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New review written by an Italian poet from the 21st century: ‘That song and poetic free a jew named Bob Dylan’

srogovoy — Mon, 31 May 2010 16:16:53 +0000

A 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.

Bob Dylan to Perform in Jewish Homeland

srogovoy — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:57:08 +0000

Bob Dylan’s 2010 World Tour is rumored to be swinging home to the Promised Land, where Dylan will perform at HaYarkon Park in Tel Aviv on May 27.

The concert takes place just three days after Dylan’s 69th birthday, picking up on a tradition of Dylan’s of visiting Israel on his birthday begun in the early 1970s.

The concert will mark Dylan’s first in the Jewish state since he performed three shows in 1993 in Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Beersheba.

Dylan’s first concerts in Israel took place in 1987 in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

The Vatican Disses Dylan

srogovoy — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 02:44:05 +0000

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, the Vatican disses Bob Dylan because “despite his ‘great poetic vein’ … he paved the way for generations of unprofessional singer-songwriters who have ‘harshly tested the ears and patience of listeners’ with their tormented stories.”

Honestly, there is more than a grain of truth to that, although it’s hard to see how Dylan is to blame for all the cut-rate wannabes that followed in his wake.

And I don’t just mean Donovan.

“essential reading for any serious Bob Dylan fan” – Dylan critic Peter Stone Brown

srogovoy — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:39:40 +0000

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. “

When Bob Dylan Accepted a Lifetime Grammy Award by Reciting a Jewish Prayer

srogovoy — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:02:31 +0000

The Bob Dylan Examiner explores a bit of Bob Dylan history, recounting the head-scratching moment when Dylan accepted his Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 1991 with an obscure recitation of a commentary on the Hebrew psalm 27. The Examiner kindly reprints my explication of this great moment in rock history from BOB DYLAN: Prophet Mystic Poet, and includes rare video footage of Dylan’s amazing speech, in which he quotes from memory commentary from an Orthodox Jewish prayerbook.

Radio interview @ The Allan Handelman Show

srogovoy — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:54:38 +0000

February 5, 2010
4:00 pm	to	4:30 pm

The Allan Handelman Show
Syndicated rock music talk show
(704) 363-8326
Live feed: Friday, Feb. 5, 2010, 4p.m.
Syndicated feed: Sunday, Feb. 7, midnight
Also available as podcast

The Meaning of Bob Dylan’s Christmas Album: The Music (Part 3)

srogovoy — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:34:53 +0000

Almost lost in all the commotion surrounding Bob Dylan’s new Christmas album, Christmas In the Heart — his first charity album, as the proceeds from all sales are being donated to hunger charities, according to his website — is a fair consideration of the music itself: where it sits in the context of Dylan’s overall output, and how it relates to the decades-old genre of Christmas recordings by popular music artists.

Read more of the third in my four-part series about Bob Dylan’s Christmas album on the Jewish Book Council Blog here.

The Book Tour Begins: Springfield, Mass., and NYC

srogovoy — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:56:33 +0000

Hot on the heels of a rave review in Library Journal and a great plug in Vanity Fair, I’m about to embark upon the first week of my so-called book tour, beginning tomorrow (Monday, Nov. 16) night with an author event (multimedia performance, which I’m calling Bob Dylan’s Mystical Midrash) at the Springfield [Mass.] Jewish Community Center at 7, as part of its 2009 Jewish Book Fair, followed the next night with a private party in New York City. No word yet if Bob Dylan, who will be in town that night to do his own multimedia performance, will be attending that event.

Advance Praise for BD PMP from Suzanne Vega

srogovoy — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:56:46 +0000

“Seth Rogovoy offers a unique perspective that examines Bob Dylan within the spectrum of Jewish religious history, but is never scholarly or pedantic. Mr. Rogovoy culls images from religious texts and matches them with Bob Dylan’s lyrics; he also points out when the lyrics preceded the events that they would seem to be about, suggesting that Bob Dylan is in fact a prophet. BOB DYLAN: Prophet, Mystic, Poet is an entertaining read; a book to add to the shelf of your Bob Dylan library.” — Suzanne Vega

Portland Rabbi lends kosher stamp of approval to BOB DYLAN: Prophet, Mystic, Poet

srogovoy — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:49:01 +0000

“Seth Rogovoy proves that he is not only a master of Dylan’s music and life journey, but most significantly, of the whole idea of prophecy. Rogovoy’s Dylan stays true to his core vision through an era that would have tested Isaiah. In the clarity of his own vision, Rogovoy’s BOB DYLAN: Prophet, Mystic, Poet stands with Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed and Greil Marcus’s Shape of Things to Come. Few books make that distinguished cut. This one does. It is required reading for those who seek to understand not only Dylan but the meaning of their own life. This is serious stuff. It’s also a pleasure to read. Each page is a ride with music all its own. ” – Rabbi Alan Berg, Portland, Oregon