-
Why Bob Dylan Matters
- Narrated by: Nick Landrum
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $25.19
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Philosophy of Modern Song
- By: Bob Dylan
- Narrated by: Bob Dylan, Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dylan, who began working on the book in 2010, offers his 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. And while ostensibly about music, they are really meditations on the human condition.
-
-
Needs chapter headings
- By kaon on 12-22-22
By: Bob Dylan
-
Chronicles
- Volume One
- By: Bob Dylan
- Narrated by: Sean Penn
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bob Dylan's Chronicles: Volume One explores the critical junctions in his life and career. 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.
-
-
Understanding
- By Charles on 11-24-04
By: Bob Dylan
-
The Double Life of Bob Dylan
- A Restless, Hungry Feeling, 1941-1966
- By: Clinton Heylin
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 19 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2016, Bob Dylan sold his personal archive to the George Kaiser Foundation in Tulsa, Oklahoma, reportedly for $22 million. As the boxes started to arrive, the Foundation asked Clinton Heylin—author of the acclaimed Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades and 'perhaps the world's authority on all things Dylan' (Rolling Stone)—to assess the material they had been given. What he found in Tulsa—as well as what he gleaned from other papers he had recently been given access to by Sony and the Dylan office—so changed his understanding of the artist.
-
-
Expansive and well researched.
- By Zack Groom on 07-02-21
By: Clinton Heylin
-
Folk Music
- A Bob Dylan Biography in Seven Songs
- By: Greil Marcus
- Narrated by: Ian Porter
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Across seven decades, Bob Dylan has been the first singer of American song. As a writer and performer, he has rewritten the national songbook in a way that comes from his own vision and yet can feel as if it belongs to anyone who might listen. In Folk Music, Greil Marcus tells Dylan’s story through seven of his most transformative songs. This is not only a deeply felt telling of the life and times of Bob Dylan, but a rich history of American folk songs and the new life they were given as Dylan sat down to write his own.
-
-
Monstrously Pretentious
- By Steve L on 11-06-22
By: Greil Marcus
-
Tarantula
- By: Bob Dylan
- Narrated by: Will Patton, Dennis Boutsikaris - Preface
- Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Written in 1966, Tarantula is a collection of poems and prose that evokes the turbulence of its time and provides a unique perspective on Bob Dylan’s creative evolution. It captures Dylan at a crucial juncture in his artistic development, showcasing the imagination of a revolutionary musician who was able to combine the humanity and compassion of his folk music roots with the surrealism of modern art and the intensity of the Delta blues. Angry, funny, and elusive, the poems and prose in this collection reflect the concerns found in Dylan’s most seminal music.
-
-
Dylan at his Weirdest
- By Connor on 12-09-19
By: Bob Dylan
-
Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field
- How Two Men Revolutionized Physics
- By: Nancy Forbes, Basil Mahon
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two of the boldest and most creative scientists of all time were Michael Faraday (1791-1867) and James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879). This is the story of how these two men - separated in age by 40 years - discovered the existence of the electromagnetic field and devised a radically new theory which overturned the strictly mechanical view of the world that had prevailed since Newton's time.
-
-
Amazing narration of an incredibly well told story
- By Paul de Jong on 03-01-21
By: Nancy Forbes, and others
-
The Philosophy of Modern Song
- By: Bob Dylan
- Narrated by: Bob Dylan, Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dylan, who began working on the book in 2010, offers his 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. And while ostensibly about music, they are really meditations on the human condition.
-
-
Needs chapter headings
- By kaon on 12-22-22
By: Bob Dylan
-
Chronicles
- Volume One
- By: Bob Dylan
- Narrated by: Sean Penn
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bob Dylan's Chronicles: Volume One explores the critical junctions in his life and career. 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.
-
-
Understanding
- By Charles on 11-24-04
By: Bob Dylan
-
The Double Life of Bob Dylan
- A Restless, Hungry Feeling, 1941-1966
- By: Clinton Heylin
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 19 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2016, Bob Dylan sold his personal archive to the George Kaiser Foundation in Tulsa, Oklahoma, reportedly for $22 million. As the boxes started to arrive, the Foundation asked Clinton Heylin—author of the acclaimed Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades and 'perhaps the world's authority on all things Dylan' (Rolling Stone)—to assess the material they had been given. What he found in Tulsa—as well as what he gleaned from other papers he had recently been given access to by Sony and the Dylan office—so changed his understanding of the artist.
-
-
Expansive and well researched.
- By Zack Groom on 07-02-21
By: Clinton Heylin
-
Folk Music
- A Bob Dylan Biography in Seven Songs
- By: Greil Marcus
- Narrated by: Ian Porter
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Across seven decades, Bob Dylan has been the first singer of American song. As a writer and performer, he has rewritten the national songbook in a way that comes from his own vision and yet can feel as if it belongs to anyone who might listen. In Folk Music, Greil Marcus tells Dylan’s story through seven of his most transformative songs. This is not only a deeply felt telling of the life and times of Bob Dylan, but a rich history of American folk songs and the new life they were given as Dylan sat down to write his own.
-
-
Monstrously Pretentious
- By Steve L on 11-06-22
By: Greil Marcus
-
Tarantula
- By: Bob Dylan
- Narrated by: Will Patton, Dennis Boutsikaris - Preface
- Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Written in 1966, Tarantula is a collection of poems and prose that evokes the turbulence of its time and provides a unique perspective on Bob Dylan’s creative evolution. It captures Dylan at a crucial juncture in his artistic development, showcasing the imagination of a revolutionary musician who was able to combine the humanity and compassion of his folk music roots with the surrealism of modern art and the intensity of the Delta blues. Angry, funny, and elusive, the poems and prose in this collection reflect the concerns found in Dylan’s most seminal music.
-
-
Dylan at his Weirdest
- By Connor on 12-09-19
By: Bob Dylan
-
Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field
- How Two Men Revolutionized Physics
- By: Nancy Forbes, Basil Mahon
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two of the boldest and most creative scientists of all time were Michael Faraday (1791-1867) and James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879). This is the story of how these two men - separated in age by 40 years - discovered the existence of the electromagnetic field and devised a radically new theory which overturned the strictly mechanical view of the world that had prevailed since Newton's time.
