Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited: The New Yorker's Most Readable Biography of a Legendary Music Career

It was difficult choosing a Dylan bio. - but, after reading reviews of this one and others - it seemed that this was the most comprehensive and honest of the bunch. It has exceeded my expectations, and I'm an avid, critical reader who's always on the lookout for rumor, innuendo and false narratives. The author is smart, organized, concise and detail-oriented. No fluff here or recycled material from prior books. He tells Dylan's story without embellishment or being overly critical (when criticism is much deserved). What starts to emerge is a comprehensive picture of Dylan - 1) the ambitious, 2) the rebel, 3) the man in search of a persona, 4) the opportunist, 5) the user, 6) the genius, 7) the liar, 8) the great imitator/innovator, 9) lover of women, and 10) the visionary. Even though some of Dylan's attributes were less than virtuous - does it really matter? It becomes obvious that Dylan was going to achieve his ultimate mission and change 60's Rock into a meaningful art form - no matter how many obstacles crossed his path. It seems that everything he did before "Like A Rolling Stone" was an exercise in finding a niche', developing writing skills, discovering a well-spring of poetical brilliance, perfecting a vocal style, and ultimately pushing the evolution of 60's music to a more sophisticated and much higher standard. The author brings Dylan's complex personality to light and the reader begins to understand that the "Dylan persona" and the real person are quite different. Also, the humorous side of Dylan is underscored as well as his skillful abilities to exaggerate, charm, persist, and get his way by any means necessary. Does it matter? For those who are interested in "how Dylan came to be" - this biography describes the step-by-step development of a mastermind who paid his dues, experienced hardship and failure, but eventually came and conquered. A great read!

Heylin is a respected critic and rock chronicler. He's one of those guys who has written a lot about the man and never met him. I find this fascinating. I have met the man a few times and not written about him. There's a lot of nonsense out there, buy Heylin is reliable.

4-1/2 stars, actually. If session details bore you, you might consider skipping the book, fully half of which consists of session details (players, circumstances, controversies, production conundrums, on-the-fly composition, variations of Bob's unusual "live" studio preferences, etc. etc. etc.) and deliberations over, controversies involving, criticism of setlists for the numerous tours (up to the first decade of the Never-Ending Tour) and hundreds upon hundreds of performances. (I happily put myself on the side of "More Session Details!" I still buy jazz CDs in the expectation that the "liner notes" - and here I date myself - will have all the desire session content as well as, with the case of historic performances - all the context and controversies, etc. one might wonder about.) For me, this is an absolutely essential contribution to the Dylan literature, collecting so many unusual, sometimes revealing, observations from so many significant Dylan comrades, colleagues, lovers, haters, running buddies, etc. that one is hard pressed to speak authoritatively on any significant Dylan topic without reference to it. But so many of Heylin's hundreds...no, thousands...of opinions and judgments, based on his sources, to be sure, but also simply the personal sense he makes of an incomplete mosaic, raise so many questions about their sources that I - I'd categorize myself as an indefatigable, almost anal, researcher - needed the sourcing. And, more than a decade after the book's release, here's the key issue: Heylin has no website, and I could not locate the page-by-page sourcing he promises in the bibliographic note...not in the Internet Archive Way back Machine or anywhere else. His bibliographic note is helpful but incomplete - Heylin has heard performances he could not have attended but provides no suggestion as to how or where he heard or saw tape or whose views he might have informally adopted to categorize any bit of an evening's gig as, in his judgment, "the greatest live performance of (fill in the blank)." I presume that information might be obtained in the detailed full-source documentation. But it's not there. If anyone out there in Cyberland has any idea how I might obtain a pdf file of Heylin's sourcing, or an email address via which I might make a request, I'd be most grateful. The index is useful but far from exhaustive. Names that come up in the text are often missing, particularly if they walk on and walk off a few times and aren't part of the quoted dramatis personae whose long passages Heylin builds his narrative around (he provides an appendix of useful thumbnail sketches to help you keep track of names you might not have encountered before). Other appendices - the songlist, for example, is most useful. The list of albums, however, didn't get an update for the 2nd edition (at least in the copy I own) and ends c.1990. All that said, Behind the Shades-Revisited is a deeply researched and copiously reported bio, vastly informative and illuminating across many dimensions, brimming with Heylin's considered opinions, factual details and fact-based speculation on Dylan's family life, insatiable sexual and substance/stimulant/depressant appetites, links between life and art, and so much more, and thus remains an indispensable document...even if it fails to get to the heart of the enigma of Bob Dylan. I'm looking forward to reading the 60,000 words Heylin has added to the 20th anniversary edition.

Good condition. On time. shipped well.

Pretty entertaining.

Very well written. Details of recording a real treat and a lot of Dylan personal biographical stuff that was backed up with 2nd sources was of value.

A.S. Byatt has commented on the near-impossible task of maintaining objectivity in any biography: at some points, the facts are vague, holes appear, and the biographer must resort to subjective speculation in order to continue the story. There is a lot of truth to Byatt's observation, but there is still a difference between a biographer's subjectivity and his or her overt bias. Is Clinton Heylin's updating of BOB DYLAN: BEHIND THE SHADES a good Dylan biography? Yes, in as much as any biography of Dylan can be called definitive. The book is an interesting, engaging account of the artist, and, at times, Heylin's respect for, even adoration of his subject is quite evident. If you want a "warts-and-all" rendering of Dylan's life and art, BEHIND THE SHADES is as good a place to start as any (after the music, of course). The principal weakness of BEHIND THE SHADES is Heylin's own irritating, grating biographical voice, full of personal bias. He condemns outright certain stages of Dylan's art (he is obviously a fan of the "electric Dylan" more than the "folk singer Dylan) and tries to portray him as an artist while showing little, if any, sympathy for the time when the Muse was absent. Heylin might as well criticize Matisse for cutting up paper. A biographer is entitled to his or her interpretation of the life of the subject, but Heylin preaches his own musical tastes to the point of distraction. A prime example of his bias is the way in which he completely dismisses the Grateful Dead, denying the band its place in musical history and in Dylan's life. He "suggests" that Dylan did a series of shows with the Dead in 1987 only as revenge for the Dead playing several of his songs in their own concerts over the years. In commenting on Jerry Garcia's death, Heylin describes Garcia as a man "with a previously sharp mind that had shown as little self-discipline in [his] personal habits as in [his] music making." Heylin then proceeds to note the effect Garcia's death had on Dylan and to quote Dylan's "heart-rending statement" he gave to the press about Garcia. Well, in a biography of Bob Dylan, whose reaction to Garcia's death is more relevant, Heylin's or Dylan's? Yet Heylin is constantly injecting his own biased, half-baked musings into the mix, sounding much like the "brat" he accuses Dylan of being in the 80s and 90s, jumping up and down like a three year-old crying to be noticed. His comments are like massive pot-holes in an otherwise smooth surface. Clinton Heylin, I don't care what you think. Stick to your subject. Heylin often alludes, with glowing praise, to Paul Williams' PERFORMING ARTIST books on Dylan, and he seems to want to imitate Williams' style. He just doesn't make it. If you can stomach Heylin's interruptions, give this book a shot. Me, I'm off to see how the other Dylan biography does.

Well written. Includes many facts I did not know. Paints a picture of a poet/songwriter/musician who followed his destiny and reached higher peaks than he may have imagined.