Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads

I enjoyed reading this book. Read it in a class and it was a lot of fun getting into the nuances and story of the song

This probably a 4 1/2 star book. Marcus is an eminent Dylanologist. He was part of a symposium on Dylan at the Skirbal, near LA.Marcus not only dissects the Highway 61 Sessions, but goes deeply into a discussion of Blues and R& B Music. He discusses Clyde McPhatter and the various groups that Clyde was part of, which pleased me greatly. (You can Still find the Drifters "White Christmas" on Juke Boxes today.)Though I didn't understand the section on takes. It seems that none of the 15 takes were satisfactory, so what take was released? 16Th?

A collection of essays over the years that range from fascinating and illuminating to indecipherable ravings, plus a transcription of an interminable recording session. Amazing the record even got made, a testament to Dylan's and the other musician perseverance.

If you're a Dylan fan this is a fast facinating read. Like a Rolling Stone, is a bone chilling monumental song that changed pop music forever. It's hard to imagine the impact of this composition fifty years after its release. You had to be there a teenager listening to the radio when this song was played. There was nothing like it on my AM radio. It's one of those cases where you Really had to be there. It scared the hell out of me and still does. Marcus captures the moment, the song, the people involved, and especially the times. Thanks for the lone snare drum shot that was heard round the world.

It's all about Dylan and it's all about one of the greatest rock songs ever (per RS), Like A Rolling Stone. Every Dylan lover and every song lover will love this book.

This reader thought he knew this era-shattering Dylan song and its contexts; but this book kept enriching it start to finish, and showed as well how it nearly did not happen, could have easily been abandoned in the drafts of the studio or the maze of putting Bloomfield and Kooper in on it. I was a CT kid in the shadows of Forest Hill concert, and in truth I was applauding that electric guitar like it was some Blakean breakthrough into the heavens of poetry, same thing when I heard the Byrds sing Turn Turn Turn or Tambourine Man. Re Dylan, Marcus keeps raising spectral contexts out of the airwaves, shows how the song breaks into the `great time' and afterlife of music created by Sam Cooke and Robert Johnson. This books shows how Dylan was using the top 40 as an access into that depth of folk-pop poetry coming out of the future, making a future America happen in the present, endure as a legacy and obligation. I can see how a poet such as Dylan would be grateful for such a reading, breaking his poetry into the invisible republic of the spirit.

The premise of this book ultimately throws me.Is "Like a Rolling Stone'' supposed to be the seminal song of rock and roll? Of Dylan's career? Of the 60s? To me, it's none of the above. Why not something on the Dead's "Dire Wolf?'' At least Robert Hunter acknowledged that he and Garcia didn't know that the prehistoric animal they chornicled was more like a medium-sized dog than "400 pounds of sin.'' Dylan acknolwedges nothing here.I've always been a fan of Dylan but this didn't floor me when it came out. I noted it was long for a single, but so what? Everything was changing in those days. In fact, if I had to rank Dylan stuff from that era, it probably wouldn't be in my top 10. I found "Positively Fourth Street'' more interesting. And "Subterranean Homesick Blues'' may have had more impact _ it was an early example of what's turned into rap and hip-hop; the Weathermen took their name from it, and it's certainly influenced other songwriters, most recently Rodney Crowell.Yes, there are interesting anecdotes here and Marcus' rundown of the top 10 over a period of weeks in 1965 illustrates how stale radio is these days _ the variety of styles and genres that were played then would be remarkable today.But the book ultimately is just another example of the kind of criticism that drives me nuts and, I suspect, would make Dylan laugh. Rock critics, without access to the mind of the performer, viewed songs through their own prism, sometimes honed by college professors who just KNEW what writers from Hemingway to Joyce were thinking. So the critics KNEW what Dylan was thinking. In the end, I'm not even sure Bob knew. A sidelight: read Levon Helm's autobiography to note the different interpretations even within The Band of what "The Weight'' was about _ Robbie Robertson pretentiously suggests that it's symbolic stuff gleaned from Rimbaud and other offbeat poets in vogue in those days. Levon says "Rode into Nazareth'' is nothing more than a recollection of a drive to Nazareth, Pa., where the Martin guitar factory is located. And "Annie'' is a childhood friend of Helm's.That's a different song and a different Band, linked, of course, to Dylan. Come to think of it, I like that song much better too. Maybe "Rolling Stone'' was an epiphany to Marcus; to me it's just a song.As Mick Jagger said after the Stones performed it, "Thank you Bob.'' (Yes, it could have been a tribute to Mick and the lads)For this book, no thanks.

Pompous, overdone, obtuse, containing barely intelligible ideas and meanings. The information and anecdotes are the only things that make it worth the time. I have never had to re read so many sentences in my life and still had no idea what was being expressed. A huge disappointment in more ways than one. The "take notes" in the epilogue were the best part.... Stripped of the author's pretentious windiness, there would be no book. Almost as if the author's motto was never use a simple few word sentence when you can write an essay size sentence with polysyllabic words to send the reader to the dictionary... Sheesh! Reading this book was WORK!

You thought it was just a great song that captured completely the spirit and concerns of the time?This book helps see things a bit more clearly and gives background and highlights of the sessions, issues and achievements.Great account of why Dylan was so great and how despite all the pressures he produced all his ground breaking stories and songs.You will never listen to 'Like A Rollin' Stone' the same way ever again.He ignores Dylan's decision to come to the 1969 Isle of Wight not to Woodstock but gives special background to the 1966 Judas tour.Brilliant book.Highly recommended.