-
-
Amazing narration of an incredibly well told story
- By Paul de Jong on 03-01-21
By: Nancy Forbes, and others
-
The Beatles from A to Zed
- An Alphabetical Mystery Tour
- By: Peter Asher
- Narrated by: Peter Asher
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Peter Asher met the Beatles in the spring of 1963, the start of a lifelong association with the band and its members. He had a front-row seat as they elevated pop music into an art form, and he was present at the creation of some of the most iconic music of our times. But Asher was also a talented musician in his own right, with a great ear for what was new and fresh. Once, when Paul McCartney wrote a song that John Lennon didn’t think was right for the Beatles, Asher asked if he could record it.
-
-
brilliant
- By Victoria A on 11-14-19
By: Peter Asher
-
How Magicians Think
- Misdirection, Deception, and Why Magic Matters
- By: Joshua Jay
- Narrated by: Joshua Jay
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The door to magic is closed, but it’s not locked. And now Joshua Jay, one of the world’s most accomplished magicians, not only opens that door but brings us inside to reveal the artistry and obsessiveness, esoteric history, and long-whispered-about traditions of a subject shrouded in mystery. In 52 short, compulsively listenable essays, Jay describes how he does it, whether it’s through the making of illusions, the psychology behind them, or the way technology influences the world of magic.
-
-
Joshua Jay Delivers
- By Travis N. on 12-15-21
By: Joshua Jay
-
George Harrison
- The Reluctant Beatle
- By: Philip Norman
- Narrated by: David Holt
- Length: 16 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Despite being hailed as one of the best guitarists of his era, George Harrison, particularly in his early decades, battled feelings of inferiority. He was often the butt of jokes from his bandmates owing to his lower-class background and, typically, was allowed to contribute only one or two songs per Beatles album out of the dozens he wrote.
-
-
What an achievement the Beatles made/so young,so determined,so far reaching.
- By Cheryl Zeyher on 11-01-23
By: Philip Norman
-
Quantum Physics for Beginners
- Introduction to Essential Theories, the Behavior of Matter, and How it's Changing Our Lives
- By: Pantheon Space Academy
- Narrated by: Grant Benker
- Length: 3 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
My beginner's book is your ticket to one of the coolest and most mysterious subjects out there. This isn't your average physics book. It's a portal to understanding the stuff that makes up... well, everything! Subatomic particles. Do not let their size fool you; they have a massive impact on the world around you—the fundamental part of how everything works and not as complex as you might fear.
-
-
Great book everyone should list
- By Dmom on 06-19-23
-
World Within a Song
- Music That Changed My Life and Life That Changed My Music
- By: Jeff Tweedy
- Narrated by: Jeff Tweedy
- Length: 4 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What makes us fall in love with a song? What makes us want to write our own songs? Do songs help? Do songs help us live better lives? And do the lives we live help us write better songs? After two New York Times bestsellers that cemented and expanded his legacy as one of America’s best-loved performers and songwriters, Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back) and How to Write One Song, Jeff Tweedy is back with another disarming, beautiful, and inspirational book about why we listen to music, why we love songs, and how music can connect us to each other and to ourselves.
-
-
Jeff Tweedy’s Plain Spoken, Direct, Funny, Touching, Vulnerable, & Honest Meditation on Music is Perfection
- By A Picky Reviewer on 02-10-24
By: Jeff Tweedy
-
Bound for Glory
- The Hard-Driving, Truth-Telling, Autobiography of America's Great Poet-Folk Singer
- By: Woody Guthrie
- Narrated by: Arlo Guthrie
- Length: 2 hrs and 59 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Legendary folk singer and activist Woody Guthrie left us with this funny, cynical, earthy and tragic account of his life in an Oklahoma oil-boom town, of the Depression that followed, and of his subsequent travels in, on, and under trains, in stolen cars and on his feet, rounding an America going rotten from the top downwards. During the journey of discovery that was his life, Guthrie composed and sang words and music that have become a national heritage. His songs are merely part of his legacy. Woody Guthrie left us this remarkable autobiography.
-
-
Shame on Audible
- By Fig Newt on 01-03-22
By: Woody Guthrie
-
Dreyer's English
- An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style
- By: Benjamin Dreyer
- Narrated by: Benjamin Dreyer, Alison Fraser
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As Random House’s copy chief, Dreyer has upheld the standards of the legendary publisher for more than two decades. He is beloved by authors and editors alike - not to mention his followers on social media - for deconstructing the English language with playful erudition. Now, he distills everything he has learned from the myriad books he has copyedited and overseen into a useful guide not just for writers but for everyone who wants to put their best prose foot forward.
-
-
You'll be horrified at a lifetime of usage errors.
- By RTaylor on 05-16-19
By: Benjamin Dreyer
-
Johnny Cash
- The Redemption of an American Icon
- By: Greg Laurie, Marshall Terrill
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon dives deep into the singer’s inner demons, triumphs, and gradual return to faith. Laurie interviews Cash’s family, friends, and business associates to reveal how the singer’s true success came through finding the only Person whose star was bigger than his own.
-
-
Best Cash biography by far
- By C. W. Walker on 08-27-19
By: Greg Laurie, and others
-
Been So Long
- My Life and Music
- By: Jorma Kaukonen, Grace Slick - foreword, Jack Casady - afterword
- Narrated by: Jorma Kaukonen, Grace Slick - foreword, Jack Casady - afterword
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“Music is the reward for being alive”, writes Jorma Kaukonen in this candid and emotional account of his life and work. In a career that has already spanned a half-century - one that has earned him induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, among other honors - Jorma is best known for his legendary bands Jefferson Airplane and the still-touring Hot Tuna. But before he won worldwide recognition he was just a young man with a passion and a dream. Been So Long is the story of how Jorma found his place in the world of music and beyond.
