Customer Reviews

Chronicles: Volume One

5 star:		(187)
4 star:		(56)
3 star:		(25)
2 star:		(20)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

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.

Some people have said this book doesn't reveal enough about Bob Dylan's personal life and that it skips around too much. I feel differently. Far as self-disclosure goes, Bob Dylan will never write a tell all, because that's just not the kind of person he is. I was very happy with the many personal thoughts and experiences he did share in Chronicles; he was way more open that I expected. This book does not read like a normal story. It's true. Bob doesn't always stick to a chronological line, but in no way does that detract from this unique and wonderful book. The joy in reading this autobiography doesn't lie in seeing Dylan neatly connect the dots. For me, it is just in taking each thought as it comes and enjoying it. Bob explains everything he's seen and done down to the most minute detail. In the book Dylan claims to "never forget a face," and I believe him. He certainly has close to a photographic memory. He remembers things from 30 years ago that I would have forgotten about yesterday - he's a professional observer if there ever was one. It's really unbelievable. It's easy to see that he's a very well read individual. This you will see in the book, as he elaborates and gives interpretations on the works of author after author, poet after poet. His unique personal writing style is no doubt a result of these many influences. I enjoyed this book more than anything I've read in a long time. I eagerly await Chronicles, vol. 2. and if you find Bob Dylan fascinating, I'd highly recommend Chronicles, vol. 1.

I don't like how people review this book (and too many others around here) based on an excerpt in a magazine (well, at least they read SOMETHING instead of reviewing it based on whether or not they like the author the way people do with books by Ann Coulter and other political types). No one needs your thoughts on an excerpt that they can read for themselves by visiting Dylan's website.

I bought this book the day it hit the shelves, and read it in one sitting. How could I not? I'm a Dylan addict. If you're a Dylan fan, you should enjoy his remembrances of his early years in New York and of his alarm at being annointed the guru of the whole anti-establishment movement of the 60s. Dylan skips around through his life, so this is not an autobiography by any means. It's almost a self-interview. If you're looking for his life story, you're better off with a book by Clinton Heylin, Robert Shelton, or even Bob Spitz. I look forward to future volumes of "Chronicles."

I'm rather disappointed that the audio version of this book is read by Sean Penn! I like Sean Penn, but imagine what a pleasure it would be to hear Dylan read this himself.

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.

I was reading 1 and 2 star reviews of this book and got sick of the whining and complaining by their respective authors. Bob doesn't tell us what his songs mean, Bob doesn't tell us about his wives and kids, bla bla bla. Look, Bob's going tell what Bob wants the public to know, and what he tells in the book I found interesting. It was like hearing someone tell stories that happened during his life. We all do that with our families and friends. What is wrong with him talking about what he feels fit? Why can't people accept the fact that he doesn't want his personal life open to the general public??? Once that happens, maybe they might find the book an interesting read.
Aside from this, I did find the book intereseting and funny. I liked the flow of the language. I enjoyed reading his descriptions of things, how he saw them, and how he saw himself. You can learn a lot about people by listening to the way they talk and how they perceive themselves (whether it is an accurate perception or not).
Reviews were written saying that he seems like less of a genius and more human...duh...Hasn't Dylan been saying that for 4 decades? Now that some people have read his book, they finally believe it. Maybe the book does give more insight to the man than they thought!!
If you are looking for juicy gossip about Bob, this is not the book for you. I can't believe that people expected him to write about affairs he had, rude things he said, or whatever. Maybe this would have been better...Chronicles Vol 1: Bob Dylan's Failures. Unfortunately, people would have eaten it up like vultures because today's society thrives on sex and other's misfortunes. Who in their right mind is going to write a book telling total strangers all of their faults, failures, and personal problems during their lifetime? Would you?
Hey, if you are a Dylan fan, read the book. If you aren't, why did you buy it in the first place???

From one of the great music talents comes a masterful memoir of life in the early stages of his life. It is well worth the purchase and you will find it to be most memorable.
Other memoirs to look for: Nightmares Echo by Katlyn Stewart and A Paper Life by Tatum O'Neil.

What do you select for your autobiography? How much do you reveal? Where do you begin? When do you end? As with each of his musical releases, Bob Dylan excites, amuses, frustrates, and stimulates in this streaking comet of personal reflection.

If you are familiar with Mr. Dylan's career and music, then most likely you will expect Chronicles Volume 1 to detail every breath of boyhood life on the Iron Range of Hibbing, Minnesota. You will wait for Volume 2 to detail more. But as with every musical release Dylan never addresses your expectations.

Chronicles Volume 1 details not a life or a period in a life or a particular aspect of a life, but one moment in this artist's life. Just one moment. It's the moment at the cross roads of destiny; the make-or-break moment of a passion, of a career, of a life.

The moment is 1961. A boy leaves his home in the mid-west full of energy, passion, and ambition to make it as a folk singer in New York City. At the cusp of adulthood. risking everything, young Robert Zimmerman forges a new identity, sleeps on friends sofas, plays music in every coffeehouse, nightclub, and bar that will have him, falls in love, and absorbs everything musical.

