- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Backbeat Books; Rev Upd edition (April 1 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1617130125
- ISBN-13: 978-1617130120
- Product Dimensions: 26.2 x 20.1 x 3.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1.3 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#52,448 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( D ) > Dylan, Bob
- #20 in Books > Entertainment > Music > Musical Genres > Folk & Traditional
- #97 in Books > Entertainment > Music > Reference
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Robert Shelton, a critic for the New York Times in 1961, caught an early Bob Dylan gig at Folk City in Greenwich Village and wrote an effusive review for the newspaper. The coverage in the Times was a huge boost to the career of the then-struggling folksinger, and Shelton and Dylan became friends, seeing each other frequently around the Village folk scene. When Shelton, in the 1980s, finally got around to finishing his full-length biography of Dylan, he could draw upon a wealth of insider stories from the early days. The book is naturally strongest when describing Dylan's early career, from his coffeehouse gigs as a Woody Guthrie disciple to the insanely high artistic peaks of the mid-'60s. A particularly engaging passage concerns a freeform interview Shelton conducted with Dylan as they flew high above the Midwest in early 1966; Shelton's memories of Dylan are essential reading for fans. Shelton saw much less of the notoriously private Dylan as the years passed, and the book loses momentum as he becomes less of an eyewitness and more of a distant observer, though Dylan's story is credibly told up through the mid-1980s. --Robert McNamara
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Years in the making (some interviews conducted for it date back to the mid'60s), and much of it based on Shelton's personal experience, this hefty book supplants Anthony Scaduto's Bob Dylan as the definitive biography. Shelton was the popular-music columnist for the New York Times from 1958 to 1968, in which capacity he wrote the first attention-drawing reviews of Dylan's coffeehouse gigs in 1961; the position also brought him into close contact with many of the music-industry principals he writes about. A friend of Dylan's and a fan, Shelton succeeds in making this opaque and often irritating person comprehensible, even likable. Dylan has always shrouded himself in mysterioso antics, railed against inconstant friends and fallen into the trap of being one himself (notable instance: turning his back on Joan Baez) and delighted in giving out meaningless, perverse and nasty interviews. Shelton manages to locate the authentic Dylan: the pilgrim seeking enlightenment and salvation, the husband and father, the genius who wrote songs as beautiful as "Blowin' in the Wind," "Don't Think Twice" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," and as apocalyptic and prophetic as "Maggie's Farm," "Desolation Row" and "Hard Rain." The author incorporates a number of lines from Dylan's work into his text, which discusses the man's life and career under subject headings, a format that keeps him from following a strictly chronological order. The book is nevertheless comprehensive and clear. This is first-rate biography and a marvelous re-creation of the music scene of the '60s and later. The text is supplemented with brief analyses of every song, a song index, discography and bibliography, and 16 pages of black-and-white photos (not seen by PW. 50,000 first printing.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Not Great...,
By bruce hutton (MESA, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan (Paperback)
Whether or not this is the BEST Dylan biography is hard to say, there are millions of them out there...certainly it has to be the best-researched, and one of the most heartfelt; Shelton gave Dylan his first great review, "discovered" him, in effect, and though he critically assesses Dylan's subsequent works there's never a doubt that he's Dylan's biggest fan. A midnight conversation on a private jet between Shelton and Dylan in the mid-60's is the best thing in the book, fascinating reading...but there is such a concept as too much of a good thing, and the minutae Shelton indulges in gets tiring. He apparently went to every concert and every party Dylan did, and his insistence on inserting himself into the scene makes me wonder about his objectivity. Maybe Shelton thought he was one of the new journalists. I don't know. But less Shelton would've been helpful. Also, Shelton insists on punctuating almost every paragraph with a hidden line from one of Dylan's songs; for awhile it's clever, but it gets old fast.The book was out of print for a long time, and that's too bad. I hope it stays in print. It's incredibly packed with facts and interpretations and long quotes both from Dylan and those close to him. It's just TOO MUCH, that's all. But good. A worthy biography of the most potent force in popular music since Sinatra. How's that for a name out of left field?
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Dylan Biography,
By
This review is from: No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan (Paperback)
This is the best Dylan biography I've ever read. Not only does it tell what has happened to Dylan, but it has commentary about his albums and the songs on them interspersed in the biography at the time the albums came out. Entertaining and very informative.
5.0 out of 5 stars
If Blake were walking the earth...,
This review is from: No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan (Paperback)
If Blake were walking the earth, or Jeremiah for that matter raging in the imperial wilderness, he'd be Bob Dylan with a mouth harp and a song for the poor and languageless. Robert Shelton was there from the beginning in the Village, and knows the poetry and the soul's plot. This is still the best book on Bob Dylan, who is the real poet laureate of American Jeremaiad Visionary Company of love.
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