In his review of Bob Dylan: Prophet Mystic Poet, Peter Stone Brown, a long-time music critic and Dylan expert, as well as a singer-songwriter in his own right, calls the book “essential reading for any serious Bob Dylan fan.”

Brown says that in showing “how much of what is commonly referred to as [the Bible] informs a large part of Dylan’s work … Rogovoy succeeds beyond admirably and does so in a more coherent fashion than any previous attempt. ”

Brown offers that “Many of [the book's] discoveries are not only interesting, but surprisingly mind-blowing, such as linking ‘Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window’ to David, the warrior King,” and that “the last part of the book, from Oh Mercy to the present, was the best part, both in terms of the writing, which has a far more natural flow, and in what is revealed about the songs…. what Rogovoy reveals about Oh Mercy in particular is enough to cause a thorough reexamination of the album and what it is saying.”

Brown concludes that “what this book does is open up a generous host of Bob Dylan songs and at time entire albums to a whole new realm of interpretation. “

Tags: Bob Dylan, Peter Stone Brown, review, Seth Rogovoy

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