I finished reading the new book by Bob Dylan last night. It is called The Philosophy of Modern Song and is Bob’s first book since the autobiographical Chronicles in 2004. I learned a lot from Chronicles, and this new book has been even more educational for me. A beautiful book of 340 pages containing 66 essays by Bob about songs that mean something to him. It is a collection of pieces Bob wrote over a ten-year period. The book is dedicated to Doc Pomus who along with his song writing partner Mort Shuman wrote dozens of hit songs, many of which are covered in this book. As well as the great writing, the book is lavishly illustrated with some stunning pictures and photographs. The front cover is a good example. I recognised Little Richard and Eddie Cochran, but who was the mystery woman with them? It turns out that her name is Alis Lesley. I looked her up on Wikipedia and YouTube. (See video below) Apparently, she was briefly famous in 1957 when she was styled as ‘The female Elvis Presley’. Her real name was Alice, but she changed it to Alis to sound more like Elvis. So, even before I opened the book, I had learned something.
That is typical of the whole book. As well as writing about many singers and songs I was very familiar with, Bob has introduced me to musicians and songs that I didn’t know existed. Songs like Take Me From This Garden of Evil by Jimmy Wages. He was a rockabilly singer who went to school in Tupelo, Mississippi with Elvis Presley. He recorded a number of songs for Sam Phillips at Sun records, but none of them were released at the time. Every song mentioned in this book that I hadn’t previously heard I looked for on youtube and listened to, which added to the pleasure of reading the book. Detroit City is a song I remember by Tom Jones in the 1960s, but now, thanks to Bob I much prefer the original by Bobby Bare. Other singers and songs I have discovered from this book include Johnnie & Jack who sang Poison Love, Old Violin by Johnny Paycheck, A Certain Girl by Ernie K-Doe, Feel So Good by Sonny Burgess and many, many, more.
As well as talking about the history of the songs, Bob uses them as a starting point for setting off on long stream of consciousness type explorations of all manner of subjects, often in quite nightmarish detail. For instance, he imagines the song There Stands The Glass as being the story of a war veteran who has committed atrocities, described in harrowing detail. We know Bob has a very vivid imagination from songs such as Desolation Row, but some passages in this book go even further. It is no wonder Bob once said, ‘If my thought-dreams could be seen, They’d probably put my head in a guillotine’. He uses the Pete Seeger song Waist Deep In The Big Muddy to comment on how people get led into all sorts of messy situations by inept leaders. Bob doesn’t take sides though, he just observes, and doesn’t offer solutions. In the same essay he mentions ‘whining leftys’ and ‘badgering right-wingers’. He does show a lot of sympathy for the native American people though as shown in another song I hadn’t heard before Doesn’t Hurt Anymore by John Trudell.
When looking at the song War by Edwin Starr he says that the people who vote the masters of war into power are just as guilty as the perpetrators. Bob says that if you want to see a war criminal, then just look in the mirror. He looks at relationships with the same world-weary eye. When discussing Cheaper To Keep Her by Johnnie Taylor he casts an eye at the multi-billion-dollar divorce industry racket, and it sounds like he is speaking from bitter personal experience. He also reflects ruefully on old age and a youth driven world in Old and In The Way by Charlie Poole. I was quite impressed by Bob’s knowledge of British history, When talking about Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood he mentioned the case of Derek Bentley whose words ‘Let him have it Chris’ were misunderstood by his accomplice and led to him being hanged for the shooting of a London policeman in 1953. I didn’t think Americans would have much interest in British criminal history.
When you look at the songs covered here, you get the feeling that Bob likes early rock & roll and soul records. Also, the great American songbook with songs by the likes of Perry Como and Bing Crosby being studied. Bob seems quite sympathetic to Colonel Tom Parker as well, who a lot of people blame for Elvis’s demise. Although there are essays about the likes of Cher, Nina Simone, Judy Garland, and Rosemary Clooney I couldn’t help but notice that the overwhelming majority of songs were by male artists. Also, as you know I’m a big Van Morrison fan, so I was hoping that Bob might talk about some Van songs. Sadly, Van only gets one tiny mention when Bob is talking about Willie Nelson. Bob is obviously a huge Willie Nelson fan, and he puts him on a par with Hank Williams.
One thing is certain, which is that Bob and Van were both influenced by the same people. There are pieces about Little Walter, Mose Allison, Jimmy Reed, Ray Charles, and many other artists who we know Van admired. There are also songs such as All In The Game, There Stands The Glass, and Your Cheatin' Heart which Van has covered. I have really enjoyed reading this book and listening to the songs for the last few days. Bob Dylan fans will love it, but so will anyone with an interest in the history of popular music. Highly recommended.
