This is a special Paid/Premium Members early-access release, and a test of the new Substack video post feature.
Dylan fans have always focused on setlists, but this may be the first book to use them as a theme, around which a series of writers look at how the list of songs Bob chooses to sing in any given night or tour has evolved, the different roles certain songs have played over the years, and the larger story or message contained within a sequence of songs (intentionally or not).
Another by-product of the pandemic, The Politics and Power of Bob Dylan’s Live Performances - Play a Song for Me, is anchored by chapters from co-editors Erin Callahan and Court Carney, who are joined by a baker’s dozen of other writers mostly professors, or academics or teachers or working in pursuit of advanced degrees.
The result is a scholarly, thoughtful, interesting, well written and researched book, filled with essays that take a wide range of approaches to Dylan’s work and performance and live shows drill in and expand on different aspects of them.
In this episode we spoke to Erin Callahan and Court Carney about all of it, both the overall concepts of the book and then briefly each of the chapter the book contains.
You can order the book at Amazon in paperback or on kindle.
Or order with a 20% discount here.
