Lyrics:1962-2001 Summary and Reviews

Lyrics:1962-2001
by Bob Dylan

Lyrics:1962-2001
Our Price: $68.44
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)

Book Summary Information

Author: Bob Dylan
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-01
ISBN: 074323944X
Number of pages: 624
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Book Reviews of Lyrics:1962-2001

Book Review: He told me one time: "I'm a poet, not a singer."
Summary: 5 Stars

I became a Dylan fan in the early 60's. While In Junior College and working for the student newspaper, I was assigned the task of interviewing him - without an appointment - when he came to perform in the town where that JC was. I grabbed a tape recorder, sat with some friends to create a short list of questions we thought would be fun for him to respond to - and on the assigned evening, I set out to interview him.

I made it to the security gate where I was summarily turned away. Thinking myself clever, I argued, joked and tried to talk my way in - and failed. So, I sat outside (I had no ticket to the show itself) until it was over - then, some three hours after I first arrived, I recognized Dylan, surrounded by a small army of devotees and sycophants, coming out of the stage door. Bravely, I approached him - tape recorder turned on and microphone in hand - trying to remember just one of the many clever questions my friends and I had concocted. All I could get to come out was, "Hi! I'm from the local J.C. Would you please say something about yourself?" He actually stopped, looked at me (I think) through VERY dark glasses and said, clear as a bell, "I'm a poet - not a singer." I believe this volume demonstrates that rather nicely.

On first hearing me play a Dylan album, my dad, who had never - so far as I know - spent one day on a farm, said "That sounds like a lamb with his gonads caught in a barbed wire fence." Maybe he was right. The beauty of this volume is that it is unfettered with music - either written or sung. Just as the title says, it is "Lyrics".... words .... poems..... stories told in certain rhythm and meter. As such, they read purely - without the attempt to convey them as 'song' or himself as a 'singer.' I read the book from cover to cover and actually use it as a lyric book to create my own versions of the lyrical tales he told that are recorded here.

Some are simple: some complex: some perhaps deliberately confusing, inconsistent and mind-twisting. Others are basic - a few even 'sweet' and naively young. Some angry, some narrative, more than a few visionary. But whatever else they are or are not, they are poems - each and every one of them - and, as such, I believe they stand on their own ... without the music he gave them - mostly, as I understand it, after the fact.

Read this way, as a poetic autobiography, I think those interested - or even enamored- with Bob Dylan and his work, will find this volume to be a real treasure trove of pure expressiveness. It has already achieved a special place - in my library, in front of me while I have a guitar in hand - or simply in my lap, as I read and try to appreciate the purist Dylan we have to remember the times, and perhaps ourselves, with.

Reference Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Reference Books
The Great Song Thesaurus ImageThe Great Song Thesaurus
by Roger Lax, Frederick Smith
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1989-02-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $174.48
The New Oxford History of Music: Volume IV: The Age of Humanism 1540-1630 ImageThe New Oxford History of Music: Volume IV: The Age of Humanism 1540-1630
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1968-12-31; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $102.77
Price in other shops: $312.00
The Oxford Companion to Popular Music ImageThe Oxford Companion to Popular Music
by Peter Gammond
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1991-04-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $27.88
Price in other shops: $55.00
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music (Oxford Paperback Reference) ImageThe Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music (Oxford Paperback Reference)
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1996-08-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.75
Price in other shops: $17.95
Musical Involvement: A Guide to Perceptive Listening ImageMusical Involvement: A Guide to Perceptive Listening
by Donald J. Funes, Stephen E. Squires
Harcourt College Pub; Published: 1991-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $101.94
Compact Discs Yearbook 2000/1, The Penguin Guide to (Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music) ImageCompact Discs Yearbook 2000/ 1, The Penguin Guide to (Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music)
by Ivan March, Edward Greenfield, Robert Layton
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2000-10-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.94
Price in other shops: $20.00
Listening to Music ImageListening to Music
by Jay Zorn
Prentice Hall College Div; Published: 1994-12-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.95
Price in other shops: $57.00
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing Guitar (2nd Edition) ImageThe Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing Guitar (2nd Edition)
by Frederick Noad
Alpha; Published: 2001-08-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.82
Price in other shops: $21.95
DJing for Dummies ImageDJing for Dummies
by John Steventon
For Dummies; Published: 2007-01-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $15.99
Price in other shops: $19.99
This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession ImageThis Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession
by Daniel J. Levitin
Penguin Audio; Published: 2007-08-16; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $15.50
Price in other shops: $29.95
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Western Wind:  An Introduction to Poetry ImageWestern Wind: An Introduction to Poetry
by David Mason, John Frederick Nims
McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; Published: 2005-06-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $54.95
Wicked Messenger: Bob Dylan And the 1960s ImageWicked Messenger: Bob Dylan And the 1960s
by Mike Marqusee
Seven Stories Press; Published: 2005-10-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.49
Price in other shops: $18.95
Bob Dylan in America ImageBob Dylan in America
by Sean Wilentz
Anchor; Published: 2011-10-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.12
Price in other shops: $16.95
Bob Dylan - Don't Look Back (1965 Tour Deluxe Edition) ImageBob Dylan - Don't Look Back (1965 Tour Deluxe Edition)
New Video; Release date: 2007-02-27; DVD
Best price: $11.89
Price in other shops: $29.95
Studio A: The Bob Dylan Reader ImageStudio A: The Bob Dylan Reader
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2005-11-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.50
Price in other shops: $15.95
Dylan's Visions of Sin ImageDylan's Visions of Sin
by Christopher Ricks
Harper Perennial; Published: 2005-07-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.80
Price in other shops: $15.95
Bound for Glory (Plume) ImageBound for Glory (Plume)
by Woody Guthrie
Plume; Published: 1983-09-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.07
Price in other shops: $16.00
Tarantula ImageTarantula
by Bob Dylan
Scribner; Published: 2004-10-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.92
Price in other shops: $14.00
No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan (The Acclaimed Biography) ImageNo Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan (The Acclaimed Biography)
by Robert Shelton
Hal Leonard Corporation; Published: 2011-05-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $20.35
Price in other shops: $35.00
Chronicles: Volume One ImageChronicles: Volume One
by Bob Dylan
PBS; Simon & Schuster; Published: 2005-09-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops: $15.00