{"id":182001,"date":"2021-05-24T12:00:03","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T11:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=182001"},"modified":"2021-05-17T08:39:02","modified_gmt":"2021-05-17T07:39:02","slug":"and-the-brand-played-on-bob-dylan-at-80","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/05\/and-the-brand-played-on-bob-dylan-at-80\/","title":{"rendered":"And the Brand Played on: Bob Dylan at 80"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"css-zjgnrw\">\n<div class=\"css-ysdi17\" style=\"text-align: left;\" data-print-layout=\"hide\">\n<blockquote><p><em>With a slew of books to mark the songwriter\u2019s birthday (24 May 1941) due , we look at the industry that has grown up around the man who forced academia to take pop seriously.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Scroll down for Q&amp;As with the authors of four new Dylan books<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_182002\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/bob-dylan1.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-182002\" class=\"wp-image-182002\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/bob-dylan1-1024x614.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"330\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/bob-dylan1-1024x614.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/bob-dylan1-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/bob-dylan1-768x461.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/bob-dylan1.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-182002\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bob Dylan outside his Byrdcliffe home in Woodstock, New York, 1968.<br \/>Photograph: \u00a9Elliott Landy \/ Magnum Photos<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><span class=\"css-1i2w9iu\"><span class=\"css-1ljoi60\">\u201cI<\/span><\/span><span class=\"css-10tjifi\">t\u2019s gonna take a hundred years before they understand me!\u201d <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/bobdylan\"  data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Bob Dylan<\/a> once claimed, \u201cthey\u201d being the cohorts of fans, critics and Dylanologists who have dogged his tracks ever since Robert Zimmerman, chippy teen of Hibbing, Minnesota, became <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/bobdylan\"  data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Bob Dylan<\/a>, world-famous singer, songwriter, and pop\u2019s most enduring enigma.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">\u201cThat\u2019s exactly the quote James Joyce made about <em>Ulysses,\u201d <\/em>points out Sean Latham, professor of English at the University of Tulsa and head of the institute for Bob Dylan Studies recently established there. \u201cJoyce said, \u2018I put so many puzzles and enigmas in <em>Ulysses<\/em> it will take the scholars 100 years to solve them\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">With the centenary of his masterwork arriving in 2022, Joyce has perhaps been proved right. Whether it will take as long to decipher Dylan\u2019s extensive oeuvre \u2013 600-odd songs, 39 studio albums, a novel, a memoir, one film as director, several more as actor, a half-dozen documentaries, innumerable concerts, a cache of paintings \u2013 seems doubtful given the critical and biographical weight already bearing on him as he approaches his 80th birthday on 24 May. The anniversary coincides with a burgeoning of the Dylan industry being led as much by US academia as by Dylan\u2019s faithful following of \u201cBobcats\u201d. Next month sees the publication of three major new books and one reissue: a new account of Dylan\u2019s early life by his renowned biographer Clinton Heylin; a collection of new writing on Dylan, edited by Latham; an idiosyncratic reassessment of Dylan\u2019s life and work from the writer Paul Morley; and a re-edited version of Robert Shelton\u2019s 1986 biography, <em>Bob Dylan: No Direction Home<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">Central to it all is the establishment of the Bob Dylan Archive in Tulsa, a depository of about 100,000 items bought from Dylan for a cool $20m by the George Kaiser Family Foundation, Kaiser being one of the billionaire philanthropists in which the US seems to specialise. Master tapes, photographs, set lists, notebooks, manuscripts (on all of which Dylan retains copyright) \u2013 the archive has the lot, along with the leather jacket Dylan wore onstage at the 1965 Newport folk festival, when he \u201cwent electric\u201d, and, who knows, the odd leopard-skin pillbox hat. In Tulsa it joins the Woody Guthrie Centre already established by the foundation in 2011 in honour of Oklahoma\u2019s most famous son, Guthrie being the major role model for Dylan in his folk-singing years, before an earlier, rocking and rolling ambition resurfaced \u2013 \u201cTo join Little Richard\u201d, as he told his high school yearbook at age 18.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"css-10khgmf\">\n<div class=\"css-1nfcn93\">\n<picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/13bf7a360486d212592cdbd385b5d680805c07b7\/0_218_8850_5312\/master\/8850.jpg?width=620&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=da9591501bfde1640f78427c7501cc71 1240w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/13bf7a360486d212592cdbd385b5d680805c07b7\/0_218_8850_5312\/master\/8850.jpg?width=605&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=ee79b2d7bd3e5588a0e272b91edbf6c4 1210w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/13bf7a360486d212592cdbd385b5d680805c07b7\/0_218_8850_5312\/master\/8850.jpg?width=445&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=eb02a79ac46a4f4adf06e1991dc0d98f 890w\" media=\"(-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-resolution: 120dpi)\" sizes=\"(min-width: 660px) 620px, 100vw\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/13bf7a360486d212592cdbd385b5d680805c07b7\/0_218_8850_5312\/master\/8850.jpg?width=620&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=705f91678a208e79cac8ba316e506108 620w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/13bf7a360486d212592cdbd385b5d680805c07b7\/0_218_8850_5312\/master\/8850.jpg?width=605&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=533da0574b8b3865e315988975f85dac 605w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/13bf7a360486d212592cdbd385b5d680805c07b7\/0_218_8850_5312\/master\/8850.jpg?width=445&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=3154e4285f150246f892c339f7bcad69 445w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 660px) 620px, 100vw\" \/><\/picture>\n<div id=\"attachment_182005\" style=\"width: 230px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Bob_Dylan_crop.