The Lyrics: 1961-2012

For the first time, a comprehensive, definitive collection of lyrics of music legend, poet and Nobel laureate Bob Dylan, complete with expert annotations. A major publishing event - a beautiful, comprehensive collection of the lyrics of Bob Dylan with artwork from thirty-three albums, edited and with an introduction by Christopher Ricks. As it was well put by Al Kooper (the man behind the organ on ´Like a Rolling Stone´), ´Bob is the equivalent of William Shakespeare. What Shakespeare did in his time, Bob does in his time.´ Christopher Ricks, editor of T. S. Eliot, Samuel Beckett, Tennyson, and The Oxford Book of English Verse, has no argument with Mr. Kooper´s assessment, and Dylan is attended to accordingly in this authoritative edition of his lyrics. In the words of Ricks: ´For fifty years, all the world has delighted in Bob Dylan´s books of words and more than words: provocative, mysterious, touching, baffling, not-to-be-pinned-down, intriguing, and a reminder that genius is free to do as it chooses. And, again and again, these are not the words that he sings on the initially released albums.´ This edition changes things, giving us the words from officially released studio and live recordings, as well as selected variant lyrics and revisions to these, recent revisions and retrospective ones; and, from the archives, words that, till now, have not been published.