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?
