The Philosophy of Song

[Doctor Jeff]

I posted this on another forum.

I downloaded the audiobook version of Bob Dylan’s new book. Fascinating listen.

Here’s the deal—it isn’t really Bob’s idea of what makes a song good (ala Rick Beato). It isn’t a history of popular music. It’s more like an excuse to Bob to riff stream-of-consciousness on whatever comes into his fevered mind.

I should mention it’s read by Bob, as well as people like Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, and a host of other well-known actors. Bob’s reading voice is rather monotone but at least in my hearing it’s rather hypnotic after you get a few of these short chapters under your belt.

There are a lot of not very well known songs here. Bob seems to like old country and rockabilly songs quite a bit. Some of the songs are great, like Billy Joe Shaver’s Willy the Wandering Gypsy and Me and Marty Robbins El Paso, but some are silly like Jimmie Ray’s The Cloud That Cried and Bing Crosby’s The Whippenpoof Song. Yet, to Dylan they all have some mysterious power that makes them stand out.

I learned a fair amount of trivia from what I’ve heard so far (1/3 of the way through). The songs aren’t part of the audio version, so what I do is ask Siri to play whatever song comes up before listening to the book’s take on that song. It works very well.

Dylan doesn’t really discuss the songwriting art specifically, but you can see how he takes his inspiration from what he’s heard. His own songwriting ranges from spare outlines of a tale like Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door or Don’t Think Twice, to narrative epics like Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts and Isis. And there’s a lot of spacey flights of fancy as well.

Something for everyone. American popular songs, and the songs of Bob Dylan.

[Doctor Jeff]

Some more thoughts after finishing the audiobook...

This is a WEIRD book. Easier to say what it's NOT. It's not a chronological history of popular music. It's not a discussion of songwriting, with easy-to-digest chapters like "Use of Rhythm in R'n'B songs", "Use of Minor vs Major Key."

It's not necessarily Bob's opinion of other songwriters, much less his OWN songwriting, though he does incidentally talk about other musicians. Very rarely about his own personal approach though.

He doesn't pick out extremely influential songs and dissect them. There's nothing by the Beatles--NOTHING. No David Bowie. His discussion of Elvis and Johnny Cash uses some fairly obscure songs of theirs, not their landmark ones or huge hits. (Viva Las Vegas??)

What it is: Bob looks at 66 songs from his unique perspective. About half is his own reading voice, half is famous actors (mainly) like Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, Helen Mirren and Joe Pesci. (Many of them have recorded music though.) He talks in a stream-of-consciousness way about how the song makes him feel, what impressions he gets from it. In some cases, he goes way off into outer space, conjuring up images that I'm sure never occurred to the songwriter.

(My way of listening is to hear chapter title mentioning the song and singer, then immediately ask Siri to play that song. Then with the song fresh in my mind I listen to what Bob has to say about it.)

Most of the time he does make some salient points about what makes the song memorable, if not great. Occasionally he throws out some personal knowledge of the musician or some tidbits of information he gleaned in his 60+ years in the business. One can see his admiration for Warren Zevon, for instance--Bob has covered some WZ songs and vice versa. He talks about preferring Roy's version of Blue Bayou to Linda Ronstadt's. It's clear he thought a lot of Johnny Cash.

There is a LOT of information in there, and a lot of facts I did not know. He mentions in passing how Calvin Coolidge's VP Charles Dawes wrote the music for the song "It's All in the Game" decades before the words were written or it was recorded and became a hit.

He turns me on to some people I have either never heard of or have not paid much attention to, including the Texas songwriter Billy Joe Shaver. Shaver incidentally was tried for shooting a man, right after he asked the guy "So tell me where you want it," but was acquitted on self-defense grounds.

Johnny Paycheck--it was the 3rd name he recorded under--was tried for shooting a man AND convicted. He spent several years in prison. While there he wrote the song "Old Violin," and if you watch the version on YouTube where he plays solo guitar, you'll end up almost crying at the end.

Bob often uses songs to make a point--"It's Cheaper to Keep Her" about the high cost of divorce, presumably something Bob has personal knowledge of, and the Edwin Starr song "War" to make a point about war and its corrosive effects. The latter is one of the stronger chapters in the book, btw.

I must say I enjoyed it, despite Dylan's penchant for going on wild tangents. You realize the guy has an encyclopedic knowledge of older music--pop dance songs from the big band era, early country and bluegrass, blues, R'n'B, rockabilly...he particularly LOVES Sun Studio recordings, practically anything Sam Phillips put out.

He realizes that musicians and artists put on a persona, sometimes many, but what he really values is authenticity in writing a song and performing it. (He mentions a number of songs where the artists literally break into tears while performing.)

And then every song comes from somewhere and tells a story. It makes me think that Dylan has a detailed backstory for EVERY ONE of his songs, from the story songs like Tangled Up in Blue to the "simple ones" like "It Ain't Me Babe."

Anyway, this book is a bit challenging to take on, but I have to say I will miss hearing Bob and his buddies talk about what makes songs tick. Maybe there will be a volume 2. Since this one was started in 2010 per report, maybe the new one will be out by 2034.

[Doctor Jeff]