Table of Contents

* Introduction * Talking New York * Bob Dylan (1962) * The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963) * The Times They Are A-Changin' (1964) * Down the Highway * Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964) * Bringing It All Back Home (1965) * Don't Look Back (1967) * Highway Revisited (1965) * Mona Lisa's Highway Blues * Blonde on Blonde (1966) * 1 Tour * Clothesline Sagas * The Basement Tapes (recorded 1967-68, released 1975) * Retro Man * John Wesley Harding (1967) * Nashville Skyline (1969) * Sign on the Window * Self-Portait (1970) * Dylan (1973) * New Morning (1970) * Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Volume (1971) * The Concert for Bangla Desh (1971) (1971) * Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) * Napoleon in Rags * Planet Waves (1974) * Before the Flood (1974) * Back in the Rain * Blood on the Tracks (1975) * Idiot Wind * Desire (1973) * Hard Rain (1976) * Rolling Thunder Revue tour, including the film Ronaldo and Clara (1978) * The Last Waltz (1978) * Temporary Like Achilles * Epilogue: 1992-1 * Discography * Selected Bibliography * Acknowledgments * Index

About the Author

Tim Riley is a web producer, campus speaker, and pianist. His music criticism has appeared in the Washington Post, in Boston magazine, and on National Public Radio. He is also a music commentator for NPR's "Here and Now." He lives in Boston.

Reviews

Unlike most Dylan books--which are either biographies like Clinton Heylin's Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades ( LJ 6/1/91) or lists of some sort--Riley ( Tell Me Why: A Beatles Commentary , Knopf, 1988) here provides a critical examination of this thorniest of modern musicians. Riley goes beyond the obvious; for example, Woody Guthrie's influence on Dylan is well documented, but Riley examines not only how Guthrie inspired Dylan but what Dylan does differently from Guthrie and who else falls into his inspirational canon (Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, Hank Williams). Riley knows music, and his descriptions are marvelous, especially of the 1966-75 era ( Blonde on Blonde , The Basement Tapes , Planet Waves , Blood on the Tracks , and the 1966 and 1974 tours). He also is thankfully unafraid to be disparaging; unlike Heylin, he has very little that is nice to say about Dylan's post-1975 work. Riley's flaws are mainly stylistic; he tends to repeat himself and has an unfortunate fondness for the word bromide. Still, this is an incisive work. Essential for most music collections.-- Keith R.A. DeCandido, ``Library Journal''

In Tell Me Why: A Beatles Commentary , Riley covered fewer than 10 years of diverse but demarcated music. His comprehensive examination here of rock legend Bob Dylan's three decades of inconsistent work, bootleg recordings and continuous concerts is somewhat less successful. Delving into Dylan's first albums, Riley explores such traditional influences as Woody Guthrie and notes Dylan's disregard for his fans' musical preferences, as established in his use of both acoustic and electric music on Bringing It All Back Home. Describing Dylan's distinctive voice as a ``barbed yawp'' or a ``yelping yodel,'' he explains the enigmatic troubador's early transformation ``from aspiring blues acolyte to creative iconoclast to facile cynic'' and beyond, and considers the frequent lyrical ambiguity of his songs. He also describes Dylan's post-1966 leanings toward country music and born-again Christianity, looking briefly at Blood on the Tracks . Glossing over numerous songs of the '70s and '80s, Riley concludes by mentioning Dylan's influence on such stars as David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen. Although written with eloquence, fervor and thoroughness, this treatise won't entirely satisfy Dylan fans, a notably ardent group. (July)