-
-
I'll Be Alright Someday
- By Dubi on 09-11-18
By: Jorma Kaukonen, and others
-
This Is What It Sounds Like
- What the Music You Love Says About You
- By: Ogi Ogas, Susan Rogers
- Narrated by: Susan Rogers
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When you listen to music, do you prefer lyrics or melody? Intricate harmonies or driving rhythm? The “real” sounds of acoustic instruments or those of computerized synthesizers? Drawing from her successful career as a music producer (engineering hits like Prince’s “Purple Rain”), professor of cognitive neuroscience Susan Rogers reveals why your favorite songs move you. She explains that we each possess a unique “listener profile” based on our brain’s reaction to seven key dimensions of any record: authenticity, realism, novelty, melody, lyrics, rhythm, and timbre.
-
-
Needed to include the music
- By Sarah on 01-18-23
By: Ogi Ogas, and others
-
And in the End
- The Last Days of the Beatles
- By: Ken McNab
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ken McNab's in-depth look at the Beatles' acrimonious final year is a detailed account of the breakup featuring the perspectives of all four band members and their roles. A must to add to the collection of Beatles fans, And in the End is full of fascinating information available for the first time. McNab reconstructs for the first time the seismic events of 1969, when the Beatles reached new highs of creativity and new lows of the internal strife that would destroy them.
-
-
Familiar ground but a good listen
- By Tad Davis on 08-30-20
By: Ken McNab
-
Beatles '66
- The Revolutionary Year
- By: Steve Turner
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year that changed everything for the Beatles was 1966 - the year of their last concert and of Revolver, their first album created to be listened to rather than performed. This was the year the Beatles risked their popularity by retiring from live performances, recording songs that explored alternative states of consciousness, experimenting with avant-garde ideas, and speaking their minds on issues of politics, war, and religion. Music journalist and Beatles expert Steve Turner investigates the enormous changes that took place in the Beatles' lives and work during 1966.
-
-
Great listen
- By Tad Davis on 07-28-18
By: Steve Turner
Publisher's summary
When the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Bob Dylan in 2016, a debate raged. Some celebrated while many others questioned the choice. How could the world's most prestigious book prize be awarded to a famously cantankerous singer-songwriter who wouldn't even deign to attend the medal ceremony?
In Why Bob Dylan Matters, Harvard professor Richard F. Thomas answers this question with magisterial erudition. A world expert on classical poetry, Thomas was initially ridiculed by his colleagues for teaching a course on Bob Dylan alongside his traditional seminars on Homer, Virgil, and Ovid. Dylan's Nobel Prize brought him vindication, and he immediately found himself thrust into the spotlight as a leading academic voice in all matters Dylanological. Today, through his wildly popular Dylan seminar - affectionately dubbed "Dylan 101" - Thomas is introducing a new generation of fans and scholars to the revered bard's work.
This witty, personal volume is a distillation of Thomas' famous course and makes a compelling case for moving Dylan out of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and into the pantheon of classical poets. Asking us to reflect on the question "what makes a classic?", Thomas offers an eloquent argument for Dylan's modern relevance while interpreting and decoding Dylan's lyrics for listeners. The most original and compelling volume on Dylan in decades, Why Bob Dylan Matters will illuminate Dylan's work for the Dylan neophyte and the seasoned fanatic alike. You'll never think about Bob Dylan in the same way again.
More from the same
Author
Related to this topic
-
The Ballad of Bob Dylan
- A Portrait
- By: Daniel Mark Epstein
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Ballad of Bob Dylan is a vivid, full-bodied portrait of one of the most influential artists of the 20th-century - a man widely regarded as the most important lyricist America has ever produced. Acclaimed poet and biographer Daniel Mark Epstein frames Dylan against the backdrop of four seminal concerts - all of which he attended. Beautifully written, The Ballad of Bob Dylan is a unique, eye-opening portrait of an artist who has transformed generations and continues to inspire and surprise today.
-
-
Excellent book, excellent narration
- By L chandler on 12-22-11
-
The Rest Is Noise
- Listening to the 20th Century
- By: Alex Ross
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 23 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Rest Is Noise takes the listener inside the labyrinth of modern music, from turn-of-the-century Vienna to downtown New York in the '60s and '70s. We meet the maverick personalities and follow the rise of mass culture on this sweeping tour of 20th-century history through its music.
-
-
Learned so much!
- By Paula on 02-18-08
By: Alex Ross
-
Dig If You Will the Picture
- Funk, Sex, God and Genius in the Music of Prince
- By: Ben Greenman
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ben Greenman, New York Times best-selling author, contributing writer to The New Yorker, and owner of thousands of recordings of Prince and Prince-related songs, knows intimately that there has never been a rock star as vibrant, mercurial, willfully contrary, experimental, or prolific as Prince. Uniting a diverse audience while remaining singularly himself, Prince was a tireless artist, a musical virtuoso and chameleon, and a pop-culture prophet.
-
-
Reads like a indepth career review & analysis
- By herb on 05-18-17
By: Ben Greenman
-
The Secret Life of the American Musical
- How Broadway Shows Are Built
- By: Jack Viertel
- Narrated by: David Pittu
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For almost a century, Americans have been losing their hearts and losing their minds in an insatiable love affair with the American musical. It often begins in actors and reaches its passionate zenith when it comes time for love, marriage, and children, who will start the cycle all over again. Americans love musicals. Americans invented musicals. Americans perfected musicals. But what, exactly, is a musical?
-
-
Great review lacked music
- By joseph f mcgovern on 10-14-18
By: Jack Viertel
-
Beatles '66
- The Revolutionary Year
- By: Steve Turner
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year that changed everything for the Beatles was 1966 - the year of their last concert and of Revolver, their first album created to be listened to rather than performed. This was the year the Beatles risked their popularity by retiring from live performances, recording songs that explored alternative states of consciousness, experimenting with avant-garde ideas, and speaking their minds on issues of politics, war, and religion. Music journalist and Beatles expert Steve Turner investigates the enormous changes that took place in the Beatles' lives and work during 1966.
-
-
Great listen
- By Tad Davis on 07-28-18
By: Steve Turner
-
Alan Lomax: A Biography
- By: John Szwed
- Narrated by: Scott Sowers
- Length: 20 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The remarkable life and times of the man who popularized American folk music and created the science of song. Folklorist, archivist, anthropologist, singer, political activist, talent scout, ethnomusicologist, filmmaker, concert and record producer, Alan Lomax is best remembered as the man who introduced folk music to the masses. Lomax began his career making field recordings of rural music for the Library of Congress and by the late 1930s brought his discoveries to radio, including Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Burl Ives.
