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The Double Life of Bob Dylan Volume 2: 1966-2021: ‘Far away from Myself�
The second volume of Clinton Heylin's magisterial biography takes us from Dylan's 1966 motorcycle accident to the present day. We meet a man who is determined to confound expectations; yet whatever he does only seems to confirm his iconic status to fans and critics alike.
There are peaks and troughs. Long periods of writer's block are followed by sudden bursts of creativity that produce some of the best work of his career, including perhaps his most celebrated album, 1975's Blood On The Tracks . There is the unpredictable recording process, with Dylan often including on his albums the worst takes and leaving off the best songs altogether. On the Neverending Tour he reinvents his songbook on a nightly basis, at times without recognition. Then there are the albums and songs that reveal the genius of an artist whose lyrics draw on centuries of American culture but who refuses to be shackled to his own past.
Today his voice is almost unrecognisable from his 1960s peak, and the man whose songs had been devoted to dissecting his romantic relationships has become focused on mortality, solitude and getting old. Yet his albums continue to top the charts, 2020's Rough And Rowdy Ways being his fourth No. 1 album of the twenty-first century.
There is no other living artist whose creative output has remained constantly intriguing, often baffling, sometimes infuriating but always fascinating for over sixty years. Clinton Heylin's definitive, scrupulously researched and revelatory life, based on unprecedented access to the official Tulsa archive and other new sources, paints the fullest and brightest portrait yet of an iconic figure that has defined contemporary culture.
There are peaks and troughs. Long periods of writer's block are followed by sudden bursts of creativity that produce some of the best work of his career, including perhaps his most celebrated album, 1975's Blood On The Tracks . There is the unpredictable recording process, with Dylan often including on his albums the worst takes and leaving off the best songs altogether. On the Neverending Tour he reinvents his songbook on a nightly basis, at times without recognition. Then there are the albums and songs that reveal the genius of an artist whose lyrics draw on centuries of American culture but who refuses to be shackled to his own past.
Today his voice is almost unrecognisable from his 1960s peak, and the man whose songs had been devoted to dissecting his romantic relationships has become focused on mortality, solitude and getting old. Yet his albums continue to top the charts, 2020's Rough And Rowdy Ways being his fourth No. 1 album of the twenty-first century.
There is no other living artist whose creative output has remained constantly intriguing, often baffling, sometimes infuriating but always fascinating for over sixty years. Clinton Heylin's definitive, scrupulously researched and revelatory life, based on unprecedented access to the official Tulsa archive and other new sources, paints the fullest and brightest portrait yet of an iconic figure that has defined contemporary culture.
- GenresMusicBiographyNonfiction
848 pages, Hardcover
Published September 28, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
March 24, 2025
Hmm...I haven't read the first volume, but I've read some of the reviews. A lot of them mention Heylin's affected writing style and tendency to snipe at other Dylan biographers. I'm afraid to say that both continue in the second volume. I'm only up to page 100. But the writing and the sniping do detract. It's possible that Heylin is the no.1 Dylan expert in the world. I'm certainly not qualified to say one way or the other. But if he is, it's probably best for him to let others make the point. There're too many 'train-spotting' moments in the book. What I mean by this is that Heylin focuses on minutiae that doesn't really add much to the story and will only appeal to anorak Dylanologists. It reminds me a little bit of those dry academic books which make such a big play about whether a battle started at 11.03 in the morning or 11.07. I suppose such information needs recording accurately somewhere. But it doesn't make for an interesting read. The most interesting parts of this book tend to be the direct quotations (and there are lots!) from either Dylan himself or those around him. It's possible things will improve as I continue reading and I can upgrade my rating. I suppose the opposite is also possible too.
When the story moves away from the music and concentrates on the man, it's a (fairly) good read. The problems arise when Heylin itemises and dissects the songs. It clogs up the narrative. And when he comes out with lines like, 'Presumably, that secret was that Dylan didn't have much to say and was content to watch the river flow.' While we're on the subject of writing...Many of the lines Heylin quotes from Dylan's notebooks are often pretty ropey. This isn't really a criticism. That's what notebooks are for. Jotting down ideas. Trying out different words and rhyme schemes. But you can see why many of them weren't used. Or were used only after extensive revision.
