The Ballad of Bob Dylan: A Portrait by Daniel Mark Epstein

by Daniel Mark Epstein

Through the lens of four seminal concerts, acclaimed poet and biographer Daniel Mark Epstein offers an intimate, nuanced look at Bob Dylan: a vivid, full-bodied portrait of one of the most influential artistsof the twentieth century, from his birth to the Never Ending Tour.

Beginning with 1963’s Lisner Auditorium concert in Washington, D.C., Epstein revisits Dylan’s astonishing rise as the darling of the folk revival, focusing on the people and books that shaped him, and his struggle to find artistic direction on the road in the1960s. Madison Square Garden, 1974, sheds light on Dylan’s transition from folk icon to rock star, his family life in seclusion, his subsequent divorce, and his highly anticipated return to touring. Tanglewood,1997, reveals how Dylan revived his flagging career in the late 1990s—largely under the influence of Jerry Garcia—discovering new ways of singing and connecting with his audience, and assembling the great bands for his Never Ending Tour. In a breathtaking account of the Time Out of Mind sessions, Epstein provides the most complete picture yet of Dylan’s contemporary work in the studio, his acceptance of his laurels, and his role as the éminence grise of rock and roll today. Aberdeen, 2009, brings us full circle, detailing the making of Dylan’s triumphant albums of the 2000s, as well as his long-running radio show.

Drawing on anecdotes and insights from new interviews with those closest to the man—including Maria Muldaur, Happy Traum, D. A. Pennebaker, Nora Guthrie, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and Dylan’s sidemen throughout the years—The Ballad of Bob Dylan is a singular take on an artist who has transformed generations and, as he enters his eighth decade, continues to inspire and surprise today.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, Audiobook, History

Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Alan (the Lone Librarian rides again) Teder · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Life in Four Concerts
A review of the Harper hardcover (May 3, 2011) with reference to the Kindle eBook for status updates and quotes.

“What was Dylan like when I first knew him? It was like the first time you saw a black hole, you thought, what is that? And you keep thinking, I will figure it out. I will watch it and I will figure it out, and you never do.” - documentary film maker D.A. Pennebaker (Don't Look Back (1967) a.o.)

Bias declared: Looking over my modest Bob Dylan book shelf* I see that I've never given anything less than 5-stars to a Bob Dylan related book. I am not about to change that here.

Epstein builds his portrait around 4 Dylan concerts which he attended over the course of his life (1963, 1974, 1997, 2009). He reviews the concerts but uses each of them as springboards to survey Dylan's life and career and recordings in the intervening years. The various anecdotes were often quite funny and quirky (see samples in my status updates below or here if you are reading outside of GR) and although Dylan comes off as surly in his youth, he becomes more accommodating as he ages.


A frame from the opening cue card sequence from the film "Don't Look Back."

Although I think of myself as a reasonably knowledgeable Dylanologist, there were still plenty of stories here which were new to me. For instance, the so-called motorcycle "accident" of 1966 was not the result of some sort of "wild one" racing antics, but was instead due to Dylan wheeling the bike down the road and having it fall over on him. The mythologizing around that at the time was then likely a cover story in order to allow him to retire for several years until the return to touring in 1974.

I had previously avoided this book due to its length (512 pages in most editions) but was happy to now finally read it during the current Long Books Challenge with several GR friends.

Soundtrack
It is pretty much impossible to make a playlist based on this book which quotes and references a few hundred songs from over the course of Bob Dylan's career. So I'll take an easy way out and mention two recent releases which cover both the early and the recent days.

The latest release Volume 18 in the so-called Bootleg series of archival recordings is Through the Open Window 1956-1963 (released October 31, 2025) which documents early amateur home recordings from 1956 through to breakthrough events such as a Carnegie Hall concert in 1963. You can listen to it on Spotify here.

Shadow Kingdom (2023) is a soundtrack to accompany the same-titled studio performance film (2021) dir. Alma Har'el, filmed during the COVID pandemic (which is why the musicians are masked). See the performance of Forever Young (originally on the Planet Waves (1974) album) on YouTube here.

