Chronicles, Volume 1
by Bob Dylan
|
List Price: Our Price: $17.49 You Save: $6.51 (27%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.08 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Chronicles, Volume 1
Book Review: So much for enigmas
Summary: 5 Stars
When I was in college back in the mid-1960s, I remember a piece in the student newspaper that sought to explain the new folk music phenomenon Bob Dylan. I wish I had a copy of that story today, just to see how it matches up with the man revealed in Dylan's new autobiography, Chronicles Volume One.
My dim recollection is that the sophomoric student article painted Dylan as an inscrutable eccentric trickster, deep yet elusive.
That's pretty much the general impression I've had of Dylan since I first heard him around 1964 or '65. And, of course, I thought of him as the conscience and voice of my generation.
Well, it turns out that he's neither, as least not in the way most of us thought.
Dylan, in his own words, comes across as a regular guy who just wanted to do his job and go home to his family without being hassled by every freak and geek who imagined him to be the new Messiah.
In a recent radio interview on NPR - the first he's given in my memory - he's asked if he ever thinks about walking away from music.
"Every day," is his comeback.
The book reveals a devoted family man who has spent much of his life plugging away at his craft and trying to shield himself and his loved ones from the glare of offstage attention.
The further I went in the book, the most shared impressions and cultural perceptions I discovered. I became a grandfather earlier this year and have been wrestling with the idea and its implications of advancing age and life changes. I feel a whole lot better about it now that I know Dylan owns a "World's Greatest Grandpa" bumper sticker.
Oddly enough, many of us thought of him as the voice of our generation while at the same time seeing him as detached and set apart from the rest of us.
It turns out that he's much more one of us than we realized and it's probably more accurate to think of him as the voice of every generation, whether they know it or not.
This is an invaluable book because it demystifies Dylan and blows away all of that "mad genius" stuff that has swirled around him for 40 years.
My son, who owns a recording studio, is getting this book for his birthday this year for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the chapter on working with producer Daniel Lanois in New Orleans.
I find maybe two books a year that I just can't put down. This is one of those books.
Book Review: "Birth is an Invasion of Privacy"
Summary: 5 Stars
A book filled with deep-etched faces, powerful voices, strange turns of the corner, hilarity, sadness, and surprise. Dylan's resistance to self-voyeurism enables him to cast the light onto others, characters as memorable as I've found in print. Like Ray and Chloe with whom B lives in NY (or stays with--he's never clear about the banalities like who splits rent with whom). We discover their library (and the inside of the books as narrated through Dylan's life), their proverbs, their worries (some of which send Dylan to the NY Public Library to read Civil War era papers convinced that the Civil War is haunting everyone around). Here are people living their lives and thinking at the same time; a world at odd with the way thinking is supposed to be parcelled off from living. And New York itself as a universe, a dance, a dark symbol, and a mystery, and yet another amazing person. And later Dylan works back to those he played music with in Minnesota, and the Gothic dourman Pankake who makes it his mission to tell BD he's no Guthrie.
Then Dylan hides from crazed hordes who would proclaim him prophet, redeemer, and soul of a generation, who want to climb all over his house, and move in with him, kick him out of bed and drink his beer). The high point here is David Crosby's pithy comment on the honorary degree ceremony at Princeton (recounted by BD with a poignant honesty all around). I won't spoil it by giving it away here.
Finally BD drives out into the New Orleans countryside and stops at an offroad museum run by a man named Sun Pie. Here are ten pages of brilliant, bizarre, strange discoveries. And for those who have the lyrics to "Highlands" "Love and Theft" or "Things Have Changed" in their brain, there is a whole other level of appreciation.
After Ray and Chloe, Sun Pie, Bertold Brecht's Pirate Jenny who calls out destruction all around, the sad Archibald Macleish, Robert Johnson as debated by BD and Dave Van Ronk, BD's grandmother (always remember everyone is fighting a hard battle)-- to mention only a few of the moments in this book that have become like old friends I could talk about forever-- I came away amazed and already sad the last page was turned; like leaving the concert hall at the end of BD's inspired November 2000 concert in Philadelphia.
