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Bottom of the pile
20
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
24/100Critics
16/100Scholars
Author:
Bob Dylan
Publisher:
Simon & Schuster
Date:
November 1, 2022
Dylan, who began working on the book in 2010, offers his extraordinary insight into the nature of popular music. He writes over sixty essays focusing on songs by other artists, spanning from Stephen Foster to Elvis Costello, and in between ranging from Hank Williams to Nina Simone. He analyzes what he calls the trap of easy rhymes, breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song, and even explains how bluegrass relates to heavy metal.
What The Reviewers Say
Some of the analyses, which can already be loose, are accompanied by brief pieces that treat the songs as creative writing prompts.
It is filled with songs and hyperbole and views on love and lust even darker than Blood on the Tracks.
There’s little in the way of philosophy in The Philosophy of Modern Song, unless you’re looking for tangential rants about divorce lawyers or how nobody watches black-and-white movies anymore.
The Philosophy of Modern Song is a mouthful, a phrase that puts on airs. It asserts that the book is an important work, a tome that merits a place on your loftiest library shelf, up in the thin air where you keep the leather-bound, gilt-edged stuff.
