First day of Wimbledon fortnight. Naturally the opening match, featuring reigning champion Roger Federer, was rained off after just 35 minutes of play. Meanwhile good reviews for the book lately in the Village Voice and Publishers Weekly; no stinkers yet. Three enthusiastic punter-reviews on Amazon.com, though I preferred it when there were only two. The third, though well-intended, suggests that the book assumes much pre-knowledge of Dylan's work, which I don't think is true, and also picks out, with some relish, what is taken to be an attack on one of the other 'Dylan writers' - and I don't think it is an attack. The entry in question pays strong tribute to that writer's achievements in Dylan studies.

It isn't the first time that "controversial" opinions expressed in the Encyclopedia have been highlighted (highlit?) - and while I can't deny that not everyone is held up for indiscriminate approbation, on the whole this is definitely a book full of enthusiasms, and as other authors before me have often noted, the only way to avoid offending people with your "controversial" arguments is to be sure you don't say anything. That's just not me. I hope.

Update: a 4th punter-review appeared on Amazon.com within five minutes of publishing this morning's blog.

Strange fact: On his 8th XM Radio show, on Marriage, Bob got one of the artists' names wrong. 'The Man Who Wrote Home Sweet Home Never Was A Married Man', as played towards the end of the show, is not by the great Charlie Poole but by Charlie Parker & Mark Woolbright, recorded in Atlanta in November 1927. This is the only pre-war recording known to exist. And it's Woolbright on that banjo.