Footnote
I noticed that Amazon and Goodreads have finally woken up to the fact that they were selling and promoting a bootleg copy of the screenplay for the recent Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown." Sales of the book have stopped and it can no longer by reviewed or rated, but my own review has not yet been deleted.

Trivia and Links
Surprisingly, Dylan at 84-years-of-age continues to tour and plays roughly 100 concerts per year in what has come to be known as the Never Ending Tour (1988-2025-ongoing). One fan who follows the tour and reports on the concerts regularly is the Nightly Moth who has a YouTube channel here and the substack blog Notes From Various Mornings and Nights. The latest reports are from the currently running (Oct-Nov 2025) European leg of the Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour.

[Steve Bennett · Rating 2 out of 5]

So far I have only read the first 70 or so pages. Not impressed yet. More a book about the author than about Dylan. We learn that Epstein quickly learned to play on guitar all the songs on Dylan's first album, that Epstein's uncle viewed Dylan's early album favorably (or was that unfavorably--personally I didn't care), that Epstein's sister was momentarily lost after attending a Dylan concert at Lisner, that Epstein played guitar with Elizabeth Cotton. At least the author of Marley and Me knew enough to focus more on Marley than himself. Maybe the next 200 pages get better.

UPDATE:

Well for reasons that are less than rational (and probably relate to the fact that my paternal heritage is German and my father and oldest brother were engineers), I forced myself to finish this book. Overall, it had some moments. There actually is some interesting information derived from the author's interview with David Kemper, the parts relating to Dylan's relationship with Suze Rotolo are fine, and the Rolling Thunder Revue section was quite all right. Also, Epstein knows how to write so I give him credit for that. There are hundreds of Dylan biographies out there where the writing style is horrid. So got to give Epstein some props.


And after awhile the reader can't help but get interested in the author and his family. On page 263, we learn Epstein and his wife have "enjoyed several classical musical recitals at Tanglewood while vacationing in the vilage of Tyringham." We also learn that Epstein's son, Ben, is "a promising drummer and guitarist." Ben "really liked Neighborhood Bully" (which is an awful song actually), and "Jokerman reminds Ben of the Beatles." But you only learn these facts if you read until page 270. You only have to read to page 254 to learn the author is going to omit discussion of the 1979-1981 period of Dylan's life and career because the author "was not so diehard a Dylan fan that I would keep listening to his records no matter what."

So all in all better than some of the Dylan biographies I have read, but less than perfect. Specifically, the author did ignore the following three facts about Dylan's career that to me seem critical:

1) In 1978, I purchased Street Legal at the Sam Goody's at Roosevelt Mall in NE Philly. I also purchased a box of chocolate covered pretzels at the mall. I remember going home and listening to Street Legal and eating my chocolate covered pretzels and being perfectly happy. It was the summer, I loved Bob Dylan, and I loved chocolate covered pretzels. And I was leaving for college in a few weeks and I was totally excited about moving to Washington and living on my own. And so I was most definitely perfectly happy. Then I listened to Street Legal a second and a third time that night and decided it was not really that good a record at all. The song Baby Stop Crying was, in fact, a complete embarrassment. Then I decided I probably shouldn't have eaten the entire box of chocolate covered pretzels all at once. A few weeks or so later I went to college and found out that wasn't that great either. Then I went back home and got a job at the John Wanamaker's at Roosevelt Mall unloading sofabeds and other home furnishings off of trucks. And I listened to Graham Parker's Squeezing Out Sparks way more than Street Legal during that time.

2) In spring of 1981 I was taking a course on Eastern European Politics. I had a crush on this woman in the class. This may be difficult for some people to believe, but I repeatedly failed to have the courage to ask her out. One day, I decided if I skipped my Statistics course and went back to my dorm room and listened to happy upbeat Dylan music (instead of say Gates of Eden) I would finally have the happy upbeat attitude necessary to ask this woman to the movies. So I listened to New Morning repeatedly for an hour and a half (well I might have listend to If Dogs Run Free once or twice as well). The plan did not actually work, but only because John Hinckley picked that afternoon to try to assassinate the President. With the President being rushed to the hospital three blocks from our classroom, asking someone on a first date seemed like a move of certain disaster. But I did fully appreciate Bob's upbeat message on New Morning that afternoon.

