Product Description

Out of a house called Big Pink came music that remains as seductive and baffling today as it was over thirty years ago.

‘Marcus’s contention is that there can be found in American folk a community as deep, as electric, as perverse and as conflicted as all America, and that the songs Dylan recorded out of the public eye, in a basement in Woodstock with the group who would later become The Band, are where that community as a whole gets to speak . . . Books this good should be burnt’ Mark Sinker, Wire

‘We owe God a death, and Greil Marcus owed all God’s children a lifework on Bob Dylan. And here it is, one heaven of a book . . . what Marcus brings to these songs is a variety of good things: fierce fervour, social convictions, a loving discrimination, never a touch of envy and an extraordinary ability to evoke in words the very feel (throaty, threatening, thorough, thick with thought) of a man’s voice, of this man’s voice’ Christopher Ricks, Guardian

‘You will want to read its most provoking parts over and over and chances are, twenty years from now, it will stand as one of the classics of American criticism’ Mikal Gilmore, Observer

‘A rare ability to describe the genesis of a song and make it sound better than any song you have ever heard’ Tim Adams, Times Literary Supplement

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #155316 in Books
• Published on: 1998-02-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 9999 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Critic Greil Marcus, author of Dead Elvis, The Dustbin of History and Mystery Train has produced a startling and provocative meditation on one of the great underground classics of American music, the fabled Basement Tapes recorded in the summer of 1967 by Bob Dylan and musicians who would soon be known as The Band. Invisible Republic is not merely the story of the Basement Tapes and their unusual bootleg history, but a critical analysis of the various influences that seem to have led Dylan and his friends into creating this body of work, which is exuberant, haunting and mysterious. Marcus presents a lively and offbeat social history of America while telling the stories of such characters as the eccentric folk song anthologist Harry Smith and a banjo-picking Virginia coal miner named Doc Boggs. Marcus writes with passion, and as he himself says, an "obsession". His analysis of how five men in a basement in 1967 happened to create an alternative folk music for America is not only highly entertaining, but is like a long refreshing dive into a vast lake of American music. --Jake Bond

From the Publisher
Long-awaited book on Dylan's legendary Woodstock recordings
Invisible Republic is Greil Marcus's long-awaited book on the scores of legendary recordings Bob Dylan and the Band made in Woodstock, New York in 1967, in the basement of a house called Big Pink - music that remains as seductive and baffling today as it was thirty years ago. Starting with Dylan's historic rock'n'roll debut at the 1965 Newport Rock Festival and Dylan and the Band's subsequent tour of the US and Britain in 1966, Marcus recreates the outrage provoked by Dylan's supposed betrayal of folk music and folk values, and makes it clear that the Basement Tapes, secret music never intended for release, were Dylan's response. Dylan had described folk music as 'nothing but mystery'; Invisible Republic, moving back into the great, gothic dramas of American traditional music, unfolds as a mystery story, with Dylan himself as the detective. "Books this good should be burnt" Mark Sinker, The Wire

Customer Reviews

Presenting the background of Dylan's music
"Basement Tapes" by Greil Marcus is not a biography about Dylan, it is more. Marcus tries to point out from which background Dylan was inspired. It make it possible to understand Dylan music and lyrics in a way Dylan understand it by himself. Marcus gives the reader the feeling of the time before Dylan entered the stage. "Basement Tapes" is not only a book for Dylan fans. It is a book for those how are interested in the times when music was more than rock, blues or folk. Marcus has the ability not only to present facts rather to describe the feelings, fears and the lifestyle of the musicans which where Dylan's idols. It is definetly one of the best book about Dylan.

A Tape with Roots
"Invisible Republic" is Greil Marcus' study of Bob Dylan and the Band's Basement Tapes, recorded 40 years ago and still largely unreleased. Those selections that have been released include such oft-covered classics as "I Shall be Released", "This Wheel's on Fire", "Quinn the Eskimo( the Mighty Quinn)" and "You Aint goin' Nowhere".
The complete basement tapes, available only on bootleg, comprise over 100 recordings, some covers, most Dylan compositions. In the main body of this book, Marcus is not concerned with a laborious description of the making of each song, he takes a more impressionistic approach, focusing on certain songs to illustrate general points. Songs that are discussed in depth include "Lo and Behold!", "Clothesline Saga", "I'm Not There" and "Tears of Rage".
Almost half of the book is given to describing the folk music that Marcus sees as the roots of the basement tapes. The weirdness and deliberate illogicity of Dylan's lyrics has precedent in 19th and early 20th century folk, a good selection of which was collected on the Harry Smith Anthology in the early 50's. Marcus gives an intereting account of Smith's life; the man was eccentric, to say the least. Marcus also pays particular attention to "The Coo Coo Bird" by Clarence Ashley, as well as the life and music of Dock Boggs.
Though the main body of the book is only 220 pages, this is a wide ranging work, much is omitted so that what is contained gives the most complete feeling of the subject, as opposed to being academic or encyclopedic. This approach works here because Marcus is an excellent writer with a deep appreciation for his subject. On the other hand, there is an complete index of the basement recordings appended to the book, the songs listed in alphabetical order with running times, composer credits, and track listing on "the Genuine Basement Tapes" bootleg, as well as a short note containing information on compositon performance or other interesting facts. Some songs only get a few words; "Santa Fe" is unfairly dismissed in two: "A riff"
Overall, an excellent companion to the great music of the Basement Tapes, unorthodox in structure but very well-written and a compelling read.