JON BREAM : DYLAN DISC BY DISC

JON BREAM : DYLAN DISC BY DISC

"Dylan Disc by Disc" features each of Bob Dylan's studio LPs--thirty-six releases in all. Rock 'n' roll musicians, songwriters, and critics sound off about each release, bringing from the shadows not only Dylan's extraordinary musical accomplishments but the factors in his life that influenced his musical expressions. From The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan to Blonde on Blonde, from Blood on the Tracks to Shadows in the Night, Dylan: Disc by Disc rouses generations of Dylan fans with a unique, hip, stunning exposition spanning the music legend's storied career. Few figures in American music have compiled a body of work as impressive as that created by Dylan. Winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nobel Prize in Literature, eleven Grammys, and an Oscar, Dylan is one of the most honored musicians of our time. He has arguably done more to shape American music culture than any singer/songwriter. Beginning with his early acoustic folk releases, Dylan showed an early penchant for doing whatever he wanted with his music by electrifying his sound at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, playing a leading role in the late 1960s protest culture, and playing with the Band. His long career far from over, he moved into his "Christian" period, his struggle for artistic identity in the 1980s, his return to critical success in 1997, and his release of an album of songs Frank Sinatra sang in 2015. The son of an appliance salesman from Hibbing, Minnesota, always accommodated his own muse, critics be damned. Commentators include Questlove of the Roots and the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Rodney Crowell, Jason Isbell, Suzanne Vega, Ric Ocasek of the Cars, Wesley Stace (aka John Wesley Harding), longtime Dylan pal Eric Andersen and Minnesota musicians Tony Glover and Kevin Odegard, both of whom have been in the studio with Dylan. Other well-known voices in Dylan: Disc by Disc include Robert Christgau, Anthony DeCurtis, Alan Light, Joe Levy, Holly George-Warren, Joel Selvin, Jim Fusilli, Geoffrey Himes, Charles R. Cross, and David Browne. Dylan: Disc by Disc is beautifully illustrated with LP art and period photography, as well as performance and candid backstage images. The book contains liner notes-like details about the recordings and session musicians, and provides context and perspective on Dylan's life, concerts, and career. "Dylan Disc by Disc" presents Dylan fans and all lovers of music with a compelling, handsome, one-of-a-kind retrospective of the life and music of an American legend.

Recensie (John Firehammer) : Which is Bob Dylan’s best album? Which is his worst? What the heck was he thinking with Self Portrait, Dylan and Shadows in the Night? Was Christmas in the Heart meant as a joke or … what? Did you stick with him through the “Christian” albums or just give up? Among Bob Dylan fans (and we really do like the guy, as crazy as he makes us), those questions are endlessly debatable and, also, endlessly fascinating. In Dylan Disc by Disc, edited by Jon Bream for Voyageur Press, a group of more than 50 critics and musicians pores over Bob Dylan’s confounding, controversial and classic catalog. Two at a time, they discuss, with Bream acting as moderator, their views on the Bard’s 36 studio albums, starting with his eponymous debut in 1962 through 2015’s standards collection, Shadows of the Night. Those sharing their views include everyone from Bob Dylan collaborators such as Eric Anderson and Tony Glover to famed critic Robert Christgau, as well as musicians from Rodney Crowell to Questlove. Each commentator speaks of his or her own experiences of listening to Bob Dylan and the album at hand. Sometimes they love it, sometimes they don’t. They speculate about Dylan’s intentions and the meanings of lyrics. Sometimes the discussions provide answers, sometimes more questions. It’s a little like listening to Dylan himself, which is what you’ll want to do more of when you’ve finish reading. Through the chapters, one for each album, we see how Bob Dylan’s early, timely songs have become timeless — and how maybe, depending on your point of view, albums dismissed upon their initial release weren’t so bad after all. Even Dylan — the contractual obligation album that the singer himself purged from his canon — gets a fair hearing. Jon Bream’s “many voices” approach on Dylan Disc by Disc is a great way to explore Bob Dylan from all angles. There are few artists or musicians whose work can stand up to such multi-faceted scrutiny and still yield fresh observations. In some cases, however, Bream’s choices of commentators seem fairly random and offer little in the way of insight. Ric Ocasek of the Cars, for example, doesn’t have much to share beyond saying he admires the poetry of Dylan’s lyrics but doesn’t analyze them. Suzanne Vega, on the other hand, uses her own experiences as a songwriter to dig in and examine Bob Dylan’s approach — praising the “the mystery and the beauty of the images and the sense of unlimited possibility” present in Dylan’s songs. As a whole, Dylan Disc by Disc is a very enlightening and enjoyable book. Photos of Bob Dylan from throughout his career and detailed liner notes about each album, including release dates and featured musicians, are nice additions, as well.

