When Bob Met Woody: The Story of the Young Bob Dylan [Hardcover]

I was initially drawn to this book's colorful cover--it just caught my eye as being friendly, a warm friendly, like it had something to tell me. I couldn't stop staring at the golden look of this larger face with a smaller person looking up as if to say 'I wish I could be like you'.

This book took me through my entire life with a grace and a nostalgia that was warm and maybe intense at times. I realized that when I was young, I had been feeling some of the same things that Bob had felt. Not that it was negative, but it would have been nice to have had a mentor, some one to talk to or who could explain a bit about life in the way this book helps to convey. I don't think there is a point too early or too late in life to have dreams, heroes and the like in order to know more about yourself, to change direction, or to just find one's self.

It is fascinating when you learn even just a little bit about someone else. That changed my outlook on Bob and Woody, and in turn that changed me because through my reflection I learned more about myself. This book informs us on a level that we all can appreciate--not just kids--and says that it is ok to dream about something or to look up to someone as a source of inspiration, to look to others to help guide you, molding you into something that you want to be. It also shows that while looking for this inspiration you can go out into the world on your own, with your own soul finding and your own power of knowing yourself. If you keep trying hard enough at anything you will succeed.

When Bob Met Woody encouraged me to seek out and think about another Bob Dylan quote: "send me a key - I shall find the door to where it fits, if it takes me the rest of my life."

Gary Golio's last picture book was the stunning award-winning collaboration with Javaka Steptoe, Jimi Sounds Like a Rainbow, about rock legend Jimi Hendrix. In his newest release, Golio turns to another 20th century musical legend, Bob Dylan, and fans of his early work will not be disappointed.

Much like Golio's book about Hendrix, this volume does not attempt to be a traditional biography and tell the entire story of Dylan's life. Instead, he concentrates on Dylan's youth in Minnesota, when he was just Bob Zimmerman, a Jewish kid who loved music, although he hated taking lessons! In fact, he taught himself both piano and guitar as a kid.

Golio shows us some of Bob's early influences, as he listens on the radio to the great blues musicians of the time such as Muddy Waters and B. B. King, as well as country star Hank Williams. Bob's parents thought music was a waste of time, and Bob grew up feeling different--teased for his Jewish heritage, and belittled for his musical ambitions in the small mining community where he lived. But Bob knew he'd show them all one day, and be a bigger music star than Elvis!

To please his parents, Bob started college in Minneapolis, although he spent most of his time in coffeehouses singing folk music. At an audition, he told a cafe owner that his name was Bob Dylan--after Dylan Thomas, his favorite poet. And he practiced and practiced, learning all kinds of music, even forgetting to brush his teeth sometimes because he was so engrossed in his practicing!

When Bob was introduced to the music of folk singer Woody Guthrie, he found a singer/songwriter whom he grew to idolize, so much so that when he heard the singer was in the hospital in New York, he found out the phone number and hitchhiked cross-country at 19 years old just to see him. He visited his hero in the hospital, even singing a song he had composed just for him: "Song to Woody."

An afterword explains how by meeting Woody Guthrie, Bob became part of an inside circle of the most important people in American folk music, many of whom helped him find work and even "fed him meals and lent him their couches." Less than a year after arriving in New York, he had a record deal with Columbia Records. Golio also describes how Bob's ability to blend different music styles changed the face of American popular music.

The book includes a brief bibliography of books, audio sources, videos, and internet resources on Bob Dylan.

Marc Burckhardt's illustrations are a perfect fit for the folksy style of Golio's prose and for Dylan's status a folk music idol. From Austin, Texas, Marc lives in the "live music capital of the world," and has illustrated several other picture books as well. In this book, he uses acrylics and oil paper mounted on board to create a vibrant folk art look that reminded me of the monumentality of the figures of Grant Wood and other great American painters.

This is a terrific picture book to share with young people, even better if you can combine it with some song tracks (try Youtube for some free links, including rare surviving footage of Guthrie performing) from both Dylan and Woody Guthrie, making together a valuable lesson in the evolution of American folk music! Adult fans of Dylan will enjoy sharing this book with children in their lives as well, as a way to introduce them to a great figure in American music.

First there was Woody Guthrie and then there was Bob Dylan. I am one of those individual who knows quite little about the technical aspects of music, has a relatively strong musical background but cannot play or sing worth a hoot. I am one of those people who have never been overly impressed with many of the singers and groups that have come and gone throughout the years and have been popular with mainstream America. No, I am one of those people who know what he likes and what he dislikes. I cannot tell you why in either case, I just know it.

Now that being said, I will tell you that there have been several musicians and singers throughout the years that have been a tremendous influence on my life in one way or the other. This work features two of them; Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan.

This work is the story of the young Bob Zimmerman who grew up in Hibbing, Minnesota, a mining town near the Canadian border. This Bob became Bob Dylan. This is the story of Dylan growing up, not only as a man, but as a musician and singer. It is the story of his meeting one of his guiding musical heroes, Woody Guthrie.

Well written in a sparse and no nonsense manner, the author tells of the development of a singer who would become a driving force, musically and a social icon for an entire generation. Woven in and out of this tale is the presents of Woody Guthrie, who in his own time, was what Dylan became; each a representation of a time and an era in American history. The current music we listen today owes its evolution to what became before and whether or not the younger generation knows it or not, the music they listen to has been influenced by these two men. They, the younger generation, should know, understand and appreciate this fact. It is small books such as this which will help in that understanding.

Now there is no doubt that this story has been tweaked here and there and there is an element of mythology to be found. That is okay though. This work was not meant to be a dry history; a comprehensive biographical work. No, it was meat to introduce young people to a part of their heritage and written and illustrated to make this information palatable. All in all I found the book to be quite inspirational in nature and had a strong "follow your dream" aspect to it.

I found the illustrations, how ever they were created, to be quite good and in a strange sort of way, captivating.

This is a good work. It would be ideal to introduce the young person to these two individual and I would recommend that they have CDs made available to listen to the original recordings they produced. These songs can easily be found via a rather simple web search.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

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