Stephen's got Princeton historian Sean Wilentz:
Chants Democratic (1984), which won several national prizes, including the Albert J. Beveridge Award of the American Historical Association, shows how the working class emerged in New York City and examines the changes in politics and political thought that came with it. It has recently been republished with a new preface in a 20th-anniversary edition...His major work to date, The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln (2005), was awarded the Bancroft Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His most recent book is The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008, a reconsideration of U.S. politics since the Watergate affair. A contributing editor to The New Republic and Newsweek, Professor Wilentz lectures frequently and has written some three hundred articles, reviews, and op-ed pieces for publications such as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Review of Books, the London Review of Books, the American Scholar, The Nation, Le Monde, and Salon. He also writes about American music, for which he has received a Grammy nomination and a Deems Taylor-ASCAP award. In his spare writing time, he is historian-in-residence at Bob Dylan’s official website, www.bobdylan.com
You might possibly have some, um, unpleasant memories involving his support of Hillary in the primaries, but luckily he's here to talk about his latest book, Bob Dylan in America (yes, Dylan's still around. Touring, even). Sounds like it's not the usual celeb bio, but more of an actual scholarly work, discussing Dylan's place in the context of American musical history:
His new book, " Bob Dylan in America," (Doubleday) is about how the strains of American music and American history have come together in one man over the course of a nearly 50-year career. In Wilentz's view, Dylan has served as a conduit for potent and nearly forgotten strands in American musical, folk and political culture. The Popular Front artists, the Beat writers, the forgotten blues singers discovered by John and Alan Lomax, these are some of the people whose work speaks through Dylan. And so, appropriate for a historian, the book is a vision of how the past becomes part of our living present.
For example, the book starts with a chapter on Aaron Copland (and BTW, anyone on Wikipedia? his page needs some editing. Looks like a repeat offender).
The New Yorker has an excerpt, and Wilentz's site has lots of review links, additional essays, interview snippets, etc. I got distracted by youtube, though:
That might be my favorite video ever. In a piece titled Is Bob Dylan Hip-Hop's Godfather? His Ties to Beasties, Roots, More, Rolling Stone recently asked "Is this the very first rap song ever?" (It's from 1965.) And as with most of Dylan, there are a whole lot of covers out there (yes, including a whole lot of the guy-in-underwear-with-acoustic-guitar genre, most of which I was able to avoid).
This one, from Alanis Morissette, isn't my favorite, but some of you might appreciate it. She also does "Blowin' in the Wind"
And then, of course:
This one's new, from his 2009 Christmas album. Strikes me as hysterical:
And, well:
Lots of versions of that around, too. But I've got to stop watching vids at some point.
Anyway, no idea how this interview will come across. But I'm going to take a look at the book -- I've got a bunch of gifting-holidays coming up... |