Bob Dylan—All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track

All The Songs

by Philippe Margotin, Jean-Michel Guesdon

The most comprehensive account of Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize-winning work yet published, with the full story of every recording session, every album, and every single released during his nearly 60-year career.Bob All the Songs focuses on Dylan's creative process and his organic, unencumbered style of recording. It is the only book to tell the stories, many unfamiliar even to his most fervent fans, behind the more than 500 songs he has released over the span of his career. Organized chronologically by album, Margotin and Guesdon detail the origins of his melodies and lyrics, his process in the recording studio, the instruments he used, and the contribution of a myriad of musicians and producers to his canon.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Reference, Biography, Poetry, History, Art

1467 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 14, 2015

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the other Christmas turkey I got – the second big dumb Bob book. It’s almost completely awful but it looks wonderful (which is a life lesson in itself) so let me immediately give

***** FIVE STARS!!!*****

to whoever the art director was, whoever found these brilliant photos, not just unseen ones of Bob but of all kinds of interesting faces usually in the shadows.

This book is translated from French so that may well be the reason for some of the odd stilted language we get throughout (this will not stop me from quoting some risible examples, see below) but maybe the authors are just very enthusiastic Dylan trainspotters who can’t write.

I can feel their love of the subject, but I cannot overlook the many factual errors and the accumulation of crushing banal observations that finally made me want to die rather than read any more of this vast book.

Which could have been vaster had they not – mysteriously, inexplicably – decided to omit the Complete Basement Tapes from their consideration. Kinda glad they did or we would have had another 50 pages of this well-meaning junk.

As an example of the level of analysis in this book , here is a comment about Queen Jane Approximately

Once again, there is some speculation as to the identity of the queen. It seems obvious to look for Queen Jane somewhere in British history.

And off they go with their maybe Jane Seymour, maybe Lady Jane Grey, maybe Joan Baez. Almost every song gets this kind of treatment. It’s so painfully teenage-fanboy literalism. The idea that Bob liked the sound of names and words and liked to create atmospheres and never liked to make banal this-represents-that personifications in his stuff is not taken seriously here, if you have a Mr Jones it MUST refer to someone in real life who was called Jones, and if you have a chrome horse and a diplomat, well, let’s see…

For an intelligent account of all Dylan’s songs, see Clinton Heylin’s two books Revolution in the Air and Still on the Road. I will give one example why Heylin exocets this huge French bulk out of the water.

“The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” is one of Dylan’s greatest protest songs, no doubt. William Zantzinger went on trial for Hattie’s death in 1963, but Heylin puts the song itself on trial and finds that nearly all material facts listed by Dylan are wrong, because he based the song on the first and only inaccurate news story which came his way, and never bothered to check anything. It makes the song twice as interesting, and complicates our response considerably. Does this get a mention by Margotin and Guesdon? Not a murmur.

FOR TRAINSPOTTERS WITH A SENSE OF HUMOUR ONLY
ERRORS I NOTICED, THERE WILL BE MORE

P 32 – The recording (of House of the Rising Sun) by The Animals, which started the rhythm and blues revolution in the United Kingdom – In fact that particular revolution had been going for at least three years before 1964.

P35 – Song to Woody also demonstrates how Dylan, at the age of twenty, is powerfully and poetically haunted by death and endings – not only the death of his mentor who died in a hospital bed… - Woody died sIx years later, in 1967.

P46 – Dylan’s pseudonym was not Blind Boy COUNT! It was Blind Boy Grunt! Equally ridiculous, I know, but one is right.

P165 – Canned Heat’s On the Road Again derives from Floyd Jones not Tommy Johnson – check it on youtube guys

P226 – Dylan told Clinton Heylin – No he didn’t. This refers to Clinton’s book Revolution in the Air , where we find Clinton’s actual words : He told one reporter

P276 – A few months after his motorcycle accident Bob Dylan…was transformed both spiritually and artistically. He had almost died. – No, he cracked a neck vertebra. This is now a known fact.

