Yep, it's the lyrics. Just like it says in the title. ( )

How you respond to a book like this depends entirely on what the songs and the music means or meant to you.
It's either just a reference book or it's highly evocative, like the sense of smell.

This is the soundtrack of my life written down.
Poignant.

Ah, but you can never go back.

An indispensable book.
Or not. ( )

I came across this old volume of Bob Dylan’s lyrics from his albums over the years 1962-1985 recently. It’s a nice tribute to the breadth of the man’s work, and some of his songs have certainly meant a lot to me over the years, but even at the time this book seemed like just a reference, and with the Internet (e.g. http://www.bobdylan.com/songs), reference books have gone the way of the dinosaur.

There are some of Dylan’s doodles and sketches in here but nothing that will make you stop and pause too long. The most interesting thing to me is the typewritten draft of Subterranean Homesick Blues, filled with edits and portions of lines X’d out, along with a couple of half-circular coffee cup stains.

Two stars for the book’s relevance, four+ stars for Bob Dylan’s music … I cringe a little in doing this, but only give the lyric book itself three stars. Dylan fans please don’t flame me. ( )