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-182005\" class=\"size-full wp-image-182005\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Bob_Dylan_crop.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"220\" height=\"265\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-182005\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Simple Wikipedia<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">The interest of academics in Dylan is nothing new \u2013 Boston\u2019s <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/theobserver\/2003\/sep\/14\/music\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">Christopher Ricks<\/a>, Princeton\u2019s <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2010\/sep\/12\/bob-dylan-in-america-biography\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">Sean Wilentz<\/a> and Harvard\u2019s <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2017\/dec\/19\/why-dylan-matters-richard-f-thomas-review\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">Richard Thomas<\/a> have all written thoughtful books \u2013 but its scale is increasing exponentially in the US. Latham\u2019s <em>The World of Bob Dylan<\/em>, to be published in May by Cambridge University Press, includes 18 professors among its 24 contributors. Meanwhile Latham estimates the number of Dylan university courses on offer at about 100, and while the British National Bibliography lists 400 Dylan tomes he suggests the true figure is nearer 2,000; \u201cI took delivery of 500 for the archive just the other day\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">\u201cWe are,\u201d he says, \u201centering a new phase in the life of the academy, a deeply conservative institution that has its own rhythm. It took 50 years from the invention of film before it became a subject of serious intellectual inquiry, and with pop music we are basically in that window now \u2013 it\u2019s clearly an important part of 20th-century cultural history, and in the past 15 years academic conservatism has been overcome.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">Latham\u2019s book (or \u201ccuration\u201d, perhaps) offers a comprehensive overview of Bobdom \u2013 musical influences from sea shanties and highland ballads to blues and gospel, his interest in Brecht and the Beat poets, the politics of the civil rights movement and the counterculture, and more. There is even room, in the perennial boy\u2019s club of Dylanology, for female voices, including a chapter on gender and sexuality where Ann Powers contrasts Bob\u2019s \u201cbuttoned-up scarfy layers\u201d to the \u201csemi-nude\u201d posturings of rock gods like Robert Plant, and dates \u201cthe first time Dylan took off his shirt\u201d to a scene in his 1978 symbolist movie <em>Renaldo and Clara<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">The book is, says Latham, \u201cmeant to introduce Dylan fans to new voices, a pivot between fandom and scholarship, a book you can use in a classroom\u201d. Fair enough, though Dylan\u2019s character \u2013 his intelligence, goofy humour, paranoia, cruelty and charisma \u2013 remains obstinately out of the scholars\u2019 reach.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"css-10khgmf\">\n<div class=\"css-1nfcn93\">\n<picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/ea66b3605ae121c4021afdd1bb2e6abc7e885c6c\/0_614_4375_2625\/master\/4375.jpg?width=620&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=454c1521eb82522b3a24de7d53eb4ec8 1240w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/ea66b3605ae121c4021afdd1bb2e6abc7e885c6c\/0_614_4375_2625\/master\/4375.jpg?width=605&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=06d2854c6bcafae4fb9fdb5078e83e27 1210w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/ea66b3605ae121c4021afdd1bb2e6abc7e885c6c\/0_614_4375_2625\/master\/4375.jpg?width=445&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=2c2b4f759786dd0a26784ff9d9dee1be 890w\" media=\"(-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-resolution: 120dpi)\" sizes=\"(min-width: 660px) 620px, 100vw\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/ea66b3605ae121c4021afdd1bb2e6abc7e885c6c\/0_614_4375_2625\/master\/4375.jpg?width=620&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=d386baf9639a44af3d48e818fbddf0bc 620w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/ea66b3605ae121c4021afdd1bb2e6abc7e885c6c\/0_614_4375_2625\/master\/4375.jpg?width=605&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=4fded8e5f9bbe3919b1db75d1e84bfef 605w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/ea66b3605ae121c4021afdd1bb2e6abc7e885c6c\/0_614_4375_2625\/master\/4375.jpg?width=445&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=a2560f3f8379b53373ec267c374f6a3d 445w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 660px) 620px, 100vw\" \/><\/picture>\n<div id=\"attachment_182006\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/bob-dylan-joan-baez.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-182006\" class=\"wp-image-182006\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/bob-dylan-joan-baez-1024x397.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"272\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/bob-dylan-joan-baez-1024x397.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/bob-dylan-joan-baez-300x116.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/bob-dylan-joan-baez-768x298.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/bob-dylan-joan-baez.jpg 1250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-182006\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">With Joan Baez at the Newport folk festival.<br \/>OUP Blog &#8211; Oxford University Press<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">The principal motor of the Dylan industry remains the man himself, who has long shown an aptitude for the business side of the music biz, having been, like so many, financially stung early in his career. Last year he <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/business\/2020\/dec\/07\/bob-dylan-sells-publishing-universal-music\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">sold the rights to his entire back catalogue<\/a> to Universal Music for an estimated $300m, before which he had <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/alldylan.com\/bob-dylan-9-commercials\/\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">licensed songs for commercials<\/a> for, among others, Apple, Cadillac, Pepsi, Budweiser, IBM and Victoria\u2019s Secret, appearing in the last himself, apparently summoned by a seductive, scantily clad angel. These days Dylan markets his own brand of liquor, Heaven\u2019s Door Whiskey, alongside prints of his artwork (about \u00a35,000 a pop). In the Latham book, Devon Powers argues that \u201cDylan became a brand because brands aspired to become more like him: to matter, to delight, to enrapture and, above all, to last\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><span class=\"css-1i2w9iu\"><span class=\"css-1ljoi60\">D<\/span><\/span><span class=\"css-10tjifi\">ylan has certainly lasted extraordinarily well, rebounding from a career low in middle age \u2013 his role as a washed-up rock star in 1987\u2019s <em>Hearts of Fire<\/em> and on disc with the Grateful Dead the same year marked his nadir \u2013 into a creative renaissance during his \u201cthird act\u201d, a time when most pop stars have long since hung up their rock\u2019n\u2019roll shoes. A revival that began with 1997\u2019s <em>Time Out of Mind<\/em> has continued with <em>Love and Theft<\/em> (2001) <em>Modern Times<\/em> (2006), <em>T<\/em><em>empest <\/em>(2012) and last year\u2019s <em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2020\/jun\/20\/bob-dylan-rough-and-rowdy-ways-review-enthralling-mischievous-and-very-male\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">Rough and Rowdy Ways<\/a><\/em>, a quartet interspersed with three albums inconsequentially covering the great American songbook (ie Porter, Sinatra and co), a somewhat preposterous Christmas record and a sizeable memoir, 2004\u2019s <em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2004\/oct\/16\/highereducation.biography\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">Chronicles Volume One<\/a><\/em>, not forgetting his brilliant radio series, <em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/media\/2006\/dec\/31\/observerreview.radio\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">Theme Time Radio Hour<\/a><\/em>. All have arrived against the background of the \u201cnever-ending tour\u201d that Dylan declared back in 1988 and which has since delivered more than 3,000 shows, its progress halted only by the Covid pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">It\u2019s an astonishing work rate that has surely taken its toll. Arthritis means that Dylan can no longer hold a guitar; onstage he plays, and is propped up by, an electric piano. His voice \u2013 rarely a thing of beauty and most often an abrasively compelling affair described by David Bowie as \u201clike sand and glue\u201d \u2013 is in tatters, obliging him to abandon singing altogether for gravelly, dramatic declamation on <em>Rough and Rowdy Ways<\/em>. Yet like Matisse, forced to give up oils and canvas for cut-outs around the same age, Dylan remains obstinately true to his art, \u201crefusing to let his career become embalmed\u201d as Paul Morley puts it in his new book, out next month. Once you stop creating, you\u2019re in the past.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"css-1sioudk\">\n<div class=\"css-1nfcn93\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/fe190aa076962cd343037e7b2b86b89eda4fe365\/0_439_1907_2384\/master\/1907.jpg?width=380&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=466f011847ac4156caf825d400b7a198 760w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/fe190aa076962cd343037e7b2b86b89eda4fe365\/0_439_1907_2384\/master\/1907.jpg?width=300&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=439bb5a1271c1b5cd7587fcfe951297a 600w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/fe190aa076962cd343037e7b2b86b89eda4fe365\/0_439_1907_2384\/master\/1907.jpg?width=620&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=613aa0b48f8950ed326894de89f87128 1240w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/fe190aa076962cd343037e7b2b86b89eda4fe365\/0_439_1907_2384\/master\/1907.jpg?width=605&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=29d12d67e554d032cd5f253eed8548c4 1210w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/fe190aa076962cd343037e7b2b86b89eda4fe365\/0_439_1907_2384\/master\/1907.jpg?width=445&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=0976f8f42e10dc5bc3036d7a68272f5b 890w\" media=\"(-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-resolution: 120dpi)\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1300px) 380px, 300px\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/fe190aa076962cd343037e7b2b86b89eda4fe365\/0_439_1907_2384\/master\/1907.jpg?width=380&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=786d9d78d8f8457f9b117cba50907428 380w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/fe190aa076962cd343037e7b2b86b89eda4fe365\/0_439_1907_2384\/master\/1907.jpg?width=300&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=11e41448e7dd72f135a80f88c05783f9 300w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/fe190aa076962cd343037e7b2b86b89eda4fe365\/0_439_1907_2384\/master\/1907.jpg?width=620&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=2f9e49a0183c8a3a9c2509f4c6971e2b 620w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/fe190aa076962cd343037e7b2b86b89eda4fe365\/0_439_1907_2384\/master\/1907.jpg?width=605&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=c3a06dcfbfce43b05e2f15e56aa81ade 605w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/fe190aa076962cd343037e7b2b86b89eda4fe365\/0_439_1907_2384\/master\/1907.jpg?width=445&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=b820f18301ca908465352c7febe14a00 445w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1300px) 380px, 300px\" \/><\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">Other developments have kept Dylan newsworthy. Only stalled by the pandemic is the Broadway run of the Old Vic\u2019s hit musical <em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/stage\/2017\/jul\/27\/girl-from-the-north-country-review-bob-dylan-conor-mcpherson\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">Girl from the North Country<\/a>, <\/em>a depression-era drama set in Dylan\u2019s home turf on the \u201ciron range\u201d of Duluth and scripted by Conor McPherson using 20 songs from Dylan\u2019s career. Dylan loved it. From further back there was playing for the pope in 1997, collecting the presidential medal of freedom (the US\u2019s highest civilian honour) from Obama in 2012, and most of all being awarded the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2017\/apr\/02\/bob-dylan-finally-accepts-nobel-prize-in-literature-at-private-ceremony-in-stockholm\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">Nobel prize for literature<\/a> in 2016, an award about which he was diffident (\u201cNobel? Wasn\u2019t he the guy who invented dynamite?\u201d was a rumoured response), remaining silent for months before accepting the honour, then declining to attend the acceptance ceremony in Stockholm, where Patti Smith touchingly <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2016\/dec\/10\/patti-smith-falters-in-stockholm-tribute-to-an-absent-bob-dylan\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">choked up<\/a> singing A Hard Rain\u2019s a-Gonna Fall.