Review (Bill DeVille) : There have been literally hundreds of books written about Bob Dylan. Excluding Elvis, he's probably the most written-about musician of the last 100 years. I consider myself a big Bob Dylan fan—but I'm far from a "Dylanologist"! Trust me, no matter how much or how little you know about Bob, Dylan: Disc By Disc is a fun read for music fans in general. Reading this book is like having a chat at the water cooler or the coffeeshop about a Bob Dylan album. It's an informal, fun book to read. Dylan: Disc By Disc is written by Star Tribune music critic Jon Bream. The book makes you realize how just how many classic albums Dylan has in his arsenal. He has a pretty impressive body of work. As the title suggests, this is an album-by-album commentary on all of Dylan's albums—pairing up a couple of notable fans and insiders per album. They have a little chat, each discussion moderated by Bream. You'll find some interesting nuggets in this book. Here are a few things that caught my eye. - Grammy Museum executive director Robert Santelli mentions in the first chapter, on Dylan's self-titled debut, that nobody knew about Woody Guthrie like Dylan did. Santelli mentions he's seen Dylan's copy of the Guthrie book Bound For Glory—and it had notes in it. Dylan apparently read it like a textbook! - Writer Anthony DeCurtis and folkie Suzanne Vega had a nice back-and-forth about Dylan's Freewheelin' album. Vega mentions she thinks "Girl From the North Country" was about Hibbing girl Echo Helstrom. Echo who? Everybody seems to know about every girl Dylan has ever known. Vega also says that "Masters of War" is still relevant today: "You can still apply it now, for any war, at any time." Amen, sister! - The Times They Are A-Changin' inspired an interesting back-and-forth between singer Jonatha Brooke and Chicago radio host Lin Brehmer. Brehmer mentions that the songs on the album proved so prescient that if they were released today, people might think, "I'm not going to tweet about this, a little too controversial." - Singer/songwriter Rodney Crowell is paired up with writer Anthony DeCurtis to discuss Bringing It All Back Home. Crowell mentions he and the lad down the street listened to "Subterranean Homesick Blues" 25 times in a row when it came out. While Anthony DeCurtis says that "It's Alright Ma (I'm only Bleeding)" reminds him of parts of Shakespeare. Crowell calls it one of the best albums ever made. - The Highway 61 Revisited discussion features producer/songwriter Joe Henry and Bob's old buddy, harmonica player Tony Glover, who was able to set the table nicely as he was there for many of the sessions for the album. You get his insights like, "the guy playing the organ was doing like a maniacal sound, doing some of those octave swoops, it made me think of Vincent Price movies," on "Ballad of the Thin Man." - For the Blonde on Blonde discussion, singer-songwriter Jason Isbell is joined by writer Geoffrey Himes, who says about "Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat" that "one of the most effective ways to attack the rich and powerful is to make fun of them. That's the kind of hat Jackie Kennedy wore. It was the height of rich people fashion." Isbell says, "He's finally reached a point in his own life when he can see things more objectively, and he can point the finger at all sides at the same time." - I learned via Holly George-Warren that Dylan offered "Lay Lady Lay" to the Everly Brothers and they turned it down. She also mentioned that Dylan looks like he could be a member of Mumford and Sons on the cover of Nashville Skyline—which musician Marshall Chapman suggests is the first Americana album. - The Blood on the Tracks conversation features cultural critic David Yaffe and musician Kevin Odegaard, who played on the album (and will be at the panel discussion with Bream next Thursday). He mentions Dylan was everywhere on the sessions, even borrowing Peter Ostroushko's mandolin! Yaffe says the album had particular resonance in the '70s, "the decade of divorce." Dylan: Disc By Disc will sit nicely on your bookshelf. Dylan himself might even like this book, because it's truly about the music. That conversation seems like the only one that journalists never want to have with him.

