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(More customer reviews)The other reviewers do not address the writing style of the book, which is its greatest flaw. There are so many terrible sentences in here, where Mr. Griffin offers what he must feel is genuine insight into the Basement Tapes, whose mysterous atmosphere is like "a Tarot card face down on a fortuneteller's table" (the last sentence of the book). These kind of cheesy descriptions abound in the book and are a true obstacle to any consideration of its merit. I mean, the article that appeared in MOJO on the BT a few years ago was better written than this. I know that Zappa said "rock criticism is written by those who can't write for those who can't read," but this hits a new low for me in music writing.
Of course, when Griffin gets down to describing the actual songs, the book improves. But even here the colloquial tone of the book seems forced, as if he is trying to be funny or something. If the tape runs out before the end of a song, he writes "Damn" (sometimes more than once). He often writes "Discuss" at the end of a song description, which I guess is some kind of directive to the reader. So, the biggest problem I have with this book is the casual tone of the writing, which doesn't work (and that's why writers shoudn't try it because it's so hard to pull off.)
Of course, this book does contain some new information. Griffin conducted new interviews with many important people associated with the Basement Tapes, Robbie Robertson being the most significant subject. But again, the endnotes reveal that most of these interviews took place in late 2006 or early 2007, which shows that the book was clearly thrown together. It's a shame Griffin didn't spend more time polishing his writing, which is often repetitive and could have used extensive editing.
And the interviews are not that insightful, and Robertson repeats many things he's said elsewhere. But Griffin does try to organize the recordings by date and location and examines the official release in some detail. So the book does offer a lot of useful information - it's just too bad it wasn't presented better.
Griffin also tends to make the same points over and over, referring to the drug or alcohol use by Bob and The Band that is evident on certain tracks, which I don't think is important at all and is surely debatable. The assertion that Bob or Albert Grossman sternly told Manuel and Danko to be more serious in their playing is ludicrous and insulting.
Griffin constantly uses a fanzine-style of writing: song lyrics are used for all chapter titles, and relationship between title and content is often tenuous at best. And in the tradition of many hacks who write on Dylan, he constantly incorporates phrases from songs into his prose. Another annoying habit by Dylan writers that Griffin uses is his constant assertions that this is Dylan's best period, Dylan is the best, etc. This may be true, but there is no need to say it over and over again. The audience for this book does not need an apologia for the Basement Tapes - they already think they're excellent, I'm sure.
Also, the background chapters on the Basement Tapes, especially the one on Dylan's motorcycle accident, are a waste of time and recycle old information. This chapter shouldn't have been included, as the audience for this book is already familiar with the backstory, and Griffin comes to no conclusions regarding the accident. Does anyone really care where and when it happened? Isn't it enough that Dylan used the accident - whether real or not - to take a much-needed break from touring and the rock and roll lifestyle and concentrate on his family?
So, in the end, I don't understand how anyone could prefer Griffin's book to Greil Marcus's "Invisible Republic" (aka "The Old Weird America") because, as overwrought as Marcus's writing and ideas can often be, at least he shows that he has thought a lot about the Basement Tapes and their relationship to American music and culture as whole. Griffin's book on the other hand offers no real insights into the Basement Tapes and just repeats the same cliches about how great the process was, etc. Griffin's guide might provide a handy guide to the songs but it will not satiate one's appetite for what the Basement Tapes represent in a larger sense. For that one will have to turn to Marcus, whose study of the Basement Tapes is well-written and provocative, unlike this book.
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