Chronicles, Volume 1
by Bob Dylan
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Book Reviews of Chronicles, Volume 1
Book Review: Not "autobiography", but essential for even casual fans
Summary: 5 Stars
So the man has finally gotten around to writing about himself in prose, and you're thinking of grabbing this, the first fruit. A few remarks are in order, then, to help you decide whether to shell out the bucks. First I want to banish some possible misconceptions (ones I had and you very well might share); then I'll take a longer view of the book and tell you why I think it's worth five stars.
First, it's not an autobiography in the usual sense of the word. Sure, Bob is writing about himself and what he's done, but time flows freely forward and back and the subject changes (sometimes radically) every few paragraphs. He doesn't indulge in much self-justification, he doesn't try to chart a distinct arc of personal development, and it's not rare for him to start down a detour that screams for more exploration and then to turn the bus around. The comparison to X-Ray, the autobiography of Ray Davies of the Kinks, isn't entirely justified -- I don't think Dylan fictionalized much -- but Chronicles is closer in spirit to that than to more conventional rock autobiographies.
Second, Dylan lets you into his mind but he doesn't much open his heart. Suze Rotolo is the subject of some lyrical reminiscence, for instance, but their relationship is kept very abstract -- maybe he's protecting her privacy, I don't know. He talks about his love for his wife and kids at length in the "New Morning" chapter, but they never even show up as characters! His second (?) wife does show up in the "Oh Mercy" chapter, but she remains nameless and faceless. The only emotions Bob really describes are awe for his idols in his early days and frustration and loathing for himself in the "Oh Mercy" period.
Third, and finally, don't overestimate how much ground it covers. At 293 pages, the book is short; the font and the large amount of whitespace padding make 293 pages sound longer than it is. I read the book in just about five hours of reading, and much of that time my pace was leisurely. The content is pretty rigidly circumscribed, too: the first, second, and last chapters cover his early life and career, in Minnesota and in New York (1949-62); the third and fourth his "New Morning" (1969-70) and "Oh Mercy" (1988-89) periods, respectively. There's only a handful of anecdotes that fall outside those ranges.
One brief, nitpicky comment before I praise the book: Dylan needed a better proofreader than he got. I know he missed at least one deadline with the manuscript and probably more, and so publication was likely something of a rush-job, but he has a tendency to use words whose meanings elude him ("incredulously" instead of "incredibly" -- facts don't tend to be credulous), and a sharp set of eyes should have caught them in a once-over. The grammar, on the other hand, is better than some have given him credit for. On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if awe of the man stood in the way of proper proofing.
Anyhow, my three corrections to misconceptions could be taken as negatives. If it's got these problems, you might say, why is it worth five stars? My answer to that is that the man has a way with words, and just 'cause he won't be tamed by chronology & word choice & all that jazz doesn't mean that his recollections aren't delightful.
The book doesn't resemble a chronological biography so much as a Jim Jarmusch movie, a collection of short anecdotes tied together with a declarative sentence here or an interrogatory paragraph there. Dylan, who's rapidly turning into everybody's favorite dubious grandpa, full of funny stories and odd ways of looking at the world, sheds light on his influences, his contemporaries, and his colleagues that are alternately revealing, funny, incisive, and patronizing, but always entertaining. The anecdotal approach he's chosen couldn't be better suited to his personality or even his view of life (after all, Louie the King, Georgia Sam, and God shared the same song). For sheer entertainment value, Volume One of Chronicles slays the rest of the Dylan bookshelf.
Postscript: there's a six-song companion CD available for free from some retailers with two unreleased songs ("The Cuckoo" from the Gaslight and the original demo of "Dignity") and four released tracks from "New Morning" and "Oh Mercy" ("New Morning", "Father of Night", "Man in the Long Black Coat", and "Political World"). Keep your eyes out.
Book Review: The Education of Bob Dylan
Summary: 5 Stars
Since misplaced expectations seem to be a problem with some of the reviewers here (hasn't that always been Bob Dylan's fate?) perhaps a more accurate title for this book would be "The Education of Bob Dylan". It describes how Dylan formed his artistic sensibility and found his unique creative voice, and then nearly lost it. It is a remarkable book; yes, I think it is an American classic. Some reviewers here complain that the book is random and without structure. Not so--it starts with the acquiring of inspiration, how the excesses of fame nearly destroy it, then the harrowing process of rebuilding the creative process in the late 1980s. At the end of the book it has returned to Dylan's roots, geographically to the Minnesota of his childhood and youth, and musically to the blues, R&B, country and early Rock and Roll. Throughout, the book is unmistakably Dylan: lyrical, evocative, visually acute, poetic, idiosyncratic, humorous and yes, sometimes contradictory, clumsy and ungrammatical. Why would anyone expect otherwise? Why would anyone want it otherwise?