3) As part of his triumphant return to form in 1997 with the release of Time Out of Mind, Bob was scheduled to play the 9:30 Club in DC. I used to go to the 9:30 Club at its original location at 930 F St when it was a punk club in the early 1980s. I saw many great shows at the original 9:30 Club, including John Cale,Pere Ubu, Mission of Burma, The Stranglers, Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, Joe King Carrasco, and Barrence Whitfield and the Savages. But now Dylan was going to play at the 9:30 Club at its new location near Howard University. My friend Doug and I stood in line to get tickets all morning but the show sold out just when we were only about 10 people from the ticket window. We were both very sad.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my third book about Bob Dylan in approximately 3 months and easily my favorite. Although Robert Shelton’s seminal No Direction Home had a lot of great information and is an important document, Mark Daniel Epstein’s The Ballad of Bob Dylan: A Portrait showed me its shortcomings.

Epstein’s book uses four BD concerts that he attended throughout the years as jumping off points to explore Dylan’s music and life. He does a fantastic job of presenting Dylan’s life, music, and changing perspectives in an extremely compelling way.

The early part of the book focuses on Dylan’s childhood and early years in New York developing as a folk singer. He presents a sensitive, caring young man who is a bit enigmatic and extremely charismatic.

The second part of the book focuses on Dylan’s meteoric rise to fame during his rock trilogy in the 60s and how that impacted him. This was by far the most interesting part of the book for me. I didn’t realize just how impactful fame was on Dylan. He did not take to it like The Beatles did. In fact, according to Epstein’s account, it led him to be isolated, paranoid, anxious, and to use drugs to cope. He presents plenty of accounts of people who knew Dylan who believed he was not going to make it past 1966. He then presents a new theory for what happened when Dylan had his legendary motorcycle accident. I won’t spoil the fulcrum of the theory, but the motivation for it, according to Epstein, was for Dylan to escape fame and touring in order to recover. This led to his time with family in Woodstock, NY, creating his unbelievably good Basement Tapes.

The third section takes us into the 80s and 90s. Despite Dylan making some of his least interesting music during this time, Epstein continues to keep interest by exploring what BD was going through creatively that led to his stagnation and eventually resurgence with his masterful albums Time Out of Mind and ”Love and Theft.

Finally, Epstein brings us up to the present (at the time) of 2009 and Bobby’s “Never Ending tour.” this part of the book is wonderful, reading about Dylan becoming an old, eccentric sweetheart.

Throughout the book, Epstein’s writing is phenomenal. His storytelling is excellent, and he knows exactly what stories to tell to present a portrait of this fascinating human being. He doesn’t pull any punches and presents the ugly parts of Dylan both personally and musically. He also has some fantastic lyrical analysis throughout that I really enjoyed.

Overall, I think this is a fantastic introductory biography of Bob Dylan, and if someone asked me, I would easily recommend it over Robert Shelton’s (which may be blasphemy, but oh well).

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

No one who thinks about Bob Dylan thinks about him as if he were a normal human being, much less a regular guy. I can't think of one person who's written about Dylan who has cast him as anything approaching normal. If Dylan is a genius - and he is - he must be a tortured genius, otherwise there's no story. So biographers find evidence of torture in relationships gone bad, friendships betrayed, substances abused, lyrics plagiarized, until Dylan seems not only tortured but down right nasty. Interesting, though, that no one has been able to dig up any dirt on Dylan in relationship to his children and grandchildren. Now that's telling because if Dylan were half as nuts as we've been led to believe, surely one of his kids would have written a tell-all by now. I find it hard to believe they're silent under pain of excommunication, or whatever sword Dylan wields.

