Rating: 
Summary: Portrait of an Impossible Subject
Review: I'm 53 years old with three kids, a job, and a life-long obsession with Bob Dylan that isn't going away. To this day, his best songs make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. But who is this guy? And where does such extraordinary music come from? Perhaps recognizing that there are never really answers to questions like these, Howard Sounes largely sidesteps them in this excellent new biography, which doesn't pretend to reveal very much about Dylan's mind or the creative wellspring for his work. What the book does succeed at giving us is a thoroughly professional, well-researched and clearly written account of the man's life. Characteristically, Dylan refused to be interviewed, as did, apparently, his immediate family members. However, Mr. Sounes obtained a wealth of material from an array of other people, including childhood and adult friends, lovers, band members, business associates, observers, hangers-on, and the many famous and non-so-famous musicians and singers who have known and worked with Dylan over the course of four decades. Sounes even took in perspectives from individuals referenced in Dylan's songs, like William Zantzinger - the real-life and still-living villain from The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll - and Carla Rotolo, the stigmatized "parasite sister" from Ballad in Plain D. Because he's made a career of fleeing the constraints of identity, Dylan is a resistant subject for biography. Born into a nurturing middle-class Jewish family in small-town Minnesota, Dylan (then Bob Zimmerman), came of age and, following a short time at college, took to the road, and to disguise his embarrassingly conventional roots, invented outlandish myths about himself as a singing orphan hobo. Personally shy, but far less innocent than he appeared, he in fact had an overpowering ambition and confidence in his talent. Heading straight for New York City - the right place at the right time - he quickly "made it" as the angst-ridden folk and social-protest singer we know from his early recordings. He had no sooner achieved fame in this persona than he shed it like a snakeskin, reinventing himself as the seemingly nihilistic rock-and-roll poet who was to help establish the foundation for the emerging 60's counter-culture. However, this too was largely an act, and by the time the world was catching up with him, he had moved on again. At the very peak of the late 1960's cultural revolution in America, when rebellious post-adolescents were reaching out to him as a kind of Messiah, Dylan turned his back again and went conventional, retreating to a reclusive, short-haired, family-oriented lifestyle with his wife Sara and the beginnings of a family that would eventually include five remarkably well-cared-for children. Sounes suggests that this was the least contrived period of Dylan's life and the happiest. However, it wasn't to endure either, and his loving, private relationship with Sara finally broke down in bitterness and divorce. Just as the 60's lost steam and the hippies were cutting their hair and getting jobs, Dylan - forever out of cycle - resumed his scruffy, intense, hip-hillbilly style and hit the road again. His conversion to a kind of fundamentalist Christianity in the late 1970's was the most startling of his metamorphoses, and one which befuddled fans will look to this book in vain for Sounes to shed much light on. The author doesn't disparage it, but doesn't appear to get it either, any more than the fans did. Moreover, he seems to lose touch with his subject to some degree from this point on in the book. But then one gets the sense that Dylan was losing touch with himself too, putting out a series of lackluster albums and abandoning himself to endless and apparently aimless roadtouring and womanizing, not really renouncing his religion so much as back-burning it because it was hurting his career. The biography tries to end on a high note by discussing Time Out of Mind, Dylan's latest release at the time of publication. Receiving critical aclaim, the album indeed displays revived sparks of his old genius, but anyone who has experienced the stark, death-haunted tone that pervades it can't be very cheered by this paradoxical show of vitality. One feels that Sounes is whistling beside the graveyard at the end of his book. I for one believe that the hype that has surrounded Dylan for most his career is justified, and that he will probably be remembered as one of the great artists of the late-twentieth century, whether his work cheers us up or not at this stage of life. While Sounes' book fails to reveal his elusive subject, it is by far the best biographical material about Bob Dylan that has appeared to date, and I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: "If you want somebody you can trust..."