-
-
They Done Good
- By DonnaMarie113 on 06-26-22
By: John Szwed
-
The Ballad of Bob Dylan
- A Portrait
- By: Daniel Mark Epstein
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Ballad of Bob Dylan is a vivid, full-bodied portrait of one of the most influential artists of the 20th-century - a man widely regarded as the most important lyricist America has ever produced. Acclaimed poet and biographer Daniel Mark Epstein frames Dylan against the backdrop of four seminal concerts - all of which he attended. Beautifully written, The Ballad of Bob Dylan is a unique, eye-opening portrait of an artist who has transformed generations and continues to inspire and surprise today.
-
-
Excellent book, excellent narration
- By L chandler on 12-22-11
-
The Rest Is Noise
- Listening to the 20th Century
- By: Alex Ross
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 23 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Rest Is Noise takes the listener inside the labyrinth of modern music, from turn-of-the-century Vienna to downtown New York in the '60s and '70s. We meet the maverick personalities and follow the rise of mass culture on this sweeping tour of 20th-century history through its music.
-
-
Learned so much!
- By Paula on 02-18-08
By: Alex Ross
-
Dig If You Will the Picture
- Funk, Sex, God and Genius in the Music of Prince
- By: Ben Greenman
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ben Greenman, New York Times best-selling author, contributing writer to The New Yorker, and owner of thousands of recordings of Prince and Prince-related songs, knows intimately that there has never been a rock star as vibrant, mercurial, willfully contrary, experimental, or prolific as Prince. Uniting a diverse audience while remaining singularly himself, Prince was a tireless artist, a musical virtuoso and chameleon, and a pop-culture prophet.
-
-
Reads like a indepth career review & analysis
- By herb on 05-18-17
By: Ben Greenman
-
The Secret Life of the American Musical
- How Broadway Shows Are Built
- By: Jack Viertel
- Narrated by: David Pittu
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For almost a century, Americans have been losing their hearts and losing their minds in an insatiable love affair with the American musical. It often begins in actors and reaches its passionate zenith when it comes time for love, marriage, and children, who will start the cycle all over again. Americans love musicals. Americans invented musicals. Americans perfected musicals. But what, exactly, is a musical?
-
-
Great review lacked music
- By joseph f mcgovern on 10-14-18
By: Jack Viertel
-
Beatles '66
- The Revolutionary Year
- By: Steve Turner
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year that changed everything for the Beatles was 1966 - the year of their last concert and of Revolver, their first album created to be listened to rather than performed. This was the year the Beatles risked their popularity by retiring from live performances, recording songs that explored alternative states of consciousness, experimenting with avant-garde ideas, and speaking their minds on issues of politics, war, and religion. Music journalist and Beatles expert Steve Turner investigates the enormous changes that took place in the Beatles' lives and work during 1966.
-
-
Great listen
- By Tad Davis on 07-28-18
By: Steve Turner
-
Alan Lomax: A Biography
- By: John Szwed
- Narrated by: Scott Sowers
- Length: 20 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The remarkable life and times of the man who popularized American folk music and created the science of song. Folklorist, archivist, anthropologist, singer, political activist, talent scout, ethnomusicologist, filmmaker, concert and record producer, Alan Lomax is best remembered as the man who introduced folk music to the masses. Lomax began his career making field recordings of rural music for the Library of Congress and by the late 1930s brought his discoveries to radio, including Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Burl Ives.
-
-
They Done Good
- By DonnaMarie113 on 06-26-22
By: John Szwed
-
Catch a Wave
- The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson
- By: Peter Ames Carlin
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Catch a Wave, Peter Ames Carlin pulls back the curtain on Brian Wilson, one of popular music's most revered luminaries, as well as its biggest mystery. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and never-before heard studio recordings, Carlin follows the Beach Boys from their earliest days through Brian's deepening emotional problems to his triumphant re-emergence with the release of Smile, the legendarily unreleased album he had originally shelved.
-
-
Not great
- By J. Barker on 08-08-16
-
Your Song Changed My Life
- From Jimmy Page to St. Vincent, Smokey Robinson to Hozier, Thirty-Five Beloved Artists on Their Journey and the Music That Inspired It
- By: Bob Boilen
- Narrated by: Bob Boilen
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the beloved host and creator of NPR's All Songs Considered and Tiny Desk Concerts comes an essential oral history of modern music, told in the voices of iconic and up-and-coming musicians, including Dave Grohl, Jimmy Page, Michael Stipe, Carrie Brownstein, Smokey Robinson, and Jeff Tweedy, among others - published in association with NPR Music.
-
-
Cool if you know all interviewed artists
- By Farfield on 12-05-16
By: Bob Boilen
-
The Never-Ending Present
- The Story of Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip
- By: Michael Barclay
- Narrated by: George Stroumboulopoulos
- Length: 17 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From our talent-rich neighbor to the north comes this biography of one of the most successful Canadian rock bands, The Tragically Hip, which announced a year-long tour after sharing the news of lead singer Gord Downie’s inoperable cancer. Now available to US listeners, The Never-Ending Present details what led up to the memorable night when music fans all over the world watched Downie’s heroic final performance.
-
-
Hometown Heroes
- By Tommy Garou on 12-13-18
By: Michael Barclay
-
Something Wonderful
- Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway Revolution
- By: Todd S. Purdum
- Narrated by: Todd S. Purdum
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They stand at the apex of the great age of songwriting, the creators of the classic Broadway musicals Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music, whose songs have never lost their popularity or emotional power. Even before they joined forces, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II had written dozens of Broadway shows, but together they pioneered a new art form: the serious musical play.
-
-
Fabulous book about Rodgers & Hammerstein!!!
- By BigWally on 06-27-18
By: Todd S. Purdum
-
Dreaming the Beatles
- A Love Story of One Band and the Whole World
- By: Rob Sheffield
- Narrated by: Rob Sheffield
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dreaming the Beatles is not another biography of the Beatles or a song-by-song analysis of the best of John and Paul. It isn't another exposé about how they broke up. It isn't a history of their gigs or their gear. It is a collection of essays telling the story of what this ubiquitous band means to a generation who grew up with the Beatles' music on their parents' stereos and their faces on T-shirts. What do the Beatles mean today? Why are they more famous and beloved now than ever? Find out.
