On Dylan's 'The Philosophy of Modern Song'

Bob Dylan’s new book is called The Philosophy of Modern Song, and it is, superficially, a blend of the self-mythologizing from his memoir Chronicles (2004) and the purple grumble of his Theme Time Radio Hour show. Though this survey is allegedly about other people’s work, it plays as a fractured memoir and punch list of nightmares. Dylan writes here about sixty-six songs, most recorded in the fifties or sixties, and what begins as a set of interpretations ends up as a sour little diary.