Bob Dylan Shades Joe Satriani in His New Book

Bob Dylan just released his new book The Philosophy of Modern Song. The book contains 60 essays and breakdowns of 60 different songs. The book also contains several pointed comments aimed at various musicians. One of them happens to be guitarist Joe Satriani.

Rolling Stone shared a brief excerpt from Dylan’s book that features the dig at Satriani. In the book’s chapter about Hank Williams’ “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” Dylan writes, “Each phrase goes hand in hand with the voice…If Hank was to sing this song and you had somebody like Joe Satriani playing the answer licks to the vocal, like they do in a lot of blues bands, it just wouldn’t work and would be a waste of a great song.”

Rolling Stone ended up reaching out to Satriani for comments. The guitarist seemed thrilled about how “Bob Dylan knows my name.” However, he responds to his criticism by saying, “I think the great Hank Williams and I could have sorted things out and made some great music together”.

Satriani was seemingly mentioned at random, but one musician that was both praised and criticized was Elvis Costello. One of the chapters in the book highlights is Costello’s “Pump It Up.” Dylan refers to the track as “among his very best.” At the same time, he wrote Costello “obviously had been listening to Springsteen too much” when he recorded it.

So, what did we learn today? Bob Dylan is such a warm, cuddly teddy bear, isn’t he?

Bob Dylan: The Best Versions Of His 80 Best Songs

Bob Dylan: his voice isn’t for everyone, but you can’t deny his songwriting ability. In his six decades of making music, he’s been covered by a huge range of artists, including Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Vedder, Stevie Wonder, Heart with Layne Staley, U2, Elvis Presley, Tim Armstrong of Rancid, Silversun Pickups, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and many more. There’s a reason why he recently sold his music publishing for a rumored nine-figure deal.

With that in mind, we thought we’d celebrate his birthday with a list of the best versions of his 80 best songs. So, it’s a mix Dylan’s versions, and a few of his live performances as well and lots of covers by the aforementioned artists.

And yes, we know that some Dylanologists will be mad that some of the “classics” are missing (we just don’t love “Just Like A Woman” or “Mr. Tamborine Man” as much as everyone else). We love some of the material from the second half of his career as much as the music from his more celebrated first half. We love the covers, and we gave them extra points in some cases for introducing his music to younger generations. And with that, let’s start with number eighty.