-
-
Wonderful ramble
- By Tad Davis on 05-18-17
By: Rob Sheffield
-
Where the Heart Beats
- John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists
- By: Kay Larson
- Narrated by: Jason Wineinger
- Length: 15 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Composer John Cage sought the silence of a mind at peace with itself - and found it in Zen Buddhism, a spiritual path that changed both his music and his view of the universe. "Remarkably researched, exquisitely written", Where the Heart Beats weaves together "a great many threads of cultural history" (Maria Popova, Brain Pickings) to illuminate Cage’s struggle to accept himself and his relationship with choreographer Merce Cunningham. Freed to be his own man, Cage originated exciting experiments that set him at the epicenter of a new avant-garde forming in the 1950s.
-
-
Mind Expansion
- By Robert Keith on 04-04-15
By: Kay Larson
-
Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?
- Larry Norman and the Perils of Christian Rock
- By: Gregory Alan Thornbury
- Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1969, in Capitol Records' Hollywood studio, a blonde-haired troubadour named Larry Norman laid track for an album that would launch a new genre of music and one of the strangest, most interesting careers in modern rock. Having spent the bulk of the 1960s playing on bills with acts like The Who, Janis Joplin, and The Doors, Norman decided that he wanted to sing about the most countercultural subject of all: Jesus.
-
-
Hagiography not Biography
- By Keith Howard on 10-29-18
-
Go Ahead in the Rain
- Notes to A Tribe Called Quest
- By: Hanif Abdurraqib
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The seminal rap group A Tribe Called Quest brought jazz into the genre, resurrecting timeless rhythms to create masterpieces. This narrative follows Tribe from their early days as part of the Afrocentric rap collective known as the Native Tongues, through their first three classic albums, to their eventual breakup and long hiatus. Throughout the narrative, poet and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib connects the music and cultural history to their street-level impact and draws from his own experience to reflect on how its distinctive sound resonated among fans like himself.
-
-
Beautiful
- By Joshua Lindell on 03-06-19
By: Hanif Abdurraqib
-
So We Read On
- How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures
- By: Maureen Corrigan
- Narrated by: Maureen Corrigan
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Conceived nearly a century ago by a man who died believing himself a failure, it's now a revered classic and a rite of passage in the reading lives of millions. But how well do we really know The Great Gatsby? As Maureen Corrigan, Gatsby lover extraordinaire, points out, while Fitzgerald's masterpiece may be one of the most popular novels in America, many of us first read it when we were too young to fully comprehend its power.
-
-
Reading Gatsby as an adult reveals its greatness!
- By Mark on 10-06-14
By: Maureen Corrigan
-
John Lennon
- The Life
- By: Philip Norman
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Philip Norman turns his formidable talent to the Beatle for whom belonging to the world's most beloved pop group was never enough. Drawing on previously untapped sources, and with unprecedented access to all the major characters, here is the definitive portrait of John Lennon. This biography takes a fresh and penetrating look at Lennon's much-chronicled life, including the songs that have turned him, posthumously, into almost a secular saint.
-
-
Really Bad Abridgement Job (slash job)
- By Let's Be Reasonable on 12-04-08
By: Philip Norman
-
Ted Hughes
- The Unauthorized Life
- By: Jonathan Bate
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 25 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ted Hughes, poet laureate, was one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. With an equal gift for poetry and prose, and with a soul as capacious as any poet in history, he was also a prolific children's writer and has been hailed as the greatest English letter writer since John Keats. His magnetic personality and insatiable appetite for friendship, love, and life also attracted more scandal than any poet since Lord Byron.
-
-
Phenomenal thanks to narrator!
- By equinox14 on 06-26-16
By: Jonathan Bate
-
Thelonious Monk
- The Life and Times of an American Original
- By: Robin DG Kelley
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 25 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thelonious Monk is the critically acclaimed, gripping saga of an artist's struggle to "make it" without compromising his musical vision. It is a story that, like its subject, reflects the tidal ebbs and flows of American history in the 20th century. To his fans, he was the ultimate hipster; to his detractors, he was temperamental, eccentric, taciturn, or childlike. His angular melodies and dissonant harmonies shook the jazz world to its foundations, ushering in the birth of "bebop" and establishing Monk as one of America's greatest composers.
-
-
The definitive bio of Monk
- By ricardo on 12-27-17
By: Robin DG Kelley
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Lincoln's Melancholy
- How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness
- By: Joshua Wolf Shenk
- Narrated by: Derek Shetterly
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lincoln found the solace and tactics he needed to deal with the nation’s worst crisis in the “coping strategies” he had developed over a lifetime of persevering through depressive episodes and personal tragedies. With empathy and authority gained from his own experience with depression, Shenk crafts a nuanced, revelatory account of Lincoln and his legacy. Based on careful, intrepid research, Lincoln’s Melancholy unveils a wholly new perspective on how our greatest president brought America through its greatest turmoil.
-
-
Good and in depth view
- By Order B on 11-13-22
-
Meet Me in the Bathroom
- Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001-2011
- By: Lizzy Goodman
- Narrated by: Charlie Thurston, Nicol Zanzarella
- Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the second half of the 20th century New York was the source of new sounds, including the Greenwich Village folk scene, punk and new wave, and hip-hop. But as the end of the millennium neared, cutting-edge bands began emerging from Seattle, Austin, and London, pushing New York further from the epicenter. The behemoth music industry, too, found itself in free fall, under siege from technology. Then 9/11/2001 plunged the country into a state of uncertainty and war.
-
-
Deeply disappointing.
- By ChicagoRob on 01-18-20
By: Lizzy Goodman
-
All the Knowledge in the World
- The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopedia
- By: Simon Garfield
- Narrated by: Tim Bentinck
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All the Knowledge in the World is a history and celebration of those who created the most ground-breaking and remarkable publishing phenomenon of any age. Simon Garfield, who “has a genius for being sparked to life by esoteric enthusiasm and charming readers with his delight” (The Times), guides us on an utterly delightful journey, from Ancient Greece to Wikipedia, from modest single-volumes to the 11,000-volume Chinese manuscript that was too big to print.
