Lyrics

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE<BR><BR>The celebrated first memoir from arguably the most influential singer-songwriter in the country, Bob Dylan.<BR><BR>'I'd come from a long ways off and had started a long ways down. But now destiny was about to manifest itself. I felt like it was looking right at me and nobody else.'<BR><BR> So writes Bob Dylan in Chronicles: Volume One, his remarkable book exploring critical junctures in his life and career.<BR><BR> Through Dylan’s eyes and open mind, we see Greenwich Village, circa 1961, when he first arrives in Manhattan. Dylan’s New York is a magical city of possibilities - smoky, nightlong parties; literary awakenings; transient loves and unbreakable friendships. Elegiac observations are punctuated by jabs of memories, penetrating and tough. With the book’s side trips to New Orleans, Woodstock, Minnesota, and points west, Chronicles: Volume One is an intimate and intensely personal recollection of extraordinary times.<BR><BR> By turns revealing, poetical, passionate, and witty, Chronicles: Volume One is a mesmerizing window on Bob Dylan’s thoughts and influences. Dylan’s voice is distinctively American: generous of spirit, engaged, fanciful, and rhythmic. Utilizing his unparalleled gifts of storytelling and the exquisite expressiveness that are the hallmarks of his music, Bob Dylan turns Chronicles: Volume One into a poignant reflection on life, and the people and places that helped shape the man and the art.<BR><BR>'Chronicles stunned everyone . . . [it's] clear, apparently frank, unremittingly serious about his musical influences and exquisitely written. It is, in fact, a masterpiece' Sunday Times<BR><BR>'Entertaining and surprisingly deprecating... The book's structure is elegant . . . Chronicles is tautly written, vividly cinematic, and funny . . . a courageous little book' Financial Times<BR> <BR> 'There is something on every page, in every paragraph, that demands attention . . .  In rock and roll terms, this book is like discovering the lost diaries of Shakespeare. It may be the most extraordinarily intimate autobiography by a 20th-century legend' Daily Telegraph

"Wenn du so ein Buch schreibst, musst du die Wahrheit sagen." (Bob Dylan)<BR><BR>Die Autobiographie des Literaturnobelpreisträgers 2016!<BR><BR>Bob Dylan räumt auf mit den Mythen und Legenden, die sich um sein Leben und Werk ranken, und erzählt seine Geschichte selbst. Wie er Anfang der sechziger Jahre nach New York kam, wo seine Karriere in den Folkclubs begann. Wie er zur Zeit der großen Unruhen in Amerika um seine künstlerische Identität kämpfen und seine Familie vor der Öffentlichkeit schützen musste. Wie ihm ein alter Jazzsänger 1987 half, eine große musikalische Krise zu überwinden. Er blickt auf seine Kindheit zurück und schreibt leidenschaftlich über seine Musik, auch über die Einflüsse, die ihn geprägt haben, von Woody Guthrie bis hin zur "Dreigroschenoper". <BR><BR>(Chronicles. Volume 2 und 3 sind bis dato nicht erschienen.)

Point Blank (Quick Studies) is the first major publication of Bob Dylan’s artwork in over a decade, featuring nearly 100 never-before-seen drawings.<BR><BR>Bob Dylan is a master at telling stories, creating moods and provoking feelings—not only in music and the written word but also in visual art, which he has been creating since the 1960s. This publication of his art features nearly 100 black-and-white drawings that were completed between 2021 and 2022 and served as the basis for his latest exhibition—also titled Point Blank—at London’s Halcyon Gallery in early 2025. The works vary between portraits, still lifes, and landscapes: roller-skating lovers, a suit of armor, a suspension bridge, a karaoke singer, a roll of Scotch tape, a Parisian canal, a man with a crooked smile. Accompanying the artwork are short prose vignettes written by Eddie Gorodetsky, Jackie Hamilton and Lucy Sante that further enhance the images’ evocativeness. Dylan’s ability to find beauty and mystery in the seemingly mundane is one of his great gifts—and the gift he’s continually given to the public over the years, including now with Point Blank.

Der Literaturnobelpreisträger und Songwriter Bob Dylan ist ein Meister darin, Geschichten zu erzählen, Stimmungen zu erzeugen und Emotionen hervorzurufen, nicht nur als Musiker, sondern auch als bildender Künstler. Sein neustes Buch zeigt rund 100 unveröffentlichte Schwarz-Weiß-Zeichnungen, die zwischen 2021/22 entstanden sind, Porträts, Stilleben und Landschaften. Mit seinen als "außergewöhnlich" gefeierten Kunstwerken gelingt es Bob Dylan wie nur wenig anderen, die Schönheit und das Geheimnisvolle im scheinbar Alltäglichen zu finden, einmal mehr beweist er, dass er einer der wichtigsten und vielseitigen Künstler der Gegenwart ist.

Point Blank (Quick Studies) is the first major publication of Bob Dylan's artwork in over a decade, featuring nearly 100 never-before-seen drawings.Bob Dylan is a master at telling stories, creating moods and provoking feelings - not only in music and the written word but also in visual art, which he has been creating since the 1960s. This publication of his art features nearly 100 black-and-white drawings that were completed between 2021 and 2022 and served as the basis for his latest exhibition - also titled Point Blank - at London's Halcyon Gallery in early 2025. The works vary between portraits, still lifes and landscapes: roller-skating lovers, a suit of armour, a suspension bridge, a karaoke singer, a roll of Scotch tape, a Parisian canal, a man with a crooked smile. Accompanying the artwork are short prose vignettes written by Eddie Gorodetsky, Jackie Hamilton and Lucy Sante that further enhance the images' evocativeness. Dylan's ability to find beauty and mystery in the seemingly mundane is one of his great gifts - and the gift he's continually given to the public over the years, including now with Point Blank.

