Studio A: The Bob Dylan Reader - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393327426 ISBN 13: 9780393327427

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005

Synopsis

"The most absorbing, wide-ranging and stimulating body of writing about the mighty Bob that's ever been assembled."--Salman Rushdie

Hailed by Publishers Weekly as "not only the best writing on the ever-changing folk singer, but also some of the best writing about any musician around," Studio A presents Bob Dylan's unique literary legacy in a collection that is quintessentially Dylan: mosaic, offbeat, poetic. This "astutely chosen and intelligently annotated" collection (Time Out London) gathers over fifty articles, poems, essays, speeches, literary criticisms, and interviews; many previously unpublished. Individually, these pieces offer insight into the man and his time, but collectively they reveal the coming-of-age of American cultural criticism in their "sweeping view of both Dylan and the changing times he so eloquently captured in his music" (Publishers Weekly). With Sam Shepard, Bruce Springsteen, Allen Ginsberg, Johnny Cash, Greil Marcus, Joyce Carol Oates, Gary Giddins, Rick Moody, Tom Piazza, Barry Hannah, and Dylan himself on the list of contributors, Studio A is truly "a vital document" (New York Times) for all fans. 8 pages of photographs

About this title

About the Author

Benjamin Hedin serves on the English faculty at Long Island University. His writing has appeared in The Nation, Gettysburg Review, and other publications. He lives in New York City.

From Publishers Weekly

As a pop culture icon, a literary figure and perhaps even the physical and spiritual embodiment of the tumultuous 1960s, Bob Dylan has taken on more roles and shapes than any other musician. Dylan, according to Hunter S. Thompson, became "the voice of an anguished and half-desperate generation." Now, 43 years after Dylan recorded his first album, Hedin has gathered together not only the best writing on the ever-changing folk singer, but also some of the best writing about any musician around. More than just a hagiography of a celebrated musician, his well-balanced collection mixes harsh criticism and unabashed enthusiasm, drawing from the works of great writers and artists—like Greil Marcus, Sam Shepard, Allen Ginsburg, Joyce Carol Oates, David Gates, Nat Hentoff, Robert Christgau, Anne Waldman, David Hajdu and Barry Hannah, to name just a few. The breadth and depth of Hedin’s selection is wonderful, but the book’s greatest coup may be its elegant chronological structure, which allows for a sweeping view of both Dylan and the changing times he so eloquently captured in his music. In his introduction, Hedin points out that in 1961, when Dylan’s first record debuted, "Elvis was at the movies, Buddy Holiday was dead, Chuck Berry had been out of the Top 40" for two years, and the Beatles still hadn’t come to New York. In those days, rock n’ roll didn’t reflect life’s complexities, Dylan once told an interviewer, it was all "put on a happy face and ride Sally ride." How things have changed since then. Photos.
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About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0393327426
• ISBN 13: 9780393327427
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 362
• Editor: Hedin Benjamin