a book about someone else is, by nature, something of an unselfish act, but Heylin manages to look like an egomaniac in the process.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Academic and dull,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Revolution in the Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan, 1957-1973 (Cappella Books) (Hardcover)
Dylan certainly wrote some of the most fascinating music of our time. But Heylin's treatise is so soaked in detail about the first performances and other technicalities that there appears to be little passion for the music itself. Other reviewers take Heylin to task for being factually incorrect; I do not know enough to judge that. I take him to task for making what should be a fascinating subject very dull and academic. After reading the book, I wondered, did Heylin actually like any of these 300 songs? If he did, I sure could not tell from this book.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Inside This Book
(learn more)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Listmania!
|
|