As a historian I especially treasure Dylan's heartfelt love of and vast knowledge of American music. I think one of Dylan's great contributions in his career is his connecting popular music to this incredible cultural legacy (see Greil Marcus's "Invisible Republic"). Some of the reviews complain about his 'name dropping", but I loved hearing about all the musical greats who influenced him (not to mention the stuff he was reading. We knew about Rimbaud, etc., but microfiche of Civil War era newspapers?!). Far from arrogant, his discussions of his fellow musicians are filled with affection, awe and gratitude. Many of the people he mentions are nearly unknown now, or have always been obscure; good for Dylan for bringing them to our attention. There is a very eloquent review on this page (currently about #100). The young man who wrote the review was born after Dylan's early period of great fame. He barely knew who Dylan was; he had never heard of Jack Kerouac. Now he is searching out all these names that Dylan mentions, reading these authors, listening to the music Dylan listens to. This new fan asks "who has bothered to focus on what it means to be an American?" Bob Dylan has; he's one of our great ones.
I can understand that people who don't know or appreciate Dylan's music might not like this book, or might be puzzled by it. What mystifies me are the purported fans who panned the book. For one, some people seem not to have seen the "Vol. One" part of the title. And what true Dylan would want or expect a traditional, linear, heavily edited, blow by blow biography? What have they been listening to all these years? Have they ever read Kerouac, Ginsberg, or even Walt Whitman? Some seem to want Dylan to explain his great songs to them. They remind me of those clueless reporters that Dylan spars with in his famous mid-sixties interviews. Shouldn't a Dylan fan know that Dylan is not going to explain his songs for you? The songs are what we make of them. The handful of reviewers who dismiss the book as quickie "make a buck" job are only revealing their own cynicism. That book would be the one where he tells how it felt to get stoned with the Beatles, why he was so mean to Joan Baez in the '65 UK tour, just what drugs was he doing in the electric '66 tour, how many groupies he screwed, etc. That's the book that a lot of people wanted, and then these same reviewers could bash Dylan for writing the typical, sensationalistic, sex,drugs and rock & roll biography. Do they think Dylan wins easy brownie points with his fans with his sympathetic portrayal of Frank Sinatra Jr, or revealing his liking for Barry Goldwater? Really, can anyone wonder why Dylan has such an ambiguous relationship with his fans?
Instead of the usual Rock&Roll biography, Bob Dylan has given us a window into the mind and creative process of a great artist, and provided us with a wonderful evocation of mid-twentieth century America on the cusp of a huge cultural transition. That Dylan is still conflicted over his own role in that transition is part of his fascination. Why anyone who loves his music could find this unsatisfactory is beyond me. I think he has given us a real gift with this book. I can't wait for Volume II. Thanks Bob.
Book Review: Dylan bares more than you think...
Summary: 5 Stars
Dylan never courted popularity. Even when it engulfed him in the 1960s he seemed suspicious of it and treated it like some kind of dreaded monster. He wanted to be a musician, true, but he didn't want to be a leader or a figurehead for a movement. Many wanted him to take the ropes and lead them... somewhere.
So it should come as no surprise that Dylan's "memoir" - if it can be called that - doesn't bow down to his fan's desires. He tells the stories that are important to him in an intimate way. The writing style reads almost stream of conscience with lots of interesting diversions and sidenotes straddling the main stories. His style itself is down-to-earth, ultra-conversational, incredibly readable, and at times reads as though the words spilled from his head to the page.
Some fans, not all fans, may be disappointed by the subject matter Dylan chose to focus on. Of his vast repertoire, "Chronicles Volume 1" talks in detail about only two albums: "New Morning" and "Oh Mercy". Of these two, only "Oh Mercy" gets an entire dedicated chapter, with detailed explication of the song writing and recording of the album. Most of his albums receive little or no mention.