Review: I've heard reviewers saying things like "same stuff". I gotta tell you that I really don't care one iota whether or not it's the "same stuff". We're talking about the most enigmatic and elusive artist of the 20th Century...keep these bios coming!! I'm not saying that I believe everything that Sounes has written here, but he's done a heck of a lot of research and conducted a lot of interviews that unveil a good deal of new information on Dylan's family life, contractual matters, and the fact that he was looking "overweight and pasty" at some point during the late 80's. On the downside, Bob Dylan is like peanut butter cookie dough (speaking of pasty): you can only get so much of him. I must say that I sometimes put this book down thinking that I would not like to meet Bob Dylan (I know he's crying over that too!!). That doesn't mean that I'm not going to listen to his music though. I mean, Bob Dylan's contribution to my life makes Sounes' look like a grain of sand. (But God bless him!!) Do I recommend the bio (even though I still have no clue who Sounes is and how he ever became a Dylan scholar)? Most definately. Just don't let HS tell you what and what not to believe. Dylan didn't let people make his reality. Heck, he was traveling with a carnival through Utah or something right? I would also recommend Heylin's revised biography on the Man.
Rating:
Summary: "If you want somebody you can trust..."
Review: I've heard reviewers saying things like "same stuff". I gotta tell you that I really don't care one iota whether or not it's the "same stuff". We're talking about the most enigmatic and elusive artist of the 20th Century...keep these bios coming!! I'm not saying that I believe everything that Sounes has written here, but he's done a heck of a lot of research and conducted a lot of interviews that unveil a good deal of new information on Dylan's family life, contractual matters, and the fact that he was looking "overweight and pasty" at some point during the late 80's. On the downside, Bob Dylan is like peanut butter cookie dough (speaking of pasty): you can only get so much of him. I must say that I sometimes put this book down thinking that I would not like to meet Bob Dylan (I know he's crying over that too!!). That doesn't mean that I'm not going to listen to his music though. I mean, Bob Dylan's contribution to my life makes Sounes' look like a grain of sand. (But God bless him!!) Do I recommend the bio (even though I still have no clue who Sounes is and how he ever became a Dylan scholar)? Most definately. Just don't let HS tell you what and what not to believe. Dylan didn't let people make his reality. Heck, he was traveling with a carnival through Utah or something right? I would also recommend Heylin's revised biography on the Man.
Rating: 
Summary: lots of useless priceless information
Review: If you want to know how many girls dylan slept with, this is the right book! I am really happy that I borrowed this book from the library, I would have given it away if I had bought it....It says everything about bob dylan except his music....and who cares about bob dylan but for his music?
Rating: 
Summary: The Times they are A-Changin' - not!
Review: Maybe it's the rarefied life that fame brings, maybe it's Sounes's writing, hey - maybe it's me, but I found this book curiously lacking in "Zeitgeist" , or "spirit of the time."
It is the early years that stand out most strongly: Robert Zimmerman's childhood and youth in Duluth, Minn. (the Black Country). Both his musical awakening and his early high school friendships and loves are soaked in 1950s and 1960s atmosphere. Actually, the book is OK through the Apotheosis bit, when Bob reaches the height of his fame.
Thereafter, as it hauls itself from the 60s through to the 90s, it just seems to become a catalogue of concerts and names, which all resonate - I mean, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Madison Square Garden, what more could you want? Personally, I wanted a little more analytical thread between this. Sure it is interesting and readworthy but I felt these could have been connected up better.
Sounes does do well however, with Bob's records and recording sessions. There are abundant fantastic details about the style of songs, Dylan's preoccupations for the lyrics, the session musicians and recording conditions. His account made me want to listen to all the stuff that I don't know.
Rating:
Summary: Volume 20
Review: Some hundred years from now someone will sit down and make a life out of a 20 volume biography of Dylan. Not that he really deserves 20 volumes, but given his timing, talent & able manipulation of the culture, it's inevitable. If he deserves it, it's because his audience was always willing to be manipulated by his talent. If he doesn't deserve it, it's because he deserves an audience more willing to live up to his lifestyle: live what you are. Want to praise the Lord? Go to church. Want to read a great book? Pick up Moby Dick, Ulysses, whatever flips your folio. Want to get some interesting info on the Life & Times of RAZ? This is a human place to start: clear, crisp, as unceremoniously kempt as Bobby was unwashed in the early days. Cherry picked, maybe, & not particularly pretty -- but you should have known that. This picks out the details. Not a Great Lot Of Turgid Prose & Big Heavy Ideas, just the players, the stage & how it all went down to the best of their rememberies. It's history in dusty boots of Spanish vinyl. Face it, some part of Bobby boy is humbug & isn't trying to figure out which part a lot of the fun? Sounes goes some way to outlining the Private Bob, & does so with no apparent bones to pick (unless you believe Great Artists are Immaculate & their detractors doomed to perdition). Read some of the others too, while waiting for the full, authorized 20 volume edition. But this one should be on your short list. Maybe it's damning with faint praise, but there're no major disasters here & it has a fairly light touch with what could easily have been overwrought.