P329 – they mention the Lomax brothers, John and Alan! First we heard of those brothers…

P366 – they swallow the exaggeration about Dylan co-writing “Ballad of Easy Rider”

P454 – they think Street Legal outsold every other Dylan album in the UK! I don’t think so.

THE AWKWARD AND THE BIZARRE

P22 – In 1961 it was customary to avoid any mounting, and the artist had to control his performance as a whole.

P44 – he participated in the March on Washington, where more than 200,000 pacifists converged… Pacifists? No, that was the canard from the times.

P157 – re She Belongs to me – this ballad in 4/4 time with a classical harmonic style permits Dylan to subtly bring out the irony of his words.

P194 – Sara is a woman of Zen, secretive and detached from the material world.

P201 – the harmony, based on three chords, allows Dylan to create a gap between the darkness of the text and the nostalgic tone of the melody.

P239 – The song moves into the upper reaches of Dylan’s imagination

THE TRANSCENDENTALLY BANAL

P71 – re Corrina Corrina – The song is a success, with a flair for nostalgia

P84 – at age twenty-two, Dylan already seemed to be carrying a cross, this heavy burden of the violence and injustice he witnessed every day and of which sometimes he was the victim.

P240 – The second verse of Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands begins “With your sheets like metal and your belt like lace”. This is probably a reference to Sara’s Father, who had worked in the steel industry. (You don’t say so)

P257 – It is a medium-tempo blues song about laundry hanging out to dry. (Never would have spotted that)

P295 – His singing is well controlled, like that on his previous albums (So glad to discover this)

P402 – Tough Mama is a mid-tempo rock song, during which the Band displays group cohesion. (I did not know that!)

P460 – This blues rock song is rather successful because the group plays well together. (This was news to me)

[Michael Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

True confession: I didn't read nearly all of this book but used it to research more about Dylan's song "Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll."

This unpleasant story of racial injustice is based on a Baltimore incident in the 1960's that I helped to research for a British website article a couple of years back. The book is massive and extensive if you happened to want to learn about more than one song. But I encourage you to listen and read about the story and reflect in light of more the recent Freddie Gray incident in Bmore and how little things may have changed in 55 years.

Learn more at http://www.planetslade.com/hattie-car...

[Matthew Budman · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's unclear for whom this massive, gorgeous book is intended. There's both too much information (e.g., cataloging exactly when one can hear Dylan's miked plosives and missed notes in every song) and too little information (addressing almost none of the content, musical or lyrical, in track after track). Any fan will come away with tons of irrelevant data but nothing enlightening. Margotin and Guesdon take such a clinical, blinkered view that they don't seem to understand what they're hearing: For instance, they never acknowledge that many of Dylan's early tracks are hilariously clever. They might as well be compiling information about virtually any artist. And the occasional mentions that a particular track "is a very good song" are almost endearingly clumsy, perhaps owing to the translation from the French. Honestly, All the Songs might have been more useful in chart form, just listing names and dates, leaving any interpretation and commentary to others.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Useful but underwhelming despite its comprehensive career scan of every official recording of the bard and enigma from Duluth, Bob Dylan All the Songs is for fans and libraries. It tells you where, with whom, with what, and sometimes tosses in some lyrical and musical exegesis regarding all the studio recordings of Dylan’s lengthy career (1962 to 2015).

