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Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan |  | Author: Howard Sounes
Publisher: Grove Press
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy Used: $3.85
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Seller: seattlegoodwill
Rating:  57 reviews
Sales Rank: 152819
Media: Paperback
Pages: 544
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 6 x 1.3
ISBN: 0802138918
Dewey Decimal Number: 782.42164092
EAN: 9780802138910
ASIN: 0802138918
Publication Date: April 12, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9780802138910 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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Product Description
Based on three years of research, new documentary evidence, and interviews with 250 of Dylan's intimates -- many exclusive -- Down the Highway has gone beyond the scope of other accounts to become the most complete, authoritative biography of Bob Dylan now in print. It was praised by The Orlando Sentinel "for the insights it offers to Dylan at work ... from young upstart to grand old man of rock 'n' roll." Sounes's prodigious research has resulted in new insights on every aspect of Dylan's life. His is the only biography to seriously address the past twenty years of Dylan's life, leading up to the extraordinary recent releases Time Out of Mind and Love and Theft. He has obtained exclusive information to provide the clearest picture yet of Dylan's 1966 motorcycle accident and subsequent "lost years" in Woodstock, New York, and he uncovered the star's unknown second marriage. He gives inside accounts of the tours, the creation of every album and the most celebrated songs, Dylan's labyrinthine love life, his life-threatening heart illness in 1997, and more -- directly from interviews with girlfriends, family, friends, producers, concert promoters, and fellow musicians. Candid, refreshing, and written with a sincere appreciation of Dylan's music and influence, Down the Highway is an essential book for the millions of people who have enjoyed Dylan's music over the years. "Dylan comes alive.... Sounes has added a wealth of new information to Dylan studies." -- Perry Meisel, The New York Times Book Review "Fascinating and finely written." -- Ronald Radosh, The New Republic "Convincing ... [generates] sympathy for an isolated artist." -- Daniel Cooper, The Washington Post Book World "Sounes ... opens new angles on the enigmatic polyhedron that is Dylan.... Monumental." -- Gene Santoro, The Nation " "A portrait of Mr. Dylan that is often unflattering, sometimes puzzling, but, to the author's credit, never sensational." -- Al Brumley, The Dallas Morning News "Engrossing ... fast-moving yet rich in detail ... [Down the Highway] chronicles a remarkable and contradictory artist." -- Carlo Wolff, The Kansas City Star "[This] fast-paced book has a fine interest in details [and is] rich with the observations of new witnesses." -- Sheri Linden, Variety "Irresistible ... What Dylanphile wouldn't want to sift through what Sounes has dug up." -- Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 57
 An Absorbing Life December 23, 2009
Lawrence J. Epstein (New York)
The author has been able to interview an enormous number of people who were previously reluctant to speak with anyone about Dylan's life. The result is that, at least for the beginning and middle period of Dylan's life, there is an enormous amount of absorbing material. The book was famous for revealing a publicly unknown Dylan marriage and child.
The writing is generally sound, though I miss the kind of playful and insightful language a subject like Dylan deserves.
The book does not contain Dylan lyrics. Presumably, Mr. Sounes decided to bypass those in order to spring his revelations without seeking permission from Dylan's management. This prevents the kind of depth analysis that a biography ought to include, especially someone as artistically gifted as Dylan.
The result of all this is an intriguing book, well worth reading for its biographical insights but in need of a supplementary work to examine Dylan's artistry as it weaved through the facts of his life.
--Lawrence J. Epstein, author of Political Folk Music in America from Its Origins to Bob Dylan
 Not Deep, But Illuminating. May 21, 2009
Ted Byrd
Down The Highway bears a great similarity to biographies I have skimmed about other pop-culture celebrities such as movie stars and singers. Usually I don't get very far into those kinds of books before my curiosity is completely sated and I abandon them. I finished this biography of Bob Dylan, however, because the subject of this book has triggered in me a greater degree of interest, spurred by both admiration and irritation. It's not that I have a burning interest in finding out about his love-life or any other of the typical manifestations which go hand-in-hand with wealth and fame. But his songs which I am familiar with(mostly 1966 and earlier)broke new ground and introduced into popular culture potent imagery delivered in a seemingly unique and original style. It is so potent that on first encountering his music, many of us feel "Wow! This guy is telling the truth in a song, like I've never heard it before." But really! What is the reality of this music? Is it just entertainment, as Dylan himself has insisted to interviewers? The illuminating thing about Sounes' book for me is that due to the superficial treatment of the artistic side of Dylan, we get a very exterior view of his life. Looked at in this way, there is nothing that exceptional about Dylan as a person that would identify him as being particularly enlightened. This very detailed record shows that, according to those who have had associations with him, he has his good points and bad points like everyone else. He was certainly gifted with cleverness at adapting all kinds of material as the raw material of his music. He apparently used his success to manipulate and dominate other people, and could be remarkably insensitive to them. This does not make Dylan worse than many other celebrities. It merely illustrates that he is no Deity. As a stand-alone document, I don't see that much of interest in the book. It is only because of what Dylan did artistically that these circumstantial details acquire significance. I do think it is valuable because it restores some balance to the cult image that has settled around him, and for that reason is a worthwhile supplement to other sources, such as his own,very interior, Chronicles, Vol. 1.
 A Very Good Intro to Dylan - his music and his life August 29, 2008
M. Syatt (USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As a fan of Dylan's music and as someone who is interested in his impact on the industry and peers, this was an excellent book. The author tells a good story and covers a lot of ground. I think the first half of the book covering Dylan's childhood through his twenties, in particular, was terrific. Great stories and quotes from friends, family and business associates make Dylan come alive.
The book spends less time on Dylan's last 20-25 years, perhaps because his personal life and music has been more controversial and uneven. No person or artist is perfect, but Dylan's music and his passion for his craft are pretty close at the end of the day.
The book does leave one wondering, what is the plight of great music going forward? To me, the music we have today,is not personal, earthy or passionate like Dylan, The Band, The Dead. It's largely slick and overproduced. Some of the same negatives, Dylan sought out to change 50 odd years ago....
 Dylan for the PC age (cringe) March 6, 2008
Kelley Dupuis (Washington, D.C., USA)
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
Full disclosure. I could not finish this book. The writing is ghastly, giving one the feel of a Sunday arts supplement piece that was thrown together too quickly, and with loud music ("Like A Rolling Stone?") blasting away behind whoever was writing it. Sounes has been given credit for getting people who had been close to Dylan to open up as never before, but to me that doesn't justify this book's relentless juvenile tone, sloppy writing and its just-as-relentless political correctness (in the first hundred pages he uses the mincing journalistic euphemism for "black," e.g. "African-American," at least six times, as if he were trying to ingratiate himself to Jesse Jackson.) But worse than that, his simpering comments about American pop culture put me in mind of a friend I had many years ago who came originally from India, and who had very strong opinions about America and Americans, even though at that point she had never been to the United States and admitted that her chief source of knowledge about American culture had been "Mad" magazine. Sounes gives me the same feeling, that he read through a stack of back issues of "Mad," and now he knows all about American pop culture. I've read a great many books by a great many writers on the subject of Bob Dylan, from the best (Paul Williams) to the wackiest (Griel Marcus.) This one rates silliest.
Satisfaction with purchase January 8, 2008
L. Brosseau (Westerly, RI)
0 out of 7 found this review helpful
The product was purchased as a gift. I haven't heard from the recepient but I assume it was satisfactory.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 57
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