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Key developments
Old 97’s Dylan adaptation approval is reported
In a Bookforum review dated June 21, Rhett Miller writes that he recently received word through management that Bob Dylan agreed to let Old 97’s release “Champaign, Illinois,” Miller’s updated version of “Desolation Row,” on an upcoming album. The disclosure appears inside Miller’s review of Sean Wilentz’s Bob Dylan in America and is framed alongside discussion of Dylan, borrowing, originality, and plagiarism claims.
Why it matters
It is the only concrete rights-related Dylan development in today’s material and speaks directly to how Dylan’s catalog is being adapted by contemporary songwriters.
Sources & driving stories
BOOKFORUM · Rhett Miller
Bookforum coverageBookforum reassesses Wilentz’s Dylan historical portrait
Bookforum’s June 21 piece reviews Sean Wilentz’s Bob Dylan in America, a 400-page Doubleday study placing Dylan’s work within twentieth-century American cultural and political currents. Miller praises Wilentz’s eyewitness accounts of Dylan at Philharmonic Hall in 1964, the Rolling Thunder Revue in New Haven in 1975, and Newport in 2002, while calling the Blonde on Blonde material the book’s peak. He criticizes later sections as weighed down by digressions, including a long chapter on Blind Willie McTell.
Why it matters
The review adds critical context rather than breaking news, but it highlights how Dylan’s work continues to be interpreted through American history and debates over originality.
Sources & driving stories
BOOKFORUM · Rhett Miller
Bookforum coverageWorth noting
WORTH NOTING
Attwood analyzes Jimmy Webb through Dylan
Tony Attwood’s June 21 post uses Dylan’s The Philosophy of Modern Song to examine Jimmy Webb’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” emphasizing its three-verse structure, melodic variation, and breakup narrative.
WORTH NOTING
Dylan favorite-song quotes recirculate
Rafael Polcaro’s Rock and Roll Garage article revisits Dylan’s past remarks naming “Love Sick” and “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” among his strongest songs, but the item is largely archival rather than newly reported Dylan activity.
Still unclear
OPEN QUESTION
Is today’s Dylan signal mostly archival?
The strongest items are reviews, essays, and quote roundups, with little evidence of new touring, recording, legal, or release activity.
OPEN QUESTION
Will more Dylan lyric adaptations surface?
Miller’s reported permission for Old 97’s raises the practical question of whether Dylan’s camp is open to additional sanctioned reinterpretations.