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_182014\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/bob-dylan-3.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-182014\" class=\"wp-image-182014\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/bob-dylan-3-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/bob-dylan-3-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/bob-dylan-3-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/bob-dylan-3-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/bob-dylan-3.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-182014\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wikipedia<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">Days before the deadline for receiving the $900,000 prize money, Dylan gave the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2017\/jun\/05\/bob-dylan-delivers-nobel-prize-literature-lecture-just-in-time\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">required lecture<\/a>, first comparing himself to Shakespeare, as much concerned with actors, musicians, venues, audiences as literature, which he disingenuously claimed to have never thought about. He may have described himself as \u201ca song and dance man\u201d back in the 1960s, but authors\u2019 names litter his songs \u2013 Eliot, Pound, Verlaine, Rimbaud among them \u2013 and he has along claimed kinship with the Beats, with Kerouac and Ginsberg, becoming friends with the latter. His lecture, ruminating on the impact made on him by <em>Moby-Dick<\/em>, <em>All Quiet on the Western Front<\/em> and <em>The Odyssey<\/em>, was engaging enough, though it transpired that many of his ruminations on Melville\u2019s opus were cribbed intact from the online resource SparkNotes: whether it was from convenience or to cock a snook at the academy (AKA \u201cMr Jones\u201d) remains unclear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">Dylan has always been a thief. In his time lighting up the Greenwich Village folk circuit in the early 1960s, purists lambasted him for plundering the canon for his own songs, as if hijacking a 200-year-old melody mattered when it emerged as a masterpiece like Hard Rain. In his advancing years his pilfering has become rife, with lines from Virgil, Homer and Junichi Saga\u2019s <em>Confessions of a Yakuza<\/em> among those sprinkled in his songs, while <em>Modern Times<\/em> featured verses from civil war poet Henry Timrod, leading Dylan to respond, when challenged: \u201cYou even heard of him? And who\u2019s been making you read him?\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"css-10khgmf\">\n<div class=\"css-1nfcn93\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/1cb94eb1f2c3d5560da358bb9f93ff4e812d3528\/0_0_2048_1229\/master\/2048.jpg?width=620&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=91480615c4eb0d5e02b100d62c9c08ab 1240w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/1cb94eb1f2c3d5560da358bb9f93ff4e812d3528\/0_0_2048_1229\/master\/2048.jpg?width=605&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=0897ed69a8016cfc7531978d63f34b89 1210w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/1cb94eb1f2c3d5560da358bb9f93ff4e812d3528\/0_0_2048_1229\/master\/2048.jpg?width=445&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=ac763191879f0e5a72666665ed663236 890w\" media=\"(-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-resolution: 120dpi)\" sizes=\"(min-width: 660px) 620px, 100vw\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/1cb94eb1f2c3d5560da358bb9f93ff4e812d3528\/0_0_2048_1229\/master\/2048.jpg?width=620&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=d8436c5825b62a250e4f3f7b21d05d29 620w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/1cb94eb1f2c3d5560da358bb9f93ff4e812d3528\/0_0_2048_1229\/master\/2048.jpg?width=605&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=83fa00cbdbf6b1ff326da66b9a63f2df 605w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/1cb94eb1f2c3d5560da358bb9f93ff4e812d3528\/0_0_2048_1229\/master\/2048.jpg?width=445&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=f970f8e06ad42a9070c502f0f9d9341f 445w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 660px) 620px, 100vw\" \/><\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">Scholars may deem such jackdaw habits \u201can intertextual creative process\u201d: others regard it as blatant plagiarism. Certainly, when you see entire sentences from Jack London\u2019s <em>Call of the Wild<\/em> wheeled out to describe his friend Johnny Cash in <em>Chronicles<\/em>, rock\u2019s greatest bard appears to have crossed a line. Perhaps Bob should keep in mind Billie Holiday\u2019s advice in God Bless the Child: \u201cYou can help yourself but don\u2019t take too much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><span class=\"css-1i2w9iu\"><span class=\"css-1ljoi60\">D<\/span><\/span><span class=\"css-10tjifi\">ylan\u2019s trickiness, his elusiveness, indeed his outright dishonesty, are legend. Arriving in New York he would tell people he was an orphan, was born in Oklahoma, had run away with the carnival\u2026 anything but the truth, which was always concealed, one reason, presumably, for the title of Heylin\u2019s latest biography, <em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Double-Life-Bob-Dylan-1941-1966\/dp\/0316535214\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">The Double Life of Bob Dylan<\/a><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">\u201cFor sure,\u201d confirms Heylin, \u201cbut also something as prosaic as the fact that this exploration of his life will be in two volumes, and most importantly, to reflect Dylan\u2019s Gemini nature; hot and cold, kind and cruel, hard and soft, wild and woolly, and most of all, public and private, artist and man.