u/DYLANBOOKS

YES - essential:
>Lyrics
>Chronicles
>Philosophy

MAYBE - desirable:
>Tarantula

MAYBE LATER - thin:
>Nobel Lecture
>Hollywood Foto-Rhetoric

Colm Larkin’s new book, Dylan Revisited: Busy Being Born (1960-66), examines the singer’s explosive early creativity via a multiplicity of albums, singles, bootlegs (official and otherwise) and radio, film and TV recordings.

For each of the 35 performances documented, it summarises what’s known about their context and, more importantly, evaluates their content.

Dylan Revisited is highly recommended. It will be welcomed by recent and long-standing fans alike.

As listeners to his Dylan Revisited podcast and readers of his blog will already know, Larkin is a diligent, reliable Dylan commentator - an original thinker with sound judgment. The book confirms that he’s also an engaging, stylish writer.

And Dylan Revisited is a handsome artefact. The exquisite front cover image, by Malika Favre, was famously used for the 24 Oct 2016 issue of the The New Yorker, celebrating Dylan’s Nobel Prize. The book’s design, page layout and fonts are impressive.

Several previous books have analysed Dylan’s work in this magical period. My favourite authors are Andy Gill, John Hughes, Todd Harvey and Anthony Varesi. Larkin’s granular assessment of the totality of Dylan’s output complements them, with a different approach.

Dylan Revisited establishes Colm Larkin as a first-class Dylan author. Here’s hoping that he can follow this triumph with companion volumes covering the entirety of Dylan’s catalogue.

(Colm Larkin, Dylan Revisited: Busy Being Born (1960-66), Revisited Press, 2026, pbk, 268pp)

The Philosophy of Modern Song was initially underrated.

I, too, found it underwhelming. With similar content, Theme Time Radio Hour had been more impressive. And it had the bonus of Dylan’s distinctive narration.

But I’d approached the book from the wrong angle - merely as a listener’s guide. While it is, indeed, an expertly curated critique of 66 pop songs, it’s so much more - an engaging collection of thoughtful short essays, wrapped in a handsome, eclectic photo album.

As in Chronicles, Dylan flexes his literary muscles, writing freely, roaming widely, ruminating on all manner of things. Deeply cultured, he has plenty to say about music, film, literature, language, culture, society, human behaviour… . And, once again, he shows that his gift as a wordsmith isn’t limited to songwriting. His chiselled prose is original and relentlessly witty.

The Philosophy of Modern Song is a great read.

(Bob Dylan, The Philosophy Of Modern Song, Simon & Schuster, 2022, hbk, 339pp)

Dylan wrote Tarantula in the mid-1960s. His revolutionary songwriting, culminating in Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde, had challenged an audience reared on “Moon in June” pop. Tarantula can be seen as a literary companion piece.

It’s not light reading: you have to work hard. Most readers, mystified, couldn’t stand the pace.

Tarantula’s mix of poetry, prose and letters can best be seen as a rough notebook, chronicling the response of a young, gifted thinker to life’s complexities. The writing is uneven, occasionally striking, occasionally witty.

Critical opinion has been predominantly negative. But the Nobel Prize might be encouraging closer scrutiny. Tarantula could be due a critical reappraisal.

Having failed to finish it several times, I’m about to try again, this time in short sessions. I expect to discover both stimulating and incomprehensible ideas.

Have you read Tarantula? What do you think of it?

(Bob Dylan, Tarantula, Scribner, 2004, pbk, 137pp.)

As a condition of receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature, Dylan was required to deliver a lecture. It was a chance for him to speak in depth about his enormous body of great work and maybe try explain where it comes from.

Bob Dylan: the Nobel Lecture (Simon & Schuster, 2017, hbk, 23pp) does that, to some extent. Alongside his acceptance speech at the awards ceremony*, the lecture has some delicious insights. But I’d hoped for more.

The bulk of the lecture has Dylan summarising the three books he credits as influences - Moby-Dick, All Quiet On The Western Front and The Odyssey.

I found that slightly disappointing.

To buy or not to buy? If you’re a collector, certainly - it’s a beautiful little artefact. Otherwise, you might prefer to access the complete lecture via the Nobel video on YouTube, with its substantial bonus of Dylan’s trademark narration.

* Bizarrely, it was delivered by the US Ambassador to Sweden. She handles her tough assignment with aplomb. Video on YouTube.