"A sincere, in-depth, nonacademic look at a fascinating subject.
Hinchey's thoughtful and clear sharing of what he hears in these songs will offer many readers stimulating reminders of and insights into their own relationships with this songwriter's poetry."

--Paul Williams, author of Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, vols. 1 & 2.

"If you thought there were already too many Bob Dylan books in the world, think again. Here is a long, steady, enlightening look--by academic, journalist, and long-time Bob Dylan fan John Hinchey--at Dylan's works, rather than his life. Song by song and album by album he examines images, symbols, themes and subjects, tracing connections and context, showing how Dylan's speedy mastery of language grew and changed in the few short years that saw him become the shooting star in rock music and popular culture that still flashes across the heavens now.
If you think you know about poetry and singing and Bob Dylan, well think twice. This is a book to open your eyes and ears. It will send you back to the old albums again, this time to hear something new."

--Roy Kelly, English poet, writer, and Bob fan

I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your book. I couldn't put it down, and stayed up way too late to finish it. I had only two regrets: that it was so short and that it stopped where it stopped. Your style is a swell mixture of the erudite and the demotic which suits the subject and your treatment of it. Your insights into both the persona of Dylan's songs and their dialogic nature seems to be to be absolutely correct. And best of all, its really funny: "So musty a feller could sneeze" at the end of one paragraph and "the sneeze heard 'round the world." at the start of the next had be laugh out loud.
Although I didn't necessarily agree with everything you said, neither apparently did you. Statements like "You tell me" made the book, for me, even better. A little humility in the face of greatness is a wonderful thing. And your insights were always thought-provoking. I never realized how important even small words like 'so' and 'really' were. Nor did I realize just how filthy minded Dylan could be: I knew "Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat" was raunchy but I didn't know just how raunchy. Nor how marvellously tender "Just like a Woman" was.
Thanks for a great book. I look forward to the rest and ro an expanded edition of this one.

--James Leonard, Ann Arbor music critic and former record store owner.

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