pgsweetdee's review against another edition
3.0
Just like Dylan's career, this biography started strong, particularly in recounting the Dylan of his youth and especially of the 60's. By the time we got to the 80s and 90s, the biography had devolved, re-telling some of the same character traits and recounting every change in Dylan's backing band, little better than a Wikipedia page. However, unlike Dylan's career, which has had a modest but significant and sustained upswing for decades now, the book's last couple chapters continued to demonstrate a significant decline in the writing quality from those earlier, stronger sections. I did walk away feeling like I knew a famously enigmatic pop culture icon better, but felt a little bored by the process.
amarti's review against another edition
4.0
Dylan's life in-depth. This book covers the major episodes of his life, all including new chapters at the end that takes us all the way to 2020.
Dylan's life includes some of the most dramatic episodes in popular music. All are chronicled here:
- Going electric at the Newport Folk Festival to the disapproval and boos of the crowd
- The fan yelling "Judas!" at the Royal Albert Hall concert in 1965
- The insane creative process behind classics like "Blonde on Blonde"
- The famous (and likely invented) motorcycle accident, ending Dylan's first furious creative period while leading to another period of vital, but different introspective creativity with The Band.
These are the episodes any casual Dylan fan knows of already.
But the book is filled with so many other rich, less know details including:
- In 1959, when Buddy Holly played in Duluth MN, with a young Dylan on the front row. Holly died in a plane crash two days later.
- Details of how Dylan moved to New York and worked hard to get to know Woody Guthrie's family, leading to meeting the musician and providing so much early inspiration to Dylan.
- The relative peace and normalcy of his first marriage and homelife with Sara Dylan. Dylan was a doting, and normal father until it all unraveled in the mid-1970s.
- The wanderings and complex parade of relationships, including his previously undocumented secret marriage to Carolyn Dennis.
The portrait here of Dylan is a complex, even bizarre artist. Likely lonely. Continuously working his craft and reinventing himself.
Minor quibble: Two new chapters are added, one for each new edition since the original publication in 2001. They feel added on and unnecessary, like a movie with too many endings.
But perhaps Dylan's life is like that. A movie with many endings. You think it's over, but it keeps going, with new chapters and new angles. Always creating, touring, and reinventing.
Dylan's life includes some of the most dramatic episodes in popular music. All are chronicled here:
- Going electric at the Newport Folk Festival to the disapproval and boos of the crowd
- The fan yelling "Judas!" at the Royal Albert Hall concert in 1965
- The insane creative process behind classics like "Blonde on Blonde"
- The famous (and likely invented) motorcycle accident, ending Dylan's first furious creative period while leading to another period of vital, but different introspective creativity with The Band.
These are the episodes any casual Dylan fan knows of already.
But the book is filled with so many other rich, less know details including:
- In 1959, when Buddy Holly played in Duluth MN, with a young Dylan on the front row. Holly died in a plane crash two days later.
- Details of how Dylan moved to New York and worked hard to get to know Woody Guthrie's family, leading to meeting the musician and providing so much early inspiration to Dylan.
- The relative peace and normalcy of his first marriage and homelife with Sara Dylan. Dylan was a doting, and normal father until it all unraveled in the mid-1970s.
- The wanderings and complex parade of relationships, including his previously undocumented secret marriage to Carolyn Dennis.
The portrait here of Dylan is a complex, even bizarre artist. Likely lonely. Continuously working his craft and reinventing himself.
Minor quibble: Two new chapters are added, one for each new edition since the original publication in 2001. They feel added on and unnecessary, like a movie with too many endings.
But perhaps Dylan's life is like that. A movie with many endings. You think it's over, but it keeps going, with new chapters and new angles. Always creating, touring, and reinventing.
kabukiboy's review against another edition
4.0
Well written and informative book. Bob Dylan isn't particularly likable so it is a testament to the writer that the book was still enjoyable reading.
cate_ninetails's review
4.0
I've been whittling away at some biographies this year and it seemed a shame to pass over Dylan so here we are. I went into this not knowing much of anything about the man, it isn't my generation at all and I grew up with his son Jakob on the radio instead. I can't say that he came off as a great person in this book, in fact I felt very much that even the author, an obvious fan, is in thrall to the character Bob Dylan moreso than the man himself. As characters go though it's an interesting one, a self made poet outlaw built brick by brick on seemingly the shoulders of other talented people who were then discarded if they were ever acknowledged at all. I think what I got most from this biography was an overwhelming glimpse at the loneliness of fame. Despite all the women and children and accolades, I never got the sense that this is a happy life which in the face of such apparent talent feels very sobering.
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