The Bob Dylan Examiner digs deep into the back story of how Bob Dylan came to write “When the Ship Comes In.” In so doing, the Examiner quotes extensively from my analysis of the song’s conceptual, imagistic and lyrical debt to the Bible.
“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)
Story behind “When the Ship Comes In” revealed (Bob Dylan Examiner)
August 13th, 2010“a must-read for pointy-headed Dylanologists” – Winnipeg Free Press
June 30th, 2010Writing 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. “
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
