Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan

Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan
by Howard Sounes

Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan
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Book Summary Information

Author: Howard Sounes
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-04-12
ISBN: 0802138918
Number of pages: 544
Publisher: Grove Press

Book Reviews of Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan

Book Review: A Dozen Dark Highways
Summary: 4 Stars

Don't read this book if you want to think Dylan's perfect.

It's a great book, engrossing and thorough, but if you want to read about the perfect mythical Bob, it's not the one you want, babe, it's not the one you need. Check out Martin Scorsese's "No Direction Home" documentary. Or buy any one of the other books by people who were too star-struck or lazy to look behind Dylan's enigmatic masks.

There's certainly enough in Dylan's career, particularly his early years, to justify mindlessly glowing accolades. Musicians usually reach their peak younger than most people, but Dylan's rise was so rapid that even the word "meteoric" doesn't quite do it justice. Like some harmonica-playing Alexander the Great, he had conquered the known world by the age of 25, redefining what was possible, expanding the horizons of all who traveled with him. To his great credit, though, it wasn't all downhill from there; rather, his career richocheted off in a variety of unpredictable directions.

Dylan had a unique talent for zigging when everyone else zagged, and Sounes deftly follows his path through all those twists and turns. When music was ruled by bubble-gum pop, Dylan dared to write about social justice and nuclear holocaust. Folkies then rode his coattails to super-stardom, but by the time they got there, Dylan had moved on again, to introspective and personal songwriting. In the late 60s, when hippies flocked to his neck of the Woodstock for three days of peace and free love, he was a rifle-toting property-owner. In the late 70s, when the music industry found itself awash in cocaine, easy money, and easier women, Dylan became a born-again Christian.

Perhaps the book's greatest strength is that it makes these various perplexing metamorphoses sound not capricious but almost inevitable. Rather than sticking to the relatively straightforward upward trajectory he followed in the early-to-mid Sixties, Sounes takes an honest look at Dylan's dozen (or so) dark highways--the late-Sixties withdrawal from the public eye, the messy relationships, the messy divorces, the conversion to Christianity, the mellowing of that Christianity over time, the long struggle with alcoholism.

Unfortunately, Bob Dylan didn't co-operate with Sounes. I say unfortunately not because I wonder what information might be missing--I say it because the book sometimes takes a breathless, tabloid-ish, you-are-reading-this-for-the-first-time-right-here, me-against-Bob tone. Sounes is evidently proud of his investigative skills, but he's sometimes so busy patting himself on the back that he gets in the way of his own narrative. Dylan's epic battle with manager Albert Grossman, for instance, could have been a compelling, interesting, and surprising turn of events, but like Reuben Carter on a bad day, Sounes telegraphs his punches, vastly diminishing their impact by letting the reader know what's coming.

Still, the book is worth reading, and if you don't mind finding out Bob Dylan has a dark side, you'll be intrigued by Sounes' chronicle of it here. There are better tell-all biographies of Sixties rock icons--James McDonough's Neil Young book "Shakey" was, for my money, more illuminating--but I don't know if there's a better one about Dylan.

Summary of Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan

Based on three years of research, new documentary evidence, and interviews with 250 of Dylan's intimates -- many exclusive -- Down the Highway has gone beyond the scope of other accounts to become the most complete, authoritative biography of Bob Dylan now in print. It was praised by The Orlando Sentinel "for the insights it offers to Dylan at work ... from young upstart to grand old man of rock 'n' roll." Sounes's prodigious research has resulted in new insights on every aspect of Dylan's life. His is the only biography to seriously address the past twenty years of Dylan's life, leading up to the extraordinary recent releases Time Out of Mind and Love and Theft. He has obtained exclusive information to provide the clearest picture yet of Dylan's 1966 motorcycle accident and subsequent "lost years" in Woodstock, New York, and he uncovered the star's unknown second marriage. He gives inside accounts of the tours, the creation of every album and the most celebrated songs, Dylan's labyrinthine love life, his life-threatening heart illness in 1997, and more -- directly from interviews with girlfriends, family, friends, producers, concert promoters, and fellow musicians. Candid, refreshing, and written with a sincere appreciation of Dylan's music and influence, Down the Highway is an essential book for the millions of people who have enjoyed Dylan's music over the years. "Dylan comes alive.... Sounes has added a wealth of new information to Dylan studies." -- Perry Meisel, The New York Times Book Review "Fascinating and finely written." -- Ronald Radosh, The New Republic "Convincing ... [generates] sympathy for an isolated artist." -- Daniel Cooper, The Washington Post Book World "Sounes ... opens new angles on the enigmatic polyhedron that is Dylan.... Monumental." -- Gene Santoro, The Nation " "A portrait of Mr. Dylan that is often unflattering, sometimes puzzling, but, to the author's credit, never sensational." -- Al Brumley, The Dallas Morning News "Engrossing ... fast-moving yet rich in detail ... [Down the Highway] chronicles a remarkable and contradictory artist." -- Carlo Wolff, The Kansas City Star "[This] fast-paced book has a fine interest in details [and is] rich with the observations of new witnesses." -- Sheri Linden, Variety "Irresistible ... What Dylanphile wouldn't want to sift through what Sounes has dug up." -- Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press

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