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A new book collecting every lyric Bob Dylan has ever devised is set for release in November and special editions will cost over £3000.
As reported by The New York Times, The Lyrics: Since 1962 is a 960 page behemoth that weighs 14 pounds and contains every Dylan song, including tracks from official LPs and the Bootleg series. It also contains all the multiple variations of the tracks that Dylan has recorded over his career.
Simon & Schuster president Jonathan Karp described the release as “the biggest, and most expensive book we’ve ever published.” Signed limited edition versions will be on sale for £3086, although there is also a more affordable version at £123 (and an even cheaper option on Kindle for £22.07). Only 500 copies of The Lyrics will be available in the UK and only 50 copies of the signed edition will be available worldwide.
The book has been compiled English literary critic Christopher Ricks, who also wrote Dylan’s Visions of Sin in 2003. Ricks says of his subject: “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.”
A huge amount of attention has gone into the precise layout of the track. As reported by Rolling Stone, the layout attempts to reflect how Dylan originally intended the lyrics to be delivered.
Ricks explained that the book "is, in a way, a work of scholarship. But it is also a book for people who love these songs, and who would be grateful to be reminded that these songs are always in a state of extraordinary flux. They’re amazing, shape-changing things.”
When asked about Dylan's own involvement in the project Karp said somewhat mysteriously, “I think the right thing for us is not to go into the question of the particular kinds of help and assistance and advice that we were in a position to receive.”
Bob Dylan's The Basement Tapes Raw: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 is set for release on 3 November.
