Dylan on Dylan
Interviews and Encounters – Bob Dylan
Musicians in Their Own Words Series
Hardcover | Kindle
Edited by Jeff Burger
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Release Date: May 1, 2018

The book title gives away the content. Dylan on Dylan: Interviews and Encounters (Musicians in Their Own Words) compiles a primary source view (with some secondary sources of the interviewer’s feelings about the experience) of the mystery folk man who really is a reluctant symbol of a revolution.

This is a must for any Bob Dylan fan. 560 pages of pure magic, his keen intelligence leaps out at you from the pages.

Some snippets:

– “How would I define folk music? As a constitutional replay of mass production.”

– When asked his position on politics and music, he replied, “My job is to play music. I think I’ve answered enough questions.”

– “Maybe I’ll be on a sailing ship to the moon.”

He talks about songwriting, recording, playing, and living, in his completely unique way, from 1961-2016. When you read his interviews, you don’t really know if sometimes he was just messing with people, or just so above everyone else that they (we) just couldn’t understand. Either way, having not a lot of previous exposure to Bob Dylan, this book made me into a fan.

Official Synopsis:

In a 1969 conversation with Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner, Bob Dylan proclaimed, “I don’t give interviews.” But in truth, he has spoken at length with print publications large and small and with broadcast media around the world, given numerous press conferences, and even answered listeners’ questions on call-in radio shows. Dylan can be as evasive and abstruse as he is witty; he can also be cranky and sarcastic. But in the right moments, he offers candid, revealing commentary about his groundbreaking music and creative process. These engrossing provide glimpses into the mind of one of the most important performers and songwriters of the last hundred years.

Dylan on Dylan is an authoritative, chronologically arranged anthology of interviews, speeches, and press conferences, as well as excerpts from more than eighty additional Q&As spanning Dylan’s entire career””from 1961 through 2016. The majority have not been previously anthologized and some have never before appeared in print. The material comes from renowned media outlets like Rolling Stone and TV’s 60 Minutes and from obscure periodicals like Minnesota Daily, a student newspaper at Dylan’s alma mater. Interviewers include some of the top writers of our time, such as Jonathan Lethem, Douglas Brinkley, and Mikal Gilmore, as well as musicians like Pete Seeger and Happy Traum. Introductions put each piece in context and, in many cases, include the interviewer’s reminiscences about the encounter.

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