Bob Dylan: Mixing Up the Medicine
£55.30£76.00 (-27%)
‘If there is anything new to be discovered about Bob Dylan, you can probably find it in The Bob Dylan Centre… Now the Bob Dylan Centre is publishing its first book, essentially the archive in miniature: Bob Dylan: Mixing up the Medicine. It is a 608-page tome examining over 1000 images and objects culled from the collection by archivists and curators Mark Davidson and Parker Fishel.’ – The Telegraph
Several years ago, a treasure trove containing some 6,000 original Bob Dylan manuscripts was revealed to exist. Their destination? Tulsa, Oklahoma. The documents, as essential as they are intriguing―draft lyrics, notebooks, and diverse ephemera― comprise one of the most important cultural archives in the modern world. Along with countless still and moving images and thousands of hours of riveting studio and live recordings, this priceless collection now resides at The Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, just steps away from the archival home of Dylan’s early hero, Woody Guthrie.
Nearly all the materials preserved at The Bob Dylan Center are unique, previously unavailable, and, in many cases, even previously unknown. As the official publication of The Bob Dylan Center, BOB DYLAN: MIXING UP THE MEDICINE is the first wide-angle look at the Dylan archive, a book that promises to be of vast interest to both the Nobel Laureate’s many musical fans as well as a broader cultural audience.
Edited by Mark Davidson and Parker Fishel, BOB DYLAN: MIXING UP THE MEDICINE focuses a close look at the full scope of Dylan’s working life, particularly from the dynamic perspective of his ongoing and shifting creative processes―his earliest home recordings in the mid-1950s right up through Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020), his most recent studio recording, and into the present day.
The centerpiece of BOB DYLAN: MIXING UP THE MEDICINE is a carefully curated selection of over 600 images including never-before-circulated draft lyrics, writings, photographs, drawings and other ephemera from the Dylan archive.
With an introductory essay by Sean Wilentz and epilogue by Douglas Brinkley, the book features a surprising range of distinguished writers, artists and musicians, including Joy Harjo, Greil Marcus, Michael Ondaatje, Gregory Pardlo, Amanda Petrusich, Tom Piazza, Lee Ranaldo, Alex Ross, Ed Ruscha, Lucy Sante, Greg Tate and many others. After experiencing the collection firsthand in Tulsa, each of the authors was asked to select a single item that beguiled or inspired them. The resulting essays, written specifically for this volume, shed new light on not only Dylan’s creative process, but also their own.
BOB DYLAN: MIXING UP THE MEDICINE is the magnum opus every Bob Dylan fan has been waiting for since the 60s and will be a landmark publication for the ages.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Callaway Arts & Entertainment, 1st edition (24 Oct. 2023) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Hardcover | 608 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1734537795 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1734537796 |
| Dimensions | 21.59 x 5.08 x 27.94 cm |
by Substitute66
This will take you a long, long time to digest this medicine. Well worth the heavily discounted price. Very heavy, very worth it. Ask Santa.
by B. Yokhin
many good pictures
by Sid Astbury
Bob Dylan’s music has always been part of my life, he was playing and recording before I was born. His writings have influenced many people and his songs are stories within themselves. He expresses himself through his music and he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016 in recognition “for having created new poetic expressions within the Great American song industry.” This made him the first-ever songwriter who had won this, previously given to “traditional authors”. This in itself is a testament to his writing and creativity. Although he was a reluctant recipient. Not one to shy away from making a point, his songs have, at times caused controversy, and he is known to write about history. He has been making records for 60 years and his last album was released in 2020 – Rough & Rowdy Ways.
This book is an in-depth look at the life of Bob Dylan, from his childhood, school friends and gradually up to the present day. The book is made up of photos, images, album covers, notes, memos and quotes from other music industry artists. This man has sold more than 100 million records. He is a legend who was born in 1941 and he has many songs that have been covered by others.
This book is immense. And each page is filled, no room for blank pages in this book! The images are from backstage, home life, with friends, family and influential people from around the world. Added to this are the album covers, if the bootlegs, singles, and other releases were added then that would be a book on its own.
As I was reading through this book I got a further insight into this artist. I didn’t know huge amounts about him and I didn’t realise just how many songs he had written. I really enjoyed the pieces written by other artists as they were asked to write an essay about what was it about Dylan that beguiled or inspired them.
