Customer Reviews

The Songs He Didn't Write: Bob Dylan Under the Influence

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I've overdosed on Bob Dylan books (have read over 50 of them) to the point where I haven't read one in a couple years. Most discuss interpretations of Dylan's songs from the author's viewpoint (no better than yours when it comes to Dylan), others rehash biographical information that's been around for years. So I almost passed on this excellent book by Derek Barker; I sure am glad I didn't. What pushed me into buying it that I have a great interest in Bob's live performances of traditional and folk covers that he did in the late 80's and early 90's, like the songs from "Good As I Been To You" and "World Gone Wrong", but not limited to just those on the albums. In what is arguably the nadir of Dylan's live shows (where he often butchered his own songs) he would throw in these amazing chestnuts like "Lakes Of Pontchartrain", "Trail Of The Buffalo", "Eileen Aroon", "Barbara Allen" and many others. Many of these covers were only performed once or a few times. If you listen to the live recordings from this half decade you can find this gold amid much other dross. What this book did for me is illuminate the history of all these songs, and every other cover song Dylan recorded or played live. It tells who wrote the original song, where Bob probably heard them and when he played the song live (or at least the first and most recent time). For the hardcore fan this is completely fascinating. It had me pulling out my spindles of live cd's hoping that I had some of these recordings. Quite a lot of us like Dylan for his voice, not in spite of it. Bob Dylan is a great singer and, amazingly enough, these non-Dylan songs are a big part of Bob's legacy. The work in this book is meticulous and obviously a labor of love. It covers almost 50 years! Only someone who has lived and breathed Bob Dylan for decades would care or dare to take on this project and Derek Barker does it admirably.

A big part of Dylan's unprecedented allure, beyond his own extraordinary songwriting ability and mesmerizing concert performances, is his gift for uniquely covering hundreds of songs by other talented singers and songwriters, both known and unknown. Until now our knowledge of those songs, their creators, their antecedents and what Dylan did with them was a hodgepodge of missing information, misinformation, mangled information and guesswork. Derek Barker, in this wonderfully written, extraordinarily entertaining and thoroughly informative book, has righted all those wrongs. Thank heavens! The book is structured well, is fun and easy to read, plus, it answers all the questions even the most devote Dylan fan needs answered. I use it as a reference guide for my Dylan class as well as on my Dylan radio show when anyone wants to know whether Bob's covered a song or not, when he covered it, how often and, more importantly, what did he or did not add to it. Complete your Dylan library, buy and love this book, just as I do.