Customer Reviews

Chronicles: Volume One

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm not an avid reader, but I read this book until I finished it during my spare time and am now opening it randomly and reading whatever I open to. It's fun to hear his take on his view of things vs the views of the rest of the world. He seems quite normal (for one who grew up in the 40's/50's) in his approaches to non-musical life as opposed to the "my water's not wet enough/I only eat purple m&m's/I don't want to bother with the 'little' people" mindset of many of his contemporaries (and of course Prima Donna's of any age).
What I really liked were the lenghy discussions of music and musical techniques which he felt greatly aided his expression. I wish I could understand them all but they are intriguing just the same.

After reading the last page, you'll know more about Dylan than you knew before, but don't expect to find all the answers to the enigmatic Mr. Zimmerman, who chooses to remain as reclusive in his prose as he does in his life.

The book is a delight to read since Dylan's prose flows, and the book is most decidedly a page turner. He provides many insights into his thinking as he haltingly takes us from the time he arrived in New York City to the days of his mega-fame. In the pages of CHRONICLES, we see a man who is a keen observer, but also one who is far more pedestrian in his views than anyone would have guessed. He speaks at great length about how goofy the 60s and the counterculture looked to him, and his discussion of raising his children and walking his dog like any other parent is endearing.

Dylan's chronology is difficult to follow since he continually fast forwards in his description of events, and one is often not quite sure what period of his life Dylan is referring to. He names no years whatsoever by which we can match action and time. What is especially annoying is that entire periods of his life are simply missing. He goes from being a new arrival in New York, living from hand to mouth, to becoming a pop icon (a term he detests) within a matter of pages, no explanation given. Blink an eye, and he's suddenly recording the album OH MERCY in New Orleans in 1987. With major portions of his life omitted, it is impossible to discover the reason for changes in his philosophy or musical styles beyond a certain point.

Ultimately, this is not autobiography, but rather observations about life. But that's okay. His narrative is nevertheless powerful and engrossing. His prose, bordering on the poetic at times, is accessible and puts us in touch with a man who has sought to write songs and live his life. While he may have chosen to skip over major events in his life, what he gives us is pure gold. He has allowed to eavesdrop, as it were, on select moments of his life. That's worth the price of the book.

My copy of the paperback comes loaded with a long listing of all who chose this as their Book of the Year on release - while understanding their joy at Bob opening up on his life in Volume 1, unless followed by further volumes, Chronicles is in danger of leaving many wanting. This is because the book in structure while using an interesting forward and backward time structure centred around the creation of Dylan's songwriting style, with the exception of one chapter actually gives very little away.
The book starts with Dylan just signed to CBS and laying down some of the myths that clouded early bio histories. After 20 pages it reverses back to arriving in New York and covers at length how he moved around sharing people's rooms and taking in all the influences available (everything seems to get name checked in the process) with the central theme of how he took time to develop his approach to songwriting.

Skip forward (briefly) to the recording of "New Morning" and a parallel project with poet Archibald MacLeish who wanted some songs for a play he had written (which is clear will abort from the way Dylan writes about it) but then to the longer key counterpoint chapter to his earlier arrival in New York. This is how in the mid-1980s, after feeling a need for change post the dire prior recordings of the 1980s, he recorded "Oh Mercy" with Daniel Lanois producing in New Orleans. The coverage of how Dylan dealt after an accident that hurt his arm and just before setting off on touring, shows a clear case of knowing he was on an artistic slide. The time taken to get to acceptable compromises to finalise the recording after taking a long bike ride to settle his muse are easily the best part of the book. They also dispel the often quoted myths that Dylan writes his songs in one go and then records very quickly. His skill seems to be he writes a lot quickly when motivated and then scales these verses down in the studio. As the detailing of the recordings shows they were painstakingly rehearsed and developed, with Lanois being an ideal counterpoint in this.

A final closing chapter of back to the early 1960s with a mix of his trip to get to NY via a long stop over in Minneapolis and how in New York he started using records and singers heard (notably Guthrie, Dave van Ronk (the critical influence of his first LP) and Joan Baez) to start creating his own songwriting style driven especially after hearing Robert Johnston's recordings.

What is clear is that if Dylan wants to, the continuation of the Chronicles filling in the gaps (especially the 1960s and early 1970s) will be needed to make this a true autobiography rather than a few chosen scenes from his life to date.

Bob Dylan has to be one of the most intriguing characters around in the last 50 years. His music, personality, poignant sayings and lyrics, yet his shyness from getting too far involved in many things people expected him to pursue. This book only continues to add to the already huge halo of mystery surrounding the real person.
If you are looking for a chronological history of his professional career, this book will not help. You will get an insight (only a little one) to the personal life and thoughts as random as they may be.
From what I have written so far you may doubt my star rating of 5, but I assure you this book is great. Raw moments of Dylan's life presented in a way that only Bob must fully understand considering his erratic sense of logic. A very different read.

Simply put, I loved Chronicles, incomplete, yes, though it may seem to some, perhaps for that very reason. This writer struck me as Bob Dylan, the normal guy, raised in Hibbing, Minnesota, who happened to find what he loved to do at early age and had to leave because there was no real community for him there, not because he hated his family, or really, even, rejected their values. His love of wife(ves) and children and family come back time and time again in this work. This is just a guy who does what he does because he can't do anything else and the world morphed him into an unending number of prism images of what it wants to see. He may be some of those tings, but as this work makes clear, he has never been nor ever will be ALL of those things. And so someone, some critic, some generational community will always be pleased with and critical of him at the same time, because ultimately he is just who he is and not whoever whoever would like him to be. It sounds like Dylan will continue to tour until he is physically unable...he's called it "the neverending tour" and considers it his debt to God. I saw him two or so years ago and I truly thought he sounded like he'd had a stroke. I also had heard that he suffers from bad back pain so can't really stand anymore with his guitar. Who knows? Maybe at his next show, he sounded different or stood for hours with his guitar and harp. Never mind, the next time he's in the area, I will be among the first buying tickets. There is, after all, only one Bobby, and there will never be another one like him. As T-Bone Burnette said, and I agree, Dylan is the Homer of his time. Get his records and by all means....read the book. It may not be perfect to you but it feels to be the truest statement we have had about him so far. He may or may not throw out any more.

I am a big Bob Dylan Fan. This book did not reveal very many secrets about the inner workings of the "voice of our generation". It abruptly skips from 1960-1989 and back without warning. For example, he was describing a career saving voice technique that he employed in the late 1980's, but he failed to describe what the technique was. He also, did not fully explain why he wrote protest music but did not consider himself anything but a concerned onlooker.I just kept on waiting for the book to kick-in, but instead it twists and turns down a winding road leading to a dead end.

To the books credit, Dylan did paint an interesting portrait of characters he met in Greenwich village in the early 1960's. He also included trivial and disjointed arbitrary series of occurances with great attention to detail. He also focused on some of his lesser known songs like "Dignity" and "Political World" instead of the more popular ones. There was alot of detail but not alot of depth and analysis. He listed his musical influences like Neil Sedaka and Woody Guthrie, but he doesn't explain exactly what about their music inspired him.

I thought that this book would give me revelation and all I got was a "watercooler" level discouse. I guess we will have to continue to learn about "the real" Bob Dylan from others.

early in the book, Dylan relates a story about being interviewed by publicist and how most of the answers he gives are totally 'hokum hophead-talk'. I can't help but wonder if the rest of the book is also mostly that.