There's a pedantic, almost autistic, feel about Heylin's writing. He really seems to get off on what version of which song was recorded when. Even congratulating himself on xeroxing the setlist of some obscure recording sessions. 'That be me'. We're heading into 2-star territory. To be fair, there's probably a lot of Dylan obsessives who love this kind of stuff. Personally, I find it exceedingly dull. A lot of the personal stuff I've read before. There's some that's new, but...Well, I've started, so I'll finish.
Heylin is more a cataloguer than a chronicler. I think he appeals more to the purists. Nothing wrong with that. But his rudeness towards other Dylan writers is a bit childish. Especially given his prose. Which is workmanlike at best.
I remember a Marlon Brando quote about Stanley Kubrick. Brando said that Kubrick had an original intelligence and wasn't just a 'fact-gatherer and repeater'. I'm not suggesting Heylin isn't intelligent. But he's very much a fact-gatherer and repeater. If he was writing about films he'd be more interested in the credits than in what the film was saying. This book reads more like an extended reference work to me.
The insights into Dylan the man are provided mostly by other people.
I paid £26 for this book. Which is probably the only reason I'm still reading it. I certainly won't be getting the first one.
I'm still plugging away. There's 250 pages left. But I can do this...When it comes to the enjoyment factor this is a one-star read. But I can't do that. The guy obviously knows his stuff, it's just not put together to my taste. Bad luck for me.
I'm getting it now. It's about the author putting himself into the story. Doesn't work for me. All I can say is, it's a good job Heylin's really into the music. Otherwise he would be one of those fans who thinks he's Dylan's brother.
Less than a hundred pages to go. Then on to Philip Norman's new biography of George Harrison. I know, I should know better. A quick flick through suggests it might to be another turkey. But obviously I'll judge it when I read it. I think I'm done judging this book. I've expressed my thoughts already and they ain't going to change in the last 100 pages. I'm glad there have been other - more positive - reviews left. Makes me feel less bad about my own review. Not that Heylin will care. His shtick is that he's the no.1 Dylan expert in the world. Good luck to him.
It was nice of Heylin towards the end to admit - however obliquely - that he is indeed the world's foremost Dylan expert. I wouldn't have known if he hadn't pointed it out. I was going to end by listing a number of other things I didn't like about the book. But what's the point? I've already made my feelings known. Heylin's stuff isn't for me.
When the story moves away from the music and concentrates on the man, it's a (fairly) good read. The problems arise when Heylin itemises and dissects the songs. It clogs up the narrative. And when he comes out with lines like, 'Presumably, that secret was that Dylan didn't have much to say and was content to watch the river flow.' While we're on the subject of writing...Many of the lines Heylin quotes from Dylan's notebooks are often pretty ropey. This isn't really a criticism. That's what notebooks are for. Jotting down ideas. Trying out different words and rhyme schemes. But you can see why many of them weren't used. Or were used only after extensive revision.
There's a pedantic, almost autistic, feel about Heylin's writing. He really seems to get off on what version of which song was recorded when. Even congratulating himself on xeroxing the setlist of some obscure recording sessions. 'That be me'. We're heading into 2-star territory. To be fair, there's probably a lot of Dylan obsessives who love this kind of stuff. Personally, I find it exceedingly dull. A lot of the personal stuff I've read before. There's some that's new, but...Well, I've started, so I'll finish.
Heylin is more a cataloguer than a chronicler. I think he appeals more to the purists. Nothing wrong with that. But his rudeness towards other Dylan writers is a bit childish. Especially given his prose. Which is workmanlike at best.
I remember a Marlon Brando quote about Stanley Kubrick. Brando said that Kubrick had an original intelligence and wasn't just a 'fact-gatherer and repeater'. I'm not suggesting Heylin isn't intelligent. But he's very much a fact-gatherer and repeater. If he was writing about films he'd be more interested in the credits than in what the film was saying. This book reads more like an extended reference work to me.
The insights into Dylan the man are provided mostly by other people.
I paid £26 for this book. Which is probably the only reason I'm still reading it. I certainly won't be getting the first one.
I'm still plugging away. There's 250 pages left. But I can do this...When it comes to the enjoyment factor this is a one-star read. But I can't do that. The guy obviously knows his stuff, it's just not put together to my taste. Bad luck for me.
