Tarantula (book)
| Tarantula | |
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| Author(s) | Bob Dylan |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel, Experimental fiction |
| Publisher | Macmillan & Scribner |
| Publication date | 1971 (unofficially available from 1966) |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 137 pp (hardback edition) & 149 pp (paperback edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-261-63337-6 (hardback edition) & ISBN 0-7432-3041-8 (paperback edition) |
| OCLC Number | 185660501 |
| Followed by | Writings and Drawings |
Tarantula is an experimental novel by Bob Dylan, written between 1965 and 1966. It employs stream of consciousness writing, somewhat in the style of Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg. One section of the book parodies the Leadbelly song "Black Betty".[citation needed] Reviews of the book liken it to his self-penned liner notes to two of his albums recorded around the same time, Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited.
Dylan would later cite Tarantula as a book he had never fully signed up to write: "Things were running wild at that point. It never was my intention to write a book."[1] He went on to equate the book to John Lennon's nonsensical work In His Own Write, and implied that his former manager Albert Grossman signed up Dylan to write the novel without the singer's full consent.[1]
Although it was to be edited by Dylan and published in 1966, his motorcycle accident in July '66 prevented this. The first 50 copies were printed on A4 paper by the Albion underground press of San Francisco in mid-1965. The type-written pages were bound in yellow paper with a large red Tarantula pictured on the front.[citation needed] Numerous bootleg versions of the book were available on the black market through 1971, when it was officially published to critical scorn. In 2003 Spin magazine did an article called the "Top Five Unintelligible Sentences From Books Written by Rock Stars." Dylan came in first place with this line from Tarantula, "Now's not the time to get silly, so wear your big boots and jump on the garbage clowns." In the early 21st century, Tarantula was re-released in English and translated into Portuguese[citation needed], French,[2] Croatian and Czech, perhaps to cash in on the success of Dylan's much more highly praised second book Chronicles: Volume One.
[edit] References
- ^ a b ExpectingRain.com article: "Bob Dylan's 2001 Rome Interview transcription".
- ^ Olson, John, "Dylan Goes Magenta"
[edit] Further reading
- Spitzer, Mark, "Bob Dylan's Tarantula: An Arctic Reserve of Untapped Glimmerance Dismissed in a Ratland of Clichés", Jack magazine, v.2 no.3
- Tarantula: The Falcon's Mouthbook - Robin Witting - Exploding Rooster Books
- The Cracked Bells: A Guide to Tarantula - Robin Witting - Exploding Rooster Books
- The Meaning of an Orange - Robin Witting - Exploding Rooster Books
- Humanity in the Gang Bang Mood: A Celebration of Chaos - Robin Witting - The Bridge 2009
- He Was Propped in the Crutch of an Oak Tree Looking Down - Robin Witting - Isis Magazine 2009
- Tarantula: Un-American Activities - Robin Witting - Isis Magazine
[edit] External links
- Tarantula preview at Google Books
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