Hard Rain: A Dylan Commentary

by Gwendoline Riley

Overview

Hard Rain ranges over thirty years of Bob Dylan's recordings, films, and concerts to deliver astute insights into—and sometimes heretical judgements of—his prodigious corpus of work. This updated edition includes a new epilogue that examines Dylan's thirtieth anniversary celebration in 1992; his albums Good As I Been to You, World Gone Wrong, and Time Out of Mind; his 1997 performance before the Pope; and his 1998 Grammy Award comeback. The result is unparalleled rock criticism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306809071
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	06/02/1999
Edition description:	REVISED
Pages:	376
Product dimensions:	0.84(w) x 5.50(h) x 8.50(d)

About the Author

Tim Riley is a web producer, campus speaker, and pianist. His music criticism has appeared in the Washington Post, in Boston magazine, and on National Public Radio. He is also a music commentator for NPR's "Here and Now." He lives in Boston.

Editorial Reviews

Riley eloquently but incompletely examines rock legend Bob Dylan's three decades of inconsistent work, bootleg recordings and continuous concerts. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Unlike most Dylan books--which are either biographies like Clinton Heylin's Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades ( LJ 6/1/91) or lists of some sort--Riley ( Tell Me Why: A Beatles Commentary , Knopf, 1988) here provides a critical examination of this thorniest of modern musicians. Riley goes beyond the obvious; for example, Woody Guthrie's influence on Dylan is well documented, but Riley examines not only how Guthrie inspired Dylan but what Dylan does differently from Guthrie and who else falls into his inspirational canon (Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, Hank Williams). Riley knows music, and his descriptions are marvelous, especially of the 1966-75 era ( Blonde on Blonde , The Basement Tapes , Planet Waves , Blood on the Tracks , and the 1966 and 1974 tours). He also is thankfully unafraid to be disparaging; unlike Heylin, he has very little that is nice to say about Dylan's post-1975 work. Riley's flaws are mainly stylistic; he tends to repeat himself and has an unfortunate fondness for the word bromide. Still, this is an incisive work. Essential for most music collections.-- Keith R.A. DeCandido, ``Library Journal''

Library Journal

"A book that allows us to understand exactly why Bob Dylan is so celebrated . . . Riley ponders the lyrics, arrangements, and delivery of Dylan's work, from his first album in 1962." —Los Angeles Times

"Finally, in Tim Riley, Dylan has a critic who can at once place him in the Woody Guthrie toubadour tradition and probe the music knowingly." —BookPage

"Riley succeeds in making familiar materical seem fresh . . . . He offers many new, thought-provoking interpretations of songs, and his powers of description are potent." —Philadelphia Inquirer

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