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LIKE A ROLLING STONE

BOB DYLAN AT THE CROSSROADS: AN EXPLOSION OF VISION AND HUMOR THAT FOREVER CHANGED POP MUSIC

How does it feel? Pretty good, most of the time.

Veteran rock critic and cultural historian takes on Dylan’s rock ’n’ roll legacy.

Marcus last held forth on Bob Dylan in his 1997 work, Invisible Republic (later retitled The Old, Weird America), which put Dylan’s 1967 “Basement Tapes” recordings with The Band under the microscope. Here, he tackles Dylan’s explosion into rock consciousness and mass culture with the release of the six-minute single “Like a Rolling Stone” in the summer of 1965. It’s a cornerstone record in the Dylan canon: it was his highest-charting hit, reaching number two (kept from the top slot by, who else, the Beatles), and providing a staggering demonstration of his imagination and artistic ambition. Marcus calls the song “an event” and relates it to the cultural, social and political ferment of the time. He has always had a rare talent for making exciting and unexpected connections, and he does so here, pulling such diverse artists as R&B singer Clyde McPhatter, reggae stars the Wailers and the punk band the Replacements, among many others, into the mix. (Some digressions, like one about England’s Pet Shop Boys, are less convincing.) His retelling of Dylan’s move from folk musician to electric prophet is compelling. During the singer’s stormy world tour of 1966, Marcus says, “Like a Rolling Stone” was thrown into the faces of outraged audiences like a curse, and indeed the present book’s strongest suit is its recounting the thrill of that moment when Dylan’s vision and sense of risk came together in one (and only one) perfect take of a song that summed up his time. Unfortunately, as in Invisible Republic, the volume is also weighed down by Marcus’s overcooked and contorted attempts to get inside the music. When he grapples with Highway 61 Revisited, the album that featured “Like a Rolling Stone,” things grind to a numbing halt. On the history and reverberations of the music, however, Marcus is near the top of the game.

How does it feel? Pretty good, most of the time.

Pub Date: April 1, 2005

ISBN: 1-58648-254-8

Page Count: 288

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2005

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THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE

50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...

Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.

Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").

Pub Date: May 15, 1972

ISBN: 0205632645

Page Count: 105

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972

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NUTCRACKER

This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

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