I'm getting it now. It's about the author putting himself into the story. Doesn't work for me. All I can say is, it's a good job Heylin's really into the music. Otherwise he would be one of those fans who thinks he's Dylan's brother.
Less than a hundred pages to go. Then on to Philip Norman's new biography of George Harrison. I know, I should know better. A quick flick through suggests it might to be another turkey. But obviously I'll judge it when I read it. I think I'm done judging this book. I've expressed my thoughts already and they ain't going to change in the last 100 pages. I'm glad there have been other - more positive - reviews left. Makes me feel less bad about my own review. Not that Heylin will care. His shtick is that he's the no.1 Dylan expert in the world. Good luck to him.
It was nice of Heylin towards the end to admit - however obliquely - that he is indeed the world's foremost Dylan expert. I wouldn't have known if he hadn't pointed it out. I was going to end by listing a number of other things I didn't like about the book. But what's the point? I've already made my feelings known. Heylin's stuff isn't for me.
October 20, 2023
Well, after these two volumes, nobody will need to write a bio of Dylan until he dies and they need to pick up the rest of the story. With the resources of the Dylan center in Tulsa available to him, and with apparently a lot of interviews, Heylin goes into Dylan's bio in much more depth than anyone has before. There's a lot about Dylan's 'private' life too, about his girlfriends, marriages, and the like, and that isn't very enlightening reading, mostly. Heylin wisely and considerately stays away from telling many stories about Dylan's offspring. In a way, this private life stuff makes for somewhat grim reading. It doesn't appear that Dylan has been very happy for a very long time, though I think some of that comes from the fact that there isn't a lot to say.
Most interesting in this book, are the alternate lyrics, the incomplete songs, the earlier versions, and changes Dylan made to the songs as he was writing and recording them. This material really makes the book worth reading. I regret there wasn't a bit more about Dylan's relentless touring, what he gets out of it. Though that might not be that easy to document either.
At any rate: this book is probably only for a small percentage of the public, and even a small percentage of Dylan fans. Myself, I couldn't put it down, and if you are anywhere near an obsessive, it's highly recommended. (The book does include a photo of a friend of mine, now passed away, with whom I attended many Dylan shows in the 90s and early 2000s.)
Most interesting in this book, are the alternate lyrics, the incomplete songs, the earlier versions, and changes Dylan made to the songs as he was writing and recording them. This material really makes the book worth reading. I regret there wasn't a bit more about Dylan's relentless touring, what he gets out of it. Though that might not be that easy to document either.
At any rate: this book is probably only for a small percentage of the public, and even a small percentage of Dylan fans. Myself, I couldn't put it down, and if you are anywhere near an obsessive, it's highly recommended. (The book does include a photo of a friend of mine, now passed away, with whom I attended many Dylan shows in the 90s and early 2000s.)
June 16, 2024
A large but satisfying book from the prime Dylan biographer/historian. It had been intended to be a further two volumes, but a combination of Covid and the publisher nixed that idea.
You can glean from the text that Volume 2 would have originally ceased after 1981 period - the conclusion to 4.8 reads very much like the conclusion to a volume rather than just a chapter. It leaves a much larger book which is probably physically harder to handle.
Much is made of Heylin's criticism of other writers/biographers of Dylan but, in his defence, this pretty much always refers to instances where they are demonstrably incorrect. In other words, entirely valid. To not make these points leaves the record ambiguous. It's worth mentioning that he is just as rigorous with Dylan's many fabrications over the years.
Of course, Heylin's driver in these books was because of the access he was given to the Dylan Archive in Tulsa. These allow almost a rewriting of what we previously understood about much of Dylan's work, and makes this mammoth book something of a page-turner for Dylan fans.
I don't think the two volumes in this series replaces Behind The Shades but acts as something of a lengthy appendix to it. Likewise, the two-volume overview of Dylan's songs. Short of revisiting these books, my gut feeling is that whilst there is some inevitable duplication, there remains much that are unique to the individual books.
You can glean from the text that Volume 2 would have originally ceased after 1981 period - the conclusion to 4.8 reads very much like the conclusion to a volume rather than just a chapter. It leaves a much larger book which is probably physically harder to handle.
Much is made of Heylin's criticism of other writers/biographers of Dylan but, in his defence, this pretty much always refers to instances where they are demonstrably incorrect. In other words, entirely valid. To not make these points leaves the record ambiguous. It's worth mentioning that he is just as rigorous with Dylan's many fabrications over the years.
