Now that the editorial review is up, you will not make the mistake that I did when all I had to go on was the title. The only difference that I can see: a two-page preface that tells us why the book is being reissued under another title. Since I ordered a new copy of _Invisible Republic_ at the very same time I ordered this book, I am (having fetched it from the post office five minutes ago) more than a little miffed.

_The Old Weird America_ is the greatest description of the mystery of rock and roll ever put into prose. Rock is an ancient mystery religion-- insight, gnosis emerges when the terror and strangeness has been absorbed and transmogrified. Lead into gold, the wound of Amfortas healed, the mountain rooted down by the mole. The first time I heard Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes , I felt that terror. I was afraid of Tiny Montgomery, of Silly Nilly, of the Coachman. I knew that there was no relief for me until the world of the Basement Tapes was as real as the four walls of my bedroom. Now that it has become that familiar, there still is no relief. Rock and roll means never shaking the hell hound on your trail, no relief from the exasperated humiliation of begging Mrs. Henry to look your way and pump you a few. The ironic, elusive fantasy of the Million Dollar Bash always somewhere in the near future, with Rosemary waiting there to put it to you plain as day, and give it to you for a song.

This is a retitled re-issue of _Invisible Republic_. For its content, then, it clearly deserves a 5-star rating (at least from here). However, you ought to know what you will be getting if you already have that classic.

The recording sessions is undoubtedly an interesting book, but it doesn't really reach its potential. The high water mark for this type of book is "the Beatles Recording Sessions" which came out in the late eighties, I believe. And it's incredibly thourough, informative and filled with never-before-seen photos of the Fab Four doing their thing. The Dylan book seems lazy by comparison; it only has photos from one recording session in his entire career and doesn't go into enough detail about the sessions, especially when you consider his vast amount of unreleased material. Had Dylan been given the treatment that the Beatles received, we'd have quite a book here. Still, what's there is interesting, so if you're a Dylan fan I'd say pick it up if you can find it at a good price.

This is a must have for Dylan fans and collectors, but there are some drawbacks which potential buyers should be aware of.

First, the title is deceptive. Heylin and his publisher obviously chose it to dupe unsuspecting readers into thinking they are getting a detailed, day-by-day account of Dylan's work in the studio, along the lines of Mark Lewisohn's extraordinary BEATLES RECORDING SESSIONS (Hamlyn, 1988). This is not such a chronicle, as Heylin points out - at length - in his introduction (an introduction that web buyers cannot read; hence, this review). Heylin's self-serving swipes at Lewisohn in the introduction are also unfortunate, and is "Bob-made-better-records-in-six-days-than-the-Beatles-did-in-six-months" rant is simply misguided. Methinks Clinton is jealous because Lewisohn had unprecedented access to the EMI archive, while Sony's gatekeeper - Jeff Rosen - allowed a rival Dylanologist to document the bard's work. Heylin's childish un-dedication to Rosen is surely a first in the history of publishing, and tarnishes an otherwise exemplary book.

If you can get past the petty dedication and bitchy introduction, you will find RECORDING SESSIONS to be a mostly informative, highly opinionated look at Dylan's career in the studio. You will need Michael Krogsgaard's authorised (sorry Clinton!) accounts in fanzines THE TELEGRAPH and THE BRIDGE for the most accurate session information (e.g. musicians and take numbers), but you don't read Clinton Heylin for these dry facts anyway. You read him because he has many insightful, provocative things to say about Bob Dylan, especially with regard to the songs and takes which were left behind, and have only appeared since on bootlegs, or Sony's pseudo-bootlegs. Here, Heylin simply shines.

You may not agree with what he has to say, but you will be entertained by the way he says it. This work deserves a place in your collection, next to Paul Williams's PERFORMING ARTIST I & II.

OK, so it's not the comprehensive account of all of Bob's studio work that Lewisohn's Beatles book is, and maybe Heylin should have called it BOB DYLAN: THE OUT-TAKES 1960-1994, but this is a bible of information about Bob's album sessions. Would BLOOD ON THE TRACKS or INFIDELS have been better LPs if Dylan hadn't such an appetite for re-editing and revisionism? How and why did THE BASEMENT TAPES and THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOLS 1-3 fail to live up to their potential? It's questions like these that Heylin tackles with great insight and authority. He also provides a good bootleg discography, although this is by now somewhat out of date. Time for a new edition, Clinton!

I used this lab plus the Sybex CCNA e-Trainer for 3 weeks and passed 640-507 with a 945/1000 score. This lab isn't perfect as it doesn't replicate the entire IOS command set, but it does give you what you need to become a CCNA.

