Books
Bob Dylan is an icon of American music and almost single-handedly transformed the American music scene of the sixties.
It is not that he was the first folk artist in American history - as he points out in the first of his Chronicles, the scene would have been lost without Woody Guthrie. Nontheless Dylan was the first such artist to achieve mainstream popularity ranging over decades, single-handedly putting the genre of poetic singer-songwriter on the map and remaining a defining aspect of youth, and particularly student, culture even today.
As influential as he is fabulous, Robert Zimmerman, as his mum knows him, paved the way for other artists such as Jimi Hendrix and Simon and Garfunkel. It has even been asserted that Dylan inspired the Beatles' shift into reflective songwriting in their later years. As you might expect, his life in his own words makes for very interesting reading.
Chronicles is a glorious free-flow of loosely associated thoughts, very much in the style of Dylan's musical output. The title belies the content this is less a simple trot through Dylan's life from birth to the time of printing, more a monologue on life, the universe and everything as it strikes the man.
It's an interesting and undemanding read which can be picked up and read for ten minutes at a time or finished in a sitting, depending on your mood. Dylan candidly talks about everything from his admiration for Woody Guthrie, to his frazzled relations with his parents, who kicked him out. His off-the-cuff and guileless style makes you feel personally involved in a way that even the best autobiographies don't often manage.
This is by no means a comprehensive story of the life of Dylan; readers hoping for something along these lines had better prepare for disappointment. In the beginning of the book, for instance, Dylan talks about one of his first gigs in New York, accompanying a side act at Café Wha?, where "the daytime show...featured anybody and anything."
Back in those humble days Dylan accompanied the daytime MC Freddy Neil on harmonica, just another small-timer paying his dues. He reminisces: "The best part of working with [Freddy] was strictly gastronomical - all the French fries and hamburgers I could eat." Personal touches like this show Dylan's all too often obscured comic side and add depth to his very human account.
In view of the fact that he is one of the most prolific American songwriters, you might expect him to wax philosophical about starting at the bottom only to eventually achieve greatness. But Dylan wants you to know about the nutritional information. This illustrates a very central point about the book and its author - both are totally free of pretension and often highly irreverent.
Dylan often makes the point that his lyrics speak for themselves, that there's no grand meaning beyond an individual's response; this casual approach to life is evident in his book as well. Though he is evidently intensely involved in his music, he seems to be an adherent of a live and let live attitude.
As far as his own life is concerned, it is obvious that this is a man who has always done things his way, and will tell you about his experiences on his terms, something you have to admire. It's clearly not always been a bed of roses for the man, but he doesn't fight shy of detailing some of the less glamorous aspects of his life, like being a burned out rock star in the 80s.
Nonetheless he seems to have enjoyed his ride and the occasional diversion into the emotional cul-de-sac of unwanted celebrity cannot compromise the generally contented and optimistic tone of the memoir as a whole. A typically and charmingly offbeat memoir of the last great troubadour.
27th Jan 2005