Tarantula Audiobook By Bob Dylan cover art

Tarantula

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Tarantula

By: Bob Dylan
Narrated by: Will Patton, Dennis Boutsikaris - Preface
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Never before on audio! Music legend Bob Dylan’s only work of fiction - a combination of stream-of-consciousness prose, lyrics, and poetry that illuminates the creative process of one of the most influential musicians and songwriters of our time - finally comes to audio in a magnificent performance by award-winning narrator Will Patton!

Written in 1966, Tarantula is a collection of poems and prose that evokes the turbulence of its time and provides a unique perspective on Bob Dylan’s creative evolution. It captures Dylan at a crucial juncture in his artistic development, showcasing the imagination of a revolutionary musician who was able to combine the humanity and compassion of his folk music roots with the surrealism of modern art and the intensity of the Delta blues. Angry, funny, and elusive, the poems and prose in this collection reflect the concerns found in Dylan’s most seminal music: a sense of protest, verbal ingenuity and spontaneity, and a belief in the artistic legitimacy of chronicling everyday life and the rhythms of the street and in the air.

©1994 ©1966 Bob Dylan. ©1971 The Macmillan Company.
Copyright renewed ©1994 Bob Dylan. All rights reserved.
(P)2019 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved. (P)1994 Simon & Schuster Audio Entertainment & Celebrities Poetry United States World Literature Celebrity Funny
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A fantastic book that stands out as a shining reminder of what it means to be a true musician. This book is relatable and fun. I found this book to further be developmental and maturative to a young man coming of age like myself. I highly recommend this book.

A really great book

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What a trip! I really love this book especially as read by this narrator. He is fantastic. I just finished listening and now I’m going to start it over again. I love Bob Dylan and I loved this book.

The narrator nails it!

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I don't know why I was surprised this was so good! The only thing that could make it better would be a few more hours... A classic!

Should be required reading!

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There was a great rhythm about this book something that you can tap your foot too.

Wildly imaginative 

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Whether or not you like this book will largely have to do with your expectations of what it is. This is a surrealist stream of consciousness work from the mind of Bob Dylan.

It was written during a time when Bob was deep into drug use to both expand his creativity and cope with his grueling tour schedule. If you're interested in a novel, or an organized book of poems, or any sort of coherent reading experience this book probably isn't for you. If you're interested in getting a glimpse into the chaos of the mind of one of America's greatest laureates then this book is worth checking out.

It is fairly short at only 3 hours, and the narration is great because the written form of the book is even more of a challenging undertaking because when Dylan wrote this he sparsely used punctuation, made up a lot of words, and took liberties with spelling.

Overall, it is classic Dylan. Weird, cryptic, disjointed, with streaks of brilliance, and streaks of nonsense for misdirection.

Dylan at his Weirdest

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It’s interesting to hear Dylan working with a different art form. I enjoyed the creativity and uniqueness. The narrator does a phenomenal job.

Dylan’ Poetry w/ a Great Narrator

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Should have listened to this when I was 19, Not 75. Maybe I would have understood and enjoyed back then.

Too Old

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