So what is "Chronicles Volume 1" about? It's more about Dylan himself. He talks about things that may surprise fans such as the impression an old man made on him outside of New Orleans, or the way he tried to counter his image as "Messiah" or "Saviour". The latter comprises the most fascinating parts of the book. Dylan outright shows disdain for being summoned as the "spokesperson for a generation." He didn't want the title, and didn't think he or anyone else deserved it, but especially himself. He tells horrifying stories about break-ins to his house, protesters marching outside his house calling him to action, and other musicians asking him impossible questions such as "where are you taking the scene next, Bob?" He explains the evasion of this status as one reason he experimented musically. Though he doesn't mention it by name, the album "Nashville Skyline" gets presented as a huge musical shift mostly to divert the public from thinking that he's a political or revolutionary leader of some sort. He even briefly mentions 1970's "Self-Portrait" (though again not by name) as a further effort in this direction. Dylan writes these stories, remarkably, in a way that anyone can identify with. Though most of us are not rock stars, we can identify with privacy and family issues. Dylan amazingly situates his stories from these angles and makes them accessible to almost anyone.
Dylan also talks about his upbringing in Hibbing, Minnesota. The town itself isn't mentioned until almost the end of the book, though. Hibbing is still a small town, and Dylan's boyhood house still stands there (years ago I knew a girl who used to date a boy who lived in that same house; she said they'd receive visitors day and night asking to see "Bob's old room" - as though they were on a pilgrimage). He gives lots of details about his upbringing and his first bands (which keep getting stolen away), and ultimately his move to Minneapolis and then to New York City.
The book begins and ends with parallel stories about John Hammond, who signed Dylan to his first Columbia contract. Dylan also discusses the folk scene in New York City, how he got his gig at the Gaslight, and the numerous other famous people he met before he himself was famous. Woody Guthrie plays a large part in the book, not only the obvious influence, but the times Dylan went to visit Guthrie in the hospital. There is a detailed explanation of Dylan's main early influences: Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, and a musical number known as "Pirate Jenny". All of these influences together convinced him to write his own songs (something he never thought he'd do).
Overall, "Chronicles Volume 1" offers an intimate glimpse into Bob Dylan. A lot appears that fans won't expect. It's not in any way a typical rock star's autobiography, and that's a great thing. A must read for Dylan fans or anyone curious about him. Likely, "Chronicles Volume 1" will go down as another amazing work of Bob Dylan, a very reluctant musical legend of our time.
Book Review: Portrait of the artist
Summary: 5 Stars
Chronicles, Volume One
Bob Dylan
Dylan has always had a lot to say in his songs. Perhaps the most esteemed songwriter of his generation, Bob Dylan was famously guarded about details of his personal life. Many have tried to unmask him through books, films and interviews, but he has been an elusive subject. Thus, the publishing of an autobiography holds the tantalizing possibility of providing a window into the private life and intimate details of the one-time Robert Zimmerman of Hibbing, Minnesota. And details there are, aplenty. He seems to remember every piece of furniture and window covering in every room he stayed in during the early `60s. But the things people usually seek in a celebrity bio...the triumphs, the tragedies, the romance...are nearly absent. In its place, Dylan has painstakingly charted the development of a singular style and revealed a creative process that continues to evolve to this day. And in so doing, he reveals more about himself by deconstructing his art than would ever have been provided by a more conventional tell-all.
The book's five long chapters skip about in time, fast-forwarding from the Woodstock era to a late `80s album recorded in New Orleans to his earliest days in Greenwich Village...as he evolves from a Woody Guthrie imitator to the "voice of a generation," a term Dylan never wanted anything to do with. The prose style bounces around from attempts to sound like a novel writer ("I cast an embracing glance over the primordial landscape") to the rapid-fire, kaleidoscopic wordplay that one might expect from a familiarity with his songs. His eye for details can describe the inventory of a quirky Mississippi Delta store and yet fail to mention how he met his wife, whom he never addresses by name. He admits to an admiration for Barry Goldwater. The contrasts are jarring...just when he seems to be shedding light on something, he shape-shifts into something else.
