Dylan: A Biography
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- $28.99
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- $28.99
Publisher Description
"No other book captures it so well, understands so well.... "—Greil Marcus
Bob Spitz takes his place... among the most able chroniclers of the many myths, poses and postures of the middle-class Jewish boy from Minnesota and his dogged and at times ruthless pursuit of superstardom.—Boston Herald
"The great strength of this biography, apart from the massiveness of Spitz's research, is its respect for Dylan's talent, and an understanding of his social and musical talent."—London Sunday Telegraph
Bob Spitz is best known for Barefoot in Babylon, his eye-opening account of the Woodstock music festival. Before that, he represented Bruce Springsteen and Elton John, for which he was awarded four gold records. The author of hundreds of articles, Spitz has been published in Life, the New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Rolling Stone, Mirabella, and the Washington Post. He lives in New York City with his wife and is currently at work on a novel and two books of nonfiction.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This overlong biography of Dylan (ne Robert Zimmerman) leads up to a thin, 25-page section on his life following his conversion to Christianity in 1979. Preceding are some 526 cliche-ridden pages on his youth in Minnesota, early stardom as a folksinger, 1965 metamorphosis with Highway 61 Revisited and the Newport Folk Festival, relationships, marriages, children, drink and drugs, ill-conceived tours and lazy recording-studio habits, bitter friendships and unabashed opportunism. There's lots of gossip, some sophomoric analysis and a whole mess of preposterous descriptions (``the guys in the Band were frisky little devils''). Spitz ( Barefoot in Babylon ) covers no new ground here, and writes in a mean-spirited manner, as elements of racism (``those big black mothers''; ``the ill-tempered greaseball'') and sexism (``the object of Dylan's affections was as devoted to him as a cocker spaniel in heat'') mingle freely with potshots at critics, the folk-music community, record buyers, John Lennon, David Bowie, Joan Baez, etc., along with Dylan himself. Photos not seen by PW .
