Chronicles Bob Dylan

This was good ... but not what I expected. It's not as much an autobiography of events or Dylan's life as it is an examination of how his music evolved, taken from five snapshots of moments in his life. He skips his childhood and opens with his arrival in the Big Apple to make his name, and this was the part I probably enjoyed the most. He must drop the names of a hundred folk and blues and rock artists that influenced him, his favorite songs, why they were important, and if he met them. Even more interestingly, he talks about all the bars and dives he performed in when he was a nobody in the city.

The jump ahead in the next chapter is jarring. Dylan skips forward a decade to a point where he and his family are jaded by fame and trying to escape its pressures. I enjoyed this section the least; it seemed a bit rambling.

But the rest of the book continues the tone from the first section - all about the music. The best part of the book is Dylan's distinctive voice and personality, which jump from the page. It's an achievement that he is so honest and smart enough to focus on what he's clearly passionate about - music - rather then facts and figures from his life. If you're a musical neophyte, you definitely pick up a lot of tidbits about the musical process and Dylan's changing harmonic philosophies, especially in one section solely devoted to the production of a single album.

So, this is great as a musical examination, but, being unfamiliar with many events in Dylan's life (I'm not that old), I would have loved to see more of a traditional biography woven in, as well as at least some comments about political issues and his activism.

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