Instead of buying routers, I bought the Sybex CCNA Virtual Lab. It was good and I gave it a great Amazon rating. However, this is, and I am guesing here, the Second edition, which basically is just more routers, switches and hosts to configure and work within a fixed network environment. Works great, with more supported commands and worth every cent --much better then any Cisco software product! You MUST get the Todd Lammle Sybex CCNA Study Guide to read along with this product and then practice the labs. Good luck!

This is a nice put together program that will help prepare you for the new SIMs that Cisco is using on the new 607 CCNA exam.

If you want to understand the sims as well as gain hands-on knowledge, then this is the software you need, along with Todd Lammle's book - of course!

It's an excellent idea, but what grindingly dull work Todd Harvey makes of it all. Each of the 70 analyses follow the same pattern, so each contains a paragraph which says something like "I have heard 11 versions of Don't Think Twice, It's All Right : the [10/?/62a] 2nd Gaslight performance, the [11/14/62] Freewheelin' session VI recording, subsequently released on that lp, the [3/?/63a] Witmark session V recording..." etc etc through all 11 performances. (All the sessions are listed in an appendix at the back of the book, so why he couldn't asterisk those he'd heard and save 70 tedious paragraphs, I don't know.) Then later, we get a musical analysis of each song, like this : "Lay Down Your Waery Tune has a verse-chorus form with five verses (verse four has no chorus). In duple time it has an ABCA/ABCA phrase structure. Like Paths of Victory and Walkin' Down the Line the melody is the same in both the verse and chorus sections". Well, not much enlightenment there. I give credit for the author's doggedness in trying to chase down the sources for all these songs - there's lots of stuff I didn't know in here - but ignoring the appendices this book is only 127 pages long... (I believe that might be because it's aiming for educational establishments and not fans - maybe. Anyway, it tries hard to be "scholarly".) There are also odd lapses. Harvey credits John Bauldie's notes to the "Bootleg Series" box set then does not mention that Dylan's "Cough Song" is probably based on Jimmie Tarlton's (1930) "Mexican Rag" as Bauldie says. He omits the connection between "When the Ship Comes In" and the Carter family's "Gospel Ship"; and he doesn't explore the rather obvious thematic similarity between Dylan's "John Brown" and the Irish trad song "Johnny I Hardly Knew You". I might have forgiven the author for those omissions, but I can't forgive him for writing such a very dull and boring book about such an interesting subject. All in all, this is a real missed opportunity.

This is a fascinating book. Harvey examines 70 early Dylan songs for their musical and lyrical influences. He doesn't stop when he finds an earlier song with a similar melody. He finds a song that influenced the melody of *that* song, and then he finds yet an earlier song that had a similar tune, and so on.

Dylan has sometimes been criticized for ripping off the songs of this or that performer. Dominic Behan, for a famous example, claimed Dylan copied his 1957 "Patriot Game" in "With God On Our Side." Harvey's research shows what Behan conveniently did not mention: The "Patriot Game" melody had been used by Burl Ives in his versions of "The Nightingale," released on two different records in 1952 and 1956, before Behan wrote his song. Then Harvey traces the melody back to a recording made by Jo Stafford in 1948, released on a 78 rpm album. Harvey also reports that Liam Clancy said a very similar melody ("The Merry Month of May") came from the Appalachian Mountains.

Dylan *had* heard "The Patriot Game" and was influenced by it, as the lyrics indicate. The point is that, when folk songs and their melodies are the issue, no one person can usually be determined to be the author. Someone may copyright various songs, as A. P. Carter did with many Carter Family recordings, but that doesn't mean he wrote them. It is more a matter of receiving royalties that would otherwise be lost to Anonymous.

Harvey's book is fascinating reading, well written, and original. In this time when so many Dylan books are rehashes of the same old stories, it is a pleasant surprise to read a volume that is written from independent research.

The Formative Dylan is also a rare Dylan book in that its subject is Dylan's music, not his private life. Highest recommendation.

The story of Dylan's life is so extraordinary that it would be hard to write a bad book about it, I would have thought, and this one is superb. It is full of new information and, at the same time, there isn't a bunch of self-opinionated twaddle about what the author thinks Dylan's lyrics mean. Thank goodness. There is nothing more boring than a guy who wants to tell you what he thinks Dylan lyrics mean. Instead of cod-analysis, we get the story of Dylan's life in extraordinary detail - the whole deal from growing up in Minnesota to the most recent tours: his women; his best friends; his family; the recording sessions; the shows. It's a real easy book to read and at the end you feel you know a whole lot more about this guy, though he is so complex you get the idea that the whole story might never be unravelled. I guess that's why he's so interesting. Anyway, terrific stuff. Five stars for sure.