Of course, Heylin's driver in these books was because of the access he was given to the Dylan Archive in Tulsa. These allow almost a rewriting of what we previously understood about much of Dylan's work, and makes this mammoth book something of a page-turner for Dylan fans.
I don't think the two volumes in this series replaces Behind The Shades but acts as something of a lengthy appendix to it. Likewise, the two-volume overview of Dylan's songs. Short of revisiting these books, my gut feeling is that whilst there is some inevitable duplication, there remains much that are unique to the individual books.
February 9, 2025
5 stars because this is what a Dylan fan wants…strong opinions, details, minutiae, and discoveries: unequivocal opinions on The Grateful Dead and Joni, details of the REHEARSALS for recording sessions, which guitarist replaced the just-hired guitarist, and transcendent moments like Dylan singing Caribbean Wind at the Warfield in 1981 per a backstage note from Paul Williams leading to “one of the great moments in his (and rock) performance art…�
Kudos, Mr. Heylin.
Kudos, Mr. Heylin.
July 8, 2024
This is a long and tedious read. Author Heylin is clearly of the view that if only Dylan was as smart and clear-headed as himself, then Dylan could be greater.
October 31, 2023
Dylan's first twenty-five years, the subject of the 500 page Volume 1, were much more interesting than his next fifty-five years, which are the subject of this 836 page Volume 2. It is not Heylin's fault but, it makes this big book somewhat of a slog.
This is the opposite of a life-and-times biography. Heylin is focused very tightly on Dylan.
For example, he takes us through every studio session for 55 years. Where? When? Who played what instrument? What songs? How many takes? How many mastered takes? How long? How did the band sound? How did Dylan sound? I didn't count but, there were at least three sessions a year which would get you over 150 sessions discussed, in detail. Heylin has the notes from the sessions and if he has a source, he needs to share it with us.
Surprisingly, he does not give the same coverage to Dylan's endless tour. Some tours are discussed in a few lines. We get very little on the stage dynamics with his never-ending change of sideman. He almost never tries to find out what it was like for an audience member.
On the other hand, we get as many details as possible on Dylan's various girlfriends and wives. I honestly had trouble keeping them straight at times. For years, he toured with black female back-up singers, most of whom he fooled around with.
Heylin has made good use of the notebooks and papers in the Tulsa Dylan Center to track down the sources and development of Dylan's songs. Dylan seems to be an almost compulsive lyrics writer. He frequently said that his challenge was cutting his lyrics down to just the good stuff.
The Jesus freak years are still mysterious. How does a genius go from "Don't follow leaders watch the parking meters" to "You have to serve somebody"? How does the man who wrote "Desolation Row" get to the point where he says, "I don't sing any song which hasn't been given to me by the Lord to sing"? How does the man who made rock 'n roll adult come to believe that "The Devil's taken rock n' roll music and used it for his purposes."?
Heylin does no better than anyone else in trying to explain what happened. Because the focus stays narrowly on Dylan, we get no sense of the people and world that convinced him to go off the rails.
The book does not answer, in any detail, many of the questions I had about Dylan's life. Where did he live when not on tour? What did it look like? What was his kid's lives like? How much did the session players who hung around waiting for hours get paid? How much did Dylan make all together each year? Did he shop? What did he eat? etc.
Heylin continues his style of taking shots at everyone. Dave Marsh and Jon Landeau, two well-known rock critics, are "irredeemably stupid". Robert Shelton, author of a Dylan biography, "took fifteen more than years to prove in print that the task (of writing a Dylan biography) was beyond him". Greil Marcus, author of several books on Dylan, has a review in Rolling Stone Magazine. Heylin says that it is a "a mile wide critique.... in that once esteemed journal." This is a combat biography.
One of the amusing subplots of the book is the obsessive feud which Heylin evidently has with an author named Michael Krogsgaard who wrote a reference book, "Bob Dylan, The Recording Sessions".
Heylin cannot stop taking shots at Krogsgaard and his book.