But page by page, a rhythm develops, and the style sheds its mannerisms and begins to make sense. A compelling account of the recording of "Oh Mercy" in New Orleans with legenedary moodmeister Daniel Lanois is stunning in its insight into the creative process of working with songs...some cooperative, some not...in a studio fashioned out of a Victorian house in New Orleans' Garden District. Meditations on the nature of place, whether it's Minnesota or Greenwich Village, are illuminating. And his breathless account of the arrival of another piece of his personal creative puzzle in describing the art of modernist artist Red Grooms is spellbinding:
"He incorporated every living thing into something and made it scream - everything side by side created equal - old tennis shoes, vending machines, alligators that crawled through sewers, dueling pistols, the Staten Island Ferry and Trinity Church, 42nd Street, profiles of skyscrapers. Brahman bulls, cowgirls, rodeo queens and Mickey Mouse heads, castle turrets and Mrs. O'Leary's cow, creeps and greasers and weirdos and grinning, bejeweled nude models, faces with melancholy looks, blurs of sorrow - everything hilarious but not jokey...subconsciously, I was wondering if it was possible to write songs like that."
Dylan closes the book by returning to his roots...both literally and musically. Lovingly remembered vignettes of growing up in Minnesota are interspersed with heartfelt tributes to the legends that informed his work...Woody Guthrie, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Robert Johnson...and sharp observations of the things that made each of them a legend, and what Dylan could incorporate into his own style. And though the book may be short on kiss-and-tell stories, the portrait that emerges is one of a vital artist trying to make sense of the world around him, and through his songs, reveal its meaning to the rest of us.
Since the title is Chronicles, Volume One, it can only be assumed that there's more where that came from. And it seems totally in character for Dylan to reveal only part of it at a time.
Book Review: A glimpse at Robert's toolbox, not his laundry.
Summary: 5 Stars
There have been countless books (Amazon has 250-300) written about his life which have focused on all aspects of his life. Colleges and universities have classes surrounding the meaning of some of his songs.
He wrote the soundtrack to a generation and has been labelled all kinds of things. He's a legend (but dismisses being "the voice of a generation") but doesn't want to be put in a museum just yet. He's still out there doing what he always wanted to do. If anything, the Bob Dylan he wanted to be is the one who is out there today touring relentlessly.
I don't see Dylanologists particularly caring for this book because they want it all. It's not a book that you need the Dylan Secret Decoder Ring for. It's very straightforward. But as with most autobiographies, a lot is either taken out altogether or toned down to protect the living. Or will be included later on...
The book takes places at different times and ends up more or less where it started, and has the feel of having a conversation (or a car ride) where the conversation might veer off in different directions, and eventually comes back to where he started, in this case, New York City. An old photo of Times Square featured on the front cover, an early 60s photo of Dylan is on the back.
You learn that a 5 second encounter with wrestler Gorgeous George is as much an influential figure in his life as Woody Guthrie was (although he mentions very little about his own interest in boxing) You see him trying to get out of 2 significant "slumps" in his life (1968 and 1987) to make a comeback/reinvention, and the "Oh Mercy" sessions that he'd have critical acclaim with, shows Dylan testing everyone's nerves including finding confidence in what he was doing again. To me, this chapter was the most revealing out of anything else in the book. It's something that will make you want to go to the music store and pick that CD up (and Time Out of Mind, which was by far his best recording in a long time).
He also got to hear Robert Johnson's music (from Albert Hammond Jr.) long before Eric Clapton's own obsession in a few years when the name would cause puzzled looks from his peers. He would hear some things in songs that others didn't pick up on.
You see him encounter early critics of his music and style in Minneapolis and trying to find his own voice as well as the building blocks of turning a midwestern kid named Bobby Zimmerman from a small town in Minnesota into the persona known as Bob Dylan, and trying to find a balance between the two over the years. You see him studying countless influences and picking things up, taking them apart, and putting them back together again in a way he could do them.
But you also see him taking his midwestern background and putting it to his advantage (not unlike Johnny Carson who was able to relate to everyone yet kept his own personal life far away from the limelight), taking apart some of the pretentiousness and ridiculousness of urban life, or taking something out of today's headlines and putting them to a centuries old style of music, or taking something from the past and making it sound modern.
He doesn't go deep into his relationships although you learn that his girlfriend in the early 60s is related to Alan Lomax, Joan Baez is as important if not more so than he is and explains why, and that he felt it important to keep his family as far away from the spotlight as possible (even though one is in the Wallflowers and the other is a film and music video director). Maybe some more blanks will be filled in with Martin Scorsese's documentary on Dylan.
Overall, it's an enjoyable book worth reading that's over before you know it. It's not a "songwriting 101" or a tell-all, but
a lot of tools of his trade are in there, but like a magician or performer, he's not going to give all his secrets away. But hopefully he'll write more and take us on more journeys with him through his chronicles.