Praise for Like a Rolling Stone

“Greil Marcus, a critic of formidable erudition and a writer of enviable fluency, has constructed his own school of American studies on a foundation of rock ‘n’ roll over the last three decades … No less than Dylan’s song, Marcus’ book is a performance.”

—Los Angeles Times

 

“Magisterial, hypnotic and unfinished, the song is worth every bit of lavish attention that Marcus gives it, with a passion as eloquent as it is infectious … essential reading for anyone who wants to get closer to Dylan’s masterpiece of vitriol.”

—The Nation

 

“Greil Marcus, one of rock music’s finest analysts and chroniclers, spins its creation and effect into a sociological and musical study [that] nails the impact of Dylan’s best-known song.”

—Variety

 

“Marcus is still the song we can’t get out of our heads … Beyond that, lie depths only a critic as knowledgeable and gifted as Marcus can plumb … Today, hundred-channel radios can be set to chirp a reminder every time a Dylan song bounces off a satellite and into your dashboard. Great as such hardware is, though, listening to Marcus improvise in “Like a Rolling Stone” offers pleasures just as profound.”

—David Kipen, San Francisco Chronicle

 

“Marcus has the armament of a critic—a formidable knowledge of art, politics, literature and cinema—and the instincts of a poet … He has given us a livelier and more provocative book than you have any right to expect from a 60-year-old man writing about a 40-year-old record.”

—London Independent

 

“A book-length deconstruction of a song is a questionable undertaking at best. But when the writer is music critic and cultural historian Marcus and the song is Dylan’s 6-minute masterwork, the reader is in good hands.”

—Atlanta Journal-Constitution

 

“Instilled with the primitive giddy rush of rock ‘n’ roll … Like a Rolling Stone is as good as Chronicles and, in its way, as career-encompassing … Marcus breathes new fire into ‘Like a Rolling Stone.’”

—London Times

“Its epic sense of hyper-informed, cool detachment might just make it a milestone in music criticism.”

—Portland Mercury

 

“Marcus’ oeuvre is to dazzle the reader with his vocabulary and wildly imaginative connections … it can make you giddy, like listening to an oldies station with great taste and a sense of surprise.”

—Denver Post

 

“The work of a great historian-stylist relentlessly scoring the territories of American pop’s dream life for raptures and nightmares, and bringing it all back home—to find home utterly changed.”

—Blender

 

“Greil Marcus’ telling is a version of the freedom he finds in the song. In his version, the outsider’s declaration of revenge becomes the most thrilling and violent of familiar epics: the tale of American self-invention.”

—New York Observer

 

“If any pop song deserves thorough examination, it’s this one … for those of us who experienced the record as it happened 40 years ago, it’s a fascinating, transporting read.”

—The Christian Science Monitor

 

“Marcus’ vast understanding of American culture and intimate knowledge of Dylan’s career make this an eye-opening read …”

—Booklist (starred review)

 

“Marcus is able to tell the familiar story in such a lively and light way that even the old sounds new again … with Marcus’s insight, you’re likely to hear something—like a Michael Bloomfield guitar lick or the … work by drummer Bobby Gregg—you’ve never noticed before.”

—Associated Press

 

“Marcus’s genius is to pull the reader into this mythic, swampy head-trip. The world of ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ may no longer be the world we live in, but Marcus isn’t about to kill off such a rich, timeless event with neat answers or dead conclusions.”

—Mojo

 

“A perfect companion to Chronicles … The fact that this book is such a pleasure to read is a testament to Marcus’s skill as a rock critic.”

—Montreal Gazette