Bob Dylan, Performing Artist is a series of three books

Book series

A book series is a sequence of books having certain characteristics in common that are formally identified together as a group. Book series can be organized in different ways, such as written by the same author, or marketed as a group by their publisher....

 written by music critic Paul Williams

Paul Williams (Crawdaddy! creator)

Paul Williams is an American music journalist and writer. Williams created the first national US magazine of rock music criticism :Crawdaddy! in January 1966 on the campus of Swarthmore College with the help of some of his fellow science fiction fans...

 concerning the music of American singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

. Unlike many other books about Dylan, these are not biographical but focus primarily on the performances delivered at various concerts over a period of almost forty years. The performances Williams analyzes were either personally attended or reviewed from audio-tapes (and sometimes from videotapes). In an interview published in Isis magazine's August 1990 issue, Williams told interviewer Derek Barker, "I didn't want to write about the person, I wanted to write about what this person has created, his art, his music." Bob Dylan, Performing Artist is considered one of the leading critical analyses of Dylan's songs and performances.

The Early Years (1960-1973)

The first volume of the Performing Artist series, which covers the years 1960 through 1973, also recounts Dylan's childhood from his birth in May 1941 to August 1959. Early Years ends in December 1973 with Williams' review of the album Planet Waves

Planet Waves

Planet Waves is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 14th studio album, released by Asylum Records in January 1974....

.

The Middle Years (1974-1986)

Middle Years is the second book of the series, covering from January 1974 to September 1986 and ending with a review of the album Knocked Out Loaded

Knocked Out Loaded

Knocked Out Loaded is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 24th studio album, released by Columbia Records in July 1986.The album was received poorly upon release, and is still considered by some critics to be one of Dylan's least-engaging efforts...

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Mind Out Of Time (1986-1990 & beyond)

The last of the three volumes spans from September 1986 through September 1990. As the word "beyond" in the title implies, Mind Out Of Time includes two reviews by Williams of albums recorded after 1990, Time Out Of Mind

Time out of Mind

Time Out of Mind is the 30th studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on September 30, 1997 on Columbia Records. It is his first double studio album since 1970's Self Portrait...

(1997) and Love and Theft (2001). The reviews were previously published in the magazine Crawdaddy!

Crawdaddy!

Crawdaddy! was the first U.S. magazine of rock and roll music criticism. Created in 1966 by college student Paul Williams in response to the increasing sophistication and cultural influence of popular music, Crawdaddy! was self-described as "the first magazine to take rock and roll...

. Williams does not provide an explanation for omitting reviews of other post-1990 albums such as Good as I Been to You

Good as I Been to You

Good as I Been to You is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 28th studio album, released by Columbia Records in November 1992.It is composed entirely of traditional folk songs and covers, and is Dylan's first entirely solo, acoustic album since Another Side of Bob Dylan in 1964...

and World Gone Wrong

World Gone Wrong

World Gone Wrong is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 29th studio album, released by Columbia Records in October 1993.It was Dylan's second consecutive collection of only traditional folk songs, performed acoustically with guitar and harmonica...

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Reception

All three volumes of Performing Artist were widely acclaimed by critics. Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

magazine described the series as "Substantial, compelling...a voyage of rediscovery." American poet Allen Ginsberg

Allen Ginsberg

Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...

commented, "Paul Williams historicizes Dylan's genius of American tongue."