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

by Clinton Heylin

In 1991 Clinton Heylin published what was considered the most definitive biography of Bob Dylan available. In 2001 he completely revised and reworked this hugely acclaimed book, adding new sections, substantially reworking text, and bringing the story up-to-date with Dylan's explosive career in 2000. Bob Behind the Shades Revisited follows the story of Dylan from his humble beginnings in Minnesota to his arrival in New York in 1961, his subsequent rise in the folk pantheon of Greenwich Village in the early '60s, and his cataclysmic folk-rock metamorphosis at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. In the succeeding eighteen months, Dylan released Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde, and embarked on the legendary 1966 World Tour that culminated with an unforgettable concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Heylin details it all, along with the true story of Dylan's motorcycle accident, his remarkable reemergence in the mid-'70s, the only exacting account of his controversial conversion to born-again Christianity, the Neverending Tour, and yet another incredible Dylan resurgence with his 1997 Grammy Album of the Year Award-winning Time Out of Mind. Deemed by The New Yorker as "the most readable and reliable" of all Dylan biographies, this book will give fans what they have always wanted -- a chance to get to know the man behind the shades.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, History, Rock N Roll, The United States Of America

816 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me finish with a quick word on the Dylan biography, Behind the Shades by Clinton Heylin. If there is one awesome music biography out there about arguably the most prolific pop artist in the 20th C, this might be it. It is well-researched and fascinating and got me listening to weeks to all of Dylan’s catalog particularly the stuff between 1965 and 1975. Note that there is a reissue from about 2006 with 250 (!!!) more pages covering the albums from Oh Mercy to just before Tempest. Definitely a great read. you realise reading it that Dylan’s creative process is VERY similar to that of a jazz musician in that (a) it is very spontaneous (b) it is autistic (if another artist in the studio with Dylan doesn’t “get it” then he is out – there is no “learning” Dylan, either you got it or you don’t and (c) it is highly improvisational – apparently, he rarely plays the same song the same way twice and has constantly re-written songs (several examples of Tangled Up in Blue are mentioned in the book for example) over the year. A great summer read too!

I am not really thrilled about the Nobel 2016 for Literature going here but...

[Paul Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

1961



1. Song to Woody
2. Talkin' New York
3. Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues
4. Man on the Street
5. Sally Gal
6. Hard Times in New York
7. I Was Young when I Left Home
1962

8. Ballad for a Friend
9. Poor Boy Blues
10. Standing on the Highway
11. Ramblin’ Gamblin Willie
12. Talkin’ John Birch Society Blues
13. The Death of Emmett Till
14. Ballad of Donald White
15. Let Me Die in my Footsteps
16. Blowin’ in the Wind
17. Corrina, Corrina
18. Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance
19. Rocks and Gravel
20. Quit your Low Down Ways
21. Babe I’m in the Mood for You
22. Down the Highway
23. Bob Dylan's Blues
24. Tomorrow is a Long Time
25. Ain’t Gonna Grieve
26. Long Ago Far Away
27. Long Time Gone
28. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
29. Ballad of Hollis Brown
30. John Brown
31. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
32. Mixed Up Confusion
33. I’d Hate to be you on that Dreadful Day
34. Paths of Victory
35 : Train A-Travelin’
36. Walkin’ Down the Line
37. Cuban Missile Crisis
38. Ye Playboys and Playgirls
39. Oxford Town
40. I Shall Be Free
41. Kingsport Town
42. Hero Blues
43. Whatcha Gonna Do
1963

44. Masters of War
45. Girl from the North Country
46. Boots of Spanish Leather
47. Bob Dylan's Dream
48. Farewell
49. All Over You
50. Only a Hobo
51. Walls of Red Wing
52. Bob Dylan’s New Orleans Rag
53. Dusty Old Fairgrounds
54. Who Killed Davey Moore?
55. Seven Curses
56. With God on Our Side
57. Talkin' World War III Blues
58. Only a Pawn in Their Game
59. Eternal Circle
60. North Country Blues
61. Troubled and I Don’t Know Why
62. When the Ship Comes In
63. The Times They Are A-Changin'
64. Percy's Song
65. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
66. Lay Down Your Weary Tune
67. One Too Many Mornings
68. Restless Farewell
1964

69. Guess I’m Doin’ Fine
70. Chimes of Freedom
71. Mr. Tambourine Man
72. I Don't Believe You
73. Spanish Harlem Incident
74. Motorpsycho Nitemare
75. It Ain't Me Babe
76. Denise Denise
77. Mama You Been on my Mind
78. Ballad in Plain D
79. Black Crow Blues
80. I Shall Be Free No. 10
81. To Ramona
82. All I Really Want to Do
83. I’ll Keep it with Mine
84. My Back Pages
85. Gates of Eden
86. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
87. If You Gotta Go, Go Now
88. Farewell Angelina
89. Love is Just a Four Letter Word
1965

