|
 Bob
Dylan The Brazil Series
BUY NOW
John Elderfield and Kasper
Monrad
Bob Dylan has been a prolific
graphic artist since the 1960s, and his graphic art is
marked by the same constant drive for renewal that
characterises his music. Never content to remain static in a
single form of expression that he has already cultivated, he
is constantly experimenting and testing new artistic
techniques and expressions. This book of the exhibition at
the National Gallery of Denmark encompasses some 100 works,
including completely new works to be seen in public for the
first time. Bob Dylan has recently delved into painting in
acrylic, and the exhibition is the first to document this
new direction in the artist’s work, showing larger format
paintings alongside drawings. Dylan’s works are often
created during his exhaustive touring, and his motifs bear
corresponding imprints of the environments and people that
he crosses in his life. As a graphic artist he functions as
a phenomenal observer who depicts the immediately banal and
everyday facets of life in such a way that they appear fresh
and new for the viewer. The Authors: John Elderfield was the
leading art historian and chief curator of painting and
sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA. He
received the Eric Mitchell Prize for his book on twentieth
century art, and was also recipient of a Chevalier des Arts
et des Lettres awarded by the French Government. Kasper
Monrad is an art historian and the author of several books.
Hardback - 192 pages with 180 colour illustrations
Bob Dylan In America
BUY NOW
Growing up
in Greenwich Village in the 1960s Sean Wilentz discovered
the music of Bob Dylan as a young teenager. Almost half a
century later, now a distinguished professor of American
history, he revisits Dylan’s work with the critical skills
of a scholar and the passion of a fan. Drawing partly on his
work as the current historian-in-residence on Dylan’s
official website, Sean Wilentz provides a unique blend of
biography, memoir and analysis in a book which, much like
its subject, shifts gears and changes shape as the occasion
demands.
Beginning
with Dylan’s explosion onto the scene in 1961, this book
charts his career and the evolution of his astonishing
output and places it firmly within a vivid musical and
cultural context. It examines the influence of the Popular
Front ideology and of Beat aesthetics, as well as the debt
and sometimes surprising connections to other composers and
performers – as diverse as Aaron Copland and Blind Willie
McTell. The result is a broad and brilliantly illuminating
appreciation of Dylan as both performer and songwriter up to
the present day.
Sean
Wilentz has had unprecedented access to studio tapes,
recording notes and rare photographs – many of which are
reproduced here. This remarkable material allows him to tell
Dylan’s story – and that of such masterpieces as Blonde on
Blonde – with unrivalled authenticity and richness.
Hardback
Reviews
'A
panoramic vision of Bob Dylan, his music, his shifting place
in American culture, from multiple angles. In fact, reading
Sean Wilentz’ Bob Dylan in America is as thrilling and
surprising as listening to a great Dylan song' - Martin
Scorsese
'All the
American connections that Wilentz draws to explain the
appearance of Dylan’s music are fascinating, particularly at
the outset the connection to Aaron Copland. The writing is
strong, the thinking is strong – the book is dense and
strong everywhere you look' - Philip Roth
'Writing
about Bob Dylan's music, and fitting it into the great crazy
quilt of American culture, Sean Wilentz sews a whole new
critical fabric, part history, part close analysis, and all
heart. What he writes, as well as anyone ever has, helps us
enlarge Dylan's music by reckoning its roots, its
influences, its allusive spiritual contours' - Jay Cocks,
screenwriter for THE AGE OF INNOCENCE and THE GANGS OF NEW
YORK
'Sean
Wilentz makes us think about Bob Dylan’s half-century of
work in new ways. Combining a scholar’s depth with a sense
of mischief appropriate to the subject, Wilentz hears new
associations in famous songs and sends us back to listen to
Dylan’s less familiar music with fresh insights. By focusing
on the parts of Dylan’s canon that most move him, Wilentz
gets straight to the heart of the matter. If you thought
there was nothing new to say about Bob Dylan’s impact on
America, this book will make you think twice' - Bill
Flanagan, Editorial Director: MTV Networks
 SHELTER
FROM THE STORM
by
Sid Griffin
BUY NOW
In
the fall of 1975 and spring 1976, Bob Dylan led a travelling
band of musicians around America on the two legs of the
Rolling Thunder tour. Along for the ride were Joan Baez,
Roger McGuinn, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, David Blue, Kinky
Friedman, T-Bone Burnett, Allen Ginsberg, Sam Sheppard, Mick
Ronson, and dozens more musicians, friends, family and
hangers-on. The circus was documented in the film “Renaldo
and Clara”, the live album “Hard Rain”, and a TV concert
special of the same name, while in between the two legs of
the tour Dylan released the classic “Desire” album. It is
this period of heightened creativity and personal drama that
Dylan-authority, author, and musician Sid Griffin examines
in ‘Shelter from the Storm’. Interviewing many of the tour’s
participants including musicians Roger McGuinn, T-Bone
Burnett, Kinky Friedman, Arlo Guthrie, Ramblin’ Jack
Elliott, and tour manager Louie Kemp, Griffin mixes
meticulous musical analysis into a gripping narrative in
this definitive account the Rolling Thunder years.
 SO
FAR AWAY FROM HOME: BOB DYLAN'S 2009 CONCERTS - Wyvill &
Wraith Tour Book
BUY NOW
(Two Riders, UK
2009)
The latest in the
ongoing and very popular Wyvill and Wraith series of tour
books. “So Far Away From Home”, covers Dylan’s touring
exploits in 2009. Includes setlists for all the 2009 shows.
 STILL
ON THE ROAD The Songs of Bob Dylan Vol. 2 1974-2008
by Clinton Heylin
BUY NOW
Following on from
Revolution in the Air this is the second volume in Clinton
Heylin’s survey of the songs of Bob Dylan. Still on the Road
begins in 1974 with “Blood on the Tracks”, the album filled
with masterworks such as ‘Tangled Up in Blue’ and ‘Simple
Twist of Fate’ that heralded a watershed in Dylan’s creative
journey, and continues to chart his never-ending fascination
with music and the art of song up to 2006’s “Modern Times”.
494 pages.
The Songs He
Didn’t Write Bob Dylan Under The Influence
by ISIS editor Derek Barker
550 songs over
512-page, lavishly illustrated with 230 images
BUY NOW
Cover Price £15.99
Our Price £8.00 +p&p
ISIS
is very pleased to be able to announce that Derek Barker’s
book “The Songs He Didn’t Write: Bob Dylan Under The
Influence” was voted as one of the ten best music books of
2009 by UNCUT.
Barker's book was also chosen
as the third best music book of 2009 in Record Collector
magazine. “Songs...” was the only Dylan book to make
either of the above
charts.
Below are a selection of reviews from
fans and the monthly music mags:
Links to original articles in
blue
Fascinating new book...that offers valuable
insight
Robert Hilburn - LA Times
Monumental chronicle of the songs which made Dylan tick and
the ultimate Theme Time Radio Hour companion ... This is so
much more than just another tome to throw on the ever
growing pile of Dylan books...This
marvellous exercise is testament to Barker’s dedication and
knowledge of his subject ... revealing more about its
illusive subject’s ways and workings than a shelf-load of
variations and theories on the well-trodden story ...
Indispensable. *****
Kris Needs – Record Collector
A well-researched,
endlessly entertaining and Fascinating book ****
Allan Jones – Uncut
Ironically (because
it's not about the songs that Dylan has written), it may be
one of the finest books at entering the mind of Dylan, The
Songwriter. Amazingly exhaustive study. Montague Street
journal
Do
we really need another Bob Dylan book? Sure. Especially when
an authority like Derek Barker is the author and the subject
is one which hasn’t been covered in book form this
extensively before ... Thoroughly researched and well
written, it’s an inspiring read.
Dylan fan blog
I
can strongly recommend “Bob Dylan – The Songs He Didn't
Write”. Anyone with any interest in Dylan's musical
background and also anyone interested in more information
about many of the songs played on Theme Time Radio Hour
should certainly read this book ... very well written and
researched.
Johanna Moore - The Daily Dylan
About The Book
Bob
Dylan began his music making performing other people’s songs
and has continued to do so from his early days in Minnesota
and Greenwich Village to his current Never Ending Tours.
Across the years Dylan has returned to his roots either
because of his love of blues, traditional and old-timey
music or to reacquaint himself with his own song writing.
Countless folk ballads and blues numbers have been used by
Dylan as templates for his own compositions and whenever the
going has got tuff he has returned to these songs for
inspiration (“The Basement Tapes”, “Good As I Been To You”,
“World Gone Wrong”, etc.).
Eighteen months in the making,
“The Songs He Didn’t Write” contains detailed information
about the 550 songs which Dylan has covered either in the
studio or in concert from his early party gigs through to
the present day.
Each entry catalogues when and
where the song was performed, the year of the tour and the
date and venue of the first and most recent performance.
Also included is the background to the song, from whom Dylan
might have learned it, and in most cases a short biography
of the artist in question. In many instances the text also
directs the reader to an entry, or entries, in appendix one
and two.
Appendix One: is intended to
take many of the songs contained in the main text out of
alphabetical isolation and to place them in the historical
and chronological settings in which they were performed or
recorded. This enables the reader to view the entire setlist
or album session (in Dundas’ “Tangled” style) and to see how
the song fits into the session or performance in question.
The eighty chronological sections within this appendix also
allows the reader to view the development of Dylan’s own
song-writing and hopefully turns this book into much more
than an encyclopaedia.
Appendix Two is designed to
provide the reader with a useful guide as to which of the
many available CD bootlegs contain the songs discussed in
the book. This concise list attempts to gather together the
maximum number of songs over the minimum number of discs.
Appendix Three is a collection
of notes about significant people, places and artefacts
frequently referred to the main text of the book.
“The Songs He Didn’t Write” is
bang up to date covering the recent release of “Tell Tale
Signs” and drawing from information found in “Chronicles
Volume One” and on “Theme Radio Hour” series One and Two.
|
