Bob Dylan Mixing up the medicine

This hefty, coffee-table book is a wonderful collection of archival material from the Bob Dylan Archive (and supporters of it) at the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa. It is a feast for the eye and the brain, with short essays by well-known Dylan scholars as well as musicians and critics, including Greil Marcus, Lucy Sante, Tom Piazza, Amanda Petrusich, Alex Ross, Clinton Heylin, Greg Tate, and Richard Hell. Some contributors are a pleasant surprise (poet Joy Harjo on "Tangled Up in Blue"). Historians Sean Wilentz and Douglas Brinkley offer excellent bookends, an introduction and epilogue, respectively. The images consist of photographs, draft lyrics, notebooks, family pics, postcards, album and book covers, signs and posters, flyers, contact sheets, concert programs, playbills, and ticket stubs that follow the singer from his early years in Minnesota to the current day, each accompanied by richly informative captions. As the editors note, Dylan set trends in order to break them. This is a cornucopia, a treasure trove, a mother lode, a bonanza--no one word quite does it justice, with Dylan's fifth-grade class portrait and a color photo of Dylan in his welding studio in 2013 just two of many memorable images. A volume to peruse and slowly savor, this is nothing less than a profound cultural statement.

Nearly a decade after acquiring the Bob Dylan archives, the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, OK, finally opened to the public in May 2022. Their inaugural exhibits are expanded into this book. More than a mere guide, however, this is a career-spanning, show-and-tell reflecting the myriad dimensions of Dylan. Handsomely designed, the 600-plus-page volume reproduces scores of images and objects that are familiar, but many more may be unknown to even the most ardent connoisseur. These visuals and informative descriptions by curators and editors Davidson and Fishel are supplemented with sporadic profiles by prominent Dylanologists such as Douglas Brinkley and Greil Marcus. Each engagingly exposes another side of Dylan. As such, this is not a biography; it's more of a series of biographical snapshots. The content will no doubt inspire other Dylan devotees to peruse these pages and look for items to add to their bucket lists when they make their pilgrimage to Tulsa. VERDICT This extraordinary book showcases the Bob Dylan Center and the artist himself. It introduces enticing new scholarship in the Dylan historiography to be studied and celebrated for generations to come.--Gregory Stall