The Philosophy of Modern Song is Bob Dylan's first book of new writing since 2004's Chronicles: Volume One and since winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. Dylan, who began working on the book in 2010, offers a master class on the art and craft of songwriting. He writes over sixty essays focusing on songs by other artists, spanning from Stephen Foster to Elvis Costello, and in between ranging from Hank Williams to Nina Simone. He analyzes what he calls the trap of easy rhymes, breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song, and even explains how bluegrass relates to heavy metal. These essays are written in Dylan's unique prose. They are mysterious and mercurial, poignant and profound, and often laugh-out-loud funny. And while they are ostensibly about music, they are really meditations and reflections on the human condition. Running throughout the book are nearly 150 carefully curated photos as well as a series of dream-like riffs that, taken together, resemble an epic poem and add to the work's transcendence. In 2020, with the release of his outstanding album Rough and Rowdy Ways, Dylan became the first artist to have an album hit the Billboard Top 40 in each decade since the 1960s. The Philosophy of Modern Song contains much of what he has learned about his craft in all those years, and like everything that Dylan does, it is a momentous artistic achievement.

Detroit City / Bobby Bare -- Pump it up / Elvis Costello -- Without a song / Perry Como -- Take me from this garden of evil / Jimmy Wages -- There stands the glass / Webb Pierce -- Willy the wondering gypsy and me / Billy Joe Shaver -- Tutti frutti / Little Richard -- Money honey / Elvis Presley -- My generation / The Who -- Jesse James / Harry McClintock -- Poor little fool / Ricky Nelson -- Pancho and Lefty / Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard -- The Pretender / Jackson Browne -- Mack the Knife / Bobby Darin -- Whiffenpoof song / Bing Crosby -- You don't know me / Eddy Arnold -- Ball of confusion / The Temptations -- Poison love / Johnnie and Jack -- Beyond the sea / Bobby Darin -- On the road again / Willie Nelson -- If you don't know me by now / Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes -- The little white cloud that cried / Johnnie Ray -- El Paso / Marty Robbins -- Nelly was a lady / Alvin Youngblood Hart -- Cheaper to keep her / Johnnie Taylor -- I got a woman / Ray Charles -- CIA Man / The Fugs -- On the street where you live / Vic Damone -- Truckin' / The Grateful Dead -- Ruby, are you mad? / Osborne Brothers -- Old violin / Johnny Paycheck -- Volare / Domenico Modugno -- London calling / The Clash -- Your cheatin' heart / Hank Williams with his Drifting Cowboys -- Blue Bayou / Roy Orbison -- Midnight rider / The Allman Brothers -- Blue suede shoes / Carl Perkins -- My prayer / The Platters -- Dirty life and times / Warren Zevon -- Doesn't hurt anymore / John Trudell -- Key to the highway / Little Walter -- Everybody cryin' mercy / Mose Allison -- War / Edwin Starr -- Big River / Johnny Cash and The Tennessee Two -- Feel so good / Sonny Burgess -- Blue moon / Dean Martin -- Gypsies, tramps & thieves / Cher -- Keep my skillet good and greasy / Uncle Dave Macon -- It's all in the game / Tommy Edwards -- A certain girl / Ernie K-Doe -- I've always been crazy / Waylon Jennings -- Witchy woman / Eagles -- Big boss man / Jimmy Reed -- Long Tall Sally / Little Richard -- Old and only in the way / Charlie Poole -- Black Magic Woman / Santana -- By the time I get to Phoenix / Jimmy Webb -- Come on-a my house / Rosemary Clooney -- Don't take your guns to town / Johnny Cash -- Come rain or come shine / Judy Garland -- Don't let me be misunderstood / Nina Simone -- Strangers in the night / Frank Sinatra -- Viva Las Vegas / Elvis Presley -- Saturday night at the movies / The Drifters -- Waist deep in the Big Muddy / Pete Seeger -- Where or when / Dion.