Rating: 
Summary: Positively first rate
Review: The enigmatic, mysterious Bob Dylan: who can really know this guy? Sounes does an excellent job of fleshing out the man behind the music, probably about as good a job as anyone could have done. He balances the personal life of Bob (at least what can be known of his personal life) with his artistic life, and presents a full-bodied, complete picture of the man and the legend. Dylan is a man of contradictions (a born-again Christian who remained sexually promiscuous, a person who would treat people insensitively and then feel badly about it but not enough to apologize, a protest singer who was reluctant to get involved in causes), but that's what makes him Dylan. Although familiar with Dylan's music over the years, plus reading many articles and interviews with him, this is the first book-length biography I have read about him, so I may not have the perspective that others do who have compared this bio to others and have found it lacking, but speaking for myself, I found it fascinating.
Rating:
Summary: His clothes are dirty but his hands are clean
Review: The prologue starts out very gripping, describing Dylan's characterstics which have always been most appealing to me. i.e His walk, his empahsis on words and his long, dirty nails.
It then goes into his family history, which is also interesting and appropiate to understand Bob Dylan himself.
If you you are looking for a day-to-day account of Bob's musical career, this book is not for you. Usually, it is focused on what a big womanizer Bob was, but, hey, we all have our faults. Most of us know about Bob's music and this account does not further that knowledge. It's mostly about his personal life, which is interesting as well.
I loved this book- a real page turner.
'I long to reach for you in the night' is about right for this book!
Rating:
Summary: Nice overview
Review: This books gives you a good overview of Dylan's life. If you are looking for a book about his music or record sessions, this is not the one to get. But if you want to read about his life, including music but also a lot about personal stuff all of which may not be necessarily true (meaning based on interviews of persons who Dylan may have dropped from his life), this warrents your consideration.
Rating:
Summary: A fan writes...
Review: This is a worthy but not spectacular biography. It thoroughly traces Dylan's love-life, recordings, concert tours and activities right up to the tour following Time Out Of Mind, but is less penetrating on the content of his work. The claims this author makes - to have uncovered startling new evidence (in the form of a marriage certificate!!) that Bob Dylan secretly got married in the eighties, are not as interesting as Sounes thinks they are. Down The Highway is well written without being stylish - Sounes is no Greil Marcus or Charles Shaar Murray, and nor does he try to be - but his weakness is that he holds Bob Dylan in the sort of admiring regard which is ok if you're a fan, but irritating if you're a biographer. For example, Sounes spends a lot of time arguing the uncontroversial assertion - almost to the point of being defensive about it - that Dylan really is one of the most culturally significant figures of the 20th century. Now whether you like Dylan or not, his significance as an artist really isn't debatable, so this is wasted energy. Sounes is also prepared to defend, in some way or other, every one of Dylan's albums, despite acknowledging that many in the late seventies and early eighties were critical and commercial failures. A more dispassionate writer might just face facts - Even Bob Dylan is capable of an iredeemably bad record. Again, this is something which the rest of the world would not dispute. For all that, Sounes does catalogue all the nasty and unpleasant things Dylan has done in his life (as well as the nice ones), and while this obviously hasn't affected his opinion of the man, it made sobering reading for me. Mahatma Ghandi Dylan is not. But the most interesting and valuable aspect of Sounes' portrayal was that Dylan never, even in the early days, was particularly political, nor did he consider himself a protest singer. His heroes were the same as everyone else's - Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly - he just happened to like Woody Guthrie too. In the end, in making music Bob Dylan was just trying to make a living - his famous self description as "just a song-and-dance man" may not have been intended as ironically as the world suspected.
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