Bob Dylan Recruits Famous Actors for ‘Modern Song’ Audiobook

Bob Dylan’s upcoming ebook, The Philosophy of Modern Song, might be accompanied by an audiobook version voiced by Dylan alongside a bunch of big-name actors.

Uncut revealed that Dylan’s voice could be heard narrating the unabridged seven-hour audiobook, together with these of Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, John Goodman, Oscar Isaac, Helen Mirren, Rita Moreno, Sissy Spacek, Alfre Woodard, Jeffrey Wright and Renee Zellweger. The actors are possible so as to add character to what the ebook’s publishers have described as “a series of dream-like riffs that, taken together, resemble an epic poem and add to the work’s transcendence.”

In March, publishers Simon & Schuster introduced that the ebook, by which Dylan explores 66 notable songs, might be launched on Nov. 1, 12 years after the singer-songwriter started work on it. “He analyzes what he calls the trap of easy rhymes, breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song and even explains how bluegrass relates to heavy metal,” the announcement stated, including that the essays had been “mysterious and mercurial, poignant and profound, and often laugh-out-loud funny. … And while they are ostensibly about music, they are really meditations and reflections on the human condition.”

Variety just lately offered an entire record of the 66 songs, which embrace Eagles’ “Witchy Woman,” the Who’s “My Generation,” Elvis Costello’s “Pump It Up,” the Clash’s “London Calling” and Grateful Dead’s “Truckin,'” amongst others. The full record may be seen under, alongside the artist most related to every work. The Philosophy of Modern Song is accessible for preorder now in hardback, eBook, audiobook and CD editions.

Bob Dylan, ‘The Philosophy of Modern Song’ Subjects
“Detroit City” (Bobby Bare)
“Pump It Up” (Elvis Costello & the Attractions)
“Without a Song” (Frank Sinatra)
“Take Me From This Garden of Evil” (Jimmy Wages)
“There Stands the Glass” (Webb Pierce)
“Willy the Wandering Gypsy and Me” (Billy Joe Shaver)
“Tutti Frutti” (Little Richard)
“Money Honey” (Elvis Presley)
“My Generation” (The Who)
“Jesse James” (Harry McClintock)
“Poor Little Fool” (Ricky Nelson)
“Pancho and Lefty” (Townes Van Zandt)
“The Pretender” (Jackson Browne)
“Mack the Knife” (Bobby Darin)
“The Whiffenpoof Song” (Rudy Vallee)
“You Don’t Know Me” (Ray Charles)
“Ball of Confusion” (The Temptations)
“Poison Love” (Johnnie & Jack)
“Beyond the Sea” (Bobby Darin)
“On the Road Again” (Willie Nelson)
“If You Don’t Know Me by Now” (Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes)
“The Little White Cloud That Cried” (Johnnie Ray)
“El Paso” (Marty Robbins)
“Nelly Was a Lady” (Stephen Foster)
“Cheaper to Keep Her” (Johnnie Taylor)
“I Got a Woman” (Ray Charles)
“CIA Man” (The Fugs)
“On the Street Where You Live” (From ‘My Fair Lady’)
“Truckin'” (The Grateful Dead)
“Ruby, Are You Mad?” (The Osborne Brothers)
“Old Violin” (Johnny Paycheck)
“Volare” (Domenico Modugno)
“London Calling” (The Clash)
“Your Cheatin’ Heart” (Hank Williams)
“Blue Bayou” (Roy Orbison)
“Midnight Rider” (The Allman Brothers Band)
“Blue Suede Shoes” (Carl Perkins)
“My Prayer” (The Platters)
“Dirty Life and Times” (Warren Zevon)
“Doesn’t Hurt Anymore” (Regina Belle)
“Key to the Highway” (Little Walter)
“Everybody Cryin’ Mercy” (Mose Allison)
“War” (Edwin Starr)
“Big River” (Johnny Cash)
“Feel So Good” (Shirley & Lee)
“Blue Moon” (Elvis Presley)
“Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves” (Cher)
“Keep My Skillet Good and Greasy” (Uncle Dave Macon)
“It’s All in the Game” (Tommy Edwards)
“A Certain Girl” (Ernie Okay-Doe)
“I’ve Always Been Crazy” (Waylon Jennings)
“Witchy Woman” (Eagles)
“Big Boss Man” (Jimmy Reed)
“Long Tall Sally” (Little Richard)
“Old and Only in the Way” (Charlie Poole)
“Black Magic Woman” (Santana)
“By the Time I Get to Phoenix” (Glen Campbell)
“Come On-a My House” (Rosemary Clooney)
“Don’t Take Your Guns to Town” (Johnny Cash)
“Come Rain or Come Shine” (Ray Charles)
“Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” (Nina Simone)
“Strangers in the Night” (Frank Sinatra)
“Viva Las Vegas” (Elvis Presley)
“Saturday Night at the Movies” (The Drifters)
“Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” (Pete Seeger)
“Where or When” (Dion and the Belmonts)