Overview
This breakthrough series looks at great music from a unique vantage point. By considering the recording session itself, rather than the final album, Legendary Sessions showcases the creative process and all the elements that go into making music that reflected its time, commented on our society, and influenced our culture.How did these epoch-making sessions come about? What influenced the artists? What was it like to be there as the recording was made? Written by top entertainment journalists, Legendary Sessions answers those questions with an involving you-are-there style. What impact did the recording have? Who listened to it? Who imitated it? Who was inspired by it? Legendary Sessions looks at those questions, too, with groundbreaking interviews, eyewitness accounts, and contemporary commentary.
Innovative and intriguing, Legendary Sessions is sure to change the way music fans listen to the great recordings of our time.
In the midst of the backlash following his electric performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, Bob Dylan was in the studio with a shifting group of session musicians and producer Bob Johnston. The result of these sessions would be Dylan’s sixth album, Highway 61 Revisited, the classic that featured “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Desolation Row.” Author Colin Irwin examines the events leading up to the sessions and how they influenced Dylan’s music; the details of the sessions and the musicians involved, the development of the songs, and the controversy surrounding Dylan’s new sound. Today it’s part of rock history. Relive those world-changing times in Legendary Sessions: Bob Dylan Highway 61 Revisited.
Synopsis
This breakthrough series looks at great music from a unique vantage point. By considering the recording session itself, rather than the final album, Legendary Sessions showcases the creative process and all the elements that go into making music that reflected its time, commented on our society, and influenced our culture.How did these epoch-making sessions come about? What influenced the artists? What was it like to be there as the recording was made? Written by top entertainment journalists, Legendary Sessions answers those questions with an involving you-are-there style. What impact did the recording have? Who listened to it? Who imitated it? Who was inspired by it? Legendary Sessions looks at those questions, too, with groundbreaking interviews, eyewitness accounts, and contemporary commentary.
Innovative and intriguing, Legendary Sessions is sure to change the way music fans listen to the great recordings of our time.
In the midst of the backlash following his electric performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, Bob Dylan was in the studio with a shifting group of session musicians and producer Bob Johnston. The result of these sessions would be Dylan’s sixth album, Highway 61 Revisited, the classic that featured “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Desolation Row.” Author Colin Irwin examines the events leading up to the sessions and how they influenced Dylan’s music; the details of the sessions and the musicians involved, the development of the songs, and the controversy surrounding Dylan’s new sound. Today it’s part of rock history. Relive those world-changing times in Legendary Sessions: Bob Dylan Highway 61 Revisited.
Editorials
Library Journal
In his entry in the "Legendary Sessions" series, music journalist Irwin (In Search of the Craic: One Man's Pub Crawl Through Irish Music) deftly sets the stage for Bob Dylan's seminal album Highway 61 Revisited, describing the songwriter's move from socially conscious protest songs to introspective, Beat-inspired lyrics and discussing Dylan's affiliation with manager Albert Grossman and his burnout after a 1965 European tour. Irwin delves into the genesis of the groundbreaking "Like a Rolling Stone" and provides a riveting chapter about the tumultuous and polarizing Newport Folk Festival where Dylan unveiled his electric sound. He then details the recording of the album, which was characterized by bitter, angry songs filled with symbolic references. Irwin also includes short biographies of the many characters involved with the album. Not just a book about a record, this work offers a lively, interesting, and informative look at Dylan during the pivotal period 1963-65.
Unfortunately, experienced music journalist and musician Clayson (The Beatles Box) begins his series entry on the Rolling Stones with a rambling account of their many influences, including blues, soul, folk, Jimi Hendrix, Dr. John, and Dylan, leaving the reader in bewilderment about the primary impetus behind the band's music. He follows with brief, sensationalist profiles of each member: sex-crazed Bill Wyman; serious Charlie Watts; troubled, talented, and marginalized Brian Jones; financially astute Mick Jagger; and quiet yet boisterous Keith Richards. Clayson covers the business moguls behind the band (Andrew Loog Oldham and Allen Klein) and the recording of the 1968 Beggars Banquet.In a scattershot, hodgepodge finish, Clayson outlines Brian Jones's split from the group and his untimely death, the Hyde Park and Altamont concerts, and various events up to 2007. Written in a conversational, disjointed style, this volume offers little new information about the Stones or their music. Not recommended.
—Dave Szatmary