There are so many Dylan-related books out there, and many of them not terribly good, that I was initially reluctant to try yet another. However, with Bobby celebrating his 60th birthday this year, I was tempted to try this new biography and was impressed from the first by how readable, entertaining and even-handed it is - paying equal attention to the man's life and work and refraining from judging him, or praising him too wildly. I must have read nearly all the main Dylan biogs over the past few years, yet I found new information on almost every page and several passages that changed the whole way I thought about Dylan and his music. The stuff about Woodstock is amazing, and there are really cool people quoted for the first time - like the guy who taught Dylan to paint, Sam Shepard and many girlfriends. The concert descriptions are terrific, and the whole book is a handsome thing with great photographs. Most importantly, I found Down the Highway to be a great read - the sort of book you want to read every night before bed. It is entertaining, cleanly written and lacking in the kind of sloppy slang language that mars other books on the subject. Some of the revelations are so startling that you wonder where the author gets his material, but at the back of the book are detailed source notes that back it all up. When I got to the last few pages I didn't want it to end.

The enigmatic, mysterious Bob Dylan: who can really know this guy? Sounes does an excellent job of fleshing out the man behind the music, probably about as good a job as anyone could have done. He balances the personal life of Bob (at least what can be known of his personal life) with his artistic life, and presents a full-bodied, complete picture of the man and the legend. Dylan is a man of contradictions (a born-again Christian who remained sexually promiscuous, a person who would treat people insensitively and then feel badly about it but not enough to apologize, a protest singer who was reluctant to get involved in causes), but that's what makes him Dylan. Although familiar with Dylan's music over the years, plus reading many articles and interviews with him, this is the first book-length biography I have read about him, so I may not have the perspective that others do who have compared this bio to others and have found it lacking, but speaking for myself, I found it fascinating.

Mr. Perle's disclaimer does this book an injustice: Spitz's sequel to the Scaduto and Shelton biographies bears the aspect of a "tabloid-style hatchet job" unmistakably. Nevertheless the amazing quality of Spitz's even-then-still-timely research remains irreducible, and his book cannot be responsibly neglected by scholars of the topic.

As for Perle's claim that "An autobiography by Bob Dylan was also available," well, if only! Won't that be the day!

(This was written for a course assignment.)

Though already ten years old, "Dylan - A Biography" by Bob Spitz is an incredible, often uncomfortable look into singer/songwriter Bob Dylan's life. "Uncomfortable" because Bob Dylan, admired and even idolized by so many, named the spokesman of his generation in the early 1960s, and supposedly a prophet of peace and goodwill, is uncovered as a frequently complete and utter jerk. But at the same time, Spitz writes with an understanding pen. "Dylan" is by no means a tabloid-style hatchet job, Spitz having set out to "unmask the hero." If anything, "Dylan" shows us that Bob Dylan, the man, the myth, is indeed both a man and a myth. He is and always has been a human being, and one with his fair share of faults.

Reviews of "Dylan" on the Internet are rather critical of Spitz, using terms such as "mean-spirited." Due to Spitz having dramatically different reviews for his other works, it seems as though these other "Dylan" readers don't want to face the idea that their icon is not the quintessential humanitarian, despite the legend. Spitz interviews and quotes countless people from Dylan's past who give first-hand accounts of his own mean-spirited dealings with those who've cared about him. In doing so one feels foolish thinking of Dylan as among the world's greatest humanitarians.

Lack of personal knowledge created the void that "Dylan" was hoped to fill. Two topics in particular were eagerly awaited to be expounded on. These included Dylan's mid-1960s & life-altering motorcycle accident and Dylan's flirtation with Christianity, followed by his return to Judaism. Neither topic was satisfactorily covered, though it appears that the second part of the latter simply occured after the book was published a decade ago. As for the first topic, it appears due to the less-than-heavy emphasis and the implication that the accident was not nearly as serious as the public was lead to believe that it is for this that the topic was given little concentration.

