Customer Reviews

Bob Dylan: A Biography

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With all due respect to the Village Voice's Toby Thompson, Tony Scaduto got there firstest with the mostest in the Dylan bio sweepstakes. Shelton, Spitz and Heylin built on this foundation. Ms. Ponsonby's claim regarding Dylan's disagreements is belied by his having cooperated at the time. Certainly Scaduto's interpretations are problematic, as are those of his sources; but his information remains undisturbed by his successors in interest. Not to cast it as a substitute for the wilder vintage interviews, no other Dylan book conveys the authentic flavor of the period with anything like Scaduto's journalistic integrity. Still indispensable.

If you are a fan of Dylan, this book gives great insight into the life and times of one of the greatest singer/songwriters of all time. Although the book ends in 1973, and is missing over 20 years of Dylan history it is still a valuable asset to any Dylan fan.

Anthony Scaduto's 1971 biography offers what the title promises: an intimate look at the early career of Bob Dylan. Written at the end of his first decade as a songwriter and recording artist, the book relates Dylan's life from the beginnings in Minnesota and formative years in Greenwich Village through the reclusive period that followed his ascension to fame in the mid-1960s.

The story may be familiar enough now, but Scaduto was the very first to piece it together. Not only was he able to talk with virtually everyone who knew Dylan back then - Rambling Jack Elliott, Dave Van Ronk, Eric von Schmidt, Carolyn Hester, John Hammond (both the producer and his son), Phil Ochs, Eric Andersen, Suze and Carla Rottolo, and Joan Baez - he also tracked down Dylan's friends from his hometown of Hibbing and the scene in Minneapolis's Dinkytown, where Dylan made his debut as a folksinger. Scaduto had something no biographer has since enjoyed: the chance to interview Dylan, who even provided feedback on the manuscript.

Besides being first, Scatudo was thorough. In fact, his book served as the informational template for the many biographies that would follow. Little of any great significance is missing, even when compared with what are widely considered the most complete accounts of Dylan's emergence as a cultural phenomenon, among them, Robert Shelton's No Direction Home, Howard Sounes's Down the Highway and Clinton Heylin's Behind the Shades. Of course, these later works benefit considerably from the decades of subsequent research and analysis. In addition to bringing the story up to date, they offer insights from figures who have since shed new light on the period, most notably, Dylan himself.

Surprisingly, the correctives are relatively minor, unless you care that Robert Zimmerman officially became Robert Dylan on August 2, 1962, and not a week later or that he began his cross-country road trip from Woodstock to New Orleans to Los Angeles on February 3, 1964, and not the day before. Scaduto was also unable to pin down the date of Dylan's arrival in the Village in 1961, which he gives only as "late January." Just the same, he does nail the details on an event many still mistakenly report as having taken place at New Jersey's Greystone Hospital: Dylan's first encounter with the dying Woody Guthrie. The meeting, on January 29, 1961, took place at an apartment in East Orange, where Guthrie spent weekends away from the hospital to be with close friends such as Pete Seeger, Cisco Houston and Rambling Jack. As Dylan's charm and good fortune would have it, he penetrated this hallowed circle within days of arriving in New York City. The exact number - three days - doesn't matter as much.

An issue that does matter is Scaduto's writing, which tends to be perfunctory, a straight reporting of events. Nothing here matches the depth or style of authors like Rolling Stone's Griel Marcus, the Bob Dylan Encyclopedia's Michael Gray or bobdylan.com historian Sean Wilentz. Scaduto nonetheless is an able enough guide, especially in regards to the generous quotations he shares from his interviews, thereby allowing Dylan's intimates to speak at length. Their recollections are not only fresh but as yet unaffected by the legend of the self-schooled troubadour who transformed folk music, then did the same for rock 'n roll. Read the recent, more complete biographies, for sure, but don't overlook Scaduto's indispensible contribution. It's the foundation for the canon that is proving to be, like Dylan's touring, never ending.

this book tells all about the golden era of dylan,before he ever made a bad,indifferent or,worst of all,meaningless record.out of print for years and cherished by fans,it's nice to see this title in print again

Although there are some dubious sources for this work, overall it gives a fascinating insight into the development of the Bob Dylan persona. I wish that someone would write such book following up to the present day. The reader needs to bear in mind that Dylan thought a lot of this book untrue!

This is a real gem of a book, no one can call themselves a Dylan fan without a copy of this on their shelves.This book contains countless interviews with friends,peers and lovers but most importantly it also contains many interviews with Bob Dylan himself- these interviews were conducted by Scaduto.While reading the book you may find extra little bits added to stories that Dylan told Scaduto about.Dylan talks at length about his childhood, his influences, the 60s, and even a little bit about his family!I loved this book and so did Bob Dylan 'I rather enjoyed it, it was very straight and some of it was exactly the way it was'. The only short coming of this book as that it does not reach the present day, the book was published at the dawn of the 70s in the Dylan era.

If you are a fan of Dylan, this book gives great insight into the life and times of one of the greatest singer/songwriters of all time. Although the book ends in 1973, and is missing over 20 years of Dylan history it is still a valuable asset to any Dylan fan.

I read this book back in the mid 1980s, and I still find myself referencing it in discussions and thoughts about Dylan today.

The quote from Phil Ochs on page 255 regarding "Highway 61 Revisited" is the all-time best description of what Dylan is.

Scaduto "gets" Dylan.

Having read the original Scaduto biography of Dylan in hard cover (a 5 star read), I was delighted to find this Kindle version that also contains biographic updates into the 1980s. However, I was very disappointed with the quality of the Kindle conversion. Words with accented letters, such as cliche and deja vu, were corrupted throught the work. And the last couple chapters of the Kindle edition, with the 1980's updates, had dozens of corrupt characters per page in place of apostrophes, quotation marks, etc. What should have been a great read was full of distracting e-flaws. Avoid this Kindle version. Instead, search out a used copy of the original hard or paper editions.

Though it is cleansed and somewhat sanctioned, it is one of the first bios of Dylan. It's age has made it seem quaint, but if you are interested in Dylan it is a must read.