 First edition | |
| Author | Greil Marcus |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Bob Dylan,The Basement Tapes,Anthology of American Folk Music |
| Genre | Non-fiction,Music history |
| Publisher | Henry Holt and Company |
Publication date | 1997 (Revised 2001) |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| Pages | 286 |
| ISBN | 0805033939 |
Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes (1997) is a book bymusic criticGreil Marcus (born 1945) about the creation and cultural importance ofThe Basement Tapes, a series of recordings made byBob Dylan in 1967 in collaboration with the Hawks, who would subsequently become known asthe Band.
In 2001,Picador reissued the book under the titleThe Old, Weird America, a term coined by Marcus to describe the often eeriecountry,blues, andfolk music featured on the 1952Anthology of American Folk Music. In his opinion, the sensibility ofAnthology is reflected by theBasement Tapes recordings. The term has been revived via themusical genre calledNew Weird America.
Marcus quotesRobbie Robertson’s memories of recording theBasement Tapes: "[Dylan] would pull these songs out of nowhere. We didn't know if he wrote them or if he remembered them. When he sang them, you couldn't tell."[1] Marcus called these songs "palavers with a community of ghosts."[2] He suggests that "these ghosts were not abstractions. As native sons and daughters they were a community. And they were once gathered in a single place: on theAnthology of American Folk Music, a work produced by a 29-year-old ofno fixed address namedHarry Smith."[3] Marcus argues Dylan's basement songs were a resurrection of the spirit ofAnthology, originally published byFolkways Records in 1952, a collection of blues and country songs recorded in the 1920s and 1930s, which proved very influential in the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s.Anthology, initially titledAmerican Folk Music, was reissued bySmithsonian Folkways as abox set ofcompact disc in the same year as the book's publication, with portions of the book excerpted asliner notes.
Marcus links theFirst Great Awakening, the folk music revival of the 1950s, theCivil Rights Movement and theBattle of Matewan inWest Virginia with Bob Dylan's 1966 tour with the Hawks.
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