The evergreen classic, which is in fact titled ‘Nel blu dipinto di blu’ and won song of year at the 1959 Grammies, appears in the list of songs including classics by Jimmy Reed, Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, Little Richard, and Townes Van Zandt. Also featured are Cher’s ‘Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves, the Eagles’ ‘Witchy Woman’, The Fugs’ ‘CIA Man’ and Rosemary Clooney’s ‘Come On-a My House’, Variety reported over the weekend.
It is not yet clear whether Dylan will analyse the original written by Modugno and Franco Migliacci, which won the 1958 Sanremo Song Festival, performed in a duet with Johnny Dorelli, or one of the countless covers, including Dean Martin’s, or the rumba-flamenco version by the Gypsy Kings from 1989.
This will be first book published by the music legend, Pulitzer poetry prize winner and Nobel literature prize winner since 2004’s Chronicles, Volume One. Dylan, 81, started writing it in 2010.
“It’s a class for perfecting the art and technique of song writing,” Simon and Schuster announced in March.
Dylan examines what he himself calls the “trap of easy rhymes”, analyses how the addition of a single syllable can lessen a song, and explains how bluegrass is a relative of heavy metal.
“The reflections are a meditation on the human condition,” said the publishing house. The oldest piece on the list is ‘Rudy Was a Lady’ by Stephen Foster (1849), followed by ‘The Whiffenpoof Song’, which came out in the early 20th century.
Blues, R&B and hillbilly songs of the first half of the century have their place, but the lion’s share is reserved for songs between the 1950s and 70s, the golden era of rock, pop, soul and country.
Domenico Modugno. (Photo: ANSA)
Excursions into punk/New Wave are not lacking, such as Elvis Costello’s ‘Pump it Up’ and ‘London Calling’ by the Clash.
The most recent pieces are ‘It Doesn’t Hurt Anymore’, recorded in 1989 by Regina Belle, and ‘Dirty Life and Times’ by Warren Zevon from 2003.
Throughout his long and illustrious career that began in the early 60s, Dylan has sold over 125 million records worldwide, the latest of which being 2020’s ‘Rough and Rowdy Ways’.