Review (Dylan in het Nederlands) : Al weer maanden gelden verscheen het boek Dylan Disc By Disc van Jon Bream en eerder deze maand verscheen een Nederlandse vertaling van dit boek onder de titel Bob Dylan; complete geïllustreerde geschiedenis van de 36 officiële studioalbums. Dat is een hele mond vol. De Nederlandse vertaling is een kopie van de oorspronkelijke Engelstalige uitgave: rijk geïllustreerd, groot formaat en een hard kartonnen cover. Gewoon een mooi boek om te zien. De opzet van dit boek is zeer aardig en geslaagd: Bream heeft voor ieder album twee mensen bij elkaar gezet. Deze twee mensen voeren een gesprek van grofweg een uur over het bewuste album. Van deze gesprekken zijn transcripties gemaakt en de (ingekorte) transcripties vormen de basis voor dit boek. De mannen en vrouwen die door Bream aan een tafel zijn gezet zijn singer-songwriters, muziekjournalisten, docenten, etc. Bream geeft ze, zo blijkt uit het boek, alle ruimte om te zeggen wat ze vinden. Zo nu en dan stelt Bream een 'prangende' vraag om het gesprek op gang te brengen of juist naar een einde te leiden. Het aardige is dat je tijdens het lezen van Bob Dylan; complete geïllustreerde geschiedenis van de 36 officiële studioalbums geconfronteerd wordt met meningen van mede-liefhebbers van Dylans muziek. Soms zijn die meningen verrassend, soms staan ze haaks op je eigen mening en soms blijft er als lezer niks anders over dan instemmend knikken. Door deze opzet is Bob Dylan; complete geïllustreerde geschiedenis van de 36 officiële studioalbums ook niet het zoveelste boek waarin al Dylans (studio-) albums besproken worden. Van deze albumgidsen zijn er genoeg en altijd wordt in die boeken op dezelfde zaken nadruk gelegd. Bij Bob Dylan; complete geïllustreerde geschiedenis van de 36 officiële studioalbums is dat toch anders, juist omdat het transcripties van gesprekken zijn. Dat werkt verfrissend. Zo blijkt uit het Bream-boek dat het bijvoorbeeld mogelijk is om over Planet Waves te schrijven zonder dat 80% van de aandacht naar "Forever Young" gaat. Verwacht van Bob Dylan; complete geïllustreerde geschiedenis van de 36 officiële studioalbums geen diepgravende verhandelingen over Dylans albums, die zul je in dit boek niet vinden. Ondanks dat er eigenlijk niks in dit boek staat dat ik niet eerder (vele malen) gelezen heb, is Bob Dylan; complete geïllustreerde geschiedenis van de 36 officiële studioalbums een aanrader. Juist vanwege de lichte toon, juist vanwege het feit dat ik als lezer geconfronteerd wordt met de meningen van anderen. Bob Dylan; complete geïllustreerde geschiedenis van de 36 officiële studioalbums is gewoon een aangenaam boek. Dat neemt niet weg dat ik een ieder die geïnteresseerd is in dit boek kan aanraden om niet de Nederlandse vertaling, maar de oorspronkelijke Engelse uitgave aan te schaffen. De Nederlandse vertaling laat hier en daar wel wat te wensen over. Deze vertaal-slordigheden worden vooral vervelend wanneer hierdoor de inhoud in het geding komt. Twee voorbeelden, beide in het hoofdstuk over Another Side Of Bob Dylan: "His romance with Suze Rotolo, rarely a smooth one since the pair met shortly after Dylan moved to New York in 1961, finally came to an end (...)" is vertaald als: "Zijn relatie met Suze Rotolo, die nooit soepel was verlopen sinds hun kennismaking kort voordat Dylan in 1961 naar New York verhuisde, liep ten einde (...)" en: "For that matter, Another Side Of Bob Dylan didn't do all that well on album charts, peaking at a considerably lower position (#43) than either of his previous two LPs had." is vertaald als: "Another Side Of Bob Dylan deed het helemaal niet zo goed in de hitlijsten, de hoogste notering was nummer 43, beduidend lager dan zijn eerste twee elpees." In het Engels deed Another Side Of Bob Dylan het dus niet zo goed in de hitlijsten als The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan en The Times They Are A-Changin', terwijl in de Nederlandse vertaling dit album het niet zo goed deed als Bob Dylan en The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan... Bob Dylan; complete geïllustreerde geschiedenis van de 36 officiële studioalbums van Jon Bream is in de boekhandel te koop voor ongeveer €20,-. Voor een paar euro meer is op vele plekken de oorspronkelijke Engelse uitgave ook te koop.

Titel : Dylan Disc By Disc

Auteur : Jon Bream

Uitgeverij : Voyageur Press / Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc.

Publicatiedatum : 2015

Pagina's : 240