Bob Dylan: Desde Bob Dylan hasta Nashville Skyline

by Andy Gill

De entre todas las estrellas creadas por la explosión del pop de los sesenta, ninguna ha ejercido una influencia tan profunda y duradera en nuestra cultura como Bob Dylan. Otros pudieron ser más guapos, o vender más discos, o hacer una transición más lenta hacia las portadas de lo que hoy en día llamamos prensa rosa, pero ninguna ha influido de forma tan rotunda en nuestra concepción de lo que es posible hacer dentro de la música popular y, en particular, en las letras de las canciones.
Ha sido el músico más innovador del pop: desde Hendrix hasta los Beatles, pasando por Eric Clapton, Leonard Cohen, The Beach Boys o Beck, prácticamente toda la música rock ha recibido, de una forma u otra, la influencia de la ambición creativa de Dylan. Prueba de ello es que, cuatro décadas después de su álbum de debut, sigue siendo un personaje inquieto y quijotesco, independiente de tendencias musicales, intensamente ecléctico, pero capaz de crear trabajos sensacionales.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography

208 pages, Paperback

First published April 5, 2011

Reviews

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

Usually about this time of the year I begin reading the new Nobel Prize winner in Literature. This year's winner, of course, is Bob Dylan, and his works are basically song lyrics. (I think he did write one book, called Tarantula, but I've never run across it and it obviously wasn't the basis for the award.) This is fine with me; songs are the original poetry, and nearly all poetry before the last four hundred years was intended to be sung; and Dylan's lyrics are certainly among the most influential poetry of the late twentieth century. The library ordered the big book of all his lyrics, which I have on hold, but it can't be released until November 1, so in the meantime I read this little book. It's pretty lightweight, no in depth analysis or original research, just the biographical and factual background behind the songs, ranging from a couple paragraphs to a couple pages for each. I probably have had the words to most of these early songs memorized since I was a teenager; my sister can testify that whenever she turns on her karaoke machine, I download Dylan. But I'm not a "fan" type person, and I knew little about him as a person, so some of this was interesting to me (less so trying to guess which girlfriend was the basis for which "breakup" song, many of which were probably addressed as much to his "fans" as to actual women.) One thing that came across very clearly was that he was a poet and songwriter, and not, like his model Woody Guthrie, also a political activist; I don't doubt that he had strong and sincere convictions on racism and war which he expressed in his earlier work, despite his later cynical statements, but he resented the attempt to pigeon-hole him as a "folksinger" or a "protest singer" or involve him in supporting particular groups. It's a tragedy that some people tried to make him into something he wasn't and in the process turned him off from that type of content, which I would like to have had more of. I wonder whether his delay in accepting the Nobel, which is already being commented on, isn't based on a similar worry about being defined by others, in this case as "literature." Or perhaps he still remembers the Tom Paine award banquet (mentioned in the book as an example of his reaction to being turned into a political spokesman which he never intended to be.)

[York · Rating 3 out of 5]

Si te gustó la sección de notas de memorabilia al final del recopilatorio de letras de Dylan este libro es perfecto. No es otra cosa más que una revisión canción por canción de todo lo que grabó Bob entre 1964 y 1969. La mayoría de los datos son de dominio común, pero funciona para algunas canciones no tan populares. Las fotografías por otro lado son realmente buenas y algunas son poco recurrentes.

[Oscar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lo que más me ha flipado es su facilidad para crear obras atemporales en una sola toma, a veces sin que los músicos supieran ni lo que tenían que hacer. Véase el temarro de 12 min “Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands”, en el que Dylan solo les dio algunas pautas y no sabían ni cuándo terminaba el tema.

Muy interesante la evolución de Bob en estas dos décadas, aunque las explicaciones son demasiado repetitivas en muchas ocasiones.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very straightforward description of Dylan's songs (from a very particular male perspective) album by album. It was helpful for me because I haven't spent much time with these albums as a whole, and learning a little about the context in which the albums were created, and the themes that each album featured, gave me a better foundation for understanding Dylan and his transformation during this period.

But Andy Gill seems like a real jerk. His commentary on women throughout this book is repugnant. And his personal opinions about some of these songs is dismissive and rude. I'm sure there's a better version of this book that exists without his annoying perspective.