Amazon.com: Legendary Sessions: Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited: Colin Irwin: Books

Product Description

This breakthrough series looks at great music from a unique vantage point. By considering the recording session itself, rather than the final album, Legendary Sessions showcases the creative process and all the elements that go into making music that reflected its time, commented on our society, and influenced our culture.

How did these epoch-making sessions come about? What influenced the artists? What was it like to be there as the recording was made? Written by top entertainment journalists, Legendary Sessions answers those questions with an involving you-are-there style. What impact did the recording have? Who listened to it? Who imitated it? Who was inspired by it? Legendary Sessions looks at those questions, too, with groundbreaking interviews, eyewitness accounts, and contemporary commentary.

Innovative and intriguing, Legendary Sessions is sure to change the way music fans listen to the great recordings of our time.

In the midst of the backlash following his electric performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, Bob Dylan was in the studio with a shifting group of session musicians and producer Bob Johnston. The result of these sessions would be Dylan’s sixth album, Highway 61 Revisited, the classic that featured "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Desolation Row." Author Colin Irwin examines the events leading up to the sessions and how they influenced Dylan’s music; the details of the sessions and the musicians involved, the development of the songs, and the controversy surrounding Dylan’s new sound. Today it’s part of rock history. Relive those world-changing times in Legendary Sessions: Bob Dylan Highway 61 Revisited.

About the Author

Colin Irwin has been writing about music for more than 25 years. He is the author of The Name of the Game, a biography of Abba, and In Search of the Craic: A Pub Crawl Through Irish Music. He lives in London.

Product Details

Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Billboard Books; 1st edition (January 8, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0823083985
ISBN-13: 978-0823083985
Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #331,289 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category: (What's this?)
#31 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( D ) > Dylan, Bob

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	64% buy the item featured on this page: Legendary Sessions: Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited 4.2 out of 5 stars (8) $14.96
	13% buy A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties 4.3 out of 5 stars (37) $10.17
	8% buy A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the Making of Blood on the Tracks 3.5 out of 5 stars (21) $12.71
	7% buy Million Dollar Bash: Bob Dylan, The Band, and the Basement Tapes 4.1 out of 5 stars (14) $13.57

Explore similar items

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

(What's this?)

Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.

bob dylan(2)

criticism(1)

history(1)

robbie robertson(1)

rock(1)

Help others find this product — tag it for Amazon search

No one has tagged this product for Amazon search yet. Why not be the first to suggest a search for which it should appear?

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

Customer Reviews

8 Reviews

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

4.2 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Material is better than the writing, April 23, 2008

By	Kenneth J. Davis "kjdmd" (Scotch Plains, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book covers the making of Dylan's greatest album, and sheds an interesting light on the highly unorthodox way it was made. Comments from band members are included. Unfortunately, the writing doesn't measure up the content, and some of it is a slog to get through. Still interesting for the Dylan fan.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WHAT A PAGE TURNER!, March 31, 2008

By	Nadia "Nadia" - See all my reviews

This book is a must buy for dedicated Dylan fans written by a veteran writer and editor. It is an account of the sessions that produced "Highway 61 Revisted" plus a VERY good weave of related happenings, people and other vital information that all fits in very very well. This book was a page turner, and I couldn't set it down. The book is very well written and will not disappoint even the intellectuals out there. There are very good choice descriptive words and good vocabulary all in all. There are only a sprinkling of photos, among them a stunning Dan Kramer light & shade photo of Bob that highlights the top gentle curvature of his nose and high cheekbone. This photograph makes Bob look like a ancient Roman statue except for the comical part--the cigarette stuck on the side of the harmonica.

To make this book complete, I recommend the DVD "The Other Side of the Mirror" and the Bootleg Series #7 in which are some of versions of the songs described in this book, along with, of course, the CD "Highway 61 Revisited."

Just a couple of editing misses, but Great Writing and Very Well Done!!

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reviewing Bob Dylan- Highway 61 Revisitited, January 28, 2008

By	C. S. Hughes "searching Dylan" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I thought it was a great review of what happened as young Bob Dylan made his Highway 61 album. He was still so young and flying by the seat of his pants. It has the best background and explanation of the Newport Folk Festival that I have ever read and I've read a lot. The descriptions of the studio happenings and interaction with the musicians, as the album was made, with a description of what happened as each song on the album was recorded. Great book with some more inside information about what makes Dylan tick.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 8 customer reviews...

Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars British Myopia
This book has some interesting information that was new to me, but mostly details. The author pushes a kind of British left-leaning political line, and like most British Rock... Read more

Published 14 months ago by D. McGregor

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST READ
THIS IS THE 1ST DYLAN BOOK I'VE PURCHASED IN SEVERAL YEARS. WHAT CAN ANYONE TELL ME I DON'T ALREADY KNOW. WELL, SOMEONE HAS. Read more

Published 15 months ago by Mark V. Johnson

4.0 out of 5 stars What you see is what you get
This book is a straightforward story of the recording of Highway 61 Revisited in 1965. That is what it promises and that is what it delivers. Read more

Published 16 months ago by MT57

5.0 out of 5 stars Exactly what you want to know.
This book provides the details and insight into the times and making of this landmark album. It's excactly the kind of information that can satisfy the seemingly insatiable... Read more

Published 17 months ago by Ignacio Aliaga II

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't you dare miss it!!!
If you have read dozens of the books written about Dylan, or none at all for that matter, this is the one book you need to read.

Published 17 months ago by Martin Katz

› See all 8 customer reviews...

.jsOffDisplayBlock { display: block; } .jsOffDisplayInline { display: inline; } .jsOffVisibility { visibility: visible; } .jsOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jsOnDisplayNoneBlock { display: block; } .jsOnDisplayNoneInline { display: inline; } .jsOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jsOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; } .jsOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jsOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jsOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; }

Customer Discussions

Beta (What's this?)

New! See all customer communities, and bookmark your communities to keep track of them.

This product's forum (0 discussions)

	Discussion	Replies	Latest Post
	No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight

Start a new discussion

Topic:

First post:

Receive e-mail when new posts are made

Prompts for sign-in

[Cancel]

Guidelines

Active discussions in related forums

Discussion	Replies	Latest Post
rock Albums For Intelligent Introverts	1	1 minute ago
rock Album Title Tag 3	6040	3 minutes ago
history Why does Holocaust Denial Exist?	5225	7 minutes ago
history Was Hitler allies with Muslims during WWII?	159	13 minutes ago
biography Best Biography On A Musician?	124	1 hour ago
biography Judicial biographies anyone?	11	5 hours ago
bob dylan A Southernized Bob Dylan?	0	14 days ago