What do you think?
Rate this book
The Double Life of Bob Dylan Vol. 1
'The definitive, scrupulously researched biography of a life steeped in mystery' ObserverThe definitive biography of one contemporary culture's most iconic and mysterious figures - musical revolutionary, Nobel Prize-winner, chart-topping recording artistIn 2016 it was announced that Bob Dylan had sold his personal archive to the George Kaiser Foundation in Tulsa, Oklahoma, reportedly for $22 million. As the boxes started to arrive, the Foundation asked Clinton Heylin - author of the acclaimed Bob Behind the Shades and 'perhaps the world's authority on all things Dylan' (Rolling Stone) - to assess the material they had been given. What he found in Tulsa - as well as what he gleaned from other papers he had recently been given access to by Sony and the Dylan office - so changed his understanding of the artist, especially of his creative process, that he became convinced that a whole new biography was needed. It turns out that much of what previous biographers - Dylan himself included - have said is wrong; often as not, a case of, Print the Legend.With fresh and revealing information on every page A Restless, Hungry Feeling tells the story of Dylan's meteoric rise to his arrival in early 1961 in New York, where he is embraced by the folk scene; his elevation to spokesman of a generation whose protest songs provide the soundtrack for the burgeoning Civil Rights movement; his alleged betrayal when he 'goes electric' at Newport in 1965; his subsequent controversial world tour with a rock 'n' roll band; and the recording of his three undisputed electric Bringing it All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. At the peak of his fame in July 1966 he reportedly crashes his motorbike in Woodstock, upstate New York, and disappears from public view. When he re-emerges, he looks different, his voice sounds different, his songs are different. That other story will be told in Volume 2, to be published in autumn 2022.Clinton Heylin's meticulously researched, all-encompassing and consistently revelatory account of these fascinating early years is the closest we will ever get to a definitive life of an artist who has been the lodestar of popular culture for six decades.
Paperback
Published October 20, 2022
2 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 4, 2023
Chronicle of Crazy Genius
Clinton Heylin is a trained historian, and takes his Dylan obsession to new levels with this, the first of his two volume biography (which follows his 2 volume chronicle of each and every Dylan song up till 2008- see my reviews). Heylin gets in the weeds, so much so, that he forgets to get out of the weeds and look at the bigger picture - but it is fairly easy to summarise his overall findings from his forensic analysis of Dylan's blazing early success (never matched by any other artist). Heylin dissects Dylan because he rightfully regards him as the best songwriter of the 20th Century with his unique combination of folk, country and blues that created adult rock and roll. He is very opinionated, and is willing to offer his opinions as facts throughout this detailed, mostly chronological account.
Bob Dylan was a very neurotic middle class Jewish boy desperate to escape his home and fulfil his destiny as a rock star. He was a fantasist, liar, womaniser, and exploiter of friends and foes alike. Bob would drive your bus, steal the steering wheel and tyres and run you over with the bus if that was going to get him something. He was driven like no other person in contemporary music - furious workaholic, drugged out of his eyeballs, and would lie, cheat and steal to get what he wanted. And yet he was relentlessly creative, intelligent, and aware of what he was doing even when it was wrong. He is a unique figure in music and popular culture. Heylin shows all this in action, through events.
And then there is the music. Starting off as a rock and roll wannabe, Dylan evolved into an unstoppable creative force that produced the hottest 18 month streak of all time - BIABH, Highway 61 and BOB. He took a winding road to get there and never quite got back there after his burn out in July, 1966. Bob's move to outright rock and roll from folk nearly killed him and definitely sent him a little insane in 1965-1966 - the years of his undisputed greatness. Since 1966, he has done may great songs and even albums, but it was the insanity of this 18 month period that pushed his genius and made him lose his bearings.
For those of us who love Dylan but know he has a screw loose, this account nails the insanity without a doctor's note. Everything you may have suspected, it's all true. It would be 5 * if Heylin bothered to analyse what he learned more carefully and with hindsight - but that's not what he does. This is what he does - and its awesome and frustrating at the same time.
Clinton Heylin is a trained historian, and takes his Dylan obsession to new levels with this, the first of his two volume biography (which follows his 2 volume chronicle of each and every Dylan song up till 2008- see my reviews). Heylin gets in the weeds, so much so, that he forgets to get out of the weeds and look at the bigger picture - but it is fairly easy to summarise his overall findings from his forensic analysis of Dylan's blazing early success (never matched by any other artist). Heylin dissects Dylan because he rightfully regards him as the best songwriter of the 20th Century with his unique combination of folk, country and blues that created adult rock and roll. He is very opinionated, and is willing to offer his opinions as facts throughout this detailed, mostly chronological account.
Bob Dylan was a very neurotic middle class Jewish boy desperate to escape his home and fulfil his destiny as a rock star. He was a fantasist, liar, womaniser, and exploiter of friends and foes alike. Bob would drive your bus, steal the steering wheel and tyres and run you over with the bus if that was going to get him something. He was driven like no other person in contemporary music - furious workaholic, drugged out of his eyeballs, and would lie, cheat and steal to get what he wanted. And yet he was relentlessly creative, intelligent, and aware of what he was doing even when it was wrong. He is a unique figure in music and popular culture. Heylin shows all this in action, through events.
And then there is the music. Starting off as a rock and roll wannabe, Dylan evolved into an unstoppable creative force that produced the hottest 18 month streak of all time - BIABH, Highway 61 and BOB. He took a winding road to get there and never quite got back there after his burn out in July, 1966. Bob's move to outright rock and roll from folk nearly killed him and definitely sent him a little insane in 1965-1966 - the years of his undisputed greatness. Since 1966, he has done may great songs and even albums, but it was the insanity of this 18 month period that pushed his genius and made him lose his bearings.
For those of us who love Dylan but know he has a screw loose, this account nails the insanity without a doctor's note. Everything you may have suspected, it's all true. It would be 5 * if Heylin bothered to analyse what he learned more carefully and with hindsight - but that's not what he does. This is what he does - and its awesome and frustrating at the same time.
Displaying 1 of 1 review