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Rating: 
Summary: Turgid Flapdoodle
Review: A book on the legendary Basement Tapes by a notorious pop cult guru? Sounds promising. Unfortunately, Marcus's INVISIBLE REPUBLIC is mandarin gibberish, the work of an enormously overrated writer engaged in the kind of pseudo-intellectual wanking that's actually embarrassing to read. Marcus's problem is that he thinks he's Wittgenstein on acid when he's really just a journalistic Elmer Fudd hyped up on double latte--a boring narcissist with a penchant for turgid prose. Don't subsidize this guy; he doesn't deserve it. There's good criticism on Dylan out there; don't waste your time reading this drivel.
Rating: 
Summary: You should already know about Bob Dylan.
Review: I bought and read Invisible Republic with absolutely no knowledge of Bob Dylan. I love the sarcastic yet reflective tone Marcus uses in the book; however, he expects the reader to know all about the songs on the Basement Tapes beforehand. Marcus makes references to many of Dylan's songs in order to clarify some of his points, but these references mean little to someone who has never heard of these songs. Anyone who already knows about Bob Dylan (and/or the Anthology of American Folk Music) would probably enjoy Invisible Republic. A clueless person like me should not bother to read it.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best books on Dylan and American music
Review: I don't understand some of the other customer reviews of this book. Were the basement tapes created in a vacuum, or were the ghosts of American folk music floating around that basement in Big Pink ? And could this book be more timely with the epochal Smithsonian 1997 re-release of the Harry Smith Anthology ? This is exactly the book I wanted and Marcus was the only one who could do it. Admittedly some of the ideas are far-ranging, perhaps far-fetched, but we have to give the creative critic the same artistic license we give the artist. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't but when it does it gives you a lot to think about and really helps to place Dylan within the context of the history of American music. And even since Dylan turned his back on the folk movement you can still hear echoes to this day of the influence of the Smith Anthology in his music. The way he absorbed it and reconfigured the songs (which are essentially the canon of American folk music)for his own purposes throughout his career, particularly during the making the tapes which may be his finest work, are key to understanding the timeless quality of his music. And how about that bravura opening section, the best description I've read of what was at stake during the first electric tour with The Band ?
Rating:
Summary: Silly !
Review: I know this book revolves around an abstract idea linking Bob Dylan`s basement tapes to an old , lost America ( the invisible Republic ) , but , oh dear , where do I begin ?" Invisible Republic " is one of the worst books I`ve ever read , I just hope people don`t take Greil Marcus`s ludicrous theory on the basement tapes to be gospel ( no pun intended ) . This is a classic case of an author`s ego winning out to common sense . It`s hard enough to read a book , if you`ve lost all faith in the author`s integrity , thanks to the laughably tenuous links that he uses to back up his theory , but when you have to wade through reams of portentious , almost unreadable prose , to reach the same conclusion , it`s almost torture . This book is full of pretensious , self-indulgent nonsense that only very gullible people could believe , but I suppose any Bob Dylan book sells , and Greil Marcus is fully aware of this .
Rating:
Summary: Silly !
Review: I know this book revolves around an abstract idea linking Bob Dylan`s basement tapes to an old , lost America ( the invisible Republic ) , but , oh dear , where do I begin ? " Invisible Republic " is one of the worst books I`ve ever read , I just hope people don`t take Greil Marcus`s ludicrous theory on the basement tapes to be gospel ( no pun intended ) . This is a classic case of an author`s ego winning out to common sense . It`s hard enough to read a book , if you`ve lost all faith in the author`s integrity , thanks to the laughably tenuous links that he uses to back up his theory , but when you have to wade through reams of portentious , almost unreadable prose , to reach the same conclusion , it`s almost torture . This book is full of pretensious , self-indulgent nonsense that only very gullible people could believe , but I suppose any Bob Dylan book sells , and Greil Marcus is fully aware of this .
