Our February 2025 book-of-the-month is Blood on the Tracks: Dylan’s Masterpiece in Blue by Jochen Markhorst. Our meeting host is Book Club Member Brian Walsh. Brian also serves as one of the Bob Dylan Book Club Advisors (with Christopher Vanni and Roberta Rakove—if you are interested in helping as an advisor, let me know (use the “Email Us!” button in the top banner)). We chose this book because 2025 is the 50th anniversary year of this album—Blood on the Tracks was released on January 20, 1975. The selection also connects to our December 2024 book selection, Bob Dylan in Minnesota, owing to the decision by Dylan to rerecord 5 of the album’s 10 tracks in Minnesota (see an overview HERE). Our February meeting is a good excuse to review The Bootleg Series Vol. 14: More Blood, More Tracks, released on November 2, 2018 (there is a one disk and a six disk edition)—see Wikipedia for track listings and other notes. .

There is a second reason that our February 2025 book selection is of note: the author Jochen Markhorst has become a prolific Dylan author, with, by my count 18 books, each one a deep dive and mediation on an album or a song. Craig Danuloff of Dylan.FM has said that Markhorst’s books are like having a “recorded tour guide” at an art museum.
Blood on the Tracks: Dylan’s Masterpiece in Blue. (2020)
Blonde on Blonde: Bob Dylan’s Mercurial Masterpiece. (2020)
Where Are You Tonight? Bob Dylan’s Hused-up Classic from 1978.  (2020)
Desolation Row: Bob Dylan’s Poetic Letter from 1965. (2020)
Basement Tapes: Bob Dylan’s Summer of 1967. (2020)
Mississippi: Bob Dylan’s Midlife Masterpiece. (2020)
Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits. (2021)
John Wesley Harding: Bob Dylan Meets Kafka in Nashville. (2020)
Tombstone Blues b/w Jet Pilot: Dylan Lookin’ for the Fuse. (2021)
Street-Legal: Bob Dylan’s Unpolished Gem from 1978. (2021)
Bringing It All Back Home: Bob Dylan’s 2nd Big Bang. (2021)
Time Out of Mind: The Rising of an Old Master. (2022)
Crossing the Rubicon: Dylan’s Latter Day Classic. (2022)
Nashville Skyline: Bob Dylan’s Other Type of Music. (2023)
I Contain Multitudes: Bob Dylan’s Account of the Long Strange Trip. (2023)
Bob Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways – Side B. (2023)
Bob Dylan’s 1971.
Bob Dylan’s High Water (for Charlie Patton)

—Peter White, January 2025

Jochen Markhorst lives and work as a professor in the Netherlands.
An academic profile of Markhorst and additional writings on Dylan’s songs, HERE.
Markhorst speaking on Cold Irons Found, HERE.
The Joy of Being a Dylan Writer on the Untold Dylan Website, HERE.

Brian Walsh writes: It's alright Ma...I'm only buying another Dylan book! I have been listening to Dylan since I was a teen. As I get older the Dylan world continues to open up further. It seems endless. My Dylan explorations started with his music from early 60s, then jumped to the late 90s and 2000s, then black to the 70s, and early 80s. RARW stopped me in tracks and I’ve been listening to all the podcasts and bootlegs ever since.