"The Ballad of Bob Dylan: A Portrait," is a view of Bob Dylan that shows us a hard working entertainer, a brilliant song-writer, a mediocre painter, a crappy film maker - and a decent guy, protective of his family and generous to his friends. Eccentric? Of course. Anyone who's spent over 40 years in the music business, and half his life in the public eye is bound to be eccentric. Alcoholic, drug-crazed, serial womanizer subject to fits of madness? Not so much.

Daniel Mark Epstein is a practiced poet, essayist, and playwright - and a prize winning biographer; he's also a fan, and not un-critical. My god, he's reasonable about his subject matter - not the usual modus operandi for someone writing about Dylan. He takes a look at Dylan's life through the prism of four concerts that seem to delineate four periods in the man's life - his as well as Dylan's. What he's come up with is a good story, well told - entertaining, non-pedantic, easy on the lyric analyses, but strong on the art and craft of Dylan's writing, recording, and performing. Epstein has mined the sources, and opened up some new information through interviews of Dylan's friends and band-mates.

When I finished this book I counted the Dylan tomes on my groaning bookshelf. Forty-three books by or about Bob Dylan. That's ridiculous, but what can I say, I'm up there with Christopher Ricks (I think it was) who feels that being alive while Dylan is writing and performing is akin to having been alive when Shakespeare was working. Anyway, this book 44 has been the most pleasurable read, due in no little part to Epstein's humanizing of the troubadour.

[GloriaGloom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daniel Mark Epstein è un dylanologo doc. Docente universitario, collaboratore del New Yorker, noto tra gli storici americani per una biografia comparata di Lincoln e Whitman durante la guerra civile e infine anziano e radicale; anziano e radical come solo certi americani sanno essere: marchio registrato quale il prosciutto di Parma o il tartufo di Alba. Ci vuole il fisico insomma.
Ma cosa vuole D. M. Epstein da noi con l'ennesima biografia del maleducato ebreo errante (...che la sua anima riposi in pace insieme alla sua scortesia...) da noi dylanologi in minore ai confini dell'Impero che non abbiamo già orecchiato di soppiatto dalle biografie monumento in travertino di Scaduto o di Shelton, che non abbiamo occhiato dal buco della serratura dei diari di Sam Sheppard, o ricevuto eucaristicamente attraverso la bellissima engmistica autobiografia/mistero della fede dello stesso Dylan?
Epstein da vecchia volpe navigata sa benissimo a chi si rivolge, ha ben chiaro che noi Dylan addicted siamo insofferenti ai rituali delle altre congreghe, come Luteri fiammeggianti bolliamo le eresie (ah, quegli springstiani cavalletta, che come tanti abbonati a Famiglia Cristiana si sdilinquiscono nel rito dell'accendino-candela e del tutti insieme cantiamo il refrain, che si eccitano all'ennesimo boogie in maggiore e si accoppiano come conigli accalorati alla millesima metafora sgonfia, al milionesimo reduce del Viet Nam che guida una buick del '56 a fari spenti nella notte mentre il povero babbo lavora duro alla catena di montaggio poi la fabbrica chiude e lui si ritrova con le pezze al culo ecc..ecc... ma ovviamente son tutti Veri Eroi Americani..., ma da uno che si fa chiamare Boss, come l'ultimo dei Corleone....), sa perfettamente che siamo boriosi soci di un club esclusivo, antico e blasonato, e sa anche che la prima regola di questo club è che quando il Presidente canta, canta solo per noi, o meglio, canta solo per il singolo socio, che poi qualche altro milione di stronzi ascolti la stessa canzone non fa nulla, quel faro su dal palco è puntato solo su una sedia: la mia (e se tu, sapido vicino, provi a metter mano all'accendino sai dove dovrai ficcartelo!).
Quindi il buon Epstein si mette al centro della narrazione, spettatore, in differenti stagioni della sua vita e della vita di Dylan, di quattro concerti: ci saranno fidanzate, mogli, figli, acciacchi, delusioni per ambedue. Si parte dal '63 con il Dylan ventiduenne, in solitaria al Liser Auditorium di NY, beffardo e innovativo capo carismatico dell'armata un po' decrepita degli attivisti in musica per i diritti civili: camicie a quadri, chitarre folk e pancette incipienti; "la sua entrata in scena apparve talmente casuale e priva di enfasi che era come se fosse arrivato da lontano cantando lungo tutto il tragitto..." mentre il quindicenne Epstein, seduto a bocca aperta nelle prime file in compagnia della sua mammma bionda e liberal, perde la sua verginità canzonettistica, dove afferra per la prima volta che le canzoni, quelle belle, sono una forma evoluta d'artigianato, un gioello cesellato posto al centro di un incrocio, se vai di là potresti incrociare Whitman o Eliot, a destra il cadavere miserabile di Holliis Brown (There's seven breezes a-blowin'/All around the cabin door/Seven shots ring out/Like the ocean's pounding roar), magari un versetto del Libro di Giobbe o qualche osso del bacino di Elvis. Poi si vola nel '74, al Madison Square Garden, col Dylan impazzito, elettrico, sofferente d'amor perduto ed ego espanso (esiste un disco più bello intorno al sesso, all'amore e alla perdita di quel Blood On The Tracks proprio di quell'anno? Se la risposta è sì vi meritate sesso scadente, amori tiepidi e perdite distratte). Poi nel '97 in pieno Never Ending Tour, col Dylan che gioca a nascondino con se stesso, in un bellissimo gioco al massacro delle sue canzoni che non ha precedenti. E infine anziano e indomito, nel 2009, ad Aberdeen, sofferente e gracchiante, nascosto dietro una tastiera, mischiato ai suoi musicisti e lontano dal centro del palco. Epstein parte da alcuni versi di canzoni in scaletta in questi concerti per raccontare la vita di Dylan col piglio di biografo di razza, lontano dal venticello del gossip,dalla novità ad ogni costo, dall'anedottica spicciola, per entrare a gamba tesa nel cuore del lavoro di Dylan, ovvero le sue canzoni, quel fragile tessuto musicale, ma così raffinato, che lo rendono unico. Anche in assenza del suo autore.
Come recita l'intro del bellissimo film I'm not there: "una poesia è come una persona nuda ma una canzone è qualcosa che cammina da sola"
(una stella in meno per la traduzione non sempre all'altezza, anzi quasi mai)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwSZv...

