Audiobooks 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 in Literature in 2016. The audio is narrated by an all-star lineup including Bob Dylan, Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, John Goodman, Oscar Isaac, Helen Mirren, Rita Moreno, Sissy Spacek, Alfre Woodard, Jeffrey Wright, and Renée Zellweger! 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 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.

Bob Dylan (Author), Bob Dylan (Narrator)

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Die Philosophie des modernen Songs

'Blowin' in the wind', 'All along the watchtower', 'Knockin' on heaven's door' – seine Songs besitzen eine poetische Kraft, für die er 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. Mysteriös und magisch, präzise und profund, oft auch sehr witzig legt er die Substanz jedes Songs frei und meditiert dabei in unnachahmlich dylanesker Diktion über das menschliche Leben und den fragwürdigen Zustand unserer Welt. 'Die Philosophie des modernen Songs' bietet einzigartige Einsichten in die Kunst des Songwritings, die uns von Little Richard zu Frank Sinatra, von Elvis Presley zu The Clash, von Nina Simone zu Elvis Costello führen – hier beeindruckend vorgetragen von einem der besten deutschen Dylan-Kenner, der selbst ein großartiger Musiker und Songwriter ist: BAP-Chef Wolfgang Niedecken.

Bob Dylan (Author), Wolfgang Niedecken (Narrator)

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Chronicles Volume 1

Die Autobiographie des Literaturnobelpreisträgers 2016! Gelesen von BAP-Sänger Wolfgang Niedecken. 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'. (Chronicles. Volume 2 und 3 sind bis dato nicht erschienen.)-

Bob Dylan (Author), Wolfgang Niedecken (Narrator)

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Tarantula

Never before on audio! Music legend Bob Dylan's only work of fiction—a combination of stream-of-consciousness prose, lyrics, and poetry that illuminates the creative process of one of the most influential musicians and songwriters of our time—finally comes to audio in a magnificent performance by award-winning narrator Will Patton! 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: a sense of protest, verbal ingenuity and spontaneity, and a belief in the artistic legitimacy of chronicling everyday life and the rhythms of the street and in the air.

Bob Dylan (Author), Will Patton (Narrator)

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WFMT Chicago Radio Interview 1963

Bob Dylan (Author), Bob Dylan (Narrator)

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Crónicas I

Bob Dylan, cantautor de cantautores, recientemente galardonado con el Premio Nobel de Literatura, presenta la edición del primer volumen de sus memorias. Las incomparables dotes de narrador y la exquisita expresividad que constituyen el sello distintivo de su música hacen de 'Crónicas' una reflexión penetrante sobre la vida y sobre las personas y los lugares que moldearon al hombre y su arte. En 1961 Bob Dylan llega a Nueva York y se instala en Greenwich Village dispuesto a encontrarse con Woody Guthrie, que por aquel entonces era el cantautor al que intentaba emular. El joven Dylan se busca la vida tocando en distintos locales mientras vive una gran historia de amor y se desarrolla como autor. Esa entrada en el mundo de la música profesional, que culminará en 1962 con su primer contrato discográfico, es el trasfondo de 'Crónicas I', un libro que recoge impresiones, vivencias y reflexiones, que presenta al primer Bob Dylan como un creador animado por una inquietud infinita. Si conocíamos la calidad de Dylan como poeta, 'Crónicas I' nos descubre a un narrador extraordinario, capaz de alternar el recuerdo, lo elegíaco y las observaciones más mordaces e incisivas. Grabado en español ibérico (España).

Bob Dylan (Author), Javier Garcia (Narrator)

Audiobook

Chronicles: Volume One

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. With the audiobook's side trips to New Orleans, Woodstock, Minnesota and points west, Chronicles: Volume One is an intimate and intensely personal recollection of extraordinary times. 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 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.

Bob Dylan (Author), Sean Penn (Narrator)

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