You've been through all of F. Scott Fitzgerald's books, but how does it feel when he hands you a tome about R. A. Zimmerman?

Lots of Dylan books out there, including several bios, but which are the best, most interesting or useful? Post your thoughts here.

Aka "Why is is that when people talk about me they have to go crazy?"

Inspired somehow by discussion on this thread, Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series, particular dow's dropping knowledge about The Golden Chords and Shadow Blasters. last weekend I shadowblasted my way through Dennis McDougal's recent bio, which was sort of page turner on one hand but had lots of little mistakes and seemed to err on the side of "print the most scurrilous version that undermines the legend." Sort of reasonably competent journalistic contract job, if you find a copy lying around read it, but for tyros only, but not for tylerw.

Started reading the Howard Sounes bio a few days ago, he seems to have a little better grasp of the details, and maybe had someone to do some some fact-checking. I guess people say the Clinton Heylin book, Behind The Shades, or Behind The Shades Revisited as the latest edition is called, is supposed to be the definitive one and the Robert Shelton one that took forever to come out is supposed to be to hagiographic but good on the early years.

discussed elsewhere somewhere but the heylin book is really good and thorough and interesting except for its opinions, every single one of which is wrong

it's close to oral, iirc.

big soft spot for michael gray's batshit the bob dylan encyclopedia, the apotheosis of a career in academic dylanology. long, not necessarily dylan-centric entries on everyone who ever met bob dylan, or made a record he heard.

discussed elsewhere somewhere but the heylin book is really good and thorough and interesting except for its opinions, every single one of which is wrong

Convenience quote for zing users:

a bit late to this but 'blind willie mctell' was my no. 1, and not for any 'lost masterpiece' reasons. dylan is often a careless lyricist but this one lyric is so complete and perfect it kind of amazes me. every line just kills, not a single throwaway, and it builds to that crushing final verse. feels like this quiet, doomed demo is the performance dylan's whole career is building to, which is why it makes such perfect, hilarious sense that he finished it and just didn't bother releasing it.

can't believe heylin prefers the shitty electric version, but that guy's basically wrong about everything, his books would be better if someone went through them and cut out every single subjective statement.

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, June 20, 2014 5:43 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that's what i was plagiarizing.

By reusing unattributed material, you are following in the footsteps of your hero.

this book is great.

http://www.amazon.com/Positively-Main-Street-Dylans-Minnesota/dp/081665445X

it's also just really good as a book even if you don't care about the subject.

Thanks, looks interesting.

Wonder about that Elijah Wald book, which has received all kinds of accolades. Perhaps I am in the minority but have always found anything I read of his to be mildly irritating.

Dunno why i've never read any of these, i probably should

Heylin's book is perfect toilet reading: I can read it at any point, any chapter, flush its opinions about albums down the toilet.

I like Greil Marcus' essay on "Blind Willie McTell" but have no interest in his "Like a Rolling Stone" book.

I just remembered that Heylin thought it was a real corker to say that hiring Arhtur baker for Empire Burlesque meant the principles of New Order were being applied to Dylan recordings. If "When The Night Comes Falling From the Sky" were as good as "Dancing in the Dark" or "Confusion," maybe.

Wonder about that Elijah Wald book, which has received all kinds of accolades. Perhaps I am in the minority but have always found anything I read of his to be mildly irritating.

― Alone Again XOR (James Redd and the Blecchs),Wonder about that Elijah Wald book, which has received all kinds of accolades. Perhaps I am in the minority but have always found anything I read of his to be mildly irritating.

Lovely guy in person, looks like Philip Roth

for a while in high school i propped the heylin book randomly open pretty much every morning over breakfast, and now whenever i look at it or even see it mentioned i'm instantly oppressed by the smell of malt-o-meal imitation cheerios. for the toilet i use the gray encyclopedia.

is "the gray encylclopedia" a euphemism for "Charmin"

that's what "the letters of ayn rand" is a euphemism for

glad you're here: I wanted to show you this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KmPLkiqnO8

she had extra-oh-di-nary MYSTIQUE. Every Saturday she and her collective would meet haha

"I like Greil Marcus' essay on "Blind Willie McTell" but have no interest in his "Like a Rolling Stone" book."

