Buy used: $16.21

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery Thursday, February 23 if you spend $25 on items shipped by Amazon

Select delivery location

Used: Good | Details

Sold by CatalinaDistributors

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 7 images

Follow the Authors

Philippe Margotin

Jean-Michel Guesdon

Bob Dylan: All the Songs - the Story Behind Every Track Hardcover – October 27, 2015

by Philippe Margotin (Author), Jean-Michel Guesdon (Author)

849 ratings

Part of: All the Songs (5 books)

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$4.99

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$33.99

$20.00

Hardcover, October 27, 2015

$16.21

$65.99

$6.59

Kindle
$4.99 Read with Our Free App
Hardcover
$16.21

41 Used from $6.59 3 New from $65.99 2 Collectible from $45.99

Great on Kindle

Great Experience. Great Value.

Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book. Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.

View Kindle Edition

An updated edition of the most comprehensive account of Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize-winning work yet published, with the full story of every recording session, every album, and every single released during his nearly 60-year career.

Bob Dylan: All the Songs focuses on Dylan's creative process and his organic, unencumbered style of recording. It is the only book to tell the stories, many unfamiliar even to his most fervent fans, behind the more than 500 songs he has released over the span of his career. Organized chronologically by album, Margotin and Guesdon detail the origins of his melodies and lyrics, his process in the recording studio, the instruments he used, and the contribution of a myriad of musicians and producers to his canon.

Part of series

All the Songs
Print length

704 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Black Dog & Leventhal
Publication date

October 27, 2015
Dimensions

8.5 x 2.25 x 11 inches
ISBN-10

9781579129859
ISBN-13

978-1579129859
See all details

Bob Dylan
870
Hardcover
in Music Appreciation
77 offers from $16.00
Bob Dylan
684
Hardcover
49 offers from $32.00
Bob Dylan
1,954
Paperback
206 offers from $1.49
Greil Marcus
87
Hardcover
57 offers from $15.68
Jean-Michel Guesdon
1,091
Hardcover
70 offers from $8.88
Robert Shelton
101
Hardcover
18 offers from $10.00

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This tome is work of art and a labor of love covering nearly all of Bob Dylan's studio songs (originals and covers), a total of 492, from the early 1960s through 2015... Beautifully illustrated with many rare and familiar photos, the book concludes with a brief glossary of musical terms and densely packed index...VERDICT: A Dylan fan could live inside this book for weeks. Hard-core enthusiasts will be enthralled by the details of the many outtakes."―Library Journal

"Meticulously researched"―Buzzfeed

"A must for Dylan fans and those who enjoy folk music."―Booklist

"...hardcore aficionados from the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol will be thrilled with its scope and intricacy."
―Miami Herald

"No self-respecting Dylan fan will want to miss Bob Dylan All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track by Jean-Michel Guesdon and Philippe Margotin....a must-read for trivia buffs."―Acoustic Guitar

"...perhaps the most impressive book on the man ever produced..."―Houston Press

"...the single most exhaustive, detailed, and complete account of every song Dylan ever wrote or recorded through 2015, and will likely be the only encyclopedic volume necessary for anyone with either the slightest interest in or full-blown obsession with Mr. Zimmerman."―JamBands.com

About the Author

Jean-Michel Guesdon, a musician, composer, and sound engineer, who has written withe Philippe Margotin All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release and Bob Dylan All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track. He lives in Paris.

Philippe Margotin has written numerous books on music, including biographies of U2 and Radiohead, as well as All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release and Bob Dylan All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track. He lives in Paris.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1579129854
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Black Dog & Leventhal; 1st Edition (October 27, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 704 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781579129859
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1579129859
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.62 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.5 x 2.25 x 11 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #714,949 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #325 in Folk & Traditional Music (Books)
- #684 in Music Reference (Books)
- #2,394 in Rock Music (Books)

Customer Reviews:
849 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Philippe Margotin
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
See more on the author's page
Jean-Michel Guesdon
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
See more on the author's page

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5

849 global ratings

5 star		84%
4 star		7%
3 star		4%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Reviews with images