90. Subterranean Homesick Blues
91. California
92. Outlaw Blues
93. Love Minus Zero/No Limit
94. She Belongs to Me
95. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
96. Bob Dylan's l l5th Dream
97. On the Road Again
98. Maggie's Farm
99. It Takes a Lot to Laugh, it Takes a Train to Cry
100. Like a Rolling Stone
101. Sitting on a Barbed-Wire Fence
102. Tombstone Blues
103. Desolation Row
104. From a Buick 6
105. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?
106. Positively 4th Street
107. Highway 61 Revisited
108. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
109. Queen Jane Approximately
110. Ballad of a Thin Man
111. Medicine Sunday
112. Jet Pilot
113. I Wanna be your Lover
114. Long Distance Operator
115. Visions of Johanna
1966

116. She’s Your Lover Now
117. One of Us Must Know
118. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
119. Tell me Momma
120. 4th Time Around
121. Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands
122. Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
123. Absolutely Sweet Marie
124. Just Like a Woman
125. Pledging My Time
126. Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine
127. Temporary Like Achilles
128. Rainy Day Women Nos 12 & 35
129. Obviously 5 Believers
130. I Want You
131. Definitely Van Gogh
132. What kind of Friend is this?
133. I Can’t Leave her Behind
134. On a Rainy Afternoon
1967
135. Minstrel Boy
136. King of France
137. All American Boy
138. Tiny Montgomery
139. Sign on the Cross
140. Santa Fe
141. Silent Weekend
142. Bourbon Street
143. Don't Ya Tell Henry
144. Mil¬lion Dollar Bash
145. Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread
146. I’m not There
147. Please Mrs. Henry
148. Crash on the Levee (Down in the Flood)
149. Lo and Behold
150. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
151. This Wheel's on Fire
152. I Shall be released
153. Too Much of Nothing
154. Tears of Rage
155. The Mighty Quinn
156. Open the Door, Homer
157. Nothing Was Delivered
158. Odds and Ends
159. Get Your Rocks Off
160. Clothes Line Saga
161. Apple Suckling Tree
162. Goin' to Acapulco
163. All you have to do is Dream
164. The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
165. Drifter's Escape
166. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
167. All Along the Watchtower
168. John Wesley Harding
169. As I Went Out One Morning
170. I Am a Lonesome Hobo
171. I Pity the Poor Immi¬grant
172. The Wicked Messenger
173. Dear Landlord
174. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
175. Down Along the Cove
1969

176. Lay Lady Lay
177. I Threw It All Away
178. To Be Alone with You
179. One More Night
180. Country Pie
181. Peggy Day
182. Tell Me That It Isn't True
183. Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You
184. Wanted Man
1970
185. Living the Blues
186. Time Passes Slowly
187. Father of Night
188. Went to See the Gypsy
189. All the Tired Horses
190. If Not for You
191. Sign on the Window
192. One More Weekend
193. New Morning
194. Three Angels
195. If Dogs Run Free
196.The Man in Me
197. Winterlude
198. Day of the Locusts
1971
199. Watching the River Flow
200. When I Paint my Masterpiece
201. Wallflower
202. George Jackson
1973

203. Forever Young
204. Billy
205. Knockin' on Heaven's Door
206. Never Say Goodbye
207. Nobody ‘cept You
208. Going Going Gone
209. Hazel
210. Something There Is About You
211. You Angel You
212. On a Night Like This
213. Tough Mama
214. Dirge
215. Wedding Song
1974

216. Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts
217. Tangled Up in Blue
218. You're a Big Girl Now
219. Shelter from the Storm
220. If You See Her, Say Hello
221. Call Letter Blues
222. Simple Twist of Fate
223. Idiot Wind
224. You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
225. Up to Me
226. Buckets of Rain
227. Meet Me in the Morning
1975

228. One More Cup of Coffee
229. Golden Loom
230. Oh, Sister
231. Abandoned Love
232. Isis
233. Joey
234. Rita May
235. Hurricane
236. Black Diamond Bay
237. Catfish
238. Mozambique
239. Romance in Durango
240. Sara
1976
241. Seven Days
1978

242. Changing of the Guard
243. Is Your Love in Vain?
244. Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)
245. No Time to Think
246. We Better Talk This Over
247. True Love Tends to Forget
248. Where Are You To¬night? (Journey Through Dark Heat)
249. Coming From the Heart
250. New Pony
251. Baby Stop Crying
252. Am I Your Stepchild?
1979
253. Slow Train
254. Do Right to Me Baby (Do Unto Others)
255. Gotta Serve Somebody
256. I Believe in You
257. Ye Shall be Changed
258. Trouble in Mind
259. Man Gave Names to All the Animals
260. Ain’t No Man Righteous
261. Gonna Change My Way of Thinking
262. Precious Angel
263. When You Gonna Wake Up
264. When He Returns
1980
265. Saving Grace
266. Covenant Woman
267. In the Garden
268. Pressing On
269. Saved
270. Solid Rock
271. What Can I Do for You?
272. Are You Ready
273. Coverdown Breakthrough
274. Ain’t Gonna Go to Hell for Anybody
275. The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar
276. Yonder Comes Sin
277. Let’s Keep it Between us
278. City of Gold
1981
278. Property of Jesus
279. Every Grain of Sand
280. Caribbean Wind
281. Shot of Love
282. You Changed My Life
283. Angelina
284. Heart of Mine
285. In the Summertime
286. Need a Woman
287. Dead Man Dead Man
288. Trouble
289. Watered-Down Love
290. Lenny Bruce
291. Thief on the Cross
1983
292. Jokerman
293. I and I
294. Clean Cut Kid
295. Union Sundown
296. Blind Willie McTell
297. Don't Fall Apart on Me Tonight
298. License to Kill
299. Man of Peace
300. Sweetheart Like You
301. Someone’s Got a Hold of my Heart/Tight Connection to my Heart
302. Neighborhood Bully
303. Tell me
304. Foot of Pride
305. Julius and Ethel
306. Lord Protect my Child
307. Death is not the End
308. Driftin' too far from Shore
309. Brownsville Girl (New Danville Girl)
310. Something's Burning Baby
311. Seeing the Real You at Last
1985

312. I'll Remember You
313. Maybe Someday
314. Trust Yourself
315. Emotionally Yours
316. When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky
317. Never Gonna be the Same Again
318. Dark Eyes
319. Shake
320. Under your Spell
1986
321. Band of the Hand
322. You Wanna Ramble
323. Got My Mind Made Up
324. Had a Dream About you baby
325. Night after Night
1989

326. Congratulations
327. Political World
328. What Good am I?
329. Dignity
330. Tweeter and the Monkey Man
331. Born in Time
332. God Knows
333. Disease of Conceit
334. What Was it you Wanted?
335. Everything is Broken
336. Ring them Bells
337. Series of Dreams
338. Most of the Time
339. TV Talkin' Song
340. Where Teardrops Fall
341. Shooting Star
342. Man in a Long Black Coat
1990
343. Handy Dandy
344. Cat's in the Well
345. 10,000 Men
346. Unbelievable
347. Under the Red Sky
348. Wiggle Wiggle
349. Two by Two
350. She's my Baby
351. Where were you Last Night?
352. Inside Out
353. If You belonged to Me
354. The Devil's Been Busy
355. 7 Deadly Sins
1996

356. Dirt Road Blues
357. Can't Wait
358. Mississippi
359. Highlands
360. Dreamin’ of You
361. Marching to the City
362. Million Miles
363. Not Dark Yet
364. Red River Shore
365. Standing in the Doorway
1997
366. Cold Irons Bound
367. Tryin' to Get to Heaven
368. Make you Feel my Love
369. Till I Fell in Love with You
370. Love Sick
1999
371. Things have Changed

2001
372. Summer Days
373. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum
374. Honest with me
375. Lonesome Day Blues
376. Bye and Bye
377. Floater
377. Moonlight
378. Po’ Boy
379. High Water (for Charlie Patton)
380. Cry a While
381.Sugar Baby
382. Waitin’ for You
2002
383. ‘Cross the Green Mountain
2005
384. Tell Ol’ Bill
385. Can’t Escape from You
386. Thunder on the Mountain
387. Spirit on the Water
388. Rollin’ and Tumblin’
389. When the Deal Goes Down
390. Someday Baby
391. Workingman’s Blues # 2
392. Beyond the Horizon
393. Nettie Moore
394. The Levee’s Gonna Break
395. Ain’t Talkin’
396. Huck’s Tune
2008
397. Life is hard
398. This Dream of You
399. Beyond Here Lies Nothing
400. My Wife’s Home Town
401. If you Ever Go to Houston
402. Forgetful Heart
403. Jolene
404. Shake Shake Mama
405. I Feel a Change Comin’ On
406. It’s All Good



2012

407. Duquesne Whistle
408. Soon after Midnight
409.Narrow Way
410. Long and Wasted Years
411. Pay in Blood
412. Scarlet Town
413. Early Roman Kings
414. Tin Angel
415. Tempest
416. Roll on John

[Paul Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my original review of the first edition of Behind the Shades, which is the best Dylan bio by far. Clinton Heylin updated it in 2001 and has now done so again, in 2011. The new version is almost twice as big as this original edition, so this book is now OBSOLETE. Please get the new edition!! it's huge!!

***


By the time this bio was published Clinton Heylin had probably offended every hard-core Dylan fan in both hemispheres with his disgraceful sneering heavyhanded blatantly rude putdowns of any comment or theory which didn't agree completely with his own perfectly worked-out interpretations based on the most thorough possible research. Clinton thought that all Dylan scholars were amateurs and idiots. There was no pleasing him at all, since anyone who did publish articles agreeing with him on this or that aspect of Dylan's life and work was immediately accused of plagiarism. He was so trigger-happy from the 70s onwards I'm sure he used to write to editors all over the place before realising that the article he was moaning about was one he'd written. He may still be like this, I wouldn't know, I don't read Dylan fanzines any more. Finally threw off my need to know As Much As Humanly Possible about Dylan. Still think he's a God bestriding the world of popular music, of course, that's just a natural fact.
Given the above, I award 4 stars to this bio, and its updated version. Four stars in the teeth of my dislike for the author, who, as well as his less than disarming personality, can't write. He has no style, he has verbal tics which repeat and grate painfully (e.g. everything which didn't turn out the way Clinton wanted is described "Sadly..."). Four stars because finally Dylan gets a bio which acknowledges that there was life after the 1960s and not only life, significant, brilliant work too (interspersed with disastrous mistakes like Renaldo and Clara, Empire Burlesque, the released version of Infidels, the drunk appearance on Live Aid, and so on).

So Heylin rolls over each decade and actually gives the same attention to the 80s as the 60s - wonder of wonders. Every other damn Dylan bio, of which there are at least 4, thinks Dylan rewrote the rules from 63 to 66, fell off his motorbike, then in the immortal words of Bob Spitz, "what can you say for the rest of his career? He toured and put out bad records." Heylin is the only one who nails this canard, nails it with big six inch nails too. The book comes on like a very careful scissors and paste effort, but a very good one. There are so many quotes from people it's almost like an oral history. If you want the complete picture of Dylan's career, the other bios are more fancy, more writerly, but they cover the same intensely scrutinised set of polaroids. This bio gives you the horizon to horizon panorama, and with Dylan that's worth having.

Random favourite verse (from Floater)

Romeo, he said to Juliet, "You got a poor complexion.
It doesn't give your appearance a very youthful touch!"
Juliet said back to Romeo, "Why don't you just shove off
If it bothers you so much."

[Jonfaith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dylan's method of recruiting female singers at times reflected his new proximity to Hollywood and its mores--preferring the casting couch to the microphone.

2.3 stars

Burton likely notes in a footnote the case of death by excess. They eat cookie dough while burning in sulfur in a famed poem. What about the greedy biographer? This is all too much, set lists stacked like cases of tinned peaches, page-long screeds against the effrontery of other biographers: oh, the audacity -- one images an empurpled Heylin clenching his fists at the shelves of Dylan Studies.

There is much to gained and then-- there is simply too much. Most popular forays into Dylan have it about right---feel free to end the study after the Basement Tapes. You can pull up the stakes there and worry about undue omission. All of Dylan's work is remarkable, even the shit. I don't care about his cavorting or his Jesus Time. I just don't care.

[Steve Redhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bob Dylan at 70 years old has spawned a whole series of textual tributes, including new editions of old books. This is the best of the lot. It is the third edition of Heylin's book first published twenty years ago, hence the twentieth anniversary edition subtitle. There are 60,000 additional words in this edition compared to the second edition making this version a massive tome. The last ten years have been interesting if frustrating (as usual) times for Dylan fans with "Love and Theft", Modern Times and Together Through Life eclipsing the 1980s dross once and for all and 2008's Tell Tale Signs Bootleg Series Vol 8 (triple edition especially) feeling like a completely new Dylan album altogether. Heylin refreshes our view of Dylan in these last ten years really well. Here's to the next ten years!!

[Richard Schaefer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Behind the Shades Revisited is epic in scope, covering the time of Bob Dylan’s birth in 1941 through 1998 or so (though it was published in 2000); this, paired with the mercurial, often reclusive and willfully deceptive nature of the subject, necessitated an approach on Heylin’s part that remains rooted in first hand accounts (of friends, family, musicians, and Dylan himself through third party interviews) and documented events (be they concerts, press conferences, album releases, and so on). He tries to avoid rumor-mongering, cutting through the myth that other biographers have helped build to document Dylan as an artist and person, especially in the years after the motorcycle accident that, for many, seemed to be the end of his vital years. The available information becomes scanter in those years, but Heylin acquits himself well, creating an engaging narrative and maintaining a critic’s eye throughout. While it’s obvious to say that Heylin is something of a Dylan scholar (if not obsessive), he is not slavishly devoted to either the man or his music. He peruses bootlegs and alternate takes, session notes and interviews with musicians who were there, to piece together how many times Dylan desecrated potential masterpieces, either due to self-destructive tendencies or unfamiliarity with studio recording techniques. If you’re looking for a great Dylan bio, I’d say this is your starting point and a really impressive book; but, given the multitudes its subject contains, even Heylin himself seems to acknowledge it would take far more than one book to convey Dylan’s complexity. That’s probably why Heylin has never stopped writing them.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clinton Heylin sure seems proud of himself. He made quite clear - through specific comparisons - of how much better his Dylan biography is than any of the others. His big selling point is that fully 3/4 of the book focuses on the period AFTER 1967...which is significant (don't worry by the way - as the books is 1300 pages the pre-1967 days get plenty of coverage too). It just would have been so much more enjoyable if it didn't contain so much distaste for so much of that later period - including even the Time Out Of Mind album (one of my personal and a critical favorite). It's hard to tell if Heylin has gained the cynicism due to so many years of such close proximity to Dylan's work or if maybe he's a bit arrogant due to his efforts. Yet this is the place to find a lot of information on Dylan that you probably won't anywhere else. It's a massively researched book - obsessive almost - and like all well researched books on major cultural figures ends up pulling in a lot of history of the times and settings as well. But you should only approach this if you're a major music or Dylan fan - and then carefully.