went to harvard to hear his thing on the ballad of hollis brown and it was friggin' amazing. coming out in some fancy harvard lecture edition along with the lectures he gave a day and two later. wald was there. xgau too. it was inspiring as a dummy writer. and its hard to inspire me cuz i know everything already. i dunno, he's just so damn good at his thing.

xp uncollected gem! i've made some progress on my buckley btw. the advanced level is getting the random eye bugs right.

as a boy I learned from THE DYLAN COMPANION

later I read INVISIBLE REPUBLIC by GM and I learned some things and it has atmosphere but it's perhaps a bit slack and subjective not always in the best way

GM's LIKE A ROLLING STONE was really not very good as I recall

I have GM's BOB DYLAN big anthology of writings which collects every thing with a Dylan reference even if he's only mentioned once, like GM did a search for the word Dylan in what he'd written

Lethem's Dylan interview c.2006 is worth reading, gets Dylan's voice across well

I have Paul Williams' 3 volumes on Dylan's recordings and performances, impressed by it in a way but he always winds up saying 'and this is another example of how amazing Bob Dylan is'

Mike Marqusee's CHIMES OF FREEDOM, later renamed, I also learned some things from and I thought it really good on the mid-60s records in particular

oh I do have M Gray's ENCYCLOPEDIA, not sure about some of the opinions in that opinionated book

(Wish I had written "as" instead of "when" in the thread title)

... could use an editor, it's true

*ILX could use an editor

BUT from where I'm sitting, so could Bob Dylan!
*rimshot*

Something is happening and you don't know what it is, do you, mr. snowy?

Somewhat annoying that Heylin has his father's name as Abraham when it seems like it is supposed to be spelled Abram.

Cosing the Encyclopedia by Michael Gray - impressive in range, hilarious in idiosyncrasies. This is how the entry for U2 begins:

Inexplicably successful Irish rock group formed in 1980, fronted by one of the world"s most self-important and vain celebrities, Bono (rhymes with con-oh, rather than with oh-no). By the time Dylan was touring in 1984, more or less anyone could join him on stage, and at the open-air concert at Slane Castle, Irel and, on July 8, 1984, even Bono did, appearing during the encore to offer some shared vocals on "Blowin" in the Wind", undeterred by not knowing any of the words. (Leslie Dowdell also shared the vocals with Dylan and our friend.) This was the last song on the last night of the 1984 European tour. Thus it finished, you might say if you were very rude, not with a bang but with a wanker

I really enjoyed Heylin's book and didn't mind the opinions at all - lots of quotables, if someone can c/p some of the Bloomfield quotes I think that would be fun.

And um... Chronicles vol. 1 is p great?

I think there are too many tangents, not all of them that fascinating, in Sean Wilentz's Bob Dylan in America, but the opening chapters about Dylan's relationship to leftist folk protest and the beats are especially rich and interesting.

Anybody read Ian Bell's two-volume biography?

In Chronicles, he says that Bono suggested that he check out Daniel Lanois, who, along with Eno, helped U2 revamp their studio sound. The Oh Mercy sessions, as described by Dylan, turned out to be somewhat frustrating for artist and producer, which reminds me of the way Luc Sante described Dylan's description, and how it fit with the conflicts in Dylan's work, the way Chronicles and other books---also albums---deal with these conflicts (like creative impulse vs. pressure to Make A Point). Grab a coffee and settle in: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2005/mar/10/i-is-someone-else/

That Luc Sante article is awesome and can also be found in his collection Kill All Your Darlings.

I have Paul Williams' 3 volumes on Dylan's recordings and performances, impressed by it in a way but he always winds up saying 'and this is another example of how amazing Bob Dylan is'

― the pinefox, Sunday, October 4, 2015 10:26 AM (Yesterday)

yeah, i've read a few of paul williams's books and his enthusiasm is endearing but his critical approach basically is just to find different ways to call something "really, really awesome."

anthony scaduto's early-70s biography is a fun read, though it's very dated now. i read all of robert shelton's book back when i was about 15 and it is very, very detailed about the early years, if that's what you want.

marcus's essay on "blind willie mctell" is very good, one of his best pieces of writing i think. i don't like the "like a rolling stone" book or the basement tapes book all that much, dylan kind of brings out the worst in marcus.