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">Heylin has long been Dylan\u2019s most accomplished biographer, with 1991\u2019s <em>Behind the Shades<\/em> moving on the singer\u2019s story from the well-chronicled glory years of the 1960s to the quarter century beyond, and supplying a wealth of original research. The book has been updated three times since, while Heylin has also delivered two volumes analysing Dylan\u2019s songs, <em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2009\/may\/03\/bob-dylan-revolution-in-the-air\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">Revolution in the Air<\/a><\/em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2009\/may\/03\/bob-dylan-revolution-in-the-air\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\"> (2009) <\/a>and S<em>till on the Road <\/em>(2010). The arrival of the Dylan archive \u2013 Heylin is one of the first to be granted access \u2013 has already delivered fresh insights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">\u201cIt\u2019s an impressive resource,\u201d says Heylin, \u201cand an important one to have in light of the usual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame approach, which continues to paint Dylan as a quirky protest singer from the 1960s. However, the archive doesn\u2019t really start until after his motorcycle accident in 1966, which is where this volume ends. There are very few manuscripts from before then, but one coup was to go through the entire footage of <em>Don\u2019t Look Back<\/em> and <em>Eat the Document<\/em> [DA Pennebaker\u2019s renowned documentaries from 1967 and 1972] in that period of great creativity, where you see Dylan not just in interviews but in conversations, in down time, and witness that mind endlessly whirring\u2026 it never turns off!<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">\u201cPlus all the studio tapes are there, with the studio dialogue intact, showing you the relationship Dylan had with his producers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">These turned out to be more troubled than history has allowed. John Hammond, garlanded for his \u201cdiscovery\u201d of Benny Goodman and Billie Holiday, and who produced the first two Dylan albums, clearly didn\u2019t understand his new charge. \u201cFrom the outset Dylan was clearly aware that Hammond was offering him nothing. Even at the age of 20 he\u2019s challenging Hammond. With Tom Wilson \u2013 producer of Dylan\u2019s subsequent three albums \u2013 the relationship was more productive but Wilson still had to walk on eggshells.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">Archive aside, Heylin includes a huge amount of new material about Dylan\u2019s early life as a teenage malcontent in Hibbing, a once prosperous small town servicing the giant open-cast iron mine at its edge, but turned shabby during the cold war 1950s. Here Bobby Zimmerman nurtured his crush on Brando and Dean, posed on his Harley, and assured acquaintances that one day he would be extremely famous. Mostly he was quiet and reserved, other than playing a school concert where he terrorised his schoolmates with noisy imitations of his rock\u2019n\u2019roll heroes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">\u201cThere is a photograph I wanted for the book, of girls looking on horrified,\u201d says Heylin, \u201cit\u2019s like the scene in <em>Back to the Future<\/em> where Michael J Fox plays 21st-century guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">From new interviews come a picture of Bob\u2019s annual forays to summer camp, where he struck up deep friendships and became one of a trio of bad boys, much to the consternation of his bewildered, authoritarian father and indulgent mother.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">\u201cWhat comes across is the number of people who say he knew exactly what he was doing from an early age,\u201d says Heylin, \u201cthat he was completely driven and that nothing would blow him off course. There\u2019s much more self-awareness to that young man than in previous versions of him, including by myself. I didn\u2019t realise how burning his ambition was.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">\u201cThere\u2019s a tape of him performing a dozen songs recorded in January 1961, one that\u2019s still uncirculated, Dylan is a week away from going to New York, he\u2019s singing Guthrie, Hank Williams and the rest and it\u2019s already Bob Dylan fully formed; the intonation, the harmonica, <em>everything<\/em> is there already.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">Dylan\u2019s ascent once he arrived in New York was vertiginous, his relationship with his contemporaries complex and often barbed, his love affairs with <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2011\/feb\/28\/suze-rotolo-obituary\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">Suze Rotolo<\/a> (with whom he is arm in arm on the cover of <em>Freewheelin\u2019<\/em>), and Joan Baez intense and eventually unhappy. If there is fault in Heylin\u2019s telling of the tale, it\u2019s that the breathless pace of Dylan\u2019s life allows little chance to explore the songs flooding from him, but then, as Heylin says, he\u2019s done that job elsewhere. Meanwhile, <em>Double Life <\/em>is the definitive, scrupulously researched biography of a life steeped in mystery: \u201cHe didn\u2019t want <em>anyone <\/em>to know <em>anythin<\/em>g about him,\u201d says an early sidekick. <em>Plus ca change\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<figure class=\"css-1sioudk\">\n<div class=\"css-1nfcn93\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/03557656534684204d28b080e9690bc1d67ebb91\/105_238_2554_3189\/master\/2554.jpg?width=380&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=e12dff3f7c7e5f53f5946c96f762a222 760w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/03557656534684204d28b080e9690bc1d67ebb91\/105_238_2554_3189\/master\/2554.jpg?width=300&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=0688469152f9bead2f41f730548da9f3 600w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/03557656534684204d28b080e9690bc1d67ebb91\/105_238_2554_3189\/master\/2554.jpg?width=620&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=24defb70dfb3298c199b9169edc3a4c7 1240w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/03557656534684204d28b080e9690bc1d67ebb91\/105_238_2554_3189\/master\/2554.jpg?width=605&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=8d50f62c5d7458734639ed26135091d6 1210w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/03557656534684204d28b080e9690bc1d67ebb91\/105_238_2554_3189\/master\/2554.jpg?width=445&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=376d1cb6ced385255a89a9793572f0f6 890w\" media=\"(-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-resolution: 120dpi)\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1300px) 380px, 300px\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/03557656534684204d28b080e9690bc1d67ebb91\/105_238_2554_3189\/master\/2554.jpg?width=380&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=732c0e7cc37f3cc0e8c50b66e2dcae30 380w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/03557656534684204d28b080e9690bc1d67ebb91\/105_238_2554_3189\/master\/2554.jpg?width=300&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=a289fee0193e51862ab3de19fa42ba46 300w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/03557656534684204d28b080e9690bc1d67ebb91\/105_238_2554_3189\/master\/2554.jpg?width=620&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=d06d7ecd66bb76c957e19d518c3a14c6 620w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/03557656534684204d28b080e9690bc1d67ebb91\/105_238_2554_3189\/master\/2554.jpg?width=605&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=b71c26ed9233a7e1b875b5731628dcfd 605w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/03557656534684204d28b080e9690bc1d67ebb91\/105_238_2554_3189\/master\/2554.jpg?width=445&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=14bbc6387e2106dab63f19099cc5ebd0 445w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1300px) 380px, 300px\" \/><\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">Heylin is sceptical about other biographies, almost all of which simply recycle old material. Not so <em>No Direction Home <\/em>by the late Robert Shelton, a <em>New York Times<\/em> journalist, early Dylan champion and later a friend. <em>No Direction Home<\/em> should have been the book fans wanted to read at the close of the 1960s, but Shelton dragged his feet interminably and it eventually appeared in 1986, by which time it was already superseded and its omissions glaring. Its reissue next month is notable mainly for its handsome photographs, most from the 1960s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">Paul Morley\u2019s <em>You<\/em> <em>Lose Yourself You Reappear<\/em>, out at the end of April, doesn\u2019t pretend to be a biography. Rather, it\u2019s a gleeful, erudite romp across Dylan\u2019s career from a lifelong fan (who knew?). \u201cIt\u2019s a personal response,\u201d Morley says. \u201c\u2018Bob Dylan has always been a kind of fiction, and you can use the facts to create the figure.\u201d Morley\u2019s timeframe \u2013 \u201cfrom Pearl Harbor to Trump\u201d \u2013 allows him to leap between eras, follow songs back and forth and indulge his passions \u2013 Dylan\u2019s speed-driven novel <em>Tarantula<\/em> for example, encountering which as a teenage Marc Bolan fan \u201cmade Dylan more than a musician\u201d. <em>Bon mots<\/em> abound, whether it\u2019s Dylan and Baez as \u201ca folk Burton and Taylor\u201d or the lengthy decoding of Bob\u2019s late-era pencil moustache: \u201ca little sleazy, it puts Dylan in a club of devilish dandies and rogues he\u2019d be happy to be a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">Many of the more prosaic facts are packed into a couple of late chapters, which nonetheless prove evocative, especially the portrait of Hibbing, the founding place of the Greyhound bus \u201cat the wrong, northern end of Highway 61 but connected to the warrior energy of Mississippi bluesmen\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">At 80 Dylan has lived a third of his country\u2019s history, becoming both cultural titan of modern times and shaman from \u201cthe old weird America\u201d. He once claimed \u201cthe Dylan myth wasn\u2019t created by me &#8211; it was a gift from God\u201d, but he has been a willing accomplice, a magus distilling his personal gnosis as much from religion as from music or art, one steeped in Judaism and Christianity, though ancient Rome is a surprisingly consistent strand. Women remain the other element in the alchemy, but despite a trove of love songs, variously tremulous, ardent or betrayed, Dylan remains an old testament prophet, forever promising \u201cA wave that can drown the whole world\u201d or warning \u201cYou gotta serve somebody\u201d. Apocalypse is always imminent, but first, he\u2019s heading for another joint on the never-ending tour.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2018If Dylan didn\u2019t exist you\u2019d have to invent him\u2019<\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Q&amp;As with the authors of four new Dylan books:<\/h3>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.faber.co.uk\/author\/clinton-heylin\/\" >Clinton Heylin:<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n<div class=\"css-1nfcn93\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/06ad7db997eed1d12f95282879cb72c79c0f157b\/0_0_1664_2560\/master\/1664.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=699cc3ece9d20b4d79b7bd4363316307 280w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/06ad7db997eed1d12f95282879cb72c79c0f157b\/0_0_1664_2560\/master\/1664.jpg?width=120&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=791dea27830dc7cb5ce4582594bcda07 240w\" media=\"(-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-resolution: 120dpi)\" sizes=\"140px\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/06ad7db997eed1d12f95282879cb72c79c0f157b\/0_0_1664_2560\/master\/1664.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=41706ddfc48dd99dc216b6aefbd7bbd3 140w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/06ad7db997eed1d12f95282879cb72c79c0f157b\/0_0_1664_2560\/master\/1664.jpg?width=120&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=30634e5bc33a286968645098037b2dd2 120w\" sizes=\"140px\" \/><\/picture><\/div>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">Author of <em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/guardianbookshop.com\/a-restless-hungry-feeling-9781847925886.html\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">A Restless Hungry Feeling: The Double Life of Bob Dylan Vol 1 1941\u20131966<\/a><\/em>, a newly rewritten early life of Dylan. Heylin also wrote <em>Bob Dylan Behind the Shades<\/em> and published a detailed analysis of every song by Dylan, in two volumes: <em>Revolution in the Air<\/em> and <em>Still on the Road<\/em><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>What would you give to Bob Dylan for his 80th birthday?<br \/>\n<\/strong>A copy of my new book, just to jog those ol\u2019 brain cells.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>What is your favourite <\/strong><strong>Dylan song, and why?<br \/>\n<\/strong>Visions of Johanna. Because it\u2019s poetry, performance art and perfection in a seven-minute slice of song.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>What is the most surprising thing you found out about <\/strong><strong>Dylan while writing your book?<br \/>\n<\/strong>That he tells a lot of \u201cporkies\u201d. Maybe not that surprising.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>Which modern artists do you think are comparable to Dylan?<br \/>\n<\/strong>He is incomparable. Obviously.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>How would you sell Dylan to someone who says they\u2019re not a Dylan fan?<br \/>\n<\/strong>Open up your ears and you\u2019re influenced. Bob Dylan said that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>Complete this sentence: Without Dylan there would be no\u2026<br \/>\n<\/strong>Ed Sheeran. He has a lot to answer for.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"css-1nntrho\">\n<div class=\"css-1nfcn93\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/96d7546ba01fa7c09aebe032f0d7ff7f7837c6ea\/0_0_329_499\/master\/329.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=6a4839eeea801b272ce8d3a2cb5fd22f 280w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/96d7546ba01fa7c09aebe032f0d7ff7f7837c6ea\/0_0_329_499\/master\/329.jpg?width=120&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=527b7ebc457542637bb8ef3d5f78801f 240w\" media=\"(-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-resolution: 120dpi)\" sizes=\"140px\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/96d7546ba01fa7c09aebe032f0d7ff7f7837c6ea\/0_0_329_499\/master\/329.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=f20d438157f5d980139f6e82ddda4e26 140w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/96d7546ba01fa7c09aebe032f0d7ff7f7837c6ea\/0_0_329_499\/master\/329.jpg?width=120&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=07ccd10fc028bff1e7a4959e7c3ce420 120w\" sizes=\"140px\" \/><\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.seanlatham.com\/\" >Sean Latham:<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">Director of the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/dylan.utulsa.edu\/\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">Institute for Bob Dylan Studies<\/a> at the University of Tulsa, where the Dylan Archive is kept, and where the new Bob Dylan Center will open in 2021. Latham is co-editor of <em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/World-Bob-Dylan-Sean-Latham\/dp\/1108499511\/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&amp;keywords=The+World+of+Bob+Dylan&amp;qid=1616510875&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-1\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">The World of Bob Dylan<\/a><\/em>, which brings together leading rock and pop critics and scholars writing on Dylan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>What would you give to Bob Dylan for his 80th birthday?<br \/>\n<\/strong>His band and a microphone, in a Covid-free concert call. His music comes alive in performance, and he\u2019s not done yet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>What is your favourite <\/strong><strong>Dylan song, and why?<br \/>\n<\/strong>Blind Willie McTell. It\u2019s a poetic history lesson about race, nation and culture all rolled into five artful verses, each more astonishing than the last.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>What is the most surprising thing you found out about <\/strong><strong>Dylan while editing your book?<br \/>\n<\/strong>That so many pathways lead into and out of Dylan: music, literature, politics, marketing, philosophy, social justice \u2013 his work touches it all.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>Which modern artists do you think are comparable to Dylan?<br \/>\n<\/strong>James Joyce. Together, Joyce and Dylan are the two most innovative and globally influential artists of the 20th century.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>How would you sell Dylan to someone who says they\u2019re not a Dylan fan?<br \/>\n<\/strong>As I tell my students who know almost nothing about Dylan: start by picking your favourite musician and you\u2019ll almost immediately find a Dylan cover.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>Complete this sentence: Without Dylan there would be no\u2026<br \/>\n<\/strong>Serious poetry in popular music. He showed all who came after him how to make it into a deep, meaningful and human form of art.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"css-1nntrho\">\n<div class=\"css-1nfcn93\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/8154d153ab8220e3afeb551c54ca42929ca3cac2\/0_0_391_500\/master\/391.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=3d4b08616739f8fa7bc08c0f4bf40479 280w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/8154d153ab8220e3afeb551c54ca42929ca3cac2\/0_0_391_500\/master\/391.jpg?width=120&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=e703149edf36b94cecd2f208afba9751 240w\" media=\"(-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-resolution: 120dpi)\" sizes=\"140px\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/8154d153ab8220e3afeb551c54ca42929ca3cac2\/0_0_391_500\/master\/391.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=7450956757511f05ea9caa6c1f151fb1 140w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/8154d153ab8220e3afeb551c54ca42929ca3cac2\/0_0_391_500\/master\/391.jpg?width=120&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=3d5ecf46ce57e0bf2a585522c6c24046 120w\" sizes=\"140px\" \/><\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.lizthomson.co.uk\/\" >Elizabeth Thomson:<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">The revising editor of Robert Shelton\u2019s <em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/dp\/1786750902\/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&amp;pd_rd_i=1786750902p13NParams&amp;spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFKMkQ4Q0RaMkJWT0EmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTAyMjUwODAyQTRFQTVCMEY0TjIxJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTAxMjQ3NzlHVzcyRTFVOUVRODcmd2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWwmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">Bob Dylan: No Direction Home<\/a><\/em>, and the author of <em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Joan-Baez-Last-Elizabeth-Thomson\/dp\/1786750961\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2TWP0CMWKFINM&amp;dchild=1&amp;keywords=joan+baez+the+last+leaf&amp;qid=1616511133&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=Joan+Baez%2Cstripbooks%2C199&amp;sr=1-1\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">Joan Baez: The Last Leaf<\/a><\/em>, both published by Palazzo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>What would you give to Bob Dylan for his 80th birthday?<br \/>\n<\/strong>Dinner at the Washington Square Hotel, Greenwich Village, where he lived in the early 1960s. Joan Baez immortalised their affair at what was then the Hotel Earle in <em>Diamonds &amp; Rust<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>What is your favourite <\/strong><strong>Dylan song, and why?<br \/>\n<\/strong>Chimes of Freedom, because of its rich symbolism and metaphor, and extraordinary humanity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>What is the most surprising thing you found out about <\/strong><strong>Dylan while editing your book?<\/strong><br \/>\nI was struck again by Dylan\u2019s single-mindedness and his youthful brilliance. If he\u2019d died at 25 his legacy would be immense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>Which modern artists do you think are comparable to Dylan?