"Attributions in Krogsgaard's sessionography of false starts and full takes are wholly unreliable." (P.254)
"Krogsgaard's "Oh Mercy" sessionography has the wrong dates, the wrong take numbers and the wrong songs, but it is otherwise an exemplary piece of research." (P.551)
"In his sessionography Krogsgaard suggests that the vocal tracks for the 30 July 1975 "Hurricane" were erased in December 1976. Total rubbish."(P. 259)
"The information in Krogsgaard's sessionography of the June sessions can't be corroborated and is hard to credit" (P 131)
"Krogsgaard has the official take of "Time Passes Slowly as take three. It's the eighth and last take." (P. 137)
"Krogsgaard's sessionography for "Planet Waves" is a mess, full of incorrect takes and LP takes incorrectly assigned." ( P. 187)
I don't know the story, but this seems personal. I laughed out loud when I checked the bibliography.
Krogsgaard's book is listed in the "Reference resources" section. Heylin notes that it is "now available (still uncorrected) online."
Because Heylin is a bit of a hoarder, we get a good amount of random interesting stuff.
Bob Dylan was friends with Tiny Tim from NYC in the early sixties. Dylan had him do a part in one of his many uncompleted movie projects.
Dylan took art lessons from the charismatic art teacher Norman Raeben. Heylin argues that Raeben's lessons had an influence on Dylan's songwriting. Raeben was the son of Shalom Aleichem, one of my favorite writers and the author of the stories which "Fiddler on the Roof" were based on.
There is a theory that pictures of the Beatles are hidden in the tree on the cover of the "John Wesley Harding" album.
Some good lines, In a discussion of Dylan's many girlfriends during his Jesus freak years. "Now a believer, Dylan seemed strangely unconversant with the seventh commandment."
Some bad lines. In discussing his affair with a black woman, "Nor was Dennis the only duskier dame to share his bed."
I will stop here. This is a big grab bag of Dylan stuff. Parts of it drag. Parts of it is great stories. Dylan, at the middle of it, remains mysterious and elusive. I enjoyed the book.
This is the opposite of a life-and-times biography. Heylin is focused very tightly on Dylan.
For example, he takes us through every studio session for 55 years. Where? When? Who played what instrument? What songs? How many takes? How many mastered takes? How long? How did the band sound? How did Dylan sound? I didn't count but, there were at least three sessions a year which would get you over 150 sessions discussed, in detail. Heylin has the notes from the sessions and if he has a source, he needs to share it with us.
Surprisingly, he does not give the same coverage to Dylan's endless tour. Some tours are discussed in a few lines. We get very little on the stage dynamics with his never-ending change of sideman. He almost never tries to find out what it was like for an audience member.
On the other hand, we get as many details as possible on Dylan's various girlfriends and wives. I honestly had trouble keeping them straight at times. For years, he toured with black female back-up singers, most of whom he fooled around with.
Heylin has made good use of the notebooks and papers in the Tulsa Dylan Center to track down the sources and development of Dylan's songs. Dylan seems to be an almost compulsive lyrics writer. He frequently said that his challenge was cutting his lyrics down to just the good stuff.
The Jesus freak years are still mysterious. How does a genius go from "Don't follow leaders watch the parking meters" to "You have to serve somebody"? How does the man who wrote "Desolation Row" get to the point where he says, "I don't sing any song which hasn't been given to me by the Lord to sing"? How does the man who made rock 'n roll adult come to believe that "The Devil's taken rock n' roll music and used it for his purposes."?
Heylin does no better than anyone else in trying to explain what happened. Because the focus stays narrowly on Dylan, we get no sense of the people and world that convinced him to go off the rails.
The book does not answer, in any detail, many of the questions I had about Dylan's life. Where did he live when not on tour? What did it look like? What was his kid's lives like? How much did the session players who hung around waiting for hours get paid? How much did Dylan make all together each year? Did he shop? What did he eat? etc.
Heylin continues his style of taking shots at everyone. Dave Marsh and Jon Landeau, two well-known rock critics, are "irredeemably stupid". Robert Shelton, author of a Dylan biography, "took fifteen more than years to prove in print that the task (of writing a Dylan biography) was beyond him". Greil Marcus, author of several books on Dylan, has a review in Rolling Stone Magazine. Heylin says that it is a "a mile wide critique.... in that once esteemed journal." This is a combat biography.
One of the amusing subplots of the book is the obsessive feud which Heylin evidently has with an author named Michael Krogsgaard who wrote a reference book, "Bob Dylan, The Recording Sessions".
