Folk Music

A Bob Dylan Biography in Seven Songs

By: Greil Marcus

Narrated by: Ian Porter

Acclaimed cultural critic Greil Marcus tells the story of Bob Dylan through the lens of seven penetrating songs

“Marcus delivers yet another essential work of music journalism.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Further elevates Marcus to what he has always been: a supreme artist-critic.”—Hilton Als

Across seven decades, Bob Dylan has been the first singer of American song. As a writer and performer, he has rewritten the national songbook in a way that comes from his own vision and yet can feel as if it belongs to anyone who might listen.

In Folk Music, Greil Marcus tells Dylan’s story through seven of his most transformative songs. Marcus’s point of departure is Dylan’s ability to “see myself in others.” Like Dylan’s songs, this book is a work of implicit patriotism and creative skepticism. It illuminates Dylan’s continuing presence and relevance through his empathy—his imaginative identification with other people. This is not only a deeply felt telling of the life and times of Bob Dylan, but a rich history of American folk songs and the new life they were given as Dylan sat down to write his own.

©2022 Greil Marcus (P)2022 Yale Press Audio (Yale University)

Disagree with anyone claiming “pretentious”

I found this book very enjoyable and educational. I’m not a Dylan fanboy but i’ve been listening to his stuff since Freewheelin’in ‘63.

Marcus’ work is a mix of Biography, Musicology, History and a sincere appreciation of what he thought Dylan was trying to accomplish as his Life, Career, and Music evolved over the years. I’m not sure I can name another Artist whose songs have mutated as much as Dylan’s. Plotting them on the Graph of the ups and downs of Folk Music’s development was a daunting task and only an Author with Marcus’ Knowledge and Experience would have even tried. I thought he was quite successful.

I particularly preferred the treatment of just a few individual songs like Blowin’ in the Wind, Hattie Carroll, Desolation Row and Murder Most Foul rather than a Survey Course of Dylanography.
Learning the backstories of Mike Seeger and Karen Dalton was an added plus.

All in all, a very intriguing account of an Icon of the Music of my Life that I’m glad I read.

Four Stars ****

Monstrously Pretentious

As a lifelong Dylan fan, I was excited to listen to this book after reading an early review. I even pre-ordered it before it was available to purchase. Mistake. This is overwritten and underreported. Some primary problems:
1. The author's purpose throughout seems to be to demonstrate how much more he knows about obscure folk music and obscure folk musicians than anybody else - except maybe the mighty Bob Dylan.
2. The book is filled with "as ifs" - sentence after sentence describing how Dylan or some other folk master might be feeling as he or she writes/performs these songs. The weight of history. Becoming history, yada yada yada. But there's nothing to back it up. Not one single original bit of Dylan appears here. The author didn't interview Bob and ask him if if any of his conjectures might be true - of course Dylan's notorious doublespeak may or may not have added anything - so he just makes it up and asks the reader to "just imagine."
3. While Dylan's work in the 80s and early 90s obviously fell far short of the very high bar he set early in his career, the author's seven songs jump from "Desolation Row" in 1965 to "Jim Jones" in 1992. Not Blonde on Blonde, not any of Dylan's work with The Band, not even anything from the Blood on the Tracks masterpiece seemed worthy of telling the Bob Dylan story.

It all adds up to a pompous tome, so heavy and self-important it almost implodes on itself. To paraphrase Dylan, "You're an idiot, man. It's a wonder that you think you know how to write."

Too much opinion, not enough facts

Not very pleased with this one. Author does too much imposing his opinions and not enough sticking to facts. His constant jibes at other performers and unsupported statements, (beliefs as facts) ruined the history, I gave up half way through

Terrible!!!! Get something else

I agree with the other reviewer who called the book pretentious but that is an understatement. The author is clearly not a Dylan fan and he makes this most evident by disparaging him repeatedly in almost every sentence. Each Dylan song and life event he discusses drips with harshness, contempt and disgust. He is obviously jealous of Dylan’s brilliance and fame. It was upsetting from paragraph one and went downhill from there.