Rating: 
Summary: Pompous
Review: I think the people who are complaining that they are not getting a conventional song by song disection of the tapes here are missing out on the much richer and insightful text that we do have. The greatest understanding of the Basement Tapes comes i think comes out of an explanation of their context. In this fashion, rather than providing a staid run-of-the-mill anaylsis of this collection of songs, Marcus aims, and is able to push them gently into the light. This also leaves room for the reader to make up his or her own mind about the music to a degree. By the way there are some great interpretations of some of the songs; i enjoyed the segements which discussed 'Tears Of Rage', and 'Lo and Behold!'.
Rating:
Summary: Not just music, not just history
Review: Not just music, not just history, Invisible Republic, like Mr. Marcus' classic Mystery Train,explores the secret history of America. It's not the history of facts, or even Dylan and the Band's Basement Tapes, but the history of America's spirit. He writes of characters real and fictional whose lives embody the American journey. Hope, desperation, dreams, doom -- he makes these abstractions concrete through the lives of these people. Even Bob Dylan the man is not as important as what Dylan and the Band created the songs they wrote and the songs they chose -- an "Invisible Republic" that is home to the individuals of history we never hear about, the everymen and women. In addition, Marcus "rediscovers" the true folk artists who inspired everyone from Dylan to Judy Collins and Pete Seeger. These original artists carried on the last oral tradition in America, focusing on the not-so-pretty elements of rural American life -- violence, coupled with a damn good time. Greil Marcus has an insight into what makes America really function (and dysfuction), that the great artists have. He writes with the voice and passion of a fiction writer, funny, sad, and true
Rating:
Summary: If only the sub-title (and the author) were accurate
Review: Perhaps I began this book with too high a set of expectations; like, for example, it would actually focus on Bob Dylan's (and The Band's) Basement Tapes. The set piece that opens the book--a brilliant recapturing of the infamous 1966 Albert Hall concert--plays to Marcus' strength as an evoker of places and atmospheres, and includes some incredible quotes from the protagonists. And even though this chapter is too brief to be thorough, it's the best thing in the book, because in setting up the context for The Basement Tapes, it delivers something close to the advertised product. But it's all down hill from there, because Dylan, The Band, the tapes all dissappear into the shadows. They end up becoming just another facet, rather than the focus of the book. There's a lengthy chapter on Harry Smith's "Anthology of American Folk Music" and Marcus' woefully insubstantial literary analysis of a handful of "Tapes" songs that tell us more about the workings(?) of Marcus' mind than of the music. After all, how much can lyrics like "Ooh baby/ooh wee/it's that million dollar bash" really be explicated? The answer found in this book is: far too much. If this had indeed been a book about Dylan, about the months he and The Band spent in Woodstock NY, about the process of making music--specificaly the music the book claims it will be about (and The Basement Tapes, as eventually distributed by Columbia are important enough to enough people to merit such consideration)--about the atmosphere and events surrounding the music, this would have been a much more enlightening read. I wanted to see Marcus do for the making of the tapes what he does so well for the Albert Hall concert--make me feel like I'm there. But Marcus' context overwhelms his alleged focus to the point that the title and the jacket are essentially false advertisements. Dylan fans: caveat emptor.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books on Dylan and American music
Review: Unhand Bob Dylan from your endless historicism, sir scholarship, the muse of Bob Dylan does not need to be reduced to the moral and fables of US history. Think rather of empire, of "empire burlesque," and the poetic syntax of a mind resisting US imperialism and the stranglehold of capitalism upon the soul. Think poetry, and the Jeremiah in the wilderness; not the son of Woody Guthrie, was this Bob, but the offspring of David and the sacred heart, "walking between the two deserts, singing." Your endless reach to historicism drowns out the lyrics and would do better on the Berkeley campus where you do in Dwinelle Hall belong. (But your love for the man, yes, is very very real, and the writing keeps on saying the same things. Please write on Van Morrison and "the invisible republic" of Irish lyricism across the Atlantic and the Pacific and the moon.) "Mutual forgiveness is the path to Eternity" (William Blake, or was it Bob Dylan?)
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