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| October 28, 2005 |
REVIEW: Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads
 "Dylan managed to do something that not one of us was able to do: put poetry in rock n' roll and just stand up there like a mensch and sing it."
Those were the words of songwriter Gerry Goffin regarding legendary musician Bob Dylan. Perhaps no other artist more encapsulated their era in music than Dylan. He did more than merely capture the mood and culture of his times; he shaped them. A generation rose up around his music, and a generation spoke with Dylan's voice.
Or perhaps he was simply a brilliant musician who made brilliant music that people liked and that happened to be relevant.
If you're at all curious as to which is more accurate a portrayal of the man and his music, then you need only pick up Greil Marcus' intimately expansive look at Dylan's 1965 recording, Like a Rolling Stone in his book of the same name. If the artist he profiles was able to capture his times in music, then Marcus is equally gifted at capturing the larger cultural landscape and showing how one man and one song sits nestled at the center of it all.
That is, of course, the ultimate value of this book. A dime a dozen are behind-the-scenes books about musicians, albums, movies, TV shows, and whatever else the entertainment industry can spit out. They're interesting, so far as they go, and they usually do not go far. Marcus' book is a different beast entirely.
Like a Rolling Stone is one of those seminal songs in American pop culture, so focusing on its recording is worthy of a book, and Marcus takes time to show us what unfolded in the studio as Dylan and his band crafted what would become grand musical history. Then, as if to show up the entire genre of behind-the-scenes literature, he moves beyond the studio and into the music that influenced Dylan and the music that Dylan influenced.
The devil may reside in the details, but this book's value lies in the context. By showing us the world Dylan was making music in, what cultural forces had led us up to that world, and how Dylan's contribution kept right on leading us into the present, Marcus explains more than just how a song was recorded but how and why it became lodged in our collective psyche. Most of all, he gives us an understanding of why a six-minute song recorded four decades ago remains perpetually relevant and compelling.
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