Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes
by Greil Marcus
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Book Summary Information
Author: Greil MarcusEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-05-15
ISBN: 0805058427
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Book Reviews of Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes
Book Review: Don't listen to the whining--approach prepared/open-minded
Summary: 5 Stars
Greil Marcus gets a lot of flack, which is understandable since truly good writing never gets greeted with apathy. I personally would rather be flayed alive however than spend time with the sort of people who whine about how supposedly prententious and wrong-headed he is. Marcus is a myth-maker, and to comprehend the book you simply can't just walk in unprepared and then complain afterward. It's assumed that you'll have heard at least the official Basement Tapes release, (And the full 5-cd set is easier to come by than most people think--I even got mine off of ebay.)and have knowledge of the lodestones of American roots music. As the title suggests, Marcus is discussing more than just Dylan. Those who complain that the basement tapes don't deserve Marcus' analysis and are too slight miss the point entirely. Popular music tells a huge amount from our culture--a song like "Blue Suede Shoes" and the background behind it may tell you more about 195o's America than a history book. Marcus analyzes the music Dylan made in 1967 by delving into what shaped it and how what shaped it shaped our culture. He follows the strand of thoughts that criss-crossed Dylan's mind when the Basement tapes were created--thoughts on the country's present state and its past, the remembered bits of old folk numbers belonging to a vanished America,etc. He shoots back and forth through time and across topics following these strands and by the end he has revealed that the basement tapes reflect and show us--in all their mystery, silliness(especially that), simplicity,and complexity--a rich picture of America, both past and present. Now if you can't handle the unconventionality or daring of Marcus' approach--how his way of writing about the music reflects the sprawling, limitless potential of teh music and its influences--then please stop your bitching and find something simpler. A 100 years from now, when historians wish to document and experience our culture, one of the most powerful tools they have will be the music of the day. You haven't understood all of the old, weird America if you haven't listened to singers like Dock Boggs, and those in the future studying our time will gain immeasurable insight from simply listening to the basement tapes. Greil Marcus' book is joined at the hip to those tapes --it both explains and adds to their mystery, and those wise enough to see how the tapes reflect the times will see the same about this book.
Summary of Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes
Greil Marcus has been called "simply peerless, not only as a rock writer but as a cultural historian" (Nick Hornby). It's appropriate, then, that he should choose to explore one of the most defining moments in American music: Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes.
It was 1967--the Summer of Love. Bob Dylan and five other musicians (later known as The Band) met in a bungalow in Woodstock, New York, and wrote and produced music that ignored the psychedelic sounds of the time, songs that would eventually become known simply as "The Basement Tapes." The group mined the history of American music and their own talents to produce legendary tracks that were bootleg issues before appearing in official release.
That is the alchemy that was practiced in the Basement Tapes laboratory, and "in that alchemy," Marcus writes, "is an undiscovered country, like the purloined letter hiding in plain sight." Marcus explores this music and the cauldron of the American experience in which it was formed in a book that illuminates America, then and now.
It was 1967--the Summer of Love. Bob Dylan and five other musicians (later known as The Band) met in a bungalow in Woodstock, New York, and wrote and produced music that ignored the psychedelic sounds of the time, songs that would eventually become known simply as "The Basement Tapes." The group mined the history of American music and their own talents to produce legendary tracks that were bootleg issues before appearing in official release.
That is the alchemy that was practiced in the Basement Tapes laboratory, and "in that alchemy," Marcus writes, "is an undiscovered country, like the purloined letter hiding in plain sight." Marcus explores this music and the cauldron of the American experience in which it was formed in a book that illuminates America, then and now.
While focusing on a select group of musicians performing privately in a brief window of time, noted music and culture writer Greil Marcus cuts to the core of the American musical legacy to study it as a slightly blurred snapshot, full of shadow and mystery. Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes centers around the now legendary recordings made by Bob Dylan and The Band in 1967, and how this music signaled a change in American music by capturing the essence of the moment within the context of a rich folk tradition. During these casual sessions they recorded more than 100 songs, some originals, but most borrowed from barely remembered folk, blues, and country musicians.
This music they derived from had been part of the American fabric in an anonymous way that can only be explained as folklore and myth, and they breathed new life into it while adhering to its legacy. Though never intended for release, these recordings molded into the tradition of music as oral history, and appropriately, a few tapes were passed hand to hand, then some were pressed as bootleg records, which then spread like rumors. This folk revival conjured up a collection of timeless stories that many had heard in a slightly different form without ever knowing who started them. Just as Dylan did with the Basement Tapes, Marcus's exhilarating book extends beyond music and into the psyche of America, making the present more clear by putting the past into focus.
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