Customer Reviews

On the Road with Bob Dylan

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

 

 

Sloman's rant cuts to the bone and shares more than enough scraps from the feast of Dylan's mid '70's rock n' roll circus. His gonzo inspired adventure and inside/outside perspective are essential to understanding the status system of the stars on tour and the underbelly of the music industry. He writes with passion, humour, and desire. To be sure, he seems a pathetic sycophant at times, often treated like a mascot by the musicians and promoters, but his honesty and sincerity in not shying away from a less-than-flattering portrait of his situation makes one believe all the more in the truth of his tale. Anyone who feels that the book needs more Dylan and less Sloman clearly misses the point. His descriptions of Dylan as mystery man, his cogent intuitions about Rubin Carter, and his revelations about Joni Mitchell's songwriting process are bang-on. This is decidedly NOT a biography of Dylan, it is a story of one man's journey ON THE ROAD with a Bob Dylan tour. Any attempt on Sloman's part to disguise his experience behind a false veil of objectivity would render the story mute and destroy its delightful spirit. Hat's off to Ratso for a brilliant rendering of the Rolling Thunder Review.

This is a great book while it stays focused on Bob Dylan's legendary tour. And it's interesting when it diverges to cover the surrounding mania among fans, family and visiting musicians. But there's a point about halfway through, right about the time Joan Baez christens Sloman as Ratso, where the writer becomes deluded that his running feud with the tour manager and other personal tribulations are of equal interest to the efforts of Dylan and his merry band. And on this point, he is very wrong. Any doubters are invited to compare the "Dylan" and "Sloman" listings at this very website.

If you're a Dylan fan, there is some really good stuff here, and the book earns its four stars. And occasionally even the Ratso antics are amusing. But there are way too many times when reading this book is like watching a great movie, only to have the camera turn and follow one of the extras, for no good reason.

I've read all the Bob books that're worth reading and this one is far and away the best, as close to the honesty--warts and all--and humor and power of Fear and Loathing On The Campaign Trail '72 as any book I've read. The Bloomfield interview is a stone classic. The Bob quotes and descriptions are priceless. The verbatim interview/transcript approach puts the reader in the room with the speakers. Most any single page of this book gives you more than you'll find in Shelton's entire book. I finished this book and turned directly back to page one and started it again.

This is without a doubt the best book on Bob Dylan and one of the best books on rock music, period. I read this when it first came out years ago, before Sloman worked with Howard Stern on his books. "On the Road with Bob Dylan" is a hilarious, compelling and poignant account of Bob's famous Rolling Thunder tour. But Sloman's genius is the way he covers both the famous musicians and the fans, groupies and shopping bag ladies that he encounters on the road along the tour. Great read, enhanced by a new fabulous introduction by Sloman's friend Kinky Friedman. Ratso rules!

Wow! I got this when it first came out in 1978 and I still have my well worn copy. Its a wonderful look at Dylan during the
Rolling Thunder review. "Ratso" as he came to be known, has
written a very funny, very readable, very entertaining book. The "interview" with Dylan at the end is worth the price alone. If you are a Dylan fan, you should love this book!

This book should have been called, "On the Road with Larry Sloman." This has to be the WORST book ever written about Bob Dylan because it has little to do with Dylan, there is very little in the book about Dylan and is ALL about the writer (Sloman) to the degree, at some point in the middle, he starts referring to himself,annoyingly, in the third person. It is about the dislike of his presence by Dylan's people, his difficulty as being a reporter as a wannabe and is self serving. The only redeemable aspect of this book is his coffee shop conversations with Joni Mitchell at the end of the book.

If you enjoy page after page after page of incessant whining and childish, pouting by an author then by all means buy it.

i read a LOT of books on music, and though a solid Dylan fan, i wouldn't call myself a fanatic. This book really stands out in the level of detail it relates, and i would say it's as good as any writings about what it's actually like to be on a big rock tour. Sloman (also the ghostwriter of howard stern's 2 books) tape recorded 100s of hours of backstage chatter, so you do really get an accurate picture of the personalities here. Yes, its' slanted to the positive, since Ratso is certainly a superfan, but it's by no means a snow job. i'd compare it to "spanish tony" sanchez's book on the Stones insofar as you get far better insights to the players involved from this kind of account as you do a typical bio. i've read 5 or 6 other dylan bios and found this to be most enjoyable and insightful. The only reason i woudn't give it 5 stars is that you really have to be a pretty big fan of Dylan, folkies, or the rock touring world in general, because the level of depth here also means it's not for the more casual fan etc.

The title of my review is the title of the book I imagine Larry Sloman originally submitted to his publisher. He refers to himself in the third person and by the pseudonym "Ratso Slocum" throughout most of the book which alone makes it nearly unreadable. Somewhere hidden within ON THE ROAD WITH BOB DYLAN is a really interesting, 60 page look at Dylan's Rolling Thunder Review. Unfortunately the actual published book is nearly 500 pages. Eighty percent of the book is composed of anecdotes of Mr. Slocum's adventures following the Rolling Thunder Review. Very little of it directly relates to the artists on tour or Bob Dylan himself. Ironically, "Ratso Slocum" might be the most unlikable character of all (and there are lots of them in these pages). Very little attention is paid to the music and the performances (literally Mr. Slocum doesn't pay attention to most of the concerts. He talks through them, gets kicked out of them or has one of his adventures during them that you won't care about anyway). Wasted opportunity all around. I recommend Paul Williams' PERFORMING ARTIST books for a look at Dylan as an artist.

The whole thing seemed to be too much Dylan exultation for me. The concert was perfect, exactly the way it was supposed to be. Dylan was always so sage-like and untouchable. Get real! This is the story of Ratso following around a concert and he has a little more access than a fan who could follow the revue around. This seems like fiction not like "historic document" of a rock and roll tour.

Since Dylan came, I've been there. So have lots of us. He's the iconic figure that helps connect the dots for everybody 50 or 60 years old. I've read, collected, listened, copied, imitated, shunned, exhorted, and every other kind of recognizable mental acknowledgment an attitude for the times. I like finding out new facts about the real Bob Dylan. The more I read about Bob, the more it seems the same stories keep resurfacing with a different twist. Everything is a version of what some "out of the dark" associated person may have said or for sure, according to quotes, did say. Who knows? Before I began plowing into this "On The Road One",I just finished another Dylan book, "Behind The Shades, Revisited", . So far, it's very interesting reading, except for the fact I stay confused about this Ratso fellow. He never seems to show up in any other Dylan biographies, although he writes as if he was continuously on the scene. For me the Rolling Thunder sections of the other Dylan histories represented a boring aspect of the times. Especially when the outsiders are brought into the fold and they are illuminated for the reader's interest. I think the Rolling Thunder aspect of Dylan's history is a large pathetic waste of Dylan's life and performances. There's very little quality listen able music from those times. The jam band, drug infested, hedonistic debacles staged every night throughout the World's stages seem boring. I guess you had to have been there, and probably on stage. So I'm going to continue digging through this first person Dylan tale, and see if Ratso becomes more bonified, and maybe even give the "Renaldo and Clara" episodes more thought.