[Rick Rapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating this book is a challenge. It is extremely well-researched and readable. It also tells me way more than I ever wanted to know about this odious little man. Dylan has always been an acquired taste for me. But so many people mention him as being a big influence on their careers that I figured I needed to know more about him. Enter Heylin. I've been told that this is the primo biography of the man. It is a lengthy work chock full of quotes from a wide variety of musicians, producers, paramours, etc. In fact, Heylin includes a 9 page Dramatic Personae in which he lists people from whom he has quoted and explains their relationship to Dylan. To "know" Dylan is impossible since he has no idea himself who he is. He has gone through dozens of incarnations and has dabbled extensively in booze, drugs, sex, religion, the occult, and pretty much any thing else that he has ever crossed his path. His talent notwithstanding, Heylin's portrayal of him is that of an egocentric, selfish, manipulative, shallow, and disloyal individual. This book took me a while to get through because I found the subject so distasteful that I would have to take breaks. This is a worthwhile read for a true Dylan aficionado; for a casual listener of Dylan, this is entirely too much.

[Wes F · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent biography of The Song & Dance Man

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the best word for it, when all is said and done, is "pugnacious". Clinton Heylin, a thorough and well-versed Dylanologist, capable of bringing Bob to book while praising the high points (and some more surprising unsung moments too) is a pugnacious and rather mean-spirited biographer, more intent on attacking his peers than enthralling his readership. Which is a shame, because this magnum opus, getting more and more magnum with each edition (3 since 1991 and counting), is one of the best life-and-works approaches to Dylan's rather unpredictable career. However, when you are in the middle of the chapter where Heylin goes after the likes of Howard Sounes and Bob Shelton with green-eyed bilious gusto, that is not what you're thinking about. Instead you want to get out of here and quick. It's the kind of pettiness that makes one feel cheap and nasty.

And as Heylin drivels on and on about Daniel Lanois' supposedly noxious ways, he essentially ignores the fact that Oh Mercy and Time Out Of Mind gave Dylan back his direction and his career (and not just because of the reviews, as Modern Times would prove), and that there is a palpable depth to the sound that Dylan has not often managed (perhaps never?) despite having moments filled with better songs. Heylin's bete noire is his green eye, then, if you will. He finds credit hard to give to others, and rather easier to award to himself.

Where he is strong is on the way Dylan's back alleys have sometimes contained the kernel that the next comeback would hold. He makes you feel the existential confusion of Christian Dylan, the rudderless wanderings of drunk Dylan in the 80s and 90s, and the rather shrewd career/legacy curation of Bootleg Series Dylan. He gives quite a generous amount of space to the very many musicians who have participated in the Neverending Tour, and also has the insight to show that Dylan's lyrical gifts have been sadly truncated like an elite sportsman's stride or reach. Dylan settles earlier these days for dubious rhymes and paraphrases and no longer stumbles across the ghost of electricity howling around the bones of anyone's face. Which doesn't mean (as Time Out of Mind proves, if Heylin would just get down from his crusade) that Dylan can't make great records, but just that he can´t get away with the same flat dynamics that were often merely a platter on which to spread his lyrical delicatessen. Now there's some cheaper chicken on the grill that really needs that hot sauce to come out right.

When I read the first edition of Behind The Shades it was a shock for me to realise that Dylan had been making those 1980s albums with a straight face, believing that they were good work. He hadn't quite found his place in the changing landscape. Heylin rightly claims that Dylan always knows what he's after in a micro-management sense, but his vision of himself in the continuum was by no means clear. And Dylan's attempts to rationalise the shoddy close-enough-for-jazz attitude that sometimes seeps in are less than edifying. Of course it's difficult to choose a set list when you've got Dylan's repertoire. But not to even try is a true pity.

This edition ends with Dylan having just unleashed his Christmas album in 2009, a rather postmodern turn that got everyone chuckling and going off to give it a single spin. Since then we've had the rather humdrum Tempest (2012), the surprising - astonishing, even - Bootleg Series revival of Self Portrait (2013) and also the stretching to breaking point completism of The Basement Tapes (2014), then the again rather-bizarre standard-crooning album Shadows in the Night, wherein Bob channels Ol' Blue Eyes. Dylan, still rolling on the gasoline fumes from the new take on Self Portrait (which miraculously neutralises one of the more unsightly pimples on the face of his career) and the general goodwill his new albums seem to get for the gravitas of his deepening voice and his tasteful arrangements, is again coasting and unsure where he can take his new stuff. Heylin in another 4 or 5 years may have something interesting to say about what exactly is going on in Bob's universe as the man heads for 75 years of age. But please, can Heylin just leave alone whichever of his peers he has yet to take his screeching potshots at?

[Rodney · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are looking for the heart of Bob Dylan, this book is not going to help you get there. This book is not a typical bio, nor is it a rundown of the stories and meanings behind the Man's songs.
What it is is a thoroughly researched chronological record, in narrative form, of Dylan's studio sessions and professional relationships with others. Even though there are many splices of interviews with Dylan and his friends, acquaintances and others, little is there about his personal life (though there are times Heylin delves a bit deeper into this area).
This thing wasn't what I look for in a bio about someone whose work has been so important to me. There were hundreds of pages I skimmed over because the minutia level of detail was exhausting and downright boring a lot of the time. Looking at the thickness of it, I really don't know how all of those pages are filled and am damn sure about 300 of them are totally unnecessary, unless you are as obsessed with Dylan as Heylin is, yet don't seem to get the personal side of Dylan's work - again, much as Heylin doesn't seem to.

[Eryck · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy reading biographies of my perceived hero's but I'm frequently disenchanted to discover that behind their fame (or "shades" as in Dylan's case) stands an average human being just like the rest of us with their foibles, problems and self doubt.
This appears to be the case with Bob Dylan. I won't get into the perceived negatives because the internet is full of negatives about people and I'm tired of seeing it. And besides Dylan's positives profoundly out weigh any negatives he has.
In between the books I've read on him, about five now, I go back to listening to the songs, admiring the lyrics, and trying to play the music on my guitar, followed inevitably by me once again hoisting him up on a pedestal of greatness forgetting that he's still just a man. I've discovered the same thing with Churchill, Ghandi, Houdini ...they're just men.
The bottom line is Dylan's music and lyrics makes us happy. I hope he's happy too.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mandarin, collector, completist, emulator, literary troll, Clinton Heylin has also got the most useful biography of Bob Dylan, and not because he writes well, interprets insightfully, is scrupulous, or even sympathizes with his man -- he is none of this. (He's read the competition. The competition is horrid. One thing that makes them horrid is that they don't read the competition. Etc.) It's useful because Heylin thinks biography is based on documentation, and this oral history with interpretive mesh does get, as so many do not, the scope of what we're dealing with in this work. So: there's an index. There's a list of songs, arranged chronologically. He's interviewed many, if not all, the folks who should be interviewed. He does skip over truly important people -- like Harry Weber, for instance -- who knows why. It's a total slog. To read straight through it is sheer lunacy.

[Krisztina Papp · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very strongly opinionated biography, that is very informative when sticking to the facts, but could have used a lot less bile directed at among others but not exclusively at:
- previous biographers, especially Shelton
- all the woman Dylan was ever involved with, strong emphasis on Baez and Sarah Dylan
- people who hated Renaldo and Clara, which must be a very solitary opinion, since that movie is awful
- anyone who made fun of Dylan becoming a born-again christian (which is hilarious)
- US critics in general
- the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Bowie, U2 and an ongoing long list of collaborators who only wish to follow in the footsteps of the most important body of work in the history modern music
I mean there are even "nuggets of gold" in the fuck you albums...
But hey, the guy probably has the biggest hard-on for Dylan on the planet.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

The one Bob Dylan bio to read if you're only reading one. Alone among the other authors who have chronicled the life of this seminal musician, Heylin takes advantage of the huge mass of bootleg recordings surrounding Dylan's officially sanctioned album catalog. This gives him an advantage in charting the rise and fall of Dylan's artistry over the years -- something at least as important as chats with his many girlfriends. Heylin is also admirably tough-minded in dealing with his subject's lapses and bungling of his colossal gifts, and doesn't hesitate to give the back of his hand to overly worshipful fanboy critics. Yet for all his saltiness and elbows-out attitude, Clinton Heylin never loses sight of Dylan's greatness.

[Ali Miremadi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensive, catty, engaging biography of Dylan. A major improvement on the Robert Shelton one I read 30 years ago. Hugely more informative than Dylan’s own ‘Chronicles’ and I have no doubt also much closer to the facts. But poetry, charm and misdirection are a large part of what we love about Dylan’s music. I very much like this book’s preoccupation with selectively praising the work without falling in love with the man. Ultimately though the best thing about reading it has been listening to each album in order, though I couldn’t help skipping a lot between ‘Desire’ and ‘Oh, Mercy’, which is doubtless what most of us would do.

[Devin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book that gives an outsider's look in on Dylan's life. I will probably read Dylan's Chronicles to get the 1st person account too. It's important to get many perspectives on such a beguiling, transformative genius. The book gives a thorough account of the studio process for each album and acts as a great guide to some of the man's lesser-known (or forgotten works). Parts detailing the tours could drag sometimes but this book gives a good summary of Dylan's born-again years and the portion about his formative years on the folk scene is exhilarating.

[Joe Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stellar deep dive into Bob Dylan's life and career up until about 2000.

[Kaylee · Rating 4 out of 5]

My outside reading book I have chosen for my English class, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited which was written by: Clinton Heylin. In 1991 Clinton Heylin had published a biography about Bob Dylan. Ten years later (2001) Clinton had published another updated version of Bob Dylan. In Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited It goes more in debt with Bob Dylan's life. How he first began his music career to reaching the “bigs” of his career. Where his career all began in Duluth, Minnesota. Bob had dropped out of college to focus on his music career. From there he moved to New York and started releasing music. As well, engaging more in his folk music.
Reading the first few pages, I wasn’t clear on what I was reading. However, I saw how it was written differently. It was written like a fan. It had some documentation and interviews from people their thoughts on Bob Dylan. The book, Bob Dylan: Behind the shades focuses on his career and life. While not just focusing specifically on his career. In his forty year career and as of (2001). Giving more his expedition of his own personal life.
I didn’t care so much on how it was other people's point of views and use of documentation. It’s not like other biographies you’ll read. How other biographies discusses about the main person using their perspective. Or more in dept with their lives. This specific biography mainly talks about interviews about him and documation about him.
In a critical way of Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited. Bob Dylan who is a singer best known for being a folk songwriting and folk genre of music. I didn’t mind how they also had other people's perspective on Bob Dylan. Which giving more an idea how Dylan is towards others. Gathering information from every source like the author, Clinton Heylin. Clinton had gathered radio interviews and people relative to Dylan. Which where gives more information too.
In this specific book it didn't exactly pointed out a theme. Mainly an information book about Bob Dylan. However, looking at Bob Dylan's life as an artist he had grown into. As a musician, Bob Dylan had worked his way up to his dream by dropping out of college to pursue his music career and pursue what he loves to do for a living.
Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited is a book I recommend for people who truly love Bob Dylan and idolize him. Yet, for people who want a more of a biography book about his life, I would not recommend. This type of book goes more in debt with his career and interviews about/with him. Overall, I didn't mind reading this book and I do recommend this book for anyone who just wants to sit and read. It’s a great book to just to relax too and have more understanding of the great artist, Bob Dylan.

[Paul Frandano · Rating 4 out of 5]

4-1/2 stars, actually. If session details bore you, skip 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.

But so many of Heylin's hundreds...no, thousands...of opinions and judgments raised so many questions about their sources that I - I'd categorize myself as an indefatigable, almost anal, researcher - needed the sourcing: 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 Wayback 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. 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 (which has 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.

[E.R. Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of the five biographical books ( including his own autobiography, Chronicles Vol.1) that I have read about my favorite musical hero, this one is easily the most comprehensive. Written in a journalistic style, it uses quotations from those who knew Dylan as well as the man himself. Heylin has done his homework and has thoroughly researched his subject, giving insight into his personality as well as his creative process. I have always known that Dylan was impatient and worked quickly and was easily bored. However, the details offered in this book show a man who would risk everything to not be boring or do the same thing over and over again. This is part of his greatness, but has also been his downfall at times in his long career.
The genius of his work is on full display in this book, as are his many weaknesses and eccentricities. His boredom with recording :”After making thirty or forty records, the impetus to make ‘em starts to disintegrate.” To his love for performing live: “A lot of people don’t like the road, but it’s natural to me as breathing… It’s the only place you can be who you want to be. There is always new things to discover when you’re playing live. No two shows are the same.” This for me is the heart of his work, the self expression with no compromise which is the credo of every great artist.
Heylin also was able to uncover the things that Dylan tried so hard to hide. His drug use in the 60’s and 70’s and his alcoholism in the 80’s. His constant womanizing, all of these things that he relied on to fill the big hole in his heart. Our greatest song writer of the rock and roll era, the only person on earth to have won a Presidential medal of freedom, Grammies, Oscars, a Pulitzer and Nobel prize. At the end of the day is flawed just like us. If you have any interest in the man at all this book is a must read.

[Lance Lasalle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an exhaustive, Looooooong book that chronicles all the phases of Dylan's life and career up until about 2010. To his credit author Clinton Heylin treats all phases equally. He might be dismissive of Dylan's weaker albums, but he doesn't gloss over them. And he clearly -- clearly is an expert. This man has, apparently heard every bootleg, every concert, every episode of Dylan's radio broadcast. This is pretty impressive because Dylan has been incredibly, mind-bogglingly prolific songwriter.

So here we get a glimpse into Bob's chaotic musical process, which is pretty much to put everyone around him in a state of constant improvisation. And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but Dylan doesn't seem to care.

His personal life is also touched on...he's basically a polygamist, and Heylin delightfully skewers the press various attitudes towards Dylan over the years, including the current "he's an icon he can do no wrong" state that most rock critics find themselves in for the last two decades or so.