See all customer images

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

An Encyclopedia of The Nobel Winner's Work

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 13, 2022

Verified Purchase

The first Bob Dylan songs I remember hearing are "Blowin in the Wind" and "Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man," and they both became for me anthems of the Anti-War Movement of the Sixties, when thousands of young people mobilized against the war in Viet Nam. Now, nearly 60 years later, they and others of Dylan's songs resonate within me, as though my soul is partly composed of their music and poetry. True, there were other great bands and other great songwriters around, and many of them could sing, as Dylan couldn't. But his music was greater than his singing voice, though that raspy, hoarse sound has become entwined in the remembrance of the songs. Sung by anyone else they don't feel the same.
To have this book and understand where those lyrics came from and how they were made is for me an answer to a prayer I didn't know I made.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

BallaghMan

A bit of hard work

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 19, 2022

Verified Purchase

This is probably for hard-core, Dylan fans, and it’s not an easy read. More of the browse pick up leave down kind of book. I found it best to read the relevant album section as you’re listening at the same time. Then it’s interesting.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Kirk McElhearn

A fun look at all the songs

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 3, 2015

Verified Purchase

There are lots of books about Bob Dylan. Some of them are interesting, some are simply ways to make some cash. Since Dylan has such a devoted following, books about the singer tend to sell quite well. There have been a number of new books about Dylan in the past couple of years, ranging from biographies to a book about Dylan fans; from his complete lyrics, to sketchy collections of criticism of his work.

Just in time for Christmas comes Bob Dylan: All the Songs (Amazon.com, Amazon UK). Written by French journalist Philippe Margotin and musician and engineer Jean-Michel Guesdon, this book follows the duo’s All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release. In this book, the authors present each Dylan album, and each song it contains, discussing how the songs were recorded, when, with which musicians, and discussing, it times, lyrics, cover versions, and trivia (in “For Dylanologists” sidebars).

Dylan all the songs

It’s a light-hearted book, designed to be skimmed rather than read. You might be listening to a Dylan album and want to read up on the songs it contains; or you might want to just flip through it and look up information about your favorite songs. There are lots of pictures, and the texts are short. It’s much more interesting than the recent Dylan: Disc by Disc (Amazon.com, Amazon UK), by Jon Bream, who simply transcribes interviews with mostly C-list musicians and unknown journalists about each album. And it’s a lot less dry than Clinton Heylin’s Revolution in the Air (Amazon.com, Amazon UK) and Still on the Road (Amazon.com, Amazon UK), which present similar information in a pretty boring manner.

There’s nothing earth-shattering in this book; the “stories” behind every track don’t explain what the songs are about (as if that were possible), or try to interpret Dylan’s inspiration when he was recording them. But for Dylan fans who are curious about the creative process, it does give some insight into how the songs were recorded and how, in many cases, they changed throughout recording sessions.

If you’re a hard-core Dylan fan, you’ll want to buy this book, especially at the price at the time of this writing, around $28 or £26 (Amazon.com, Amazon UK). It won’t change the way you listen to the music, but it will provide hours of interesting reading.

56 people found this helpful

Helpful

B.A.

More Dylan in one book than you'll find anywhere

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 6, 2022

Verified Purchase

This book is 6 pounds of Dylan, which you can sift through via his Nobel Prize-winning songwriting. I recommend it for any Bob Dylan fan. I have the latest edition (at the time of this review), ISBN 9780762475735, hardbound with the yellow cover, 2021. The page edges operate as tabs for the different sections
*Be aware that some stock photos on some listings may be of the previous, orange, (also mammoth) edition.*

Helpful

Gordon

We listened, We heard, Maybe even sang along, But did we understand?

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 29, 2019

Verified Purchase

Received this book for Christmas so haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I have a similar book about the Beatles music, written by the same 2 authors, which I have thoroughly enjoyed, and learned so much about the both the men and the music. I am hopeful this book will be similarly enlightening. I was in high school and college when Dylan became popular, and we listened to his music on the radio, and on our portable turntables in our dorm rooms. It was enormously popular and was prominent in the shift of subject matter in popular music from love and relationship themed songs of the 50's and early 60's, to politically themed music of the late 60's and early 70's. Music of protest, the Viet Nam war, civil rights, corporate America, etc. We knew the music, but didn't always understand the lyrics, which often times skipped at breakneck speed from one subject to another. You couldn't keep up. I am looking forward to being able to read about these songs, at my own speed, and finally get a thorough understanding of them.
About the non-Amazon seller from which the book was purchased through Amazon, the book was ordered on 12/11 and received on 12/19. The book was in pristine condition.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Scott Reed