However, for a book that’s primary value is as a reference tool there are too many instances of sloppy writing and editing—mismatched dates on the same page, caption to text, for example, or a consistently incorrect recording year for one album (Modern Times, released in 2006 but according to the book recorded three months after Love and Theft’s session dates in 2001). The authors say that a Dylan title, “Going, Going, Gone” is a reference to an auctioneer’s closing of a sale, which seems unlikely because I believe that goes “Going once, Going twice, Sold!” and because Dylan, a longtime Yankees fan was very familiar with Mel Allen’s home run call, which literally was “Going, going, gone!” The authors, despite the brevity of text describing each song’s genesis, do some mindless mansplaining, which usually only elicits a small shake of the head as if to say, if you are going to say so little why say something so unnecessary. But when they explain that feminists misunderstood “Just Like a Woman” by describing its feminist sensibility, well, then it is a good thing this book is heavy or I might have heaved it somewhere in explosive frustration. Consistent tidbits—if and when Dylan performs a song live—are not consistently rendered or fully explained when it might be interesting to explore why a song enters/exits Dylan’s set list. Sometimes they tell you, for example, when he first played it live and how many times he has played a song live and other times they just tell when he played it for the first time. They note that he played Paul Simon’s “The Boxer” a few times live within a short span of time. They don’t note whether that time span coincided with when Dylan and Simon toured together and had a brief set together, which I believe included “The Boxer” and “Forever Young”.

Despite these annoyances, fans will likely value having the book and using it (penciling in corrections, no doubt). The authors do point out interesting flaws that you can listen for and some interesting notes on who is playing what and source elements of particular lines or melodies.

It also gave me an opportunity to listen to all 35 of Dylan’s studio albums. I found that lesser albums stand up stronger when you are not listening from a disappointing starting point: This isn’t Freewheelin’ or Bringing It All Back Home or Highway 61 or Blonde on Blonde or Nashville Skyline or Blood on the Tracks or Slow Train or Time Out of Mind or Modern Times. Albums I’d dismissed (Desire, which has some wretched songs, despite good production and vocals, also has some great ones, as does Saved, Infidels, Empire Burlesque, Tempest, and others) I’ve reassessed and have put back in rotation. For that alone, thank you Messrs Margotin and Guesdon.

It is also worth noting that this comprehensive re-listen underscores the value of the producer on Dylan’s work. Tom Wilson and Bob Johnston didn’t just catch lightning in a bottle, they helped realize Dylan’s early masterpieces. Mark Knopfler, Daniel Lanois and Don Was deserve greater credit for helping Dylan through a tough creative period. And finally somehow through that 1980s process of mixed success in recording, Mr. Dylan himself learned how to become a successful self-producer because the albums that begin with Time Out of Mind (of his recordings of original material) and continue through Tempest are successfully produced by Jack Frost (Bob Dylan). Working with Knopfler, Lanois and Was, as well as Debbie Gold on As Good As I Been to You, was I think part of an instructive process that helped Dylan develop the capacity to take charge of his own production.

Since this book came out late in 2015, Dylan has already released another studio album, Fallen Angels, of covers from the American songbook. I believe we are possibly a year or so away from another album of Dylan originals. So there will be opportunity and need to update Bob Dylan, All the Songs, and I hope the authors and publisher seize the chance to correct the sloppiness and examples of empty commentary. Then the book will be not just useful but essential.

[Benny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bob Dylan Compleet is een bijzonder mooi boek, het soort boek dat je bij vrienden op de koffietafel ziet liggen en dat je dan onmiddellijk zelf ook wil. Alle liedjes van Bob Dylan! Telkens met technische fiche! Met achtergrondinfo en leuke weetjes! En zeldzame foto’s! Zelfs de minder gekende nummers uit pakweg Saved of Tempest komen aan bod! Als fan zou je voor minder uit je bol gaan.

Helaas. Bob Dylan Compleet is een bijzonder mooi boek, maar de tekst stelt danig teleur. Enerzijds staan er tal van specialistische irrelevanties in (genre: “wie aandachtig luistert, kan op 2’29” van nummer X een plofklank horen, wat betekent dat Bob Dylan hier even te dicht bij de microfoon staat”). Anderzijds overstijgt de duiding zelden het niveau van enthousiaste (jonge?) fans die alles geweldig en groots vinden, maar verder eigenlijk weinig te melden hebben.

