Hard Rain : by Tim Riley (Alfred A. Knopf)

Hard Rain : by Tim Riley Alfred A. Knopf $23 Reviewed by Peter Stone Brown

Tim Riley starts this book, (subtitled "A Dylan Commentary") with such a rush of words -- much like his subject -- describing the layers of meaning Dylan's voice gives to his songs that I had high hopes for it. But the book is riddled with errors in fact, history, spelling and hearing. Wrong facts are quite common in books on rock 'n' roll (with the possible exception of those by Peter Guralnick). Whenever I see a factual error, I wonder what else the author got wrong? More disturbing is that some unsuspecting soul will read it and think it's the truth.

Hard Rain is an up-to-date analysis of Dylan's songs, albums and films and concerts (though Riley apparently has seen few of those). He cites Dylan's obvious influences, Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams, and randomly assigns others such as blues singer and guitarist, Brownie McGhee. I have no doubt that Dylan listened to Brownie McGhee but it was his long-time part…