-
-
Excellent, as usual
- By Debra Tydd on 07-23-23
By: Simon Garfield
-
Returning Light
- Thirty Years on the Island of Skellig Michael
- By: Robert L. Harris
- Narrated by: Robert L. Harris
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1987, Robert Harris happened upon an unusual job posting in the local paper—a new warden service was being set up on the island of Skellig Michael, and the deadline was imminent. Just weeks later he was on his way to set up camp in one of Ireland’s most remote locations, unaware that he would be making that same journey every May for the next 30 years.
-
-
Beautiful!
- By Elizabeth B. on 11-19-23
By: Robert L. Harris
-
Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy
- Ernest Hemingway's Secret Adventures, 1935-1961
- By: Nicholas Reynolds
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While he was the curator of the CIA Museum, Nicholas Reynolds, a longtime military intelligence expert, began to discover tantalizing clues that suggested Ernest Hemingway's involvement in the Second World War was much more complex and dangerous than has been previously understood. Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy brings to light for the first time this riveting secret side of Hemingway's life - when he worked closely with both the American OSS and the Soviet NKVD to defeat Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
-
-
So entertaining you'd think it was fiction
- By Austin on 03-16-17
-
Denial
- A Memoir
- By: Jessica Stern
- Narrated by: Suzie Althens
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jessica Stern is one of the world’s foremost experts on terrorism and post-traumatic stress disorder. She has interviewed some of the most feared terrorists in their own camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She has worked with the National Security Council and the FBI as an expert on what extreme trauma can do to a person. By her own admission, she feels no fear in these terrifying scenarios. On a fall night in Concord, a quiet Massachusetts suburb, in 1973, Jessica was 15. She and her sister were at doing their homework after ballet class when a serial rapist entered their bedroom.
-
-
Excellent book!
- By Jesse on 02-04-24
By: Jessica Stern
-
Lincoln's Melancholy
- How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness
- By: Joshua Wolf Shenk
- Narrated by: Derek Shetterly
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lincoln found the solace and tactics he needed to deal with the nation’s worst crisis in the “coping strategies” he had developed over a lifetime of persevering through depressive episodes and personal tragedies. With empathy and authority gained from his own experience with depression, Shenk crafts a nuanced, revelatory account of Lincoln and his legacy. Based on careful, intrepid research, Lincoln’s Melancholy unveils a wholly new perspective on how our greatest president brought America through its greatest turmoil.
-
-
Good and in depth view
- By Order B on 11-13-22
-
Meet Me in the Bathroom
- Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001-2011
- By: Lizzy Goodman
- Narrated by: Charlie Thurston, Nicol Zanzarella
- Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the second half of the 20th century New York was the source of new sounds, including the Greenwich Village folk scene, punk and new wave, and hip-hop. But as the end of the millennium neared, cutting-edge bands began emerging from Seattle, Austin, and London, pushing New York further from the epicenter. The behemoth music industry, too, found itself in free fall, under siege from technology. Then 9/11/2001 plunged the country into a state of uncertainty and war.
-
-
Deeply disappointing.
- By ChicagoRob on 01-18-20
By: Lizzy Goodman
-
All the Knowledge in the World
- The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopedia
- By: Simon Garfield
- Narrated by: Tim Bentinck
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All the Knowledge in the World is a history and celebration of those who created the most ground-breaking and remarkable publishing phenomenon of any age. Simon Garfield, who “has a genius for being sparked to life by esoteric enthusiasm and charming readers with his delight” (The Times), guides us on an utterly delightful journey, from Ancient Greece to Wikipedia, from modest single-volumes to the 11,000-volume Chinese manuscript that was too big to print.
-
-
Excellent, as usual
- By Debra Tydd on 07-23-23
By: Simon Garfield
-
Returning Light
- Thirty Years on the Island of Skellig Michael
- By: Robert L. Harris
- Narrated by: Robert L. Harris
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1987, Robert Harris happened upon an unusual job posting in the local paper—a new warden service was being set up on the island of Skellig Michael, and the deadline was imminent. Just weeks later he was on his way to set up camp in one of Ireland’s most remote locations, unaware that he would be making that same journey every May for the next 30 years.
-
-
Beautiful!
- By Elizabeth B. on 11-19-23
By: Robert L. Harris
-
Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy
- Ernest Hemingway's Secret Adventures, 1935-1961
- By: Nicholas Reynolds
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While he was the curator of the CIA Museum, Nicholas Reynolds, a longtime military intelligence expert, began to discover tantalizing clues that suggested Ernest Hemingway's involvement in the Second World War was much more complex and dangerous than has been previously understood. Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy brings to light for the first time this riveting secret side of Hemingway's life - when he worked closely with both the American OSS and the Soviet NKVD to defeat Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
-
-
So entertaining you'd think it was fiction
- By Austin on 03-16-17
-
Denial
- A Memoir
- By: Jessica Stern
- Narrated by: Suzie Althens
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jessica Stern is one of the world’s foremost experts on terrorism and post-traumatic stress disorder. She has interviewed some of the most feared terrorists in their own camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She has worked with the National Security Council and the FBI as an expert on what extreme trauma can do to a person. By her own admission, she feels no fear in these terrifying scenarios. On a fall night in Concord, a quiet Massachusetts suburb, in 1973, Jessica was 15. She and her sister were at doing their homework after ballet class when a serial rapist entered their bedroom.
-
-
Excellent book!
- By Jesse on 02-04-24
By: Jessica Stern
-
How to Write Like a Writer
- A Sharp and Subversive Guide to Ignoring Inhibitions, Inviting Inspiration, and Finding Your True Voice
- By: Thomas C. Foster
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York Times bestselling author of the beloved classic How to Read Literature Like a Professor teaches you how to write everything from a report for your community association to a meaningful memoir in this masterful and engaging guide.
-
-
One of the best writing books I have read
- By TJ Schreiber on 09-19-22
By: Thomas C. Foster
-
Hype
- How Scammers, Grifters, and Con Artists Are Taking Over the Internet—and Why We're Following
- By: Gabrielle Bluestone
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From former Vice journalist and executive producer of hit Netflix documentary Fyre comes an eye-opening look at the con artists, grifters, and snake-oil salesmen of the digital age - and why we can’t stop falling for them.