Frustrerend en soms zelfs irritant is de enthousiaste onwetendheid van de schrijvers. Als ergens in een nummer een naam valt, gaan ze geheid op zoek naar over wie dat nummer dan “in het echt” zou kunnen gaan. Doorgaans geraken ze er (uiteraard) niet helemaal uit, waarna ze de lezer dan met opgeheven vingertje uitleggen dat je die liedjesteksten nu ook weer niet zo letterlijk moet nemen en dat Bob Dylan soms wel eens een loopje met de werkelijkheid nam of zelfs – stel je voor – surrealistische of zelfs dadaïstische neigingen had. Hetzelfde doen ze als er geen naam in het nummer voorkomt.

Ook als het gaat over wie nu precies welk instrument speelt op welk nummer, staan er opvallend veel vraagtekens in dit boek. Dat is toch wel jammer, zeker omdat de meeste van die muzikanten gewoon nog in leven zijn en je het hen dan toch gewoon zou kunnen gevraagd hebben. Niet dat je dan altijd waterdichte antwoorden zou gekregen hebben, maar je had het toch tenminste kunnen proberen.

Waarschijnlijk was er bij de uitgave van dit fraai vormgegeven boek geen geld meer over om ook tekstueel en inhoudelijk de lat wat hoger te leggen. Hierdoor blijf ik als lezende Dylan-fan met een dubbel gevoel zitten. Is het boek bedoeld van de ouwe Dylan-fans die alles willen weten? Of is het geschreven voor jongelui die niet weten dat “Like a Rolling Stone” een van ’s mans beste nummers is? Het boek lijkt op beide paarden te wedden en valt daardoor een beetje tussen twee stoelen.

Bob Dylan Compleet is een bijzonder leuk boek om te krijgen voor je verjaardag (dank u, liefste), maar verwacht er verder niet te veel van. Het lijvige boekwerk ligt ook bij ons op de koffietafel klaar om bezoekers jaloers te maken.

(Voor inhoudelijke flaters en andere uitschuivers verwijs ik graag naar het uitstekende review van Paul Bryant elders op de website.)

[Art · Rating 5 out of 5]

October 2016, update: Bob Dylan, on Dec 10, will receive the 2016 Nobel Prize in literature, an announcement made a few hours ago. From muse to music, the greatest living poet transformed his words into iconic songs with lines and lyrics we quote as freely as Shakespeare, Twain and the Bible. ... This book offers a terrific overview of his recorded music.

Spring 2016, my original comments:

Staggering. Great engaging fun. I read the book twice. Once to learn about the sessions, tracks and albums and then again as each song played with its story at hand. So, I’ll give this oversize, six-pound, seven-hundred page book ten stars by clicking the five-star button twice. This is a book to savor. Each song gets a paragraph or two about its genesis, lyrics and production.

This terrific anthology broadened and deepened my appreciation of Bob Dylan. His music first came to me as folk and protest songs, but he quickly rejected the role of oracle that others put on him. Reviewing fifty-five years of Dylan’s five hundred works in five weeks reminds me just how many love songs he wrote, including those of love lost.

BOB DYLAN, from Minnesota, arrived in New York City in 1961. A few months later, he recorded his first sessions for his first album. The next year, another album and Dylan already was regarded as speaking for the progressive protesters and radical intelligentsia, write the authors. “Blowin’ in the Wind” typifies his songwriting of the early sixties. A few months later, Bob Zimmerman officially changed his name to Bob Dylan.

July 1965, Bob Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk Festival. In August, he released Highway 61 Revisited, which included “Like A Rolling Stone." Al Kooper played the Hammond B-3 on that session. He writes about Dylan and the session in his memoir, Backstage Passes & Backstabbing Bastards: Memoirs of a Rock 'n Roll Survivor.

I first saw Dylan that fall at the Cincinnati Music Hall, playing with the guys who later became The Band. It was a rollicking concert.

It was quite a week for Dylan. I saw him on Nov 18, then he married Sara four days later. Dylan wrote “Just Like A Woman” in Kansas City on Nov 25 then performed it the next day in Chicago. Six months later, he released Blonde on Blonde, a double album, chockfull of songs that became familiar.

By 1967, Dylan wanted to record unadorned songs, far from the psychedelic extravagance of the time. With confidence in his work and vision, he did not respond to musical trends. In 1989, Dylan became disappointed when a recommended producer for an album did not know about American folk music or gut-level arrangements that come from the world of simplicity, the authors write.

By 1970, I played vinyl of the day, including a strong mix of Dylan, in St Louis as an underground FM DJ.

While this book recounts the famous songs, half the pleasure here came from learning about and listening to the many unfamiliar tracks. New favorites include these:

— “Rank Stranger to Me,” recorded in 1987, is a fine old gospel song. The Stanley Brothers recorded a bluegrass version years ago.

— “Duquesne Whistle,” recorded in 2012, is a fun, nostalgic and introspective tune where guitars give us gypsy pump rhythm reminiscent of Django Reinhardt.

— “Highlands,” recorded in 1997, at sixteen minutes, this is Dylan’s longest song. A hypnotic blues loop underlies Dylan’s narration as a mysterious wanderer wondering what comes after death. A fine smiling musing.

Because of the co-author's fine volume here, I look forward to their next one, coming in October, The Rolling Stones All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track.

[Mark O'mara · Rating 5 out of 5]

A labour of love reading this one. Reading as I listened, in chronological order, to the vinyl recordings (apart from the Xmas record on CD). This process surprised me in how it so thoroughly versed me in appreciating the development of Dylan’s genius as a singer and composer of songs. The book breaks down every song on every studio album (plus a lot of outtakes) from the 1st (Dylan) to the 36th (Shadows in Night).

The writers did a great job capturing details of the songs and records. I loved the details around the recording processes and who the musicians were etc. The assessment of Dylan’s performances were insightful, accurate and generous without being fawning.

Highly recommended for serious Dylan fans. I have around 80 Dylan books (I need a recount) and this is one of the few I’d say are essential. A very impressive work. Great format too.

A new edition has just been released that has the last three records including the great Rough and Rowdy Ways.

[York · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me tomó más de un año terminar este bebé, que sí, tiene algunos detalles de diseño editorial, pero eso queda en segundo plano al ver el grado obsesivo de este material, donde te cuentan hasta el minuto y segundo exacto en el que hay errores de ejecución o empalmes de postproducción en cada canción.

Es una joya obsesiva y minuciosa para fans de Dylan. Es obligado leerlo con la discografía del cantante a la mano, y sí toma siglos completarlo, pero la experiencia es una belleza que ayuda a comprender mejor el proceso de grabación de cada disco.

[Markku · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gargantuan book...but actually the author is quite successful. Themes, background, technical details and opinions are presented in subtle, smart manner and one learns a lot about Robert Zimmermann in the process.

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's all here. What can I add to that. Well laid out, excellent book.

[David Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I had to choose a Dylan book in my collection to wield as a defensive weapon then this massive tome would be the one. But it's not the first I'd recommend to anyone who wants to expand their understanding of Dylan and what he achieved.

The writers have obviously listened to every song and done some surface level research but they clearly lack the insight and love that writers like Gray, Williams and Heylin have applied to the same subject. There are great Dylan scholars who have immersed themselves in their subject for decades but it's pretty clear that for Margotin and Guesdon, Dylan is just the next legend in their ongoing "all the songs" franchise. There's not much here that the casual listener can't determine themselves with a recording of the songs and a few minutes on wikipedia.

It's easy to believe that this book was written with the pirate-generation in mind. It's useful for someone who might have downloaded a Dylan discography torrent and needs some context for the sudden influx of music they have in their hard drive. There's just enough detail to tell you who Woody Guthrie was (and even provide a helpful photo) but not enough to give you any real insight about what Guthrie meant to Dylan.

It's definitely a three star book for its thoroughness. At the time of writing, all Dylan's original albums are included (up to 2012's Tempest) along with compilations and official bootleg releases. Songs which were outtakes are discussed in the section about the album they were omitted from, instead of the date of their eventual release which allows the reader to listen to them in context, which is definitely a big help. It's a useful reference work for the casual listener who is starting to understand what the fuss is about but there are much better works out there on the same subject.

[Lisa Bentley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Admittedly, I am a fair-weather fan of Bob Dylan. I like some of his songs and I like the history of the time he was making music so I thought I would read up on him to find out a bit more. I probably chose the wrong book.

Don’t get me wrong, All the Songs is a fascinating read but it is definitely for the hardcore Dylan fan. It is for the fan who loves the nuances of his songs. One who can recognise if he is playing his harmonica in a different key or has questioned whether or not there was a someone coughing in the track (believe me, that information is in the book).

I can honestly say I feel more prepared for a question to come up in a quiz about Dylan and further to that, my ability to give a decent shot at answering it. However, if I had known just how detailed this book was going to be I may not have picked it up. If you are a die-hard fan then this needs to be in your collection. If you just like certain songs then maybe just pick it up now and again or just read the information you want to know.

Bob Dylan – All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track by Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon is available now.

[Mike Violano · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have three favorite songwriters of my generation-- Springsteen, Paul Simon and Dylan. Dylan's albums from '63-'67 are filled with absolutely amazing songs including Blowin' in the Wind, It Ain't Me Babe, The Times are a Changin', Mr. Tamborine Man, Like a Rolling Stone, Subterranean Homesick Blues, and All Along the Watchtower. The authors provide background and context for every song Dylan wrote and recorded from '63 to 2015 including songs from the bootleg albums.
Much of Dylan's early music was influenced by Anglo-Celtic ballads. Later music like I Shall Be Released, Knockin' On Heaven's Door and Gotta Serve Somebody had biblical passages and gospel music behind the lyrics.The book details Dylan's evolution from folk music to country, to rock and roll; he was always a poet but never a prisoner of any one genre.
Dylan's music has been recorded and made famous by so many artists over the last 50+ years from the Band to Eric Clapton, Peter Paul and Mary, the Byrds, Johnny Cash and Jimi Hendrix to name just a few.
Also enjoyed the story of a few of my favorite Dylan tracks-- My Back Pages, Chimes of Freedom, Forever Young, and Tangled Up in Blue.
The shortcoming in the ebook is no pictures. The authors also skipped Tweeter and the Monkey Man which Dylan penned with the Traveling Wilburys.

[Matt Ockmond · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book covers every single solo Dylan studio recording ending in 2015. Every cover, every b-side, every soundtrack song. Each song is broken down to make some attempt to analyze what it is about, and what happened in the studio. It's probably not meant to be read cover to cover, and yet that's what I did. That does lead to quite a bit of repetition. There are some things to be learned here. Some hidden gems. The man can do things that are downright silly. My major problems are: 1. There is a lot of statements of opinion on the quality of different parts of different songs, and I just wasn't looking for that. Give me someone's cited opinion from a publication. 2. There is some serious filler in places. "Here's a list of some people that also recorded 'Here Comes Santa Clause'." Thanks? 3. It's riddled with typos, and I'm not one that catches things like that. This book seems meant to be a thoughtless Christmas present for a distant father, or a bludgeon for Prof. Plum, but I it does have some interesting information within. That info just gets a little bogged down sometimes.

[Mansfield Public · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book covers every single solo Dylan studio recording ending in 2015. Every cover, every b-side, every soundtrack song. Each song is broken down to make some attempt to analyze what it is about, and what happened in the studio. It's probably not meant to be read cover to cover, and yet that's what I did. That does lead to quite a bit of repetition. There are some things to be learned here. Some hidden gems. The man can do things that are downright silly. My major problems are: 1. There is a lot of statements of opinion on the quality of different parts of different songs, and I just wasn't looking for that. Give me someone's cited opinion from a publication. 2. There is some serious filler in places. "Here's a list of some people that also recorded 'Here Comes Santa Clause'." Thanks? 3. It's riddled with typos, and I'm not one that catches things like that. This book seems meant to be a thoughtless Christmas present for a distant father, or a bludgeon for Prof. Plum, but it does have some interesting information within. That info just gets a little bogged down sometimes. -Matt

[David Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

SO I have figured out that you can take the "All the Songs" book series and turn them into daily reading books. I did this in 2020-2021 with all the David Bowie songs, which was an amazing journey. Also, I subscribe to Spotify, which this year has a Bob Dylan - All the Songs, and corresponds to the book with the exception of a few songs, which can be Googled.

The book provides an enthusiastic review of each song. Some of the songs that the author thinks are wonderful are wonderful, some are not, Some of the worst do get lackluster reviews. If you are a diehard Dylan fan that loves every song of his, you will love this book!

Also the book was written before Triplicate, and it would have been nice to have an update for that, although I think all the songs are covers of Frank Sinatra (and his genre.)

[Bill Keithler · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book can't decide if it is for hard-core Dylan freaks who can't get enough obscure minutia, or casual fans who may use it as a resource to settle trivia bets. It does the latter better, although falls short frequently for being often too superficial or casual about information which the author could not determine ('so -and-so played the mandolin on this song, or it might be someone else'. e.g.). Occasionally there is some are information that is interesting, but overall this book is on the light-side. Serious Dylan fans or scholars will not find much here.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me over a year, but I finally made it through this exhaustive/exhausting catalogue of every single one of Dylan’s officially released song recordings. The whole book is a weird and often arbitrary mix of music criticism, technical details, bits and pieces of biographical data, alongside frequently hilarious, extremely French exclamations of enthusiasm. Obviously only recommended for Dylan completists with an above-average tolerance for a very specific kind of musical appreciation – in other words, the very definition of YMMV.

[Timothy Swartout · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this for half price at a used bookstore in CT. It’s a massive tome covering every single song recorded by the artist up to 2015, therefore excluding his last few albums. I see there is an updated version which might be worth getting just to read the writers take on “ Murder Most Foul,” which is in my opinion Dylan’s most significant song in many many years. Definitely not a book to read large chunks of at one time and also infinitely more enjoyable if you listen to the songs as you read about them.

[Hugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I only read the first 200 something pages. That's only like 4-5 albums into his discography. I just could never get motivated enough to consistently read it.

Also, after I read enough of it I realized that I'm not a super big Dylan fan. I'd much prefer a version of this book but for a band like Weezer or the Eagles. I'd be able to make it through one of those I think.

Very detailed and well written. Just not my thing.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This massive tome examines the origins of every song Dylan recorded, in depth. One could damage a shoulder just by lifting it. I thought that it would include all the lyrics, but after getting my hands on a copy I realized that the book would have to be twice the weight if it did.  It was interesting and I enjoyed it very much. It also included plenty of photographs.

[Jesse Scobie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely detailed and informative chronological encyclopedia on all of Bob Dylan's albums from 1962-2015. Some fantastic session photos, musician details, microphones and studios used for 36 albums!! I'll edit this later to talk about some complaints, but overall, very good!

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Massive, but full of a surprising amount of errors and just outright misinformation. My favorite might have been that the Carter Family were onboard the Titanic. Where on Earth such an outright mistake came from-- and how it survived any kind of fact-checking-- I will never understand.

[Jim Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you love Bob…

If you love Bob Dylan, you’ll love this book. Just as the title says,mit has the story behind every single track Dylan recorded between 1962 and 2015. Though I found a couple of small errors, overall the book was excellently researched. Great for Dylan fans.

[Stephen Stofflet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of his songs / lyrics - only thing missing is some background on each. It's great to have access to Dylan's work, but some historical perspective would have been a definite plus.

[Arijit Ghosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very good book

[Rob Melich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Herculean task. Author did great work but you can read the exhaustion taking hold 2/3rds through effort. Dylan inspiring too.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

6 pounds, 735 pages

[Santiago M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dos años y medio para acabarlo (más de 500 canciones(!)), así de extenso.

Un genio, no cabe duda.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful