MacKay - Bob Dylan

FOREWORD

T he publication of Bob Dylans book Chronicles in late 2004 was a publishing event. Finally those who had loved Dylans music throughout the decades could gain insight into this enigmatic, mysterious musician who kept his personal life so closely guarded.

As fascinating an autobiography as Chronicles is, however, it does not provide great illumination of Dylans character, his likes and dislikes, his personality, his highs and lows. Let the songs do that, perhaps he is saying, and he has admitted in interviews that his songs are more con-fessional than pro-fessional. Yet given the fact that Bob Dylan is probably the greatest songwriter of the twentieth century and certainly one of its most important musicians, readers are naturally hungry for more. What do his friends think? Do they know the real Dylan, and if so, can they offer insight into his artistic genius? What anecdotes can they share?

This is a book about Bob Dylan based on interviews with musicians who know him well. It is a direct result of the fact that Chronicles is so vague as an autobiography that it leaves a lot of questions about Dylans life unanswered. If he wont answer them, then lets turn to his friends for insight into his artistic genius and personality. The musicians whose accounts are collected here have known Dylan throughout the years and are longtime friends with whom he has shared a great deal. They range from Pete Seeger, who vividly recalls Dylans entry into the New York folk scene, and Joan Baez, with whom Dylan had a highly publicized romance that contributed to his rising fame in the early 60s, to Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney, Dylans peers in the pantheon of rock n roll stars.

Taken simply, this is a history of a major musician who played a significant role at an important time in Americas cultural life. His story is told by the people who were therewho participated in a time of rollicking change, artistic breakthroughs, and ecstatic music and experiences. This book provides a portrait of the friendships and relationships that helped to shape important musicians whose voices have influenced our society as a whole. At the same time, it traces significant moments in our cultural history, from the early 60s civil rights era to the creative promise of the 70s and forward to the confused times we live in todayonce again a country at war. In the 60s music was the megaphone of our generation and provided a sense of cohesiveness that united disparate young Americans in their struggles to seek a more racially integrated society and to end the war in Vietnam. The songs spoke our truths; they spoke from the heart. Dylan was the absolute best at capturing these truths, and although he did not seek or embrace it, he wore a mantle as his generations spokesman.

This book chronologically traces the friendships that influenced Dylan: From the respect he showed to the dying Woody Guthrie and the energetic, idealistic Pete Seeger in the early 60s, to his loose, comfortable camaraderie today with Bono. It also captures the sense of place that was so important in nurturing the music. The book evokes the heady atmosphere of Greenwich Village in the early 60s, a hotbed of left-leaning political fervor, a magnet for artistic, musical, and bohemian types. It was in contrast to that scene that Dylan enjoyed the quiet, pastoral life in Woodstock, New York in the late 60s. It was only natural that the work he produced at that time, like the album John Wesley Harding, resonated with simplicity and contentment.

The musicians reflect on Dylan the man at the same time that they explore his music and influence. They reflect on the times and serve as sensitive barometers of cultural change. They share insights that help to mirror our times and shed light on how great musiclike great artcan always inspire and uplift us.

In other words, this is not a traditional biography. If you favor a denser and more detailed work, there are several to sample. The ardent Dylan fan has probably already read Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan (Grove Press) by Howard Sounes and Clinton Heylins Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Take Two (Penguin). If you are of the intellectual bent, you will have appreciated Greil Marcuss Invisible Republic:Bob Dylans Basement Tapes (Henry Holt). Marcus focuses on how Dylan and The Band breathed new life into songs borrowed from folk, blues, and country musicians in their bootleg Basement Tapes. In Marcus 2005 book, Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads (Public Affairs), he traces how Dylans 1965 revolutionary hit Like a Rolling Stone transformed rock music. Robert Shelton, the former New York Times music critic whose favorable review of Dylan in 1961 is credited with helping him get his Columbia recording contract, wrote the stars biography, No Direction Home, which was published in 1986.

Bob Dylan: Intimate Insights from Friends and Fellow Musicians is a different kind of biography because the voices you hear will be the musicians who are friends of Dylan, not the biographers voice. Too often a biographer, intentionally or not, inserts his or her point of view into the work, and the result can be a distorted look at a life. Albert Goldmans books on John Lennon and Elvis dwell on the darker, druggy sides of their lives. Kitty Kelleys extensively researched biographies on a variety of contemporary figures from Sinatra to the Bush family relish any anonymous source who dishes up the dirt. This book takes the opposite tack: From the highly principled Pete Seeger to the enthusiastic Rosanne Cash, the musicians speak on the record with nothing to hide.

The musicians own takes on Dylan are pure: Acoustic, clear, and simple. They are unfettered by an outsiders judgment. The interviews with musicians, who are themselves outstanding performers, singers, and songwriters, can also be read as individual essays and self-contained autobiographies. When Joan Baez talks about taking Dylan on the road with her in 1963 when she was playing to huge crowds and he was not yet well-known, we get a glimpse of what was going on in her life and career at that time. When Seeger acknowledges that he was knocked out by Dylans rough, elementary lyrics, so influenced by his own and Woody Guthries music, Seeger admits he was witnessing an artistic evolution. Seeger had written Where Have All the Flowers Gone, Turn, Turn, Turn, and other memorable folk songs, and he saw how the genre was being transformed by younger, raw and imaginative songwriters like Dylan. The interviews make the reader feel as though he or she is having a personal conversation with the musicians. With insights from politically engaged artists that range from Baez to Bono, the book shows how music can reach across generations in its appeal. It also tells the stories of folk and rock music through the perspectives of the pioneering artists who spearheaded the musical revolution. Ultimately, it offers a musical journey through American culture and history.