THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BOB DYLAN

loved it

"The blues is boring" states Mr. Egan in his review of "Blonde On Blonde"This exact same sentence appears in his woeful look at Hendrix's output. One would have thought that some 10 years later he would have garnered some appreciation for the true musical form of the 20th century, but alas no.Anyone who can make this absurd assertion in regard to these two giants is clearly tin-eared. Neither Hendrix or Dylan would have been the artists they were without the blues, and to dismiss this music as boring because it "repeats the same 12 bar pattern and the same 3 chords" (I paraphrase) should hand in their (undeserved) record reviewers badge.Egan's prejudice is obviously geared toward white, middle-class art-rock. That's why he targets the same three LPs that every other bog standard rock crit does as Dylan's greatest. ("Bringing It All Back Home", "Highway 61" and "Blonde On Blonde") and even then he dismisses the more obviosly blues influenced tracks. His lack of musical insight shines like a beacon when he fobs "Pledging My Time" off as a standard 12 bar blues, when it plainly is an eight bar blues, and sorry Sean, not boring at all.Beside all that, his biggest blunder is to decry possibly Dylan's greatest song of all, "Boots Of Spanish Leather" as "dull"One would hope that Egan avoids music he can't understand in future. (God only knows what that would leave...Oasis?)

I am a great fan of the "Mammoth book" series, although I know that they are not to everyone's taste. What I like about them is that you get a comprehensive chronological selection of both contemporary and retrospective articles and essays about the artist and their work, and each of these books is literally packed with information and facts.This book is no exception and whilst many of the stories contained within it will be familiar to long-term Bob Dylan fans, there will I feel sure, be enough new items to even satisfy the oldest fan. I particularly like the author's own reviews of othe albums in this series and once again he has not let me down in his review of Dylan's albums over the years.Considering the price of this book, I think it represents fantastic value for money and a great read.

As others have mentioned, this book doesn't deliver on its promise. It's not an 'anthology', and nor is it anything like 'a selection of the best writing on Dylan'. There are some interesting snippets here and there, but most of it is simply album reviews and comments by Sean Egan himself. These may be thorough on background facts but they're not inspiring or enlightening. Egan seems to be more interested in collecting information and voicing his own (often ill-founded) opinions than in understanding or appreciating his subject. Sometimes I wondered why he bothered to write about Dylan if he thinks so little of him!This book is Ok for flicking through on the toilet, or as I did, on a couple of short flights, but I don't think I'll be referring to it again.

Worst Dylan book I've ever read. The author doesn't seem to like or understand Dylan very much, either the man or his music. Avoid it. For a decent Dylan primer, try All Across the Telegraph instead