Our culture of publicity makes it difficult to talk in negative terms about a new book without sounding dismissive or mean-spirited—all the more so when the author of the disappointment has to his credit Mystery Train (1975), which many consider one of the best books ever written about popular music.
Perhaps high expectation is the Read More
Our culture of publicity makes it difficult to talk in negative terms about a new book without sounding dismissive or mean-spirited—all the more so when the author of the disappointment has to his credit Mystery Train (1975), which many consider one of the best books ever written about popular music.
Perhaps high expectation is Read More
Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads, by Greil Marcus, Public Affairs, 283 pages, $25.
Greil Marcus, writing about Sam Cooke’s posthumously released single “A Change Is Gonna Come,” rightly called it “the greatest soul record ever made … a tender, terrifying prophecy of what the racial changes already at work in the Read More
Few have ever called Bob Dylan’s singing pretty. Even those who adore his distinctive rasp ‘n’ wheeze would probably agree that he’s been getting diminishing returns from his vocal cords for the last two decades. But if you thought Mr. Dylan’s pipes were shot before, you were wrong. On Love and Theft (Columbia), his 29th Read More