Fan Boy Musings and Apologetics

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 2, 2023

Verified Purchase

A parade of praise for Dylan's actually rudimentary musical skills on the early, solo albums, and repeated excuses for why his plagiarisms were okay because they say he created original works from them. One can hope the book gets better once it begins to discuss when Bob Dylan really began to become a great artist, Bringing It All Back Home, where he began to surround himself with excellent musicians, wrote better lyrics, sang better, and really started to play the music he wanted to do. At less than five dollars, the Kindle version of this book is probably worth the price, but if I had purchase the more expensive hard back version, I would be seriously disappointed.

Helpful

Steve Moeller

I have over 100 albums including bootlegs'

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 1, 2022

Verified Purchase

I look forward to matching what I have to the book.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

The Viscount

Magnificent must-have volume for anyone seriously interested in Bob Dylan

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 27, 2018

Verified Purchase

This is a review of 'All The Songs' by Margotin and Guesdon and is subtitled 'The Story Behind Every Track' and is not a book of Dylan's lyrics to which reviews of this book sometimes seem to be attached in Amazon.

This book is a mighty tome - almost A4 format, 2.5 inches/ 6cm thick, running to around 700 pages. It covers every track on every one of Dylan's 36 studio albums from 'Bob Dylan' to 'Shadows in the Night'. There is one chapter per album. Each starts with a description of the album, the context of Dylans' life in which it was made, how, where and when it was recorded, details of the recording equipment used (especially on the earlier albums), the specific instruments played by Dylan (where known) interesting biogs of the producers, their relationship with Dylan, description of all the artwork on the album cover and sleeves. In all but a few cases, the album artwork itself is not reproduced, but the book is well illustrated with many photos of Dylan and the numerous other musicians he worked with, often taken in recording studios. There then follows a section on each track on the album, giving some context to world events, events in Dylan's life and relationships that were relevant at the time and notes on the production itself. Except for occasional snippets, the lyrics themselves are not reproduced. In addition, there are occasional call outs boxes for 'Dyalanologists' containing a short paragraph with additional details, some of which are more relevant than others, boxes titled 'In your headphones' with comments such as ' A noise in the studio can be heard at 2.10' The most interesting of these points out that the sound of Dylan's jacket sleeve buttons can be heard repeatedly clicking against his guitar, most notably in sessions for Blood on the Tracks. As well as all the tracks recorded for each album, those tracks that were not eventually used on the album but which can be heard on the many 'Bootleg' albums are also described.

For me, having come to Dylan relatively late in both our lives, this book is a revelation. I had not been enthused by much of his earliest works, but reading about each track as I listened to them, opened up a whole new dimension to me, and understanding the context of the times and Dylan's life has increased my appreciation exponentially!

What do we learn of Dylan himself form this book? Clearly, a towering genius poet and musician who has been pretty much at the top of his game for more than 50 years. In fact, and especially, considering that his singing voice isn't his strongest attribute, the longevity of his success is all the more remarkable.
As a person? Well, to me, it seems he may not be the most approachable of individuals. He appears not to have formed many really long-term musical relationships - numerous musicians and producers have come and gone. To be fair, he has outlived many of them! Also, I get the impression he is not that approachable even to people working closely with him at the time. He didn't join the tribute 'Concert for George' in 2002 which, on the surface, seems unforgivable. The oft quoted occasion where he kept his musicians waiting for 10 hours until 4am whilst he completed the lyrics to 'Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands' and than failed to disclose to them the number of verses before they started recording is indicative to me of his distance.

Back to the book - if you're interested in gaining more understanding of his work, get this book. Don't forget to strengthen your bookshelf first!

32 people found this helpful

LJBentley

Perfect for a true fan

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 25, 2020

Verified Purchase

Admittedly, I am a fair-weather fan of Bob Dylan. I like some of his songs and I like the history of the time he was making music so I thought I would read up on him to find out a bit more. I probably chose the wrong book.

Don’t get me wrong, All the Songs is a fascinating read but it is definitely for the hardcore Dylan fan. It is for the fan who loves the nuances of his songs. One who can recognise if he is playing his harmonica in a different key or has questioned whether or not there was a someone coughing in the track (believe me, that information is in the book).

