The Philosophy of Modern Song

By Bob Dylan, Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi and 8 more

Narrated by Bob Dylan

The Philosophy of Modern Song is Bob Dylan’s first book of new writing since 2004’s Chronicles: Volume One—and since winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016.

Dylan, who began working on the book in 2010, offers his extraordinary insight into the nature of popular music. He writes over sixty essays focusing on songs by other artists, spanning from Stephen Foster to Elvis Costello, and in between ranging from Hank Williams to Nina Simone. He analyzes what he calls the trap of easy rhymes, breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song, and even explains how bluegrass relates to heavy metal. These essays are written in Dylan’s unique prose. They are mysterious and mercurial, poignant and profound, and often laugh-out-loud funny. And while they are ostensibly about music, they are really meditations and reflections on the human condition. Running throughout the book are nearly 150 carefully curated photos as well as a series of dream-like riffs that, taken together, resemble an epic poem and add to the work’s transcendence.

In 2020, with the release of his outstanding album Rough and Rowdy Ways, Dylan became the first artist to have an album hit the Billboard Top 40 in each decade since the 1960s. The Philosophy of Modern Song contains much of what he has learned about his craft in all those years, and like everything that Dylan does, it is a momentous artistic achievement.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Nov 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781797129525

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author and painter, who has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for more than five decades. Since bursting into the public’s consciousness in the early 1960s, Dylan has sold more than 125 million records, won eleven Grammy Awards and has six entries in the Grammy Hall of Fame. His contribution to worldwide culture has been recognised with many awards, including the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature (the first songwriter to receive such a distinction); America’s highest civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from President Obama in 2012; a Special Citation Pulitzer Prize in 2008; an Academy Award in 2001 for ‘Things Have Changed’ from the film Wonder Boys. He released his thirty-ninth studio album, Triplicate, in April 2017, and continues to tour worldwide.

Reviews for The Philosophy of Modern Song

[Christopher Lane · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Chapters that give a history of the song , and employee narrators other than the author are my favorite. When the author philosophizes you often feel like he is talking for the sake of talking.

[Patrick Sweeney · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A wildly entertaining audiobook listen to the songs as you read.

[Suzanne · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Not free google stole my money so I'm o sad

[Patrick Frost · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As a songwriter, this audiobook has been transformational. Many of the chapters are read by Dylan with just a touch of echo which is quite unique for an audiobook narrator, but sets his voice up differently than the movie star narrators. It’s like being shot thru a cannon thru the Brill building. I LOVED THIS AUDIOBOOK!

[parthens · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Lurid, turgid, hyperventilated “prose” — headstrong in its pessimism betraying conspicuous lack of awareness of history