when i first heard of this book about a month ago, i knew i had to get it quick. i finished half of it the first night i had it, and was done with it by the end of the next night. but as soon as i was done i knew that it deserved at least one more go through before putting down my thoughts.

it was initially described to me as bob writing essays on 66 songs that have influenced him. i can say that it is that, but quite a bit more. he never speaks about himself or his music here, and at no point is there a discussion as to what the criteria are for the selections. it just goes head first into the first one, and never stops. they vary in length between just a few paragraphs to some that are 5-6 pages. and although there is not a consistent format to each one, there are a few themes. he will always list the song and the artist who is singing it, and the year it was released. from there he may comment on the writer(s), the artist (if different), the song subject, the history of the song, and anything else he feels might color the picture a little better. he also starts off quite a few of them by riffing in only the way he can, creating stream of consciousness manifestos on the characters or subjects of the song at hand. less occasionally, he will use the song or artist as a jumping off point to go into forays about the state of our world today, be it consumerism, war, drugs, media bias or divorce lawyers.

but all of that is just window dressing to what this book is all about – bob paying homage to the art and craft of songwriting. he started writing this in 2010, and i am guessing that he came back to a few of these a few times. when at his best, he points out things to you about the song or performance that you might not hear after listening a few times. a vocal phrasing, an unorthodox arrangement that somehow works, a crucial rhythm guitar part. a lyric that says just enough, or a phrase that could be taken multiple ways, or maybe one that keeps you guessing.

the songwriters and artists are all over the map here, from hank williams to the clash, from elvis presley to elvis costello, johnny cash to bobby darin. he dips into many genres, including country, blues, rock, soul, r&b and jazz.

the second time through the book i took more time to digest it, and then started doing something i had considered doing the first time through – getting off the couch and finding some of these songs that i had not heard before. or, if i did know the song, going back to it after bob points out something that had escaped me. i thought i knew the song ‘pancho and lefty’ pretty well, having at least 4-5 versions in my collection, including the original one by townes van zandt himself. bob touches on townes’ early tragic history, and speculates as to if that is what made him the writer that he was. he then spends some time on the willie nelson/merle haggard version of the song, and then delves into the two characters and fleshes out his vision of what really happened in that story. i will not hear that song the same again.

i expect that i will spend some portion of this winter doing some version of the above – picking the book up off of the table in the man cave, finding a chapter that speaks to me, and then finding the song on youtube and doing a deep dive into it.

and i think that is what bob would have wanted.