It might be fun to watch some of these big-time rock critics take each other on in a creamed-corn wrestling match. Some of them have such bile and bitterness that it might be nice to see them exorcise their anger in a tub of gooey vegetable product.

And what makes them so angry? Why, each other, of course.

British rock critic / historian Clinton Heylin has always been amusing because of the jabs he takes at other rock writers in his books. Mention Heylin’s name in the presence of Springsteen’s Boswell, Dave Marsh, for example, and Marsh is likely to go apoplectic. (All unfair, I might add. Marsh remains one of the best and most literate of all rock writers. But Heylin left him out of his huge anthology of rock writing, The Penguin Book of Rock and Roll Writing. That’s like leaving one of the apostles out of the Bible.)

So Heylin takes some of his usual shots at that huge subset of rock writers called Bob Dylan Experts in his new book, Revolution in the Air (Chicago Review Press, $29.95). Slamming other rock writers is just part of the territory for Heylin.

Heylin is no stranger to Dylanology. He wrote Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades in 1991, an oral history biography that has been once revised. He also meticulously went through Columbia Records’ archives to produce Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions, an indispensible book covering Dylan’s studio work from 1960 to 1994.

This article appears in Mar 18-24, 2009.