Bob Dylan: American Troubadour

Tempo: A Rowman & Littlefield Music Series on Rock, Pop, and Culture

by Donald Brown

With Bob Dylan’s receipt of the Nobel Prize in Literature, his iconic status as an American musical, cultural, and poetic giant has never been more apparent.Bob American Troubadour is the first book to look at Dylan’s career, from his first album to his late masterpiece Tempest. Donald Brown provides insightful critical commentary on Dylan’s prolific body of work, placing Dylan’s career in the context of its time in order to assess the relationship of Dylan’s music to contemporary American culture.

Each chapter follows the shifting versions of Dylan, from his songs of conscientious social involvement to more personal exploratory songs; from his influential rock albums of the mid-1960s to his adaptations of country music; from his three very different tours in the 1970s to his “born again” period as a proselytizer for Christ and his frustrations as a recording and performing artist in the 1980s; from his retrospective importance in the 1990s to the refreshingly vital albums he has been producing in the twenty-first century.

Bob American Troubadour will engage not only Dylan fans and students of his work but also those interested in American popular music, history, and culture. Anyone who has been touched, challenged, or surprised by a Dylan song will enjoy this concise and informed critical exploration of Dylan’s music and his place in the American musical landscape.

Genres: Biography

308 pages, Hardcover

First published December 16, 2013

Reviews

[Dave Moyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was basically a track by track analysis of each album through Tempest in 2012. I did not find there to be a whole lot of new ground covered. The book started out fairly slow, but, to me, the commentary on Dylan's later work was more interesting and insightful. At times I thought the attempts to make the connection between the album and the historical context of its release date was a bit forced.

[Carl · Rating 2 out of 5]

troubadour can be defined as a composing and singing lyric poet. as such Dylan is without a doubt the American Troubadour par excellence. If your are wanting to read about Dylan's life the facts are in here but you will need to search for them. (a nice feature is the list of Dylan facts compared to social events presented in the front of the book) If you are looking for a detailed compare contrast of his music album by album and almost song by song, this is the book. One thing I felt the author correct in stating that Dylan's lyrics should not be read but should be heard in the manner that Dylan sings them ( not always done the same? true; but that is in fact the approach of a troubadour) for the manner in which they are grouped or separated and how they are enunciated affects their meaning. Anyway, if your a Dylan fan ( I am ) the book is worth the read.

[Corey Herlevsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

What Paul Williams trilogy of books titled "Bob Dylan: Performing Artist" did regarding Dylan as a live performer, "American Troubadour" does for Dylan the recording artist. While it covers familiar territory, the book’s strength is a thorough (But not exhaustive) assessment of Dylan’s overall career, album by album, song by song. Brown also does a good job of setting Dylan's work into it's larger, protean, social and cultural context. The Journal for American Culture review states
'Time spent with this highly readable book will almost certainly send readers back to rediscover Dylan’s work" and this was certainly true in my case.