( 8 reviews )
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Posted: Jul 6 2008
Trager's book is interesting, informative if not always accurate and exhaustive. But then would any 10 Dylanologists agree on anything. A book of this size and nature needs an index and table of references. I enjoyed it.
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Posted: Jun 7 2008
Weighty collection listing the albums and songs Dylan has written, performed, and recorded, is worthy if not quite as definitive as it claims in the subtitle. Scanning the list from A to Z leads to an awareness of the amazing depth and breadth of Dylan's legacy in music, literature, culture, and religion.. Trager includes the many songs that Dylan has sung in concerts and performed with other artists, and spends a fair amount of time documenting these artist's and songwriters live's and legacy, and Dylan's reach is so great that this coverage could nearly stand alone as a general-purpose encyclopedia of folk, jazz, blues, country, and popular music in the 20th century. It will certainly give Dylan fans an introduction and connection point to all these genres and their greatest artists and songs. Dylan fans, of whom I count myself among the many and most intense, will also learn many new and interesting facts from this guide: --The album "Love and Theft" was released on September 11, 2001. --The Ramones have covered "My Back Pages"! --"Joey", Dylan's tale of a misunderstood gangster from the 'Desire" album, was based on a real life mafia don who was murdered in New York City in 1962. --In consideration for the lowest point in celebrity vanity recordings, may I present this nomination: "Sebastian Cabot, Actor--Bob Dylan, Poet" (1967). --In support of my contention that Dylan before, during, and after his Christian conversion has always been (perhaps primarily?) a deeply spiritual song writer, may I present this cover album: The Brothers and Sisters of Los Angeles, "Dylan Gospel" (1969). Trager provides useful reference information for each entry, including headers with the recording dates and musicians and technicians on albums, the Dylan and cover albums and release dates on which songs appear, and biographical sketches with birth and death dates for songwriters and artists mentioned with each song. In the text of each song entry, Trager mentions generally the tours and years in which the songs were sung in concert, and mentions Dylan's frequent song lyric and musical tempo and style reworkings. He also provides descriptions of the recording circumstances around most of the albums and songs, and some idea of contemporary critical review and literary analysis, as well as providing his own capsule reviews. While these are interesting, the books value as a reference work, might be enhanced by paring down the analysis and reviews (heaven knows there are plenty of those surrounding Dylan's work, many of which Trager lists in a bibliography at the back). The space thus saved could be used for more exhaustive listings of song performance dates. Also of value would be a cross reference index of artists, writers, and songs, so for example, I could quickly tell which songs the Brothers and Sisters of Los Angeles included on their no-doubt interesting album of Dylan covers. In a reference of this size, fact-checking is critical, and Trager and his editing team got it mostly right. I found one obvious error: The entry for the song "Step it up and Go" is incorrectly attributed to the "World Gone Wrong" album, even though other entries place the song correctly on the "Good as I've Been to You" album. Trager also mentions Christopher Rick's valuable study Dylan's Visions of Sin (see my review there) in an entry, but does not include it in the bibliography. This book would also make a valuable companion to the Bob Dylan Complete Discography (see my review there).
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Posted: Dec 11 2007
I'm leery of "definitive" books on as changing an artist as Dylan. As with the famous "other" Big Black Dylan Book, this is good for killing a bit of time, digging up a few obscure artists and the like. I wouldn't buy this book again, though I might sell it. Not recommended.
