Greil Marcus, Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads

I’m not completely convinced that (as the saying goes) writing about music is like dancing about architecture, but Marcus, though a fine and knowledgable critic, does his share of hoofing in this book, whose ostensible subject is the circumstances surrounding the recording and release of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” in 1965. Because his fierce erudition so easily leads him down any number of garden paths in search of ways of describing the effects individual pieces of popular music have on their listeners or on the cultural contexts in which they spring up, some of this book feels improvised—and not necessarily in a good way. But when Marcus is writing about the watershed the song represented in Dylan’s development as a songwriter, the way it took shape in the studio, or the public’s initial reaction when it was debuted on radio and then performed at the Newport Folk Festival, the book takes flight like a novel, or perhaps a poem, or possibly even “Like a Rolling Stone” itself.

Technorati Tags: Books, Nonfiction, Greil Marcus, Music, Bob Dylan