The 550 pages that make up the main text of the book, including the prologue, chapters, and epilogue, certainly comprise a work that is significantly longer than easier-read alternatives for the topic, but it was hoped that the book would live up to its promise. At the bottom of the cover is a quote from esteemed writer Greil Marcus, "No other book captures it so well, understands so well..." An autobiography by Bob Dylan was also available, but to get the objective story, it is best to stay away from such self-promotion. In the author's notes preceding the prologue, Spitz writes that he was offered exclusive interviews with Dylan as well as access to countless treasures including photographs in return for allowing Dylan control over the final manuscript. Based on Dylan's notorious history of publicizing half-truths and outright lies about himself, Spitz refused.

"Dylan" is a recommended read.

This Bob Dylan book by Bob Spitz i felt was quite intrigueing. I have always wanted to learn more on Bob Dylan and this book, i felt really expressed a lot of his thoughts and how his has lived his entire life.

I bought and read Invisible Republic with absolutely no knowledge of Bob Dylan. I love the sarcastic yet reflective tone Marcus uses in the book; however, he expects the reader to know all about the songs on the Basement Tapes beforehand. Marcus makes references to many of Dylan's songs in order to clarify some of his points, but these references mean little to someone who has never heard of these songs. Anyone who already knows about Bob Dylan (and/or the Anthology of American Folk Music) would probably enjoy Invisible Republic. A clueless person like me should not bother to read it.

I don't understand some of the other customer reviews of this book. Were the basement tapes created in a vacuum, or were the ghosts of American folk music floating around that basement in Big Pink ? And could this book be more timely with the epochal Smithsonian 1997 re-release of the Harry Smith Anthology ? This is exactly the book I wanted and Marcus was the only one who could do it. Admittedly some of the ideas are far-ranging, perhaps far-fetched, but we have to give the creative critic the same artistic license we give the artist. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't but when it does it gives you a lot to think about and really helps to place Dylan within the context of the history of American music. And even since Dylan turned his back on the folk movement you can still hear echoes to this day of the influence of the Smith Anthology in his music. The way he absorbed it and reconfigured the songs (which are essentially the canon of American folk music)for his own purposes throughout his career, particularly during the making the tapes which may be his finest work, are key to understanding the timeless quality of his music. And how about that bravura opening section, the best description I've read of what was at stake during the first electric tour with The Band ?

Not just music, not just history, Invisible Republic, like Mr. Marcus' classic Mystery Train,explores the secret history of America. It's not the history of facts, or even Dylan and the Band's Basement Tapes, but the history of America's spirit. He writes of characters real and fictional whose lives embody the American journey. Hope, desperation, dreams, doom -- he makes these abstractions concrete through the lives of these people. Even Bob Dylan the man is not as important as what Dylan and the Band created the songs they wrote and the songs they chose -- an "Invisible Republic" that is home to the individuals of history we never hear about, the everymen and women. In addition, Marcus "rediscovers" the true folk artists who inspired everyone from Dylan to Judy Collins and Pete Seeger. These original artists carried on the last oral tradition in America, focusing on the not-so-pretty elements of rural American life -- violence, coupled with a damn good time. Greil Marcus has an insight into what makes America really function (and dysfuction), that the great artists have. He writes with the voice and passion of a fiction writer, funny, sad, and true

this book isn't worth the paper it's written on...it provides no insight into parenting, and it has silly/annoying cartoons throughout. it reads quickly, because there's no substance....and yet i couldn't even bear to finish it.

Bob Dylan gets paternal advice from Moses????

Hoffman has a gift for making obscure and difficult truths clear and easily understood. He has selected words of powerful wisdom that bring the oft forgotten subject of "Fatherhood" into crisp focus. This book is written with compassion for children and the deepest respect for fatherhood. Only a soul that has no sympathy for the difficulties and challenges of being a male parent could find this book lacking. An excellent book written by an author with uncommon vision and heart. An excellent gift for a father you may know.

I bought this book after having learnt 'Don't Think Twice' from a magazine and was very disappointed with the transcriptions. 'Don't think twice' was a very poor representation; even a average guitarist would be able to see it was quite far off the recorded version. Another problem was the lack of good songs - Fantasic fingerpicking pieces were missed out:'Spanish Boots', 'Girl from north country', 'One too many mornings', etc did not feature. Also no words were included.

I recently purchased this book and was quite impressed with the quality of the transciptions contained within. They very accurate and complete. As a guitarists and a serious Bob Dylan fan I know how hard it can be to find accurate Tablature for Bob Dylan and Mr. Willard has compiled an excellent collection of some of the lesser well-known Dylan tunes.

The review above sounds a LOT like a review of the book by Isis magazine reviewer Jim Gillian, which is posted on the Isis site... maybe should be signed "brown nose"...?

This is a CRACKERJACK book. Hugely enjoyable and one that I hope is on everyone's wish list.

Excluding the appendices (which include an opinion on "historic" live shows and on "essential" bootlegs), the anthology comprises thirty-three pieces, of which, twelve are either written by Derek alone, or in collaboration with others. And whilst most of the content has of course been drawn from past issues of ISIS Magazine, there are five entirely new essays. Of those that have appeared before, the earliest comes from ISIS #22 and the most recent from ISIS #96.

The structure of the anthology broadly follows Bob's progress through the years, which gives it something of a biographical feel, albeit a particularly selective one. The text is interspersed with photographs of Bob in concert and elsewhere, as well as being liberally sprinkled with "passport" sized photos of others; poster/ticket reproductions; cartoons; band signatures and so on. Collectively these give a good overall impression of Dylan and some of his world.

Derek also writes the introduction, which moves pretty briskly from what the book is about to Derek's own reasons for being "completely captivated" by Dylan. So although he states that "it is (about) a best of selection...arranged in chronological order...(which) can be read as a potted biography... or ...as individual essays," it gets its flavour from Derek's own enthusiasm for and perspective on Dylan. The result is that "ISIS A Bob Dylan Anthology" has a particular coherence that somehow accommodates the inevitably different styles of the other contributors, who, equally inevitably, have their own take on Bob. What emerges is a book drawn from a very rich mix indeed. A bit like Grandma's secret recipe fruitcake, which is stuffed full of goodies, yet is wonderfully digestible. And you always want more...

It helps enormously that Derek writes well. His style is accessible, engaging and inclusive of others. He brings rigour and considerable expertise to bear. This produces pieces that are informed, accurate (or as accurate as anything about Bob Dylan ever can be) and stimulating. At the same time, there is a total absence of malice about his writing, as well as an utter lack of arrogance. This is in marked contrast to some of the recent(ish) works by one or two "world authorities" on Dylan, where what they said was much diminished by how they said it.

Somehow (though I guess careful editing on Derek's part has a lot to do with it), the essays from the other contributors are pretty consistent with Derek's approach. Hence the general coherence of it all. By way of an analogy to illustrate this, it's a bit like listening to a "various artist's" CD, one where the tracks are based on a distinctive theme, rather than one intended to reflect the broad company catalogue.

Turning now to some of the pieces themselves. The opener, "Interview With Abe and Beatty Zimmerman" is prefaced with an introductory note by Ian Woodward. Even for people pretty familiar with the background to the interview and to Shelton's relationship with Dylan, this provides a really helpful context, one that encourages the reader to look at it as though present in the room all those years ago, rather than with the benefit(?) of over thirty years hindsight.

Shelton opens with some questions about the family background and how Abe and Beatty met. They talk about Bob's early years, his childhood ambitions and behaviour and, later, his growing success. To me at least, both Bob's parents, though especially Beatty, come across as pretty open. Oh sure, we know that some things were held back and that others had some sort of "spin" on them, but in general it feels very natural. Perhaps the most poignant, most eloquent moment comes towards the end, when Shelton asks if they think Bob will come back to Hibbing. Abe, who seems to have been looking at pictures of Bob in camp in the summer of 1954, does not answer and, even when prompted, remains silent. Maybe he was reflecting on what had been lost, rather than what had been gained. But who really knows? Three weeks later he died.

It's a fascinating piece that sets the stage for those following, which variously look at (amongst other things) Bob's background and early forays into music making; where the name "Dylan" might have come from; Dave Whittaker's recollections and observations; and early days in London. Then there is "A Chat With Martin Carthy," the other party being Matthew Zuckerman, and a fine job it is too. Carthy seems to enjoy talking about Dylan. He does so without any hint of envy but with a considerable body of knowledge about musical tradition, a real feel for the culture, environment and tensions of the whole early sixties "folk" thing and a lot of affection for a fellow performer, who happens to be Bob Dylan. I could go on but space dictates. The only piece that I did have a bit of difficulty with was, "Robert Johnson and Street Legal," though that was entirely of my own making.

Of past anthologies, many might feel that John Bauldie's 1987 effort "All Across The Telegraph" sets a pretty formidable benchmark. Yes it does, but even allowing for the fact that most comparisons are odious and usually irrelevant, I think that "ISIS A Bob Dylan Anthology" meets and in some ways surpasses it. "All Across The Telegraph" was followed in 1990 by "Wanted Man: In Search of Bob Dylan," so if that is a precedent, maybe we won't have too long to wait for an ISIS Anthology 2.