{"product_id":"bob-dylan-isbn-9781685892258","title":"Bob Dylan","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn the wake of the recent hit biopic\u003ci\u003e A Complete Unknown\u003c\/i\u003e, this probing appreciation asks: Do the lyrics of Bob Dylan tell the true story of the  ever-changing, ever-radical life and career of the Nobel Prize-winning  songwriter?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn a dingy windowless bungalow on the Warner Brothers back lot in Hollywood in 1977, in the midst of what may have been the longest interview he ever gave (it stretched over ten days), a chain-smoking Bob Dylan confessed to journalist Ron Rosenbaum that he was troubled by something missing from his music. Dylan — who was editing a dramatic movie based on his life, even as his life seemed to be falling apart — told Rosenbaum there was a sound he was after that he’d only come close to on one record so far. The sound, he told Rosenbaum, was of “thin, wild mercury.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is a book that captures the elusive mercurial artist and his work in a way no other has — a vivid, compelling pursuit of Dylan, successively a hipster folkie, a Greenwich Village sparkplug of a cultural revolution, who plugged into an amplifier to drive away folkie solemnity, then became a countrified crooner, the man who, just months after Rosenbaum’s interview, became a fire-breathing, proselytizing Christian . . . before returning to being a non-religious Jew.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat was behind it all, Rosenbaum asks, and how can we understand him through his lyrics? Tracing it from Dylan’s childhood — when his father hired a Brooklyn rabbi to come to remote Minnesota to prepare his son for his bar mitzvah — through the still touring singer’s late, often inscrutable lyrics, Rosenbaum probes Dylan’s “argument with God,” his differentiation between authenticity and sincerity, and his relentless heretical stances. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOf course, complicating matters for anyone trying to trace the development of Dylan and his life’s work is Dylan’s recurrent denial of the continuity of self. (Whenever asked why he doesn’t sing the old songs the same way as on the record, Dylan typically responds with an irritated, “That’s not me.”)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRon Rosenbaum has covered Dylan for almost the entirety of his — and Dylan’s — career, starting as a Village Voice culture reporter in 1969. In this deeply personal and literary appreciation, and as Dylan continues to tour and compose new songs, still refusing to play old songs the old way, Rosenbaum offers a moving and involving portrait of an icon who may have been more constant than it appeared after all.\"A powerful and unorthodox view of Bob Dylan and his songwriting—certainly one I’ve never encountered in any other writer’s thoughts about Dylan, and I’ve read tons of them. It surprises and rewards the reader on every page.\" \u003cb\u003e—Mikal Gilmore, \u003ci\u003eRolling Stone \u003c\/i\u003ejournalist and author, \u003ci\u003eNight Beat: A Shadow History of Rock and Roll\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"Dylan presents questions that may not have answers, but it is a joy to read Rosenbaum think them through.\" \u003cb\u003e— Robert Levine,\u003ci\u003e Billboard\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"An essential, contrarian volume that offers rare insights and rewarding perspectives... it’s a pleasure to encounter a mind as brilliant and unpredictable as its subject.” \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e— Kirkus Reviews\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"In his obsessive effort to understand his subject, Rosenbaum vividly—if sometimes eccentrically—succeeds in capturing what it means to be a Dylan devotee, burdened with awe, ambivalence, and an overload of unanswered questions. It’s a trip.\"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e — Publishers Weekly\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"One of the most original journalists and writers of our time.” \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e— David Remnick\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"An idiosyncratic discussion of Dylan's artistry and impact on mainstream culture.\"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e — Booklist\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Beginning where Ron Rosenbaum’s ten-day interview with Bob Dylan left off, Things Have Changed gives us a polymath’s passionate listening and lights-on insights into a hundred hidden connections. If you think you know Dylan’s work and its contexts, sit down with this book, preferably near your phonograph, and start out fresh.”\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e —\u003c\/i\u003e Charlie Haas, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Current Fantasy\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003ePraise for\u003ci\u003e Explaining Hitler . . . \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Brilliant...restlessly probing and deeply intelligent\" \u003cb\u003e-- \u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Fascinating...A provocative work of cultural history that is as compelling as it is thoughtful, as readable as it is smart.... Mr. Rosenbaum has written an exciting, lucid book informed by old-fashioned moral rigor and common sense.\" \u003cb\u003e-- Michiko Kakutani, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Cultural criticism served up as riveting narrative history...with words and ideas that surprise, amuse, and even elevate the reader.\" -\u003cb\u003e- Marc Fisher, \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A work of importance and fascination\" \u003cb\u003e-- George Steiner, \u003ci\u003eThe Observer \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eThe Shakespeare Wars \u003c\/i\u003e. . .\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Rosenbaum reminds us that scholarship need not be an insular, impotent pursuit but, when the subject is grand enough, can be a freewheeling battle royal. By getting a word in edgewise with the know-it-alls, he convinces us that we could, too . . .\" \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e— Walter Kirn, The New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A genuinely passionate, insight-filled survey . . . anyone who cares for Shakespeare, textual scholarship and the theater will learn an enormous amount . . .\" \u003cb\u003e— Michael Dirda, \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eRon Rosenbaum\u003c\/b\u003e is a long-time journalist and columnist who has written for the\u003ci\u003e Village Voice, New York Observer, Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair,\u003c\/i\u003e and\u003ci\u003e Slate\u003c\/i\u003e. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Shakespeare Wars \u003c\/i\u003eas well as the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller \u003ci\u003eExplaining Hitler\u003c\/i\u003e, which was also a \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Notable\u003c\/i\u003e book of the year.A Kind-of Biography","brand":"Melville House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48232994537701,"sku":"NP9781685892258","price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781685892258.jpg?v=1767722890","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/bob-dylan-isbn-9781685892258","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}