I can honestly say I feel more prepared for a question to come up in a quiz about Dylan and further to that, my ability to give a decent shot at answering it. However, if I had known just how detailed this book was going to be I may not have picked it up. If you are a die-hard fan then this needs to be in your collection. If you just like certain songs then maybe just pick it up now and again or just read the information you want to know.

Bob Dylan – All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track by Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon is available now.

10 people found this helpful

stoopid shopper

Definitely not the definitive lush coffee table book i was hoping for

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 14, 2022

Verified Purchase

I was excited to see this on amazon and bought it quickly, hoping for a large definitive book of Bob's work and some lovely photography too. Instead this thing arrived in the mail.

I'll start by finding a couple of positives... Well, its nice to see the mechanics of the songs in this book, the key of the songs and harmonicas etc (i play a bit of blues harp and it helps).
The other positive is it looks impressive on the bookshelf too. If thats a selling point?

why i'm annoyed i spent 40 quid on this....For a kick off this thing is WAY TOO HEAVY to read comfortably. I tried. its impossible to hold upright for any length of time. Or put on your lap either. I tried. It must be about 8 kilos or something. Ridiculous. The heaviest book i've ever held in fact. That weight also means its not worth selling or sending in the mail so it sits there uselessly on the bookshelf instead. Why is it so big? It could have been printed half the size and a fraction of the weight because the text barely covers 30 % of the pages. What a waste of paper and resources. Photo quality is very poor and the writing takes up no space at all. It looks messy. Poor design and desktop publishing let this down as soon as i opened it. it feels all very amateur and self published. It should have been a regular size paperback and thus cheaper.

As for the text itself well.....I didn't learn anything new really and even the photos don't make up for the patchy text and typos. the explanations of the songs are either half decent (if its the sixties), so inaccurate as to be laughable, or just brushed aside with 2 or 3 sentences for everything after 1980. Not much research has gone into this it feels. It's all very uneven, some song write-ups are well done and accurate, others are barely mentioned or not even there. Pretty much all The Basement Tapes being a good example.

It feels very incomplete and adds nothing to the huge amount of Bob books out there already. A far superior alternative would be the two books by Clinton Heylin about his songs, Revolution in the Air and Still on the Road. This book adds nothing to that which has already been done and done way better years ago. Hopefully Mr Heylin can update that soon to go past 2008.

One person found this helpful

Hawkfiend

Comprehensive (ish)

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 23, 2021

Verified Purchase

As previous reviewers have stated this does not contain the lyrics - although this wasn't a problem for me as I read the product description and already have the officially released lyric book. It is certainly a big (weighty) book - unfortunately emphasised by the fact that two thirds of the way through the glue binding on the spine started giving way!! It has been a really interesting exercise to listen to all of the great mans albums chronologically whilst tracking them with the book, interesting to see who played on the albums, where they were recorded, who produced them etc. However I completely agree with previous reviewers that some of the interpretations of his lyrics are quite frankly laughable and would appear in some case almost desperate. I feel I must also state the ludicrous 'coincidence' that Dylan played in the city where J. Lennon was shot days later and that the events may have been linked was quite frankly ....... ludicrous - in all an OK book - managed to get it cheap and I certainly got my moneys' worth - Love & Peace JC

3 people found this helpful

John David Charles Hilton

just like it says on the cover

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 20, 2018

Verified Purchase

A fascinating and obsessively detailed look at all of Dylan's songs, just like it says on the cover.
I like the writing style. There is little discussion of the songs' meanings, but such discussion doesn't tend to be very helpful since songs aren't text books. They mean whatever the listener wants them to mean. There is plenty of discussion of how the songs and, more importantly the records, came into being and what has happened to them since and I found this all very interesting.
In many ways this is one of those books that makes most sense in electronic form. The hardback version looks very impressive, but it is too big and cumbersome to read properly and costs a lot of money.

5 people found this helpful

See all reviews

Follow the Authors

Bob Dylan: All the Songs - the Story Behind Every Track Hardcover – October 27, 2015

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Videos

About the authors

Philippe Margotin

Jean-Michel Guesdon

Customer reviews

Reviews with images

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries