This is a fairly recent revision, covering the Nobel Prize. And by the way, I do not approve of Dylan's receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature. Somehow I cannot equate his entertaining song lyrics with Faulkner and Hemingway.
I timed this book with the release of the new Dylan movie covering his NY life from 1961 to 1965. I thoroughly enjoyed the show.
As far as I know, this is the best conventional biography of Bob Dylan.
Howard Sounes has written biographies of Paul McCartney and Charles Bukowski. He lives in London. (From the back of the book cover)
Is Dylan a genius? No. Is he eccentric? Yes. Is he one in a lifetime. Yes.
Dylan only talked to people he wished to talk to. I admire that in him.
Too bad folk music is forgotten today. Folk music was real. Folk music was American.
The best part of the movie is when Dylan is visiting in the hospital with Woody Guthrie. But in this book Dylan goes to Woody's house in Queens before he sees him at the hospital in New Jersey.
Dylan was a lifelong student of all kinds of music. This is clear in the book.
First GF in Hibbing was an outlier named Echo.
Dylan went thru lots of girlfriends.
An artist of unrivaled importance. P. 1
Dylan's relationship with and feelings about his parents are unclear just as many things are unclear about Dylan. I remember reading somewhere he felt like he was born to the wrong parents. (1-3-25)
Beatnik influence with the Twin Cities college scene. P. 51
Dylan never seemed to have ever had a regular job. P. 63
Dylan stole from the Anthology of American Folk Music, the record of which he may have stolen from a friend. P. 64
Dylan's lifelong pilfering from his musical exposure and researches it seems to me contributed to his prolific composing monumentally.
Dylan shows up at Woody Guthrie's house. P. 82
Dylan was one of the first singers to play the harmonica. P. 86
Lately I keep thinking that Dylan is simply a cheap plagiarist. I will stand on that. (1-3-25)
Dave Von Ronk was one of Dylan's early NY influences. P. 90 (1-3-25)
Looking around now on Amazon I am staggered at the number of books out there on Dylan. (1-3-25)
No doubt Dylan was a moocher, but the author claims he never wore out his welcome. And even later when he was wealthy he enjoyed sleeping on somebody else's couch. P. 90 (1-3-25)
Dylan was a consummate liar in NY making up stories about his past and his heritage. P. 91 (1-3-25)
Meeting Suze Rutolo, the third signifiant GF of Dylan's life. P. 100 (1-4-25)
Dylan meets Albert Grossman with his strange face. P. 107 (1-5-25)
Grossman comes across as a sleazy businessman who got into the club business just to make money selling hotdogs. He did not care about music. P. 108 (1-5-25)
Dylan did not buy "Blowing in the Wind. Any "borrowing" he many have done was acceptable at the time. P. 119 (1-6-25)
I confuse details from this book with the prior Dylan book.
I was on a Dylan fan website, but I dropped it.
"Blowing in the Wind" may have been considered a strong song from the beginning, but a lot people did not like, parodied it, and made fun of it. P. 120 (1-6-25)
Reading about Dylan and keeping up with his GFs is a job. (1-7-25)
Dylan wrote "A Hard Rain" during the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. P. 127 (1-7-25)
"The songs were there. They exist all by themselves just waiting for someone to write them down. I just put them on paper. If I didn't do it, somebody else would. . . . it remained his philosophy throughout his career. He clearly felt that songs came to him from another place. He wasn't writing songs. He was just writing them down."
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