Book Club Friday's (#12) - Why Bob Dylan Matters

eldergill (52)in #bookclub • 6 years ago

This is a fantastic book written about Bob Dylan, his inspirations, his beliefs and his ideologies when it comes to poetry and songwriting. He is an American singer-songwriter, author and painter and is highly influential for modern-day artists of all kinds.

Dylan was born on 24 May 1941 and is now 76 years old. To this day, he has released 38 studio albums, 85 singles and featured 40 music videos for his songs. This is relatively unheard of and is a testament to his unwavering ability to rein people in of all ages.

A fun fact about him is that he was the protagonist who first introduced The Beatles to marijuana, on August 28, 1964, at New York’s Delmonico Hotel. Paul McCartney thought the experience so profound he asked road manager Mal Evans to note down everything that happened. The notebooks were later confiscated by police.

About the Author

Richard F Thomas is the author of 'Why Dylan Matters'.

His current profession is the George Martin Lane Professor of the Classics, was born in London and brought up in New Zealand. He was educated at the University of Auckland (B.A. 1972; M.A. 1973), and at the University of Michigan (PhD 1977). He has long been infatuated with the work of Bob Dylan and has taught courses surrounding Dylan's character and what he symbolises in the 21st century.

A little bit about the book

The book: Why Dylan Matter's was published in November 2017 and has been highly rated as the best music book that year. It attempts the hard task of dissecting Dylan's character based on his habits, beliefs and interactions over the years. Almost instantly there is a link between Dylan and philosophy. It is evident that he was highly influenced by the ancient Roman Philosophers as well as others such as Kant and Descartes. It is highlighted that Dylan is especially influenced by Rome and the history behind it, as many of his songs such as: When I Paint My Masterpiece convey his love for the city and its long history. However, it must also be argued that Dylan is nothing if not wide-ranging in his inspirations. This is conveyed in his songwriting as it often interestingly shows correlations between poems or other songs written in the past.

It is revealed, that Dylan uses classical poetry in much the same way that he uses old blues and folk songs: as raw material for songs that only occasionally stand up to the kind of scholarly scrutiny that complex poems can withstand. He is very deep in his songwriting (even though he insists that he isn't) and it is very likely that we will hear much more from Bob Dylan until the day he dies.

Have a great weekend,

Adam x