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A review by richardwells
Bob Dylan in America by Sean Wilentz
4.0
Sean Wilentz's "Bob Dylan in America" follows Greil Marcus's "The Old, Weird America" as an attempt to place Dylan in the cultural history of the United States, and it's a much more coherent read.
What Wilentz does is compare Dylan's artistic development with the artistic and political milieu that he would have brushed against as a boy, how that milieu moved him in a particular direction as a young artist, and how those connections formed a web as he matured and moved through life. For instance, the author surmises what knowledge Dylan could have had of American composer Aaron Copland, how that knowledge of Copland's method of appropriating cowboy songs into his compositions may have provided the license for Dylan's continuing appropriations, and how Dylan acknowledges and pays the debt by using snippets (samples) of Copland to introduce his own shows. Mr. Wilentz makes a compelling case. Or take for example Dylan's obvious relationship and affection for the Beat Generation, especially through Allen Ginsberg, and how Beat literature, and social mores have affected Dylan the writer. In the main, Mr. Wilentz is right on the money.
Mr. Wilentz also examines the politics of the near 70 years Dylan has been in the world, but spends less time there than with Dylan's artistic influences and evolution.
The big plusses of this book are Mr. Wilentz's familiarity with his source material, his refusal to over analyze Dylan's lyrics (a failing of most other Dylan chroniclers,) and his "you are there" information regarding Dylan's creative process in the studio. Interesting is Mr. Wilentz's defense of the plagiarism charges leveled against Dylan, and how Dylan's appropriations can be viewed as part of the "folk process," indeed of literary method through the ages, and of how Dylan's appropriations don't meet the legal standard of plagiarism. The defense leads us into deep water, but Mr. Wilentz is a good pilot.
The only thing that slowed the book down for me was my disinterest in the author's presentations of the minutia of history - cultural or artistic.
I learned a few things. Unusual at this point as my Dylan shelf is buckling under its own weight.
What Wilentz does is compare Dylan's artistic development with the artistic and political milieu that he would have brushed against as a boy, how that milieu moved him in a particular direction as a young artist, and how those connections formed a web as he matured and moved through life. For instance, the author surmises what knowledge Dylan could have had of American composer Aaron Copland, how that knowledge of Copland's method of appropriating cowboy songs into his compositions may have provided the license for Dylan's continuing appropriations, and how Dylan acknowledges and pays the debt by using snippets (samples) of Copland to introduce his own shows. Mr. Wilentz makes a compelling case. Or take for example Dylan's obvious relationship and affection for the Beat Generation, especially through Allen Ginsberg, and how Beat literature, and social mores have affected Dylan the writer. In the main, Mr. Wilentz is right on the money.
Mr. Wilentz also examines the politics of the near 70 years Dylan has been in the world, but spends less time there than with Dylan's artistic influences and evolution.
The big plusses of this book are Mr. Wilentz's familiarity with his source material, his refusal to over analyze Dylan's lyrics (a failing of most other Dylan chroniclers,) and his "you are there" information regarding Dylan's creative process in the studio. Interesting is Mr. Wilentz's defense of the plagiarism charges leveled against Dylan, and how Dylan's appropriations can be viewed as part of the "folk process," indeed of literary method through the ages, and of how Dylan's appropriations don't meet the legal standard of plagiarism. The defense leads us into deep water, but Mr. Wilentz is a good pilot.
The only thing that slowed the book down for me was my disinterest in the author's presentations of the minutia of history - cultural or artistic.
I learned a few things. Unusual at this point as my Dylan shelf is buckling under its own weight.