last month i had the exceptional pleasure of reading Mike Marqusee's The Chimes of Freedom: The Politics of Bob Dylan's Art, which i cannot recommend strongly enough for anyone who enjoys Dylan's music and is coming from the left. It was a particular surprise as i knew nothing of the book beforehand, it was just a chance find at a bookstore bargain-bin.
Marqusee puts Dylan in the context of the relationship between the left and 20th century American folk music, arguing that the latter was strongly influenced (and tainted) by the "social patriotism" of the popular front period, and that Dylan's appeal partly came from the fact that he broke with this sick pro-Americanism. Indeed, Marqusee makes a good case that a lot of Dylan's "specialness" comes from the fact that he adopted positions about five minutes before they would be embraced by the counterculture, and people were drawn to this regardless of the fact that the singer would often turn around and reject said positions just moments later. it is a great book. Asad Haider wrote: > An excellent article on Dylan by Bill Drummond of the KLF: > http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/oct/02/folk > > On Sat, Nov 7, 2009 at 1:44 AM, Kenneth Morgan <[email protected]> wrote: > > ________________________________________________ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
