Visions of Bob Dylan

Dec 12 2008 by Sara Bain, Dumfries Standard Friday

LEGENDARY Bob Dylan, probably the most influential songwriter of the era, recently declared that Robert Burns’ My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose, written in Dumfries in 1794, was the lyric that had the greatest impact on his life.

Dylan’s inspiration, announced as part of music store HMV’s My Inspiration campaign, is perhaps the high point of an affinity the singer has had with Scottish traditional music since at least the 1960s when he was introduced to it by another great American folk performer Joan Baez (whose mother was Scots).

So it’s particularly fitting that a new book exploring the significance of Dylan’s major lyrics should have been written by someone who teaches English in the town where Burns wrote what is probably his best-loved song and published by a local company.

But the local connection was not the principal inspiration for Series of Dreams: The Vision Songs of Bob Dylan.

Asked what compelled him to write about a performer who has been the subject of so many other books, author John Burns points out that for nearly 50 years Dylan’s songs have challenged received social, political and spiritual ideas about the world we live in.

John’s examined all Dylan’s major albums from the 1960s to the present exploring how the great songwriter and performer transmutes philosophical, and musical ideas into a visionary art that can change the way we feel and think about our lives.

Poet, critic and teacher of English and tai chi, John has been fascinated by Dylan since he first saw him perform live in Glasgow in February 1991. The fascination comes across infectiously in the book, which opens with a brief account of that concert.

Kirkcudbright-based publisher Glen Murray, also a Dylan fan, said: “I’ve been listening to Dylan since I was at school, but this book has added a whole new dimension.

“It makes an important contribution to our understanding of the work of one of the most significant musical artists around.”

Series of Dreams was launched at the McGill Duncan Gallery, in Castle Douglas, on Sunday and is available from local stockists and online at www.glenmurraypublishing.co.uk