Greil Marcus is the author of Mystery Train, Lipstick Traces, Dead Elvis, In the Fascist Bathroom, The Dustbin of History, The Old, Weird America and Double Trouble. He has written for numerous publications, among them the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Threepenny Review, Artforum, Esquire, the Los Angeles Times, Salon, and Granta. In 2000 and 2002 he taught at Berkeley and Princeton, and he currently lectures in the U.S. and Europe. He lives in Berkeley, California.
From the explosive shot of the snare drum that opens the song to the final strains of the whining harmonica, Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" charted a new direction in rock'n'roll. Veteran rock writer Marcus (Lipstick Traces) uses the song not only to measure the changes in Dylan's style but also to measure the changes occurring in the world of music from 1965 onward. Captured in one momentous take, "Like a Rolling Stone" seized Dylan's genius and lifted the work of studio musicians to a height that multiple takes would not have caught. This perfect moment was released on a single that divided the song into two three-minute halves and reached Number 2 on the Billboard Top 100 on September 2, 1965. Yet Dylan's live performances of the song either endeared the singer to fans or enraged them; at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, some screamed "Judas" at him for debuting it on electric guitar. Nevertheless, Marcus contends that "Like a Rolling Stone" influenced songs as diverse as Richard Harris's "MacArthur Park" (1968), the Rolling Stones's "You Can't Always Get What You Want" (1969), and Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" (1971). Engaging cultural history, this appears to be the only book to use one song as a prism for Dylan's life and work; highly recommended for all libraries. [Rolling Stone magazine recently chose "Like a Rolling Stone" as the greatest song of all time.-Ed.]-Henry L. Carrigan Jr., Lancaster, PA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Marcus's engaging exegesis on the musical and cultural ramifications of Dylan's 1965 six-and-half-minute hit is not just a study of a popular song and a historic era, but an examination of the heroic status of the American visionary artist. Recorded when American popular music was "like a running election," Dylan's "music of transformations" induced a conflicted, confused America to look at its social disasters of racism, drug abuse and Vietnam, Marcus says, while simultaneously permitting it to strip away its illusions and hope for a better future. Ostensibly about a rich young socialite's fall from grace, the song's lyrics are open to many interpretations, which may have helped make it such a phenomenon. Marcus displays a comprehensive knowledge of American popular and political history, tracing the song's roots back to Robert Johnson and Hank Williams and spotting its influence on such disparate artists as Frank Zappa, the Village People and various contestants on American Idol. Part scholarly discourse and part beatnik rambling, the book is chockfull of lively metaphors and includes 20 pages of studio outtake banter. Marcus successfully convinces readers that (in the words of hit songwriter Gerry Goffin), "Dylan managed to do something that not one of us was able to do: put poetry in rock n' roll and just stand up there like a mensch and sing it." Agent, Wendy Weil. (Apr.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
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