Heylin cannot stop taking shots at Krogsgaard and his book.
"Attributions in Krogsgaard's sessionography of false starts and full takes are wholly unreliable." (P.254)
"Krogsgaard's "Oh Mercy" sessionography has the wrong dates, the wrong take numbers and the wrong songs, but it is otherwise an exemplary piece of research." (P.551)
"In his sessionography Krogsgaard suggests that the vocal tracks for the 30 July 1975 "Hurricane" were erased in December 1976. Total rubbish."(P. 259)
"The information in Krogsgaard's sessionography of the June sessions can't be corroborated and is hard to credit" (P 131)
"Krogsgaard has the official take of "Time Passes Slowly as take three. It's the eighth and last take." (P. 137)
"Krogsgaard's sessionography for "Planet Waves" is a mess, full of incorrect takes and LP takes incorrectly assigned." ( P. 187)
I don't know the story, but this seems personal. I laughed out loud when I checked the bibliography.
Krogsgaard's book is listed in the "Reference resources" section. Heylin notes that it is "now available (still uncorrected) online."
Because Heylin is a bit of a hoarder, we get a good amount of random interesting stuff.
Bob Dylan was friends with Tiny Tim from NYC in the early sixties. Dylan had him do a part in one of his many uncompleted movie projects.
Dylan took art lessons from the charismatic art teacher Norman Raeben. Heylin argues that Raeben's lessons had an influence on Dylan's songwriting. Raeben was the son of Shalom Aleichem, one of my favorite writers and the author of the stories which "Fiddler on the Roof" were based on.
There is a theory that pictures of the Beatles are hidden in the tree on the cover of the "John Wesley Harding" album.
Some good lines, In a discussion of Dylan's many girlfriends during his Jesus freak years. "Now a believer, Dylan seemed strangely unconversant with the seventh commandment."
Some bad lines. In discussing his affair with a black woman, "Nor was Dennis the only duskier dame to share his bed."
I will stop here. This is a big grab bag of Dylan stuff. Parts of it drag. Parts of it is great stories. Dylan, at the middle of it, remains mysterious and elusive. I enjoyed the book.
November 27, 2023
Pompous author, dull book.
October 24, 2023
Despicable Dylan
Two things first: Bob Dylan is a genius (erratic but unarguable) and Clinton Heylin, warts and all, is his biographer. Trained as a historian, Heylin excels at digging where no (sane) man has gone before. He literally has read everything there is to read by and about Dylan (Tulsa Archives) Heylin has written a mammoth part 2 (800+ pages) to his 2021 part 1 (450) that covered till mid- 1966. He covers the Dylan tale in every year and every decade, to reveal Dylan as an insecure, belligerent, demented (the Jesus obsession) man with terrible issues with women (one after another ad infinitum) but who lives to work. He may be the most unlikable man in music alive today.
Dylan is an insecure, jealous music God (his condescension towards Bruce Springsteen is one of his ridiculous stances), who belittles people, stands aloof, uses people, steals like a thief, etc. He does have some redeeming features, like he has written dozens of amazing songs (and dross), recorded in peculiar ways (no headphones, live as can be, etc) rejecting the plastic ways of most if not all of his contemporaries. He is fearless, ambitious and constantly changing but remaining himself, for good and bad. Heylin spells out his foibles, criticises his lack of judgement, Heylin spewing forth his views like Linda Blair vomiting green bile. It is annoying but he is entitled. I have read half a dozen of his Dylan books and they all stand head and shoulders above other critics (as he himself says) because no one has ever done the work required to decipher Dylan - until now. I think Dylan is bi-polar and needed medication in the mid-sixties and certainly had more than one nervous breakdown, especially in his awful Jesus years. Yet Heylin loves the music from this extended nervous breakdown and having been inspired by this book, I have listened to some of it - and damn, some of it is outstanding.
Brilliant, but you have to be insane to read it all - and even crazier to have written this and its predecessor.
Two things first: Bob Dylan is a genius (erratic but unarguable) and Clinton Heylin, warts and all, is his biographer. Trained as a historian, Heylin excels at digging where no (sane) man has gone before. He literally has read everything there is to read by and about Dylan (Tulsa Archives) Heylin has written a mammoth part 2 (800+ pages) to his 2021 part 1 (450) that covered till mid- 1966. He covers the Dylan tale in every year and every decade, to reveal Dylan as an insecure, belligerent, demented (the Jesus obsession) man with terrible issues with women (one after another ad infinitum) but who lives to work. He may be the most unlikable man in music alive today.