[Dave Moyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the better Bob Dylan books I have read. There is some very interesting information on how David Kemper helped reshape the band in the mid-90's, Larry Campbell's addition to the ensemble, and some other anecdotes that are new to the Bob-lore (information on the recording of Love and Theft, for instance). With Chronicles and Suze Rotolo's book, there are also insights over the last couple years that have not been available in the past.

[Darcia Helle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a unique take on a biography. Daniel Mark Epstein's obvious adoration for Bob Dylan is reflected in his writing. We see Dylan through the eyes of a fan, rather than a true biographer. Epstein begins with his first Dylan concert in 1963 and ends with the last concert he attended in 2009. For me, the intense focus on the four concerts the author attended was too much. Each song in the set lists was broken down for us, right down to the key Dylan played in. What I did learn was that Epstein must have taken and kept copious notes of his concert experiences.

That being said, there were some great nuggets of information within these pages. We're given a glimpse of Dylan in a way that his other biographies do not show us. This is a perfect book for the hardcore Dylan fan. Others might want to start with a more general biography.

[Rachel Lang · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great biography of Bob Dylan for someone who wants to see his music through the lens of a fan of his music. Both the historical information of Bob Dylan’s life and personal thoughts kept me interested and wanting to learn more.

[Alex Kearney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun read. What makes this book pop is the author’s personal experience of Dylan’s music that runs side by side with Dylan’s own story. He shares stories of attending concerts from the 60s to the 2000s, and how his son reacts to Dylan.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've put off reading any bio about Dylan for a long time to keep him a mystery. Good book. Insightful about his childhood and the myth he created about himself.

[Desirae · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me, what with Epstein's knowledge of music and, especially, poetry, this bio of Bob Dylan- The Ballad of Bob Dylan, is probably definitive.

Epstein neatly chronicles BD's life with four concerts as guideposts.

I had accepted the media myths created for BD (Dylan) - that he is the prickly, uncooperative, but an iconic hero of the 60's. That bugged me because I know many other greater heroes of the 60's.

Turns out Bob is hardworking and generous. While he may not been have been forthcoming or political enough for my tastes- it's clear that while BD reflected the 60's, he did not comment upon them, as much as we may have wished some one to do so (see Howard Zinn)!

The dvd documentary on Phil Ochs ("There but for fortune") shows clearly that Phil spoke more clearly than Bob about the 60's... but were his songs better? no way!! Jonh Lennon and Gil Scott Heron spoke much more clearly about the 60's! In fact- so did Nina Simone!! But Bob joined Phil for the concert in honor of the Chilean singer, Victor Jara, who was killed by Pinochet's thugs. And how much more of a protest song could our generation want than "Masters of War"?

BD is, after all, a composer, poet and musician. You are sucked in by his harmonies, his cadence changes- and then come the dynamite lyrics: "Here's to those that came w the dust and are gone w the wind"- simple but unforgettable.

BD has (w integrity) stubbornly refused to be pigeonholed as other than a song and dance man- following in the footsteps of a Johnny Cash. So what if he has not had the edge of certain others- his lyrics clearly support the humanity of a generation trying to change things for the better.. he channels Woodie Guthrie- he channels so many other persons who had something to say!.he is a good artist for our generation- we don't tolerate fools gladly. It's clear enough where his sympathies lie. The fact that BD has obfuscated interviewers often is a credit- they ask such stupid questions, don't they?

You can see that if Bob respects the film maker- as a Scorcese- he tells it like it is!

Hopefully, artists like BD (and film makers like Scorcese) will be even more honest and political in the future!

To me, "the answer my friends/ is mass movement for social change; the answer is mass movement for social change"- but that has no poetic ring.

When I hear that Bob collects cars or real estate- that reminds me of a Hugh Hefner; I would like Bob to be MORE- but...the fact that he is not? (I also wish other great composers- Mozart and Wagner were more political- guess what?!?!? they're not!)

Noes added later (7/19/11) upon watching the Scorcese documentary on Dylan- "No Direction Home"- Bob is not evasive talking to Martin- I realize my initial negative reaction (see above letter and refutation by Dan) was juvenile and foolish. The harmonic changes alone draw you into Bob's music- and THEN- then there are the lyrics. For a protestor like myself? "Masters of War" is as great a protest song as you could like.

"I hope that you'll die/ and I hope it comes soon/ I'll stand on your grave and make sure that you're dead!"

"Here's to those that come w the dust and are gone w the wind"- was that enough for poetry? or "How does it feel- to be all alolne- no directgion home, like a rolling stone?"- right up there w the stones "All of the things that you used to do- if they're done now, well they're done by you!"

A great documentary on Phil Ochs- "There but for Fortune" has just been released, and one could be tempted to say, Phil suffered at Bobby's hands. But didn't Bob join Phil at the tribute concert to Victor Jara- Chilean folk singer shot in the back by Pinochet's thugs in Chile?

Liam Clancy tells Bob: "Remember Bob- no fear, no envy, no meanness."

[Jose Ovalle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bob Dylan is one of my favorite artists of all time. I spent so much time highschool and college listening to his music and reading his lyrics. His lyrics, style, likes and dislikes, have impacted and shaped me in enough ways that my life would have looked very different if I didn't discover "Tambourine Man" while scrolling on youtube one day. This book helped me understand his influences and life a bit more. Epstein's book is rather good up until like page 300/400. You learn a ton about his life, eccentricities, successes, and failures. After his return from self imposed isolation, however, this book feels like the author got a lot less curious about Dylan's personal life or maybe got lazy and the book basically for the most part just becomes about the music. Which is great, but you don't get a feel as to who Bob Dylan becomes into his 40's/50's. Bc of that, this book is not fully what I wanted it to be. I'm gonna have to find a more definitive biography at some point.


