Writing about BOB DYLAN: Prophet, Mystic, Poet, Morley Walker of the Winnipeg Free Press said, “This tome, about the influence Dylan’s Jewish roots play in his songs, joins Christopher Ricks’s Visions of Sin as a must-read for pointy-headed Dylanologists. No matter how obscure the Old Testament reference, rest assured that Rogovoy has unearthed it. “
“Seth Rogovoy offers a unique perspective that examines Bob Dylan within the spectrum of Jewish religious history . . . an entertaining read; a book to add to the shelf of your Bob Dylan library.”
—Suzanne Vega
“Helps fill in one more piece of an endless and endlessly fascinating puzzle.”
— Alan Light , frequent contributor to The New York Times and former senior writer at Rolling Stone
“Required reading for those who seek to understand not only Dylan but the meaning of their own life.”
—Rabbi Alan Berg , Portland, Oregon
“A bold attempt to explain why Dylan so often sounds like my zeyde.”
—Michael Wex , author of Born to Kvetch and How To Be A Mentsh (And Not A Shmuck)
New review written by an Italian poet from the 21st century: ‘That song and poetic free a jew named Bob Dylan’
May 31st, 2010A new review of Bob Dylan: Prophet Mystic Poet appears in an edition of Mosaico, apparently a Jewish journal in Italy. The review is in Italian, but you can get the gist of it — or ask Google to translate it for you, which gives you the funny title above.
Apparently the review calls the writer a “scholar” (studioso) whose “attentive analysis” shows how the Talmud, Torah and Kabbalah are for Dylan inexhaustable sources of inspiration and wisdom that he uses with diverse approaches during his entire career. I’ll take it.
Sean Wilentz defends Dylan against Joni Mitchell’s purported charges of ‘plagiarism’
May 1st, 2010While Joni Mitchell’s comments were probably misunderstood, overstated
just to be provocative, or taken out of context, Sean Wilentz does a great job putting into context the simmering controversy over Bob Dylan’s sampling of previously existing lyrical and musical material.
“In light of Dylan’s lifetime of spiritual and religious seeking, there might be a second level of meaning in the blood on these tracks” – PopMatters
April 29th, 2010“The question of Dylan’s religious affiliation has been brought back to the forefront because of Seth Rogovoy’s book, Bob Dylan: Prophet Mystic Poet. In light of Dylan’s lifetime of spiritual and religious seeking, there might be a second level of meaning in the blood on these tracks; perhaps he is also alluding to the blood of sacrifice, known to him in the sacrificial system of the Hebrew Scriptures.” – Jim Mello, “Bargaining for Salvation,” PopMatters
CONCERT REVIEW: Jakob Dylan, Albany, N.Y., 4.17.10
April 19th, 2010
Cut to the chase: he played only one hit song by his “other” band, the Wallflowers: “Three Marlenas,” which fit in swimmingly with the rest of his set list, drawn entirely from Jakob Dylan’s two recent solo albums, 2008’s Seeing Things and this year’s Women + Country.
And no, for those who still expect it, he did not play any songs by nor acknowledge his relationship to his father. Duh. Why should he?
Then again, he doesn’t need to, because as Dylan matures – he turned 40 last December – he looks remarkably more like his father every day (check out the photos accompanying this review).
But what Jakob Dylan did offer was an intense, if somewhat monochromatic, 90-minute run-through of his more recent roots-rock. He played the entire Women + Country program and most of Seeing Things, and made it all sound of a piece, backed by the ensemble named Three Legs for this tour, but typically working as singer Neko Case’s backup band.
Case, along with Kelly Hogan, were on hand to lend backup vocals, harmonies, and occasional duets, and those were some of the highlights of Dylan’s show.
If not voluble, Dylan is certainly a more genial frontman than his enigmatic father, but he’s learned some lessons well, including how to stand motionless at a microphone to intone his haunting ballads and mid-tempo country-rockers about, well, women and country for the most part.
