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psteve's review against another edition
4.0
I didn't read Bell's first book on Dylan, though I may. I started this sone, not really expecting to finish it, as I've read most every book on Dylan. It was a mixed bag; where Bell really got serious about discussing the albums and songs, it was for the most part fascinating. His discussion of the songs on Desire, especially Hurricane, was great, as was the discussion of the Christian songs, especially their disastrous theology. But between those discussions were a lot of not biography, but discussion of the times. Maybe this historical stuff would be more interesting to younger readers who don't remember it, but I got impatient with it a lot. I also very much enjoyed the discussion of the late period renaissance albums, Time out of Mind, "Love and Theft," and Modern Times. I will use his discussion of Tempest as a template for a revisit of that album, as I don't like it much. I like Modern Times, but not a lot, and Blair gave me more respect for it. He did a great job of defending Chronicles and the late period lyrics against the "plagiarism" charges, and considered things more seriously than a lot of writers do. I did get tired of his frequent references to the "inner circle" or whatever he called it, of Dylan fans; yes there's a bubble and it feeds off itself, and is frequently too apologetic, but it felt to me like he didn't take it seriously enough. Still, maybe with the first book, this one would be a good first book on Dylan for the newbie.
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