One major knock is that the author basically skips over Dylan's conversion to Christianity because he personally disagreed with it. That's pretty weak stuff tbh.

[Hank Pharis · Rating 3 out of 5]

(NOTE: I'm stingy with stars. For me 2 stars means a good book or a B. 3 stars means a very good book or a B+. 4 stars means an outstanding book or an A {only about 5% of the books I read merit 4 stars}. 5 stars means an all time favorite or an A+ {Only one of 400 or 500 books rates this!).

The great news is that I can listen to a book a day at work. The bad news is that I can’t keep up with decent reviews. So I’m going to give up for now and just rate them. I hope to come back to some of the most significant things I listen to and read them and then post a review.

I have always respected Dylan but not really been a fan or known much about him. I found this very interesting and helpful. .. And it made me start listening to

[Marty Trujillo]

A very mixed bag

The first half of this book is a lot of fun. Epstein clearly loves Dylan’s early work, understands poetry, and as an added feature even seems to know music. But there's a problem with the book typical of writers Epstein's age: the last two-thirds of Dylan’s career are given short shrift -- patronized, really. Epstein admits he stopped following Dylan’s career after 'Desire,' and it shows. He has nothing original or interesting to say about Dylan’s subsequent work, but still rambles on for half a book. It’s too bad, too. The first half is superb. It’s a shame he didn't have it in him to bring the same passion and scholarship to anything beyond the late 1970s. (But it is worth reading just for the anecdote of Dylan and Epstein's sister; that’s a gem.)

[Everton Azevedo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gostei muito do livro. Li com paciência, parando para escutar os principais discos e para ver alguns documentários (citados no livro) desse que é um dos meus artistas favoritos. Um dos principais construtores da música popular americana e mundial. Devemos muito a esse cara, e esse livro retrata a sua importância, a profundidade de suas letras e os traços mais marcantes da sua personalidade de uma maneira que bem especial, comparado com outras (de suas tantas) biografias. Recomendado para quem quer saber mais sobre o autor de clássicos como Forever Young, Like a Rolling Stone, Blowin’ in the Wind e etc, etc e etc...

[David Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read a shelf full of Bob books, I nearly skipped this quirkily structured bio, and the first part is so hyper-detailed I almost gave up. Thank goodness I didn't, because this may be the most illuminating Dylan biography of all, full of sympathy, wit and insights. There's a new, credible version of the '66 motorcycle accident, the sweet story of Dylan's lifelong friendship with Larry Keegan, and surprises about his '90s road band. Dylan comes across here as more human than he does anywhere else. (Pro tip for the audio version: If you speed it up to 1.25, Bronson Pinchot talks at a normal pace.)

[Stefano Solventi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una biografia che evita il completismo (dribblando così le trappole della manualistica e dell'enciclopedia) e sposa un punto di vista interessante, quella dell'autore, il drammaturgo e poeta Epstein. La vita di Dylan è così divisa in quattro parti coincidenti con quattro concerti a cui l'autore ha assistito, che da lì si muove per ricostruire le vicende pregresse con piglio lirico quasi sempre ispirato, a tratti brillante. Qualche pecca nella traduzione non rende meno interessante - forse persino necessaria - la lettura.

[Dovofthegalilee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audio Version

This was delightful, it was read in an easy tone and very gripping as a story\biography because the author has been following Dylan since he was teen in the early sixties. Not many can say that and deliver such a good insight as he did.
The interesting thing is four people with the same amount of time and self gained knowledge could write their own bio of Dylan and all find interesting aspects to build on.

Good job!

[Mark Booth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very well written book.
The first part of the book covers very well covered ground and reveals nothing very new.
The best part for people who have read many Dylan books will be in the latter part of the book which looks at Dylan's activities over the last twenty years. These are normally glossed over in Dylan biographies but this author has interviewed a number of Dylan's previous band members who add interesting insights.