Dylan is an insecure, jealous music God (his condescension towards Bruce Springsteen is one of his ridiculous stances), who belittles people, stands aloof, uses people, steals like a thief, etc. He does have some redeeming features, like he has written dozens of amazing songs (and dross), recorded in peculiar ways (no headphones, live as can be, etc) rejecting the plastic ways of most if not all of his contemporaries. He is fearless, ambitious and constantly changing but remaining himself, for good and bad. Heylin spells out his foibles, criticises his lack of judgement, Heylin spewing forth his views like Linda Blair vomiting green bile. It is annoying but he is entitled. I have read half a dozen of his Dylan books and they all stand head and shoulders above other critics (as he himself says) because no one has ever done the work required to decipher Dylan - until now. I think Dylan is bi-polar and needed medication in the mid-sixties and certainly had more than one nervous breakdown, especially in his awful Jesus years. Yet Heylin loves the music from this extended nervous breakdown and having been inspired by this book, I have listened to some of it - and damn, some of it is outstanding.
Brilliant, but you have to be insane to read it all - and even crazier to have written this and its predecessor.
December 7, 2024
So let's start with positives. You are unlikely to come across a more well researched book on Dylan than this one and the author seems to have trusted access to a lot of Dylan material that allows him to give real insight - I think - into Dylan from his methodology to crafting his lyrics and songs, to sheer number of musicians he has worked with over the decades, to his life beset by fame and its consequences -copious alcohol and drug consummtion. Heylin also doesn't shy away from the warts and all aspect of Dylan's life and work - his industrial scale plagarism of songs and texts as well as his appalling treatment of women in his life. For that it is a four star verging on five star read ...however
Despite calling out Dylan on some of his more reprehensible behaviour and actions Heylin seems all too willing to forgive this 'genius' anything. Which leads to a real litany of decrying any other musical contemporaries so everyone else tries things but Dylan does it better and is the only one to get it. This is expecially the case where Springsteen is concerned for both Dylan and the author. The sneering comments from both about Springsteen -that runs throughout the whole book sems to belie an insecurity. Indeed boths Dylan's and the author's thoughts on 'Born in the USA' show how little they understood the Boss and that album and why he deliberately pulled it from concerts in the USA. As for Dylan's treatment of women it is surprising that he managed to remain married for 12 years to his wife Sara. Then of course there is the born again evangelical epiphany that Dylan had and this is well documented here and highlights how deep he drank of that particular kool-aid.
Despite all the flaws of the author -borderline arrogance at times- this is still a book very well worth reading if you have even the slightest interest in Dylan.
Despite calling out Dylan on some of his more reprehensible behaviour and actions Heylin seems all too willing to forgive this 'genius' anything. Which leads to a real litany of decrying any other musical contemporaries so everyone else tries things but Dylan does it better and is the only one to get it. This is expecially the case where Springsteen is concerned for both Dylan and the author. The sneering comments from both about Springsteen -that runs throughout the whole book sems to belie an insecurity. Indeed boths Dylan's and the author's thoughts on 'Born in the USA' show how little they understood the Boss and that album and why he deliberately pulled it from concerts in the USA. As for Dylan's treatment of women it is surprising that he managed to remain married for 12 years to his wife Sara. Then of course there is the born again evangelical epiphany that Dylan had and this is well documented here and highlights how deep he drank of that particular kool-aid.
Despite all the flaws of the author -borderline arrogance at times- this is still a book very well worth reading if you have even the slightest interest in Dylan.
September 21, 2024
Through intense research and denunciation of other writers Heylin has positioned himself the prime Dylanologist, the ‘Mark Lewisohn� of the Dylan world. However, unlike Lewisohn, Heylin’s tendency towards acerbic and sometimes flippant writing, somewhat undermines it. That’s not to say it’s not entertaining - it is- but it’s also sometimes downright odd. To cover 50 years of Dylan is a Herculean task, and this is sprawling read (took me exactly 4 months), which covers certain periods very well (the 80s) while other periods feel lacking (Basement Tapes). It does beg the question why we needed a whole chapter on his 80s girlfriends, and the coverage of ‘Cookey� is greater than that of Sara, presumably because Heylin actually knew Cookey. His access to the Tulsa archives is advantageous and gives granular detail on the notes for songs, which is interesting (to an extent) and the quotations and sheer amount of research is amazing. But the sometimes flippancy of the writing and opinions are entertaining but puzzling (was Blood on the Tracks really ‘fucked up royally�?!). This is a near 4 star, but not quite, maybe doing this a three volume may have got it there.
