Hard Rain; A Dylan Commentary

A biography of Bob Dylan discusses his relationship with his songs, his critics, and his audience; details the roots of his music; and traces his humor and social conscience to Woody Guthrie and his eccentricity to Elvis Presley

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.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Riley, author of the best study by far of the Beatles' song catalogue (Tell Me Why, 1988), turns now to Bob Dylan--``the most important American rock 'n' roller since Presley''--with impressive, but less consistently persuasive, results. As before, Riley steers clear of biography and simply goes chronologically, album-by-album, song-by-song, through the Dylan oeuvre--including unreleased tracks, bootleg recordings, live concert tapes, and concert films. In fact, unlike most Dylan critics, Riley declines to link the songs to the life, contending (not always convincingly) that Dylan turns his ``intimate trials'' into ``public metaphors''--in contrast to ``self-serving,'' Me- decade types like James Taylor. Throughout, Riley stresses Dylan's humor, the satire implicit in his ``bad'' singing, his manipulations of his persona, and his eclectic roots. There's sharp criticism as well as enthusiasm here: The Times They Are A-Changin' succumbs to ``folkie social preening and black-and-white moralism''; Blonde on Blonde is a ``tour de force of obscurantist rock poetics''; ``I Shall Be Released'' is an ``overpraised and overplayed potboiler.'' Riley applauds Dylan's return to ``roots'' in his work with The Band and his country-ish albums but is pretty much appalled by the ``stringent and pious'' born-again albums. And, in contrast to many hard-core Dylan-ites, Riley finds little evidence of a revitalized Dylan once his ``slide'' begins circa 1978. Not everyone will buy Riley's attempt to view Dylan's weaknesses--the clich‚s, the slurred diction, etc.--as ``postmodernist.'' His dense, imagistic evocations of the songs occasionally become precious or strained. (`` `Idiot Wind' is an emotional soapbox as fearsome and cutting as any of the cutlery that flies in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'') But, with full attention given to Dylan as performer and writer, to cover versions and disciples (Springsteen, Neil Young), and even to other Dylan-commentators, this is an essential book for Dylanologists: comprehensive, knowing, challenging. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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"
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.