Book(s) of the Month, November 2023 Bob Dylan Trilogy Chronicles I, The Nobel Lecture and Tarantula

Book(s) if the Month

Bob Dylan Triple Header

As a holiday treat, we have a Bob Dylan triple header. As those of you who know me realize, I am a big Bob Dylan fan- but the cool thing is that for that I know about him- I still find a lot more there every time I look into him more.  This month, we have an especially cool triple header

Bob Dylan Chronicles 1 - This is his autobiography and this is a re- read for me.  A colleague of mine pinged me that he heard someone on an entrepreneur’s podcast identify Bob Dylan and the ultimate entrepreneur- this caught me a bit off guard as, although he clearly did create a music empire I had never thought of him in that light.  This was a re- read for me- and I love re-reading great books as you always find out so much more the second time around.

His autobiography, as you would expect, is unique.  He picks 5 points in his life and talks about them in depth- and makes no attempts to fill in any other gaps or even connect the five time periods in the book0- that is up to the reader.  However, what it does do well is dig deep into the time periods he chose.  The part of the book that captured the podcast leader was when He hitchhiked out to NYC to see his hero Woody Guthrie and take part in the New York folk scene.  Upon re- reading, I came away with a slightly different angle- not so much an entrepreneur’s drive as much as a craftsman’s driver for excellence- yes, an artist, but more than that – the consummate craftsman.  He was relentless in learning everything he could – he listened to every record he could get his hands one, went to listen to anyone he could perform live and searched all genres and time frames to learn new ways to express himself- and above all else- he played every day, all the time, in front of anyone would listen.  I came away from my re-read with this burning inspiration about what it takes to be great at whatever craft we choose as our own- we need to be endlessly curious, experiment, try, fail, learn and try some more- and engage in your craft every day with intentionality and purpose.  The section on his early days in Greenwich Village is beyond inspirational- but a bit of an alert- if you are not a folk music historian of this period, you might get lost in all the names and places- but if you can be patient with learning lots of new people and places- this section sets the standard for what it means to be hungry to excel, create and make a difference.  I recommend this book, but it is a bit of a slow read, especially if you are not a big folk music fan.

Bob Dylan – the Nobel Lecture -

Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in 2016 for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition” He was presented a gold medal with the inscription in Latin from Vergil’s Aeneid, “Inventas vitam iwat excoluisse per artes”, loosely translated as ‘and they who bettered life on earth by their newly found mastery.”

In order to receive the award, a lecture needs to be delivered and this short book represents the one put together by Bob Dylan.  It is a wonderful read, and in fact, one of the great salutes to reading that there is.  He talks in depth on how great books shaped his mind, his views, his ways of expressing himself.  He discusses in depth how great books like Moby Dick, All Quiet on the Western Front and the Odyssey shaped his world.  Harvard University Classics professor wrote a separate book on Dylan where he traces the many references in Dylan’s music from Ovid, Vergil, Homer and others- the very clear conclusion was that Bob Dylan was an avid reader who consumed the classics and believed that reading great books was a way to grow and develop.  I recommend this book to anyone- it is a quick read and if it does not inspire you to read more great books, I will be stunned.

Bob Dylan – Tarantula

Ok, this is one of the wildest books I have read in some time.  I really enjoyed it, but this book is not for everyone.  Written in the 1960s, it is serious of prose and poems form the pen of Bob Dylan. It is a stream of consciousness writing and sometimes it is very hard to know what he might even be talking about- it feels like a bit of a mushroom trip early on.  But…. I kept on reading and I came to fall in love with this book- of course it is not a book in the traditional sense- but what it really is- is a raw insight into Bob Dylan’s creative process.  He is clearly one of the greatest lateral thinkers ever- and that is what makes this book both challenging to follow and fascinating to follow and try to make connections.

You can see that he is a lot going on in his brain- everyway, all the time, all at once- wow- he brings in ideas from everywhere and the connection sometimes are loose at best- but……this is stage one in his creative process- and as I read, I could see how he takes all this buzz in his head- and begins to translate into innovative songs with new forms of expression born from this lateral creative process- wow , it was cool- and very mind expanding.  And I feel, that this is how many of our mind’s work- although not nearly as prolifically as Bob Dylan's.  So, I am not sure if this book is for you- only you can decide- but if want to go way upstream and explore where your sub-conscious meets your conscious – and how that translates into more coherent thoughts- you might just like this book as much as I did……but if you want a simple story with a beginning, middle and end- skip this one

In some, these three books together are a feast of understanding the mind of one of the all-time great craftsman of folk music- music meant to help the world understand more about itself– and if you want to understand more about bob Dylan’s music, these three books will give you a leg up- and help you get more out of each and every listen.   As Bob says, “He who is not busy being born, is busy dying” – so dig in and enjoy!