February 11, 2025
Acabo de terminar el 2do volumen de esta última y monumental biografÃa de Dylan por Clinton Heylin - 1200+ páginas entre los dos. Hago estas cosas por voluntad propia. Heylin es mordaz pero rara vez injusto, y su relación con Dylan (con quien nunca habló) más compleja que un romance de Dostoyevsky. Después de semejante lectura, ¿entiendo mejor a Dylan, o la vida? Quizás sÃ, quizás no, pero la integridad conque la obra fue abordada (en el vol.2 hay más de 30 páginas sólo de fuentes) y los estándares impuestos a la música en una época de indiferencia comparten la naturaleza desafiante del mismo Dylan - y cierto atisbo de lo heroico.
Ahora, ¿qué sigue?
Ahora, ¿qué sigue?
January 30, 2025
Despite Heylin's snark to other writers on Bob, and his questionable critical opinions-- apart from a
number of live performances, he doesn't seem to like much of anything Dylan has done since John Wesley Harding (in any medium: music, film, literature, art). Still, this 1,500 page, double volume/double life is probably the most definitive account of Bob's life we're likely to get.
Until he revises/updates it when the inevitable day comes...
number of live performances, he doesn't seem to like much of anything Dylan has done since John Wesley Harding (in any medium: music, film, literature, art). Still, this 1,500 page, double volume/double life is probably the most definitive account of Bob's life we're likely to get.
Until he revises/updates it when the inevitable day comes...
July 14, 2024
There’s a good book in there�
Could have benefited from some serious editing , a decent biography but too much detail , eg. on the songs ( which has been documented on in great detail already) than on the man
Could have benefited from some serious editing , a decent biography but too much detail , eg. on the songs ( which has been documented on in great detail already) than on the man
December 30, 2024
A must-read for Bob Dylan fans, offering peeks into his private life that above all make you realize how little we actually know about the man himself and providing a really insightful perspective on the creative and less creative periods in his career. Two drawbacks: the author is too eager to detail how other authors were wrong in their assumptions about recordings and is much too absolute in his judgments about particular albums and songs.
December 6, 2023
The second volume in Clinton Heylin's reappraisal of Dylan's career following his access to the Tulsa archive of Dylan material. This book brings us as up to date as we can be in Dylan's career as of 2023
These two volumes build on his earlier biography "Behind the Shades" and clearly what you get here is even more detail. Of particular interest for the reader from Heylin's access to the archive is the evolution of studio sessions and Dylan's creative processes. We get some insight into the evolution of song lyrics from Heylin's examination of contemporary notes that Dylan wrote as each song took shape, and how this translated (or didn't) into the recording sessions.
Heylin's body of research is both intensive and impressive. It is only marred slightly by his judgements on other writers on the subject, as he challenges their findings and calls out some of the inaccuracies in facts. Does he really need to do this so gleefully?
Taken as a pair these volumes probably represent the best research available into the life and times of Dylan. Whether they come close in giving us a true portrait of the man, is of course and entirely different matter.
These two volumes build on his earlier biography "Behind the Shades" and clearly what you get here is even more detail. Of particular interest for the reader from Heylin's access to the archive is the evolution of studio sessions and Dylan's creative processes. We get some insight into the evolution of song lyrics from Heylin's examination of contemporary notes that Dylan wrote as each song took shape, and how this translated (or didn't) into the recording sessions.
Heylin's body of research is both intensive and impressive. It is only marred slightly by his judgements on other writers on the subject, as he challenges their findings and calls out some of the inaccuracies in facts. Does he really need to do this so gleefully?
Taken as a pair these volumes probably represent the best research available into the life and times of Dylan. Whether they come close in giving us a true portrait of the man, is of course and entirely different matter.
December 28, 2023
Interesting factoids regarding Bob, Heylin's commitment and research capacity are evident, but could do with a bit of humility.
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