Isis: A Bob Dylan Anthology

by Derek Barker (Editor)

Expertly compiled selection of rare articles which trace the evolution of rock's greatest talent. From Bob's earliest days in New York City to the more recent legs of the Never Ending Tour, and his new highly acclaimed album, Love and Theft, the ISIS archive has exclusive interview material often rare or previously unpublished-with many of the key players in Dylan's his parents, friends, musicians and other collaborators.

Genres: Music

288 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2002

Reviews

[Arthur Cravan · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars may be pushing it, as I didn't really enjoy a lot of the concert reviews too much. Whatever that piece as on Time Out Of Mind just struck me as absolute drudgery. & the guy talking about Dylan being a psychotic kinda makes some interesting points, but is probably just a psychotic. However, even the critical concert reviews often had nice turns of phrase to describe Dylan at any given point of time - I loved the description of Live '66 as sucking the unwitting concert-goers into being participants in a Dada act. But then it gets weighed down in most fanboy articles with them making super lame Dylan references - 'Guess it must be up to him' was in like two articles. I cringed both times.

That out of the way, I feel this volume held a kinda special place for me. I have no idea why it was in the library - it seems so random, I can't even find Hemingway or Nietzsche in there - but I grabbed it thinking I might skim it & see what Isis was all about. When the very first article was basically an interview with Bob's parents around '68 or something, I was like WHAAAAT? How had I never heard of this? & the surprises came in every now & then. That Cesar Diaz interview was interesting. I mean, you just got different angles on the guy. For that, the book is priceless.

3.5