-
-
So important
- By Matthew J. McMahon on 10-25-22
-
Letterman
- The Last Giant of Late Night
- By: Jason Zinoman
- Narrated by: Michael Goldstrom
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a career spanning more than 30 years, David Letterman redefined the modern talk show with an ironic comic style that transcended traditional television. While he remains one of the most famous stars in America, he is a remote, even reclusive figure whose career is widely misunderstood. In Letterman, Jason Zinoman, the first comedy critic in the history of the New York Times, mixes groundbreaking reporting with unprecedented access and probing critical analysis to explain the unique entertainer's titanic legacy.
-
-
Great cover photo. Book a total waste of my time.
- By SCOTT on 05-03-17
By: Jason Zinoman
-
The New Guys
- The Historic Class of Astronauts That Broke Barriers and Changed the Face of Space Travel
- By: Meredith Bagby
- Narrated by: Meredith Bagby, January LaVoy
- Length: 16 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The never-before-told story of NASA’s 1978 astronaut class, which included the first American women, the first African Americans, the first Asian American, and the first gay person to fly to space. With the exclusive participation of the astronauts who were there, this is the thrilling, behind-the-scenes saga of a new generation that transformed space exploration.
-
-
As Far As It went
- By p on 02-07-24
By: Meredith Bagby
-
Soul Therapy
- The Art and Craft of Caring Conversations
- By: Thomas Moore
- Narrated by: Thomas Moore
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York Times best-selling author of the classic The Care of the Soul addresses the needs of those providing soul care to others - therapists, psychiatrists, ministers, spiritual directors, teachers, and even friends - sharing his insights for incorporating a spiritual or soulful dimension into their work and practices.
-
-
A nourishing treat!
- By Michael McCarthy on 06-07-22
By: Thomas Moore
-
The Long and Faraway Gone
- A Novel
- By: Lou Berney
- Narrated by: Brian Hutchison, Amy McFadden
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 1986, two tragedies rocked Oklahoma City. Six movie-theater employees were killed in an armed robbery while one inexplicably survived. Then, a teenage girl vanished from the annual state fair. Neither crime was ever solved. Twenty-five years later, the reverberations of those unsolved cases quietly echo through survivors’ lives. A private investigator in Vegas, Wyatt’s latest inquiry takes him back to a past he’s tried to escape - and drags him deeper into the harrowing mystery of the movie house robbery that left six of his friends dead.
-
-
Heartbreaking and extremely entertaining
- By Victor @ theAudiobookBlog dot com on 01-05-21
By: Lou Berney
-
Burn It Down
- Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood
- By: Maureen Ryan
- Narrated by: Samara Naeymi
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Burn It Down, veteran reporter Maureen Ryan does just that. She draws on decades of experience to connect the dots and illuminate the deeper forces sustaining Hollywood’s corrosive culture. Fresh reporting sheds light on problematic situations at companies like Lucasfilm and shows like Lost, Saturday Night Live, The Goldbergs, Sleepy Hollow, Curb Your Enthusiasm and more.
-
-
Good, Necessary, + Worthwhile
- By Ryede on 06-06-23
By: Maureen Ryan
-
The Whiz Mob and the Grenadine Kid
- By: Colin Meloy
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is an ordinary Tuesday morning in April when bored, lonely Charlie Fisher witnesses something incredible. Right before his eyes, in a busy square in Marseille, a group of pickpockets pulls off an amazing robbery. As the young bandits appear to melt into the crowd, Charlie realizes with a start that he himself was one of their marks. Yet Charlie is less alarmed than intrigued. This is the most thrilling thing that's happened to him since he came to France with his father, an American diplomat.
-
-
Amazing Narration! Incredibly well written story!
- By JD on 11-16-18
By: Colin Meloy
-
Arriving Today
- From Factory to Front Door - Why Everything Has Changed About How and What We Buy
- By: Christopher Mims
- Narrated by: James Fouhey
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We are at a tipping point in retail history. While consumers are profiting from the convenience of instant gratification, rapidly advancing technologies are transforming the way goods are transported and displacing workers in ways never before seen. In Arriving Today, Christopher Mims goes deep, far, and wide to uncover how a single product, from creation to delivery, weaves its way from a factory on the other side of the world to our doorstep.
-
-
Great look at process of product arriving to our home.
- By Jacquie on 10-06-21
By: Christopher Mims
-
Valiant Women
- The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II
- By: Lena S. Andrews
- Narrated by: Courtney Patterson
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Valiant Women is the story of the 350,000 American women who served in uniform during World War II. These incredible women served in every service branch, in every combat theater, and in nearly two-thirds of the available military occupations at the time. Military analyst Lena Andrews corrects the record with the definitive and comprehensive historical account of American servicewomen during World War II, based on new archival research, firsthand interviews with surviving veterans, and a deep professional understanding of military history and strategy.
-
-
A bit disappointing
- By Fact addict on 10-08-23
By: Lena S. Andrews
-
Heretic
- A Memoir
- By: Jeanna Kadlec
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jeanna Kadlec knew what it meant to be faithful--in her marriage to a pastor’s son, in the comfortable life ahead of her, in her God--but there was no denying the truth that lived under that conviction: she was queer and, if she wanted to survive, she would need to leave behind the church and every foundational building block she knew. Heretic is a memoir of rebirth. Within, Kadlec reckons with religious trauma and Midwestern values, as a means of unveiling how evangelicalism directly impacts every American--religious or not--and has been a major force in driving our democracy towards fascism.
-
-
Average story about faith and being LGBTQ
- By A. Sampson on 11-26-23
By: Jeanna Kadlec
-
Young Washington
- How Wilderness and War Forged America's Founding Father
- By: Peter Stark
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With powerful narrative drive and vivid writing, Young Washington recounts the wilderness trials, controversial battles, and emotional entanglements that transformed Washington from a temperamental striver into a mature leader. Enduring terrifying summer storms and subzero winters imparted resilience and self-reliance, helping prepare him for what he would one day face at Valley Forge. Leading the Virginia troops into battle taught him to set aside his own relentless ambitions and stand in solidarity with those who looked to him for leadership.
