No Direction Home: The Life And Music Of Bob Dylan [Paperback]

Robert Shelton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 8, 2003

Robert Shelton wrote the rave review of Bob Dylan in the New York Times that is generally credited with being the piece that "discovered" him in 1961. Twenty-five years later, Shelton, who had followed Dylan's career faithfully, published No Direction Home. Here is the "empathetic and rather magnificent" (Washington Post Book World) story of Dylan, musician and phenomenon.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Robert Shelton, a critic for the New York Times in 1961, caught an early Bob Dylan gig at Folk City in Greenwich Village and wrote an effusive review for the newspaper. The coverage in the Times was a huge boost to the career of the then-struggling folksinger, and Shelton and Dylan became friends, seeing each other frequently around the Village folk scene. When Shelton, in the 1980s, finally got around to finishing his full-length biography of Dylan, he could draw upon a wealth of insider stories from the early days. The book is naturally strongest when describing Dylan's early career, from his coffeehouse gigs as a Woody Guthrie disciple to the insanely high artistic peaks of the mid-'60s. A particularly engaging passage concerns a freeform interview Shelton conducted with Dylan as they flew high above the Midwest in early 1966; Shelton's memories of Dylan are essential reading for fans. Shelton saw much less of the notoriously private Dylan as the years passed, and the book loses momentum as he becomes less of an eyewitness and more of a distant observer, though Dylan's story is credibly told up through the mid-1980s. --Robert McNamara --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Years in the making (some interviews conducted for it date back to the mid'60s), and much of it based on Shelton's personal experience, this hefty book supplants Anthony Scaduto's Bob Dylan as the definitive biography. Shelton was the popular-music columnist for the New York Times from 1958 to 1968, in which capacity he wrote the first attention-drawing reviews of Dylan's coffeehouse gigs in 1961; the position also brought him into close contact with many of the music-industry principals he writes about. A friend of Dylan's and a fan, Shelton succeeds in making this opaque and often irritating person comprehensible, even likable. Dylan has always shrouded himself in mysterioso antics, railed against inconstant friends and fallen into the trap of being one himself (notable instance: turning his back on Joan Baez) and delighted in giving out meaningless, perverse and nasty interviews. Shelton manages to locate the authentic Dylan: the pilgrim seeking enlightenment and salvation, the husband and father, the genius who wrote songs as beautiful as "Blowin' in the Wind," "Don't Think Twice" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," and as apocalyptic and prophetic as "Maggie's Farm," "Desolation Row" and "Hard Rain." The author incorporates a number of lines from Dylan's work into his text, which discusses the man's life and career under subject headings, a format that keeps him from following a strictly chronological order. The book is nevertheless comprehensive and clear. This is first-rate biography and a marvelous re-creation of the music scene of the '60s and later. The text is supplemented with brief analyses of every song, a song index, discography and bibliography, and 16 pages of black-and-white photos (not seen by PW. 50,000 first printing.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (July 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306812878
• ISBN-13: 978-0306812873
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,526,412 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best Dylan book ever writen, December 11, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: No Direction Home: The Life And Music Of Bob Dylan (Paperback)

A master in the day, Bob Dylan's story of his early coffee shop day up untill about the mid-80's. Robert Shelton in 1961 wrote a article for Dylan that help his music take off.Dylan went from the Village folk scene to performing in front of large crowds of people. This book shows the transition from a coffee shop to the big stage. While telling you a blow for blow story of Dylan's life right up untill the mid-80's. The story starts out close to Dylan and over the span of the novel it come more of a distant observer. This book summerizes the whole time period and makes Dylan's personality better known. His songs have more impact now that you understand his motives. I recomend reading it.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Not Great..., August 2, 2002

By 

bruce hutton (MESA, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Direction Home: The Life And Music Of Bob Dylan (Paperback)

Whether or not this is the BEST Dylan biography is hard to say, there are millions of them out there...certainly it has to be the best-researched, and one of the most heartfelt; Shelton gave Dylan his first great review, "discovered" him, in effect, and though he critically assesses Dylan's subsequent works there's never a doubt that he's Dylan's biggest fan. A midnight conversation on a private jet between Shelton and Dylan in the mid-60's is the best thing in the book, fascinating reading...but there is such a concept as too much of a good thing, and the minutae Shelton indulges in gets tiring. He apparently went to every concert and every party Dylan did, and his insistence on inserting himself into the scene makes me wonder about his objectivity. Maybe Shelton thought he was one of the new journalists. I don't know. But less Shelton would've been helpful. Also, Shelton insists on punctuating almost every paragraph with a hidden line from one of Dylan's songs; for awhile it's clever, but it gets old fast.
The book was out of print for a long time, and that's too bad. I hope it stays in print. It's incredibly packed with facts and interpretations and long quotes both from Dylan and those close to him. It's just TOO MUCH, that's all. But good. A worthy biography of the most potent force in popular music since Sinatra. How's that for a name out of left field?

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All sides and aspects of a cherished and popular figure, August 9, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Direction Home: The Life And Music Of Bob Dylan (Paperback)

Expertly written by Robert Shelton (the New York Times music and popular culture reviewer generally credited for "discovering" Dylan in 1961), No Direction Home: The Life And Music Of Bob Dylan is a faithful and definitive biography of the talented artist and his unforgettable music. An extensively detailed chronicle which explores all sides and aspects of a cherished and popular figure in American music, No Direction Home is a welcome addition to 20th Century Music History Studies collections and "must" reading for all Bob Dylan fans.