the New York Times unveiled Thursday, October 13 the first excerpts from The Philosophy of Modern Song, published by Simon and Schuster across the Atlantic, before being published in France by Fayard (date not given). It’s the first Bob Dylan book to hit the shelves since Chronicles, volume 1in 2004.
The excerpts published by the New York Times reveal the poet and musician’s reflections on legendary titles by Frank Sinatra (Strangers in the Night) or Who (My Generation). For example, he writes about Sinatra, one of the major figures of American music: his “vital breath is something that runs in the veins, (…) which is essential to stay alive and cheat death”.
The star began writing her book in 2010 and the book includes, according to her publisher, more than 60 texts, also on artists such as Hank Williams and Nina Simone, and on the art of composing texts and melodies. “The publication of Bob Dylan’s brilliant, kaleidoscopic work will be a worldwide tribute to song by one of the greatest artists of our time”Simon and Schuster publishing boss Jonathan Karp said in a statement in March.
Bob Dylan, who appeared on the New York scene in the early 1960s, has since sold more than 125 million albums worldwide and, at 81, continues his concerts with a current tour scheduled until 2024. He had released his critically acclaimed 39th studio album in 2020, Rough and Rowdy Ways.
Robert Allen Zimmerman, aka Bob Dylan, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016 “for having created, within the framework of the great tradition of American music, new modes of poetic expression”.