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 in Literature in 2016.<BR>  <BR> Dylan, who began working on the book in 2010, offers his extraordinary insight into the nature of popular music. He writes over 60 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 analyses 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.<BR>  <BR> 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.<BR>  

"UNSER ALLER VERWIRRUNG DES HERZENS. AUF BEGEISTERNDE WEISE ERGRÜNDET BOB DYLAN 'DIE PHILOSOPHIE DES MODERNEN SONGS'." JENS BALZER, DIE ZEIT <BR> <BR>"Blowin in the wind", "All along the watchtower", "Knockin on heavens door" seine Songs besitzen eine poetische Kraft, für die er 2016 mit dem Nobelpreis für Literatur geehrt wurde. Nun legt Bob Dylan ein Buch vor, in dem er nicht auf sein eigenes Werk zurückblickt, sondern auf mehr als 60 Songs, die ihn beeindruckt und geprägt haben. Es bietet einzigartige Einsichten in das Wesen der populären Musik, die uns von Little Richard zu Frank Sinatra, von Elvis Presley zu The Clash, von Nina Simone zu Elvis Costello führen. <BR> <BR>Naheliegende Reime können leicht zu einer Falle werden, eine Silbe zu viel kann einen guten Song um seine Wirkung bringen, und Bluegrass hat mehr mit Heavy Metal gemeinsam, als es auf den ersten Blick scheint. Es ist Bob Dylan persönlich, der hier die Philosophie des modernen Songs darlegt und dafür Werke wie "Long Tall Sally", "Strangers in the night" oder "London calling" unter die Lupe nimmt. Mysteriös und magisch, präzise und profund, oft auch sehr witzig legt der Meister die Substanz jedes Songs frei und meditiert dabei in unnachahmlich dylanesker Diktion über das menschliche Leben und den fragwürdigen Zustand unserer Welt. So wie seine besten Songs ist dieser höchst subjektive Kanon, an dem er seit 2010 gearbeitet hat, schon jetzt selbst ein kanonisches Werk und ein ungeheures Lesevergnügen für jeden, der sich schon einmal eine Schallplatte gekauft hat. <BR> <BR> - Das erste Buch von Bob Dylan seit fast zwanzig Jahren - Erscheint gleichzeitig weltweit - Geistreich, glänzend geschrieben, unkonventionell - Vom Literaturnobelpreisträger Bob Dylan - Ideales Geschenkbuch

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE<BR> <BR> A beautiful, comprehensive volume of Dylan’s lyrics, from the beginning of his career through the present day—with the songwriter’s edits to dozens of songs, appearing here for the first time.<BR><BR>Bob Dylan is one of the most important songwriters of our time, responsible for modern classics such as “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Mr. Tambourine Man,” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’.” The Lyrics is a comprehensive and definitive collection of Dylan’s most recent writing as well as the early works that are such an essential part of the canon. Well known for changing the lyrics to even his best-loved songs, Dylan has edited dozens of songs for this volume, making The Lyrics a must-read for everyone from fanatics to casual fans.

'Die Leute in meinen Songs bin alle ich', hat Bob Dylan 2009 gesagt. Längst eine lebende Legende, bewundert als der 'Picasso des Songwriting' (Leonard Cohen) und als erster Musiker überhaupt mit dem Literaturnobelpreis ausgezeichnet, schreibt Dylan in seinem 80. Lebensjahr einige seiner stärksten Songs. Preiswürdig sind nicht nur seine Songtexte, seine Lyrik und seine Autobiographie Chronicles, sondern auch seine unkonventionellen Interviews, die zwischen Witz und tieferer Bedeutung, Offenheit und Rollenspiel changieren. Dylan kann Interviewtermine in Performances verwandeln, aber auch in Unterrichtsstunden über die amerikanische Songgeschichte. Er erörtert Beziehungs- und Glaubensfragen und erzählt von seiner Liebe zum Gospel und zum Blues, zu Shakespeare, Elvis und Sinatra. Manchmal führt er seine Gesprächspartner hinters Licht und dichtet wechselnde Lebensgeschichten. Immer aber schimmert in diesen Interviews, zusammengestellt vom Dylan-Kenner und -Übersetzer Heinrich Detering, eine mögliche Wahrheit durch, über einen großen Künstler, der stets er selbst ist und doch jedes Mal ein anderer.

Bob Dylan incarna da oltre mezzo secolo lo spirito dell'America, e per suo tramite lo spirito del mondo. Nella memoria dei più, i suoi testi sono fusi alle musiche cui hanno dato anima e senso, facendo nascere canzoni che sono diventate le fondamenta di un sogno collettivo, oltre che successi mondiali che hanno dominato e dominano le classifiche e le radio di tutto il mondo. Ma da sempre i suoi testi sono anche letti e studiati con la passione e la serietà dovute alla grande poesia. Non poesia in musica, solo e pienamente: poesia. Quello che milioni di lettori nel mondo già sentivano e sapevano è stato riconosciuto universalmente quest'anno grazie al premio Nobel 2016 per la letteratura, attribuito a Dylan nel fragore di una discussione che ha travolto il mondo della cultura, "per aver creato una nuova espressione poetica nell'ambito della tradizione della grande canzone americana". I tre volumi di "Lyrics" raccolgono tutta la produzione poetica di questa voce inimitabile e inconfondibile, organizzandola cronologicamente e arricchendola di una traduzione e un apparato di note, entrambi a cura di Alessandro Carrera. Un patrimonio di informazioni che facilita al lettore l'impresa di addentrarsi tra gli innumerevoli riferimenti, richiami e citazioni di cui Dylan si serve liberamente, attingendo di volta in volta al patrimonio folklorico, alla Bibbia o alla poesia inglese e americana, da Shakespeare a Ginsberg.