[John E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative Biography

Bob Dylan has created more original music than most songwriters and he is good in concert. This book has an incredibly strong beginning but the final chapters are not as strong. It is recommended for all Dylan fans.

[Gabriel Pardal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente narrativa, excelente formato, uma biografia que parte do autor e do seu fascínio pelo biografado.

[Mikkel Krupa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

[Dennis Dacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great review of Dylan and his work. A
comprehensive treasure trove of anecdotes any Dylanhead would appreciate.

[Glenn]

a new appreciation for the periods of Bob Dylan's career,

[Carl · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want to know about Dylan as a person, writer, singer or about his music and lyrics this is the book to read.

[Don Paske · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very detailed portrait of Bob Dylan.

[Harold Walters · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good biography as such things go.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads First Reads Giveaway. It's a hard book for me to review. It isn't the book I expected based on the description. With the backdrop of the 4 concerts, I was expecting something more freewheelin'.

The book is well-written and full of information, right down to details of chord changes during songs Dylan performed. The author interviewed a number of people for the book, and at times it seems like he's beating a topic to death simply because he found someone willing to talk about it. Other topics are barely glossed over: for example, Dylan's time with the Traveling Wilburys was given one sentence. It needed more balance.

Dylan's memoir, Chronicles, Vol. 1, is quoted enough in this book that I found myself wondering why I wasn't reading that book instead. The author also stressed Dylan's lack of privacy to the point that I felt like I was being invasive to Dylan by reading this book.

Overall, I think the essence of Dylan was sacrificed to too many little details. However, maybe the details are the point. I can understand that people who have read everything they can get their hands on might be thrilled to read some new information from different sources. In the end, I think I was the wrong audience for this book.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me start by saying "I love Bob Dylan." I was more in tune with his 70's music, like Blood on the Tracks (personal favorite), Street Legal, Desire, and Slow Train Coming. However I am very familiar with his music from the 60's as well as the 80's. I love reading about my music heroes to find out how they felt or thought about certain things and what motivated them to keep going.

This book I enjoyed because the author was an obvious fan and not someone out to get the dirt on Dylan. I was intrigued by the subject matter and found myself going through YouTube files to coincide with the dates that the book was describing. Bob Dylan seems to be an extremely intelligent man which is often described as eccentric. Why critics confuse intelligence with eccentricity is beyond me, but it would seem that Bob Dylan often gets the better of the media and this creates animosity toward him to the point where they want to belittle him.

I enjoyed how the author built the story around four Bob Dylan concerts he had seen at different stages of Dylan's career. Near the end the story is somewhat poignant because you think of all the good times you had listening to Bob Dylan's music and you realize that Bob Dylan is winding down his career and is not going to be around forever.

I give the book 4 stars, but I give Bob Dylan an enthusiastic 5 out of 5.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting book, crammed full of all sorts of details about Bob Dylan, one of the premier poets and musicians of his generation. He is revealed as a man in whom talent and vision have combined to create a cultural icon. Daniel Mark Epstein uses four concerts that he attended (Lisner Auditorium, Washington, D.C. 12/14/63, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY 1/30/74, Tanglewood, Lenox, Massachusetts 8/4/97, and Ripken Stadium, Aberdeen, Maryland 7/24/09) as place markers in the evolving story that is Bob Dylan. Epstein sketches the artists’ life and career in between concerts and uses the emotional content of his concert experiences to color in the finished portrait.

The picture that emerges is of a man who is totally focused on the creative process, to the point of never performing a song the same way twice. Many people talk about being in the moment, but Dylan is in it more than most. A quality that contributes to both the peaks and valleys of his life, of which there are many.

I found this book to be very well researched, but unevenly presented. The writing is mostly top notch, but at times heavy handed and less than satisfactory. A book with highs and lows much like the story it tells.

Thanks Goodreads for another First Reads win!