Dylan's new book is here and has gotten a fair amount of press. He has taken 60+ songs, from anywhere in the last century and muses about the greatness of the song and performing artist. The photos and print advertisements that are displayed throughout are a joy to go through.
I read that playlists of the songs have already started appearing on a few streaming music sites. I decided to try and put one together from my own music collection.
Some on the list are well know songs. Others, seemingly well know, but not likely in anyones collection. While Dylan gives you specific release information, it may not be of much value in todays marketplace. Many of the songs are not included in careers retrospectives or greatest hits collections. I thought my Elvis collection was fairly comprehensive. I did not have Money Honey. Takes quite a bit of research to find a collection that includes the song he has included. An example of a really difficult find is Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy by Uncle Dave Macon. In fact anything By Uncle Dave has proven difficult. I know of Uncle Dave only by reference from more contempory artists doing covers. Go ahead, see if you have it. Try and find a source to buy it. Go ahead.
Hint! The INTERNET ARCHIVE is a good resource for the obscure. I did find the Uncle Dave song on similar site dedicated to the preservation of recordings and is a non profit. It was downloadable and lossless.
There were others by artists I was vaguely aware of, or not aware at all. When you examine their catalogs you will spot many, many well known beloved songs. I knew the songs from covers by more contemporary artists.
Of course ANY list of "great" songs is ripe for some good arguments. This being Dylan, there are many where you just have to ask, "Why this and not that" Examples are The Eagles "Witchy Woman", or Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night". Are these the songs you would choose from the large catalogs of available hits from either of these artists? You can take a contrary position and doobey doobey doo me into submission!
In any event, it has been fun seeing what I had from the list, looking for and finding deep catlogs of great material I was just not aware of and exploring.
I am still missing 8-10 songs from the list, and decided I would not listen to the playlist until it is complete, or until I give up. I have no idea if Dylan meant us to play his list, in his order. After all, this is a book, not a record. Reading the titles in his order certainly present some questionable segues. Reading the titles and playing them could prove quite a different experience.
Unlike his first book which was a big fat good read, this one is slim and pure fun.
LarryRup
Author
Topic: Songs From Dylan's Philosophy of Modern Song (Read 1826 times)