The Philosophy of Modern Song is Bob Dylan's first book of new writing since 2004's Chronicles:
Volume One and since winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. Dylan who began working
on the book in 2010 offers a master class on the art and craft of songwriting. He writes over
sixty essays focusing on songs by other artists spanning from Stephen Foster to Elvis Costello
and in between ranging from Hank Williams to Nina Simone. He analyzes what he calls the trap of
easy rhymes breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song and even
explains how bluegrass relates to heavy metal. These essays are written in Dylan's unique
prose. They are mysterious and mercurial poignant and profound and often laugh-out-loud
funny. And while they are ostensibly about music they are really meditations and reflections
on the human condition. Running throughout the book are nearly 150 carefully curated photos as
well as a series of dream-like riffs that taken together resemble an epic poem and add to the
work's transcendence. In 2020 with the release of his outstanding album Rough and Rowdy Ways
Dylan became the first artist to have an album hit the Billboard Top 40 in each decade since
the 1960s. The Philosophy of Modern Song contains much of what he has learned about his craft
in all those years and like everything that Dylan does it is a momentous artistic
achievement.--Provided by publisher.
