Greil Marcus' 'Like a Rolling Stone': 'I didn't want it to get away from me'

Rock fan-literary man Greil Marcus tells the SF Chronicle about his new book, a 30-day-wonder: "To me, the song is like an event," he said, "a battle in a war, a natural disaster, a runaway train—something that happens... I wanted this book to be simple, direct, to the degree that I'm capable of that... That's why I wanted to have a single focus. Even when I'm talking about other things, you always know you're going to get back to home, and home base is this song and why is it different, why is it so big? That's the question that's always there. I didn't want there to be any interpretation in the book—what does this mean? Or even new criticism interpretation—how does this mean? I didn't want 'mean' to be in it. I wanted 'happen' to be in it. I wanted the event to be in it. I didn't want to talk about Bob Dylan's significance as an artist in the 20th century or the 21st century. Or his role in the counterculture or anything. I wanted to talk about him as someone struggling with his own work, his own music and getting stuck in it. I wanted this to be a simple story, a small story with a big sound at its heart. And I didn't want it to get away from me." [A nice pic of the man at home.]