The Bob Dylan Centre holds all the original manuscripts, notebooks and various other paraphernalia from his life. Having access to a book like this means you can get a glimpse into the life of this artist. He does give interviews but these tend to be guarded, in life a private man notorious for his inclusiveness and silence.
The book is laid out in various sections from 1941 up to 2023, with an introduction, epilogue, index, credits and permissions.
The book is a treasure trove and I found myself singing some of the lyrics instead of reading them! Of course, this meant pulling up a Dylan playlist.
This book is a tome, a book you definitely need to sit at a table with or need very strong hands. I adored everything about this book and even though I have read through it once I still keep coming back to it. The photos and information that are included are interesting and enlightening. It is a great book to read and learn more about the man behind the music.
It is one I would very definitely recommend.
by Wagnerman
As soon as I opened the package the book came in my heart sank. I pre-ordered the book in August and waited eagerly for it to arrive but realised that I had been totally and utterly taken in by it being described as “sumptuous”. It looks and feels cheap and is certainly not worth the £63.00 I paid for it. I have collected books for 60 years and also been a Dylan fan for around that length of time. I have never counted the number of books I have in my collection but I am sure I have over 500. Some of them I would describe as sumptuous. They look and feel wonderful but this one certainly doesn’t. Those who are familiar with the “All The Songs” volume will recognise the way this volume is bound. It has a solid inflexible spine which results in difficulty opening pages fully. It creaks and cracks when opened and does not have a dust jacket. The paper used is of decent quality but the font varies between small and unreadable.
I found the content of the book as unimpressive as the binding. The description of it seems to expect potential buyers to be impressed with it’s size, number of pages, number of images, articles by Dylan scholars and the fact it took seven years to compile. It is certainly a hefty volume but because of that it is difficult to hold especially when reading the small print. It also contains many images but how many pictures of Dylan does even the most ardent fan want or need? There are also many images of material from the archive but some are so esoteric as not to be of any interest to the vast majority of readers. Letters to him from Springsteen and McCartney were nice to see in print but do we really want to know that Springsteen enjoyed reading Chronicles and McCartney enjoyed listening the Theme Tim Radio Hour? The same can be said about a lot of the material but perhaps that is the point of the book. To describe it as a “Grail” is a bit over the top. The book sets out a chronology of Dylan’s life but, from my perspective, there was absolutely nothing new in it. Maybe I have immersed myself in Dylan’s life for too long and have read way too much about him over the years but I found many of the articles uninteresting and some of them quite pointless. I have numerous volumes about Dylan which are significantly better than this. I give it three stars simply because of the effort put into compiling the volume but I cannot say hand on heart that it brings anything new to the party. I think that those new to Dylan may get a lot more out of this book than those who have worshipped at the Dylan shrine for many years like me. I would probably have given it three or maybe four stars had it not been for the cheap way it has been bound. It could have been so much better and, indeed, sumptuous but it is not. I spent about ten hours looking at it and realised it was not for me. I am returning my copy because it is simply not value for money. I am also irritated that even on the day it arrived it was four pounds cheaper and will, I am sure, continue to drop in price. Like “All The Songs” it will end up at around the £25.00 mark. I am genuinely sorry that I cannot heap more praise or in in fact any praise on the volume. I had very high hopes but they were dashed when it arrived.
by Sid Astbury
Even if you don’t know where the title of this book comes from – it’s the second line in Subterranean Homesick Blues, the one that precedes “Johnny’s in the basement” – Mixing Up The Medicine is still worth the money.
Part overview, part photo album, part anthology of scholarly essays, it’s both a must-read for the avid fan and a handy primer, a 1.01 if you will, for those intrigued by the first songster to win the Nobel Prize for Literature and wanting to learn more.
What it’s not is another biography. It’s about Bob’s day job as singer-songwriter, recording artist. There’s a bit about his painting but mostly its about his songs. Thankfully, there’s almost nothing about his private life.
It’s worthy of the imprimatur of the Bob Dylan Centre in Tulsa, repository of Dylan’s archive and the global focus point of Dylan studies. It’s a beauty to behold, something Tulsa can be proud of and a treasure you can share, There are photographs you won’t have seen before, documents that are a first-look too. It’s meticulously researched and carefully presented.