Product Description

The essential writing on the essential songwriter.

Studio A chronicles the creator of some of the most indelible popular music of our time, a restless and protean figure whose career has been the subject of repeated transformations, declines, and comebacks. From early singles such as "Blowin' in the Wind" to recent albums like Love and Theft, Bob Dylan has proven himself to be the greatest lyricist of modern songwriters and the "poet laureate" of the 1960s. Authors in Studio A examine how Dylan's albums and live concerts have secured his place in the traditions of folk, rock, and blues.

Contributors include Dylan himself, Sam Shepard, Bruce Springsteen, Clive James, Allen Ginsberg, Johnny Cash, and Greil Marcus, and the text features previously unpublished work by Joyce Carol Oates, Gary Giddins, Rick Moody, Tom Piazza, and Barry Hannah. Studio A: The Bob Dylan Reader gathers over forty articles, poems, essays, speeches, literary criticisms, and interviews in an indispensable look at Bob Dylan's unique literary legacy. 8 pages of photographs.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1146762 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

From Publishers Weekly
As a pop culture icon, a literary figure and perhaps even the physical and spiritual embodiment of the tumultuous 1960s, Bob Dylan has taken on more roles and shapes than any other musician. Dylan, according to Hunter S. Thompson, became "the voice of an anguished and half-desperate generation." Now, 43 years after Dylan recorded his first album, Hedin has gathered together not only the best writing on the ever-changing folk singer, but also some of the best writing about any musician around. More than just a hagiography of a celebrated musician, his well-balanced collection mixes harsh criticism and unabashed enthusiasm, drawing from the works of great writers and artists—like Greil Marcus, Sam Shepard, Allen Ginsburg, Joyce Carol Oates, David Gates, Nat Hentoff, Robert Christgau, Anne Waldman, David Hajdu and Barry Hannah, to name just a few. The breadth and depth of Hedin’s selection is wonderful, but the book’s greatest coup may be its elegant chronological structure, which allows for a sweeping view of both Dylan and the changing times he so eloquently captured in his music. In his introduction, Hedin points out that in 1961, when Dylan’s first record debuted, "Elvis was at the movies, Buddy Holiday was dead, Chuck Berry had been out of the Top 40" for two years, and the Beatles still hadn’t come to New York. In those days, rock n’ roll didn’t reflect life’s complexities, Dylan once told an interviewer, it was all "put on a happy face and ride Sally ride." How things have changed since then. Photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Bob Dylan has written many of the most significant songs and recorded many of the most lasting albums of the past 40 years, and they have inspired a wealth of equally inspired writing. This valuable collection gathers nearly 50 pieces--critical essays, reviews, interviews, book excerpts, poems, and even a Sam Shepard one-act. Hedin presents them in rough chronology, tracing Dylan from his 1961 debut on the folk scene through his transformation into a rock innovator to his latest comeback with the acclaimed Love and Theft. Among the more notable contributors are Allen Ginsberg, Johnny Cash, Joyce Carol Oates, and Hunter S. Thompson. Altogether, the pieces form a collage illustrating and illuminating Dylan's career and strongly attesting his enduring legacy and continued relevance. As Bruce Springsteen said on Dylan's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, "To this day, wherever great rock music is being made, there is the shadow of Bob Dylan." Libraries' Dylan shelves may already be groaning, but Studio A must be added to them. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Benjamin Hedin was educated at the College of William and Mary and the New School for Social Research. His writing has appeared in The Nation and other national publications. He lives in New York City, where he is at work on a novel.

Customer Reviews

Excellent Dylan Resource
Studio A: The Bob Dylan Reader is all you could really ask for in terms of a Bob Dylan reader. As a music writer myself, I checked this book out for some Dylan research. It has proved much more helpful to me than other Dylan resources, even the 1,000 page Bob Dylan Encyclopedia. The materials you'll find inside range from interviews to reviews to poetry to literary analysis. I would have liked to have read more analysis, but that is just personal taste. I would say that Hedin chose the pieces very well, skirting the line between an actual college-level "reader" and something that is entertaining to read. It reminds me of the Popular Philosophy series that is out now (like Battlestar Galactica & Philosophy, Seinfeld & Philosophy, Radiohead & Philosophy, etc.), but it is more extensive and more interdisciplinary.

I recommend it.