HIs writing style grates: too many "clever" references to Dylan's songs in the prose; Heylin's own opinions on Dylan's work leaves no room for anybody else's. But the book did overall shed light on Dylan's life vis-a-vis the music. If you are a fan, I recommend it.

[Allyson Block · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have been a Dylan fan since the 60’s but only knew the music not the man. I figured this 700 page book was a good place to start. It starts at the beginning a goes chronologically. The author takes pains to put down the efforts of authors of previous Dylan biographies. Unfortunately his work while very detailed it is riddled with errors. It’s a good read but since I am not a Dylan scholar it is hard to know what to believe. I say this due to the obvious error that even someone unfamiliar with Dylan would pick out. A couple of examples will help. The author states that Dylan went to the university of Minneapolis. Unfortunately there is no such place and it should read the university of Minnesota. Another low point was his dissection of a 1968 photo of Bob and Sara and their children. She was holding a little boy who the author dismissed as not being one of their children. This seemed unbelievable and Google quickly identified the child as his son Sam, born that year. There were many other factual or editing problems that detracted from the read. Hoping to find a better biography.

[Dan DellaPosta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clinton Heylin's magisterial take on the Gospel of Bob is a must-have for any serious Dylanphile, giving virtually a day-by-day account of the man's career from the late 1950s to the beginning of the new millennium. Fittingly, the subject still manages to retain an air of mystery even against Heylin's probing eye. It is truly strange, for example, to read such an otherwise detailed biography in which the author openly admits being unsure of how many times Dylan has been married and how many children he has. If Heylin is outspokenly critical of the hagiographical, sanitized accounts offered by other Dylanologists, his own takes can sometimes be surprisingly venomous and even mean-spirited. Still, Heylin's book is evocative, dense, informative, and engaging - agreeing or disagreeing with his strongly offered opinions being part of the fun - and surely represents the definitive historical biography to date of the 20th century's greatest living artist.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought I was just going to skim the parts of this book from periods that appealed to me (Basement Tapes, Blood on the Tracks, Infidel) but wound up devouring every word.

Heylin can be pretty corny at times, working Dylan lyrics into his sometimes turgid prose. But it's hard to argue with the exhaustive achievement, a fitting document of a relentless creator.

Trigger warning for Deadheads, Heylin absolutely skewers the band in depicting the joint tours of the 80s, a time when they didn't lack for paying fans but Bob did. Which didn't stop him from demanding a 70/30 split from the tour, LOL.

This is great on its own but also a good companion for some Youtubing or Spotifying of Bob's extensive catalog, to re-assess chestnuts buried in the rubble. Since some of the best songs of BD's oeuvre are best represented by bootlegs or alternate tracks on latter-day collections, it is helpful to have an opinionated prosepctor such as Heylin to guide you through.

[Gabriel Rojo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the definitive Heylin bio on Dylan.
Before this I read both volumes of "The Double Life of Bob Dylan" but, though valuable, in those later books Heylin seems almost tired of his subject and perpetually pissed-off.
There is still a bit of that in part 4 of this volume - an addendum in which Heylin spends perhaps too much time detailing everything that is wrong with "Chronicles", "Theme Time Radio Hour" and the latest albums.
But overall this is an impressive and comprehensive biography and critical analysis, with a much more measured view.
The thing about Heylin is that he makes your standards go up, and it's hard to come down to modern life after that.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very well-written, incredibly researched book that covers Dylan all the way up until 1997 (in the Revisited version here). Heylin is obviously a huge fan, but willing to admit flaws and faults. As long as Dylan continues to shroud his life in misdirection, poetry and fog, this will probably be one of the most thoughtful and complete overviews out there. But, man, as a Deadhead I grew entirely sick of Heylin unnecessary potshots at Jerry Garcia and the rest of the band. It was just weird.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

“This term ‘nostalgic,’ it’s just another way people have of dealing with you, and putting you some place they think they understand. It’s just another label.” —Dylan in 1984

Thoroughly researched and highly dense.

Though this biography got me listening to hours upon hours of Dylan songs while slowly digesting the life of the living legend, it also reinforced the phrase “never meet your idols”.

Bob Dylan is as complex and chaotic and creative as a human is designed to be.

[Alan]

A controversial choice to be sure. Heylin is opinionated as hell and I don't always share his views, but he's thoughtful and interesting and good at making me think about my own conclusions even when he doesn't change my mind. I like this one much more than Scaduto's, Spitz' or Shelton's. I also think he makes the best case for Dylan as a vital artist (far) beyond the 60's.

[Adam Swift]

3.5 stars I guess. Overall, a readable, comprehensive bio of Bob up to 2000, but the author comes across as such an unrepentant prick between airing his battles with other biographers that maybe a half dozen people would care about, and his outright embarrassing, constant misogynistic shots at Joan Baez that it can separate the reader from the narrative.