-
-
Loved learning how a greater leader became one!
- By Will on 11-01-18
By: Peter Stark
What listeners say about Why Bob Dylan Matters
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Learning everyday
- 09-28-21
Brilliant analysis of Dylan's work
Although Thomas' work covers Dylan's entire career, this book's focus is on his latest work including the album he declares a masterwork, Tempest. I like some of the ideas Thomas brings up especially his discussion of triads in Dylan's catalog. By reading this book, it's easy to understand why Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 08-20-20
why Bob matters
better than I expected narrator was excellent more in-depth than I expected
glad I bought it
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- J.B.
- 12-01-17
His Work is Talmudic; But He is Only A Man
Why Bob Dylan Matters, by Richard F. Thomas, and narrated By Nick Landrum. Professor Thomas is a classical (Greek/Roman) literature professor. That means he studies fate; under the command of the gods, and man’s function and duties within that realm. That’s a perfect background for studying Homer, Sophocles, Euripides and Ovid; but does it translate into an insight into Dylan? Maybe not so much.
What Professor Thomas has to say in heling us understand Bob Dylan is somewhat interesting, but not sufficiently insightful for me to recommend this as a must read. I found most of this work to be a rambling dive into who was Bob Dylan at the time he wrote his original (1960s through mid-1970) works, and what may have occurred to him since that early time that affects his later day works. Only the final two chapters were probative into what Dylan provided western literature.
There is one part of the story I found fulfilling. It seems Dylan has taken parts of other great authors, poets and philosopher’s works and incorporated their exact or like statements into his work. This, as is well explained in the book, is not an act of plagiarism. Rather, a deeper dive into the concepts previously provided by the earlier writers. For example, a lot of Dylan’s such undertakings came from the Roman poet, Vigil. (In fact, Vigil, like Dylan, took from others to create his poetry, as well.) Since, Dr. Thomas is a classical expert, which thus includes a good understanding of Vigil and his times, there was much substance to these arguments, and this was the most interesting and learning part of the work. There seems to exist poetic licenses to take from others their insights and incorporate that combination of words or thoughts into your own. As explained by Dr. Thomas, it is not theft; it is love. (Is that where the title Love and Theft comes from?)
I think those who try to delve into and explain poetry by figuring out the poet’s nature at the time his/her work was written is absurdly wrong because knowing the poet’s nature does not teach you the ephemeral drift into thought and insights that poetry permits. One must concentrate on the words, not the author’s history. One might even hypothesize, a poem has little or nothing to do with its author. It has to do with the reader. What does the work invoke in the reader?
Perhaps that is why Bob Dylan is always so annoyed with his purveyors; those who seek to report on Dylan and those that want to tell us what he meant. Dylan wrote the stuff and if you enjoy it, it is not Dylan that is providing the meaning. He, with great genius, provides the lattice for which the reader must develop a full flagged structure.
Yet, I do not mean to totally discourage you from this read. This read does provide one with remembrances as Dr. Thomas reviews the famous landmarks of Dylan’s work product. This is a good trip down memory lane and provides an opportunity to remember where when and with whom you were at the time of that Dylan Album.
When the audio speaks, my eye catches a flash off into the corner of my peripheral ability.
Something like the effects of thunder storms behind a cloudy sky.
Then I am left with the ozone to drift upon, and provide a lie for me to lay within.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- TL
- 08-06-18
Good book bad Bob Dylan impersonation
This was an insightful book into the sophistication of Bob Dylan’s work. My only complaint about the narrator is that he did a good job except he does an annoying impersonation of Bob Dylan’s voice every time the author quotes Dylan.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mooshy
- 08-26-22
The best Bob Dylan book ever written
I am a lifelong Dylan fan and can’t - or couldn’t read enough about him until this book. It is excellent-the most substantial, comprehensive and fascinating biography of the mysterious icon that is Bob Dylan. I have listened to this book several times and always hear something new that I somehow missed the time before. And I’m not done yet. There is so much there, it’s impossible to to take it all in at one -or five times. It is beautifully read as well. None of the other Dylan books come close to being this good and I have read most of them.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Paul in Maryland
- 01-14-18
couldn't wait for it to end
I've never thought much of Dylan's Tunes or lyrics. I thought even less of his voice. The only reason I read this book is that my daughter is about to marry a young man whose first name is Dylan. Yes, the young man's parents named him after Bob Dylan. Their hero. I figured I owed it to my Dylan and his parents to see what the fuss was about. Listening to this book was excruciating. The author cites examples of Dylan genius. Genius? You've got to be kidding me. He's no Stephen Sondheim or Billy Joel. to me, this book simply reaffirmed why I thought Dylan is a second or third rate pretender.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Buretto
- 11-27-17
Classical Dylan
I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook. It's exactly the kind of book on Dylan I've been waiting for. I've been a fan since I was a kid in the '70s, when Street Legal was the very first album I ever owned. I've steadfastly resisted the attempts at interpretive biographies, as if these authors presume to explain the the masses what Dylan himself has left enigmatic.
This is different. It's much more involved with Dylan's connection to the classical structure of literature and storytelling. There are the periodic references to Suze Rotola and Sara Lownds, and others involved in Dylan's life, but they are presented as characters in the epic stories that Dylan refashions from Ovid, Homer, Rimbaud and others.
The author, clearly a huge fan himself, may have underestimated the negative reaction amongst the more snobbish literary types regarding Dylan's Nobel Prize. I know of several who were beside themselves in horror. But I suspect Dylan might regard them as the right types of enemies to have.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
14 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ex
- 11-26-19
good, but too into it's subject
very interesting and a vital analysis of a vital subject. that said, towards the end, there's quiet a lot of too-deep analysis, grasping at words somehow as hints, almost in the paranoid style. I feel like there's more obvious connections to be made left unsaid.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sean Girardin
- 03-09-21
Way over the top
Dylan is on my music Mt. Rushmore. He’s a genius. But this book came off way too often as Boomer historical hyperbole, which made it hard to even listen to in some stretches. Think I’ll go listen to Blonde On Blonde now...
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!