<br \/>\n<\/strong>Nobody. To paraphrase Voltaire, if Dylan didn\u2019t exist you\u2019d have to invent him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>How would you sell Dylan to someone who says they\u2019re not a Dylan fan?<br \/>\n<\/strong>Play them <em>The Freewheelin\u2019 Bob Dylan<\/em>, <em>Bringing It All Back Home<\/em>, <em>Blood On the Tracks<\/em> and <em>Oh Mercy<\/em><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>Complete this sentence: Without Dylan there would be no\u2026<br \/>\n<\/strong>Idiosyncratic untrained vocalists singing about existential angst.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"css-1nntrho\">\n<div class=\"css-1nfcn93\"><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/ac19165790801a83be8448617e520e478fa413ed\/0_0_1400_2152\/master\/1400.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=bda0313fc2db9e5536420f5f3206eb48 280w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/ac19165790801a83be8448617e520e478fa413ed\/0_0_1400_2152\/master\/1400.jpg?width=120&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=c2609663c64444536728d99b659d57bd 240w\" media=\"(-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-resolution: 120dpi)\" sizes=\"140px\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/ac19165790801a83be8448617e520e478fa413ed\/0_0_1400_2152\/master\/1400.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=c42a3bee1eb2c4c2f5096ae8b227a3bb 140w,https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/ac19165790801a83be8448617e520e478fa413ed\/0_0_1400_2152\/master\/1400.jpg?width=120&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=30889493db5107a5ee538cd1cdd1d1bc 120w\" sizes=\"140px\" \/><\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/profile\/paulmorley\" >Paul Morley:<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\">Author of <em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/guardianbookshop.com\/you-lose-yourself-you-reappeha-9781471195143.html\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">You Lose Yourself You Reappear: <\/a><\/em><em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/guardianbookshop.com\/you-lose-yourself-you-reappeha-9781471195143.html\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">Bob Dylan and the Voices of a Lifetime<\/a><\/em>, along with numerous other books about music.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>What would you give Bob Dylan for his 80th birthday?<br \/>\n<\/strong>I had already decided to give him something unique that I\u2019d make myself, like a few sentences, which became a book. I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll be thrilled\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>What is your favourite <\/strong><strong>Dylan song, and why?<br \/>\n<\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3NbQkyvbw18\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">Murder Most Foul<\/a>. Because he manages to compress for ever into a song, like he always hinted he could. (See below.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>What is the most surprising thing you found out about <\/strong><strong>Dylan while writing your book?<br \/>\n<\/strong>I\u2019m always taken by surprise, and surprise is hard to fake, that All Along the Watchtower, which touches on everything under the sun, is only two and a half minutes long. (See above.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>Which modern artist do you think is comparable to <\/strong><strong>Dylan?<br \/>\n<\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/artanddesign\/gerhard-richter\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">Gerhard Richter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>How would you sell Dylan to someone who says they\u2019re not a Dylan fan?<br \/>\n<\/strong>a) He\u2019s written some of the greatest, fiercest love songs of all time. b) Watch the \u201cLike a Rolling Chum\u201d episode of <em>Pawn Stars<\/em><em>,<\/em> where Chumlee asks Dylan for his autograph. c) He relished wordplay as the best way of driving out devils.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><strong>Complete this sentence: Without Dylan there would be no\u2026<br \/>\n<\/strong>\u2026 one who knew how to ask the right questions. The kind where the only answer is poetry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><em>A Restless, Hungry Feeling: The Double Life of Bob Dylan, Vol 1 1941-1966<\/em> by Clinton Heylin is published by Bodley Head on 8 April (\u00a330). To order a copy go to <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/guardianbookshop.com\/a-restless-hungry-feeling-9781847925886.html\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">guardianbookshop.com<\/a>. Delivery charges may apply<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><em>The World of Bob Dylan<\/em> edited by Sean Latham is published by <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/gb\/academic\/subjects\/literature\/american-literature\/world-bob-dylan?format=HB\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">Cambridge University Press (\u00a320)<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-10tjifi\"><em>Bob Dylan: No Direction Home <\/em>by Robert Shelton, edited by Elizabeth Thomson, is published by <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.palazzoeditions.com\/adult-titles\/bob-dylan\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">Palazzo (\u00a320)<\/a><\/p>\n<footer><em>You Lose Yourself You Reappear, Bob Dylan and The Voice of a Lifetime<\/em> by Paul Morley is published by Simon &amp; Schuster on 29 April (\u00a320). To order a copy go to <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/guardianbookshop.com\/you-lose-yourself-you-reappeha-9781471195143.html\"  data-link-name=\"in body link\">guardianbookshop.com<\/a>. Delivery charges may apply.<\/footer>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<footer><\/footer>\n<footer><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2021\/mar\/28\/and-the-brand-played-on-bob-dylan-at-80\" >Go to Original &#8211; theguardian.com<\/a><\/footer>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With a slew of books to mark the songwriter\u2019s birthday (24 May 1941) due , we look at the industry that has grown up around the man who forced academia to take pop seriously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":182002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[214],"tags":[900,1895,1077],"class_list":["post-182001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biographies","tag-biography","tag-bob-dylan","tag-nobel-literature-prize"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}