Book Review: Dylan Tip-Toes Through a Life
Summary: 3 Stars
To put it bluntly, the only thing missing from "Chronicles, Vol 1" was Bob Dylan, the person. The book goes into what reads like a tribute to his highly-detailed memory of prominant musicians of the time, as well as his prolific reading habits; dropping the names and works of more famous authors than most literate people could possibly read in a lifetime. He has a way of conveying all of this quite casually, which comes off as self-aggrandizement. Great. I admire literate people. I also liked his choice of works, and agreed with his assessment of Dylan Thomas' style being somewhat self-indulgent and flowery. But the only insight I got into Dylan, himself, was a comment at the beginning of the book, wherein he characterized himself as "polite, but not overly friendly." This is the tone of the entire book. Reading "Chronicles" is like watching a movie that hasn't yet hit the editing room. It jumps randomly from scene to scene, past to future...and back again...like a stream-of-consciousness style rumination of things past. Unfortunately, it doesn't commit the author to any of it. He is just an observer. I learned far more about the people in his life than I did about him. His observations were razor-sharp and the characters flush with life...but still no Dylan. In a way, it felt quite purposeful; keeping himself shrouded in a kind of mythic fog. I suspect that he wanted his work to speak for him so that he wouldn't have to put himself on the line. Perhaps this was the only way he was able to communicate his feelings while keeping everyone guessing. This way Bob Dylan, the icon, is just a breath away from the man, which is the closest that some people ever care to get to the molton core of intimacy. 'See my work, see me' was the message. Well, okay, but everyone is human, mortal, flawed. No Gods here. Not even Dylan. This symbolic reality has blurry edges and doesn't tie anyone down to anything. It keeps the intimacy at a distance and his life on a pedestal. The bottom line is, if you want to know what life was like in Greenwich Village 35 years ago, this reads like a virtual live-cam set up on Bleeker Street. What I wanted to know was, what it FELT like being who he was and how those feelings MADE him BOB DYLAN. Don't get me started...
Book Review: To have been a genius
Summary: 5 Stars
Bob Dylan is not like the rest of us. After his first albumn of folk songs, he released a series of albums which contain some of the most brilliant writing ever. Song after song on albumn after albumn have become so infused into our culture that virtually everyone knows not only one or two, but dozens. His songs became the soundtrack to the youth revolution of the 60's, the Civil Rights movement (or at least part of it), and the anti-war (VietNam) movement. He was widely held out as the spokesman for a generation. Every major song writer since (think, Bruce Springstein)has been called the "new" Dylan.
Yet, as is apparent from this book, Dylan really is like the rest of us. He grew up in small town Minnesota. Struggled to find his voice, made a crappy deal to get recorded. Got married, had kids, moved to the suburbs.
The tension between these two Dylan's is what comes through in Chronicles. He recognizes (in a very understated way) how amazing his out put was over the first decade. He admits to intentionally sabotaging hisimage with the release of Self-Portrait...in an attempt to shed the burdens of fame, stardom, and generational spokesperson (people breaking into his family home to pay homage to the idol would drive anyone to tank their careers.
And Dylan also recognizes that he never again has (and probably never will) wirte like he did for the first few years. As he explains in Chronicles, he had a "special connection", which is so rare, and so direct, that he can not understand it himself. Connection to what? Dylan never explains. God or faith generally? Maybe, Dylan seems to hint. Society and its own tensions? Dylan strongly thinks so--largely based on his combination of living an ordinary life, steeping himself in the classics of fiction, and learning every authentic folk song he could get a hold of. Some combination of these? That may be the reason for the power of his songs.
To have had that power, and then to not. Can any of us understand the feeling? The power of Chronicles is that he struggles with this contradiction, and gives us a real insight into what these forces do to a man.
What more can we ask from this generation's greatest poet?
Book Review: Surprising, Mysterious and Colorful Self-Portrait
Summary: 5 Stars
Surprising, pure enjoyment...a fast, breezy read that makes you feel like you're drinking a very fine martini...delectible, heady, reviting,... with a sometimes frigtening, realistic yet inspiring message.
Bob paints a rich, colorful and complex self-portrait with hard-edged, heartfelt portrayals honoring the people who touched him along the way; friends, mentors, books, auhors, poets, musical styles, musicians, the big songs and even random moments where annoynomous people changed his life.
From beginning to end, the bottom line is; its all about folk music. He depicts himself as a person whose entire life was dedicated to folk music; a person who went straight to the source, to the bottom of the well time after time, to learn as much as he could about folk music, about the words, the songs, the song structures, the characters, the meanings...a person who wanted to learn as much as he could about life, history, politics, and this whole crazy world. Apparently, along the way, he developed a giant intellect and became a big thinker.
After reading the book, you'll probably understand why Bob does not consider himself a rebel, or counter-culture leader at all (the media created that). I came away with the impression that he is a classicst whose heart and soul resonates somewhere between the mid 1800's and late 50's.
With single-minded rigor, Bob got to the heart of folk music. By combining enormous dedication, introspection and honesty...he arrived at a new plane of awareness...something powerful and new emerged in his songs. He worked his ass off for it, lost it, found it and it seems even today, he keeps working his tail off for it.
I loved Bob's realism about life. For him it's hard, cold, mysterious and yet heartfelt with no airs, straight up in your face. Born and raised in the "iron range" of Minnesota, you come to understand how "steely" a guy he is.
Congratulations to Bob. He did it! He delivered a very exciting, in depth autobiography without prostituting himself and doing a "tell all." Quite brilliant. Bottom line, you, me and my twenty year old son and his friends, can learn a lot from this book.