Chronicles Volume 1 starts here and ends here with flash-forwards, first ten years to an intense transitional period, between manic success and private family life, and then again about twenty-six years to an artistic transition in musical style and a detailed look at how one recording was created.

Dylan smashes your expectations about what he will tell you. He makes you frustrated and amused, but leaves you stimulated and amazed. This is the autobiography of a poet and troubadour, a man whose feet are firmly on the ground and whose head is, well, is somewhere beyond yours and mine.

I recommend this book to everyone who is the least bit curious about Bob Dylan. It's one drawback is that it leaves your thirsting for volume 2. Dylan knows how to leave a stage.

The man with the hurricane hair shows himself as the most human of all rock and rollers. Family, privacy, art for art's sake, and other concerns take center stage and Dylan does not hold back on answering age old questions, including those that deal with "how do you write a song". It also demonstrates that Dylan has a huge heart. Anyone from Dylan's world who can refer to Bobby Vee as a "brother" has an infinite depth of humanity and compassion. The book is written in Dylan's own cryptic style and those who are unfamiliar or uneasy with the prose of a poet will be somewhat confused. Indeed, there is something going on here and some will not know what it is, but Dylan holds nothing back in attempting to relate what it was like to be held up as a God by an entire generation when, in fact, all he cared about was his family and protecting them. Additionally, Dylan reveals his early influences and how he approaches a subject of a song. It really is an amazing book. Anyone who has followed Dylan's career and life will be hard pressed to critize the artist for being too guarded or for not expressing himself adequately. In fact, if the book has any faults it is that Dylan goes into too much detail when it comes to guitar stylizing or the framework of a song. All and all, this is a supreme effort and will rank with Dylan's greatest works as it puts to rest the label of "recluse". Dylan shares himself beyond anything that was expected. Can't wait for Volumes 2 and 3.

Some people have said this book doesn't reveal enough about Bob Dylan's personal life and that it skips around too much. I feel differently. Far as self-disclosure goes, Bob Dylan will never write a tell all, because that's just not the kind of person he is. I was very happy with the many personal thoughts and experiences he did share in Chronicles; he was way more open that I expected. This book does not read like a normal story. It's true. Bob doesn't always stick to a chronological line, but in no way does that detract from this unique and wonderful book. The joy in reading this autobiography doesn't lie in seeing Dylan neatly connect the dots. For me, it is just in taking each thought as it comes and enjoying it. Bob explains everything he's seen and done down to the most minute detail. In the book Dylan claims to "never forget a face," and I believe him. He certainly has close to a photographic memory. He remembers things from 30 years ago that I would have forgotten about yesterday - he's a professional observer if there ever was one. It's really unbelievable. It's easy to see that he's a very well read individual. This you will see in the book, as he elaborates and gives interpretations on the works of author after author, poet after poet. His unique personal writing style is no doubt a result of these many influences. I enjoyed this book more than anything I've read in a long time. I eagerly await Chronicles, vol. 2. and if you find Bob Dylan fascinating, I'd highly recommend Chronicles, vol. 1.

Bob Dylan: words to satisfy my mind. How little we knew of him. We read the PR, the newspapers, CD jackets, lyrics he wrote and sang, but how little we knew of him. At long last, Bob Dylan satisfies our mind and his by scribing his true self.

Bob Dylan is from Hibbing, Minnesota. We all knew that, but not of his life as a child and teenager learning to sing and that of his family. He opens his Chronicle with his arrival in New York City in 1964. He tells us of his journey to NYC, and the people he meets and greets. The people who helped him get started, the people he lives with, loves with and sings with. His trials and tribulations as a young singer in the throes of "folk" songs. He tells us how he came to his writing style, who helped to direct him, and who he admired and trusted. He describes how he came to be able to write such lyrics. He used to go to the library as a child and read classics, and he continued that in NYC in a friend's large library. His vocabulary and intellect grew as a result. He hung around the right and wrong people, he learned as he observed. He got his first chance to sing in small club, and met the person who would help him with his first record deal.

Bob Dylan had quite a reputation as a man on the edge, helping to fight the battles for justice and the American Way. That was all wrong, all hype, all PR.
He believed in justice and the American Way, but he was not on the fore front fighting for it. He wanted the reverse; to be left alone, to live his life and to write and sing. All the publicity drew strange and unattractive people to him- they broke into his home, found him wherever he was and bothered him and his family. He felt unsafe as Bob Dylan. He hated that life.
He learned to rent a house under an assumed name and to become undistinguished. He was able to travel and to be himself, somewhat. He married, had 5 children that he dearly loved. He helped to raise them, changed their diapers, loved them, gave them toys, brought them to the beach, picnics; ordinary. everyday stuff. Bob Dylan would have us believe that he is an ordinary man; well, ok, he is in some way. But he is also a troubadour, singing the words and tunes that we all love. He has been everywhere. He tells of us his time in New Orleans; the city he loves the most. Trying to get a record together and what he learned about himself and the songs he wrote. He tells of us his dinner with Bono, of U2, and how they drank a case of Irish ale, and what they learned from each other. He tells us how he admires Ice-T and Frank Sinatra, Jr. But most of all we learn a little about how Bob Dylan is as a man. Much to be admired and respected, but then, only a man. Highly recommended. prisrob