Time Out of Mind

by Ian Bell

By the middle of the 1970s, Bob Dylan’s position as the pre-eminent artist of his generation was assured. The 1975 album Blood on the Tracks seemed to prove, finally, that an uncertain age had found its poet. Then Dylan faltered. His instincts, formerly unerring, deserted him. in the 1980s, what had once appeared unthinkable came to pass: the “voice of a generation” began to sound irrelevant, a tale told to grandchildren.

Yet in the autumn of 1997, something remarkable happened. Having failed to release a single new song in seven long years, Dylan put out the equivalent of two albums in a single package. In the concluding volume of his ground- breaking study, Ian Bell explores the unparalleled second act in a quintessentially american career. It is a tale of redemption, of an act of creative will against the odds, and of a writer who refused to fade away.

Time Out of Mind is the story of the latest, perhaps the last, of the many Bob Dylans.

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

574 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2013

About the author

Ian Bell was a Scottish journalist who was born and raised in Edinburgh and educated at Edinburgh University. He was an advocate of Scottish independence.

He was the literary editor of The Scotsman before becoming Scottish editor of The Observer. He also wrote for The Herald, The Sunday Herald, The Scotsman, the Daily Record, the Irish Times, and The Times Literary Supplement. He won the Orwell Prize for political journalism in 1997 and was named columnist of the year at the Scottish Press Awards 2012.

Bell wrote two volumes of a biography of Bob Dylan and one of Robert Louis Stevenson, Dreams of Exile, which the Saltire Society awarded Best First Book in 1994.

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Old Man Dylan – as good as Young Man Dylan and better than Middle Man Dylan. Here’s a quick trip through the last 16 years.

1997 : Time Out of Mind – first album of new songs for 7 years, half of them great. A whole new style to go with them , a massive pessimism, a steady gazing upon death, betrayal, futility, you know. Dylan was back, and this time he stayed back.

1998 : 1966 . live concerts released in all their glory

2001 : Love and Theft – a really brilliant, peculiar, unique album


2003: Masked and Anonymous – never saw it, but there it was


2004 : Chronicles – This book kicked the debate about plagiarism up a whole gear – from some accounts it seems that the entire book is a mosaic of previous texts.

2005 : No Direction Home For fans this was a real treat, but of course hellishly annoying too, we wanted the whole uncut performances as well as everything else, we ain’t never satisfied

2006 : Modern Times This made Dylan the oldest performer ever to have a No 1 album in America, but in Britain, he only got to No 3. The oldest No 1 album artist here is Vera Lynn who is currently 96; she hit No 1 four years ago, aged 92, with an album which featured “The White Cliffs of Dover”. That famous song includes the greatest ornithological error in the history of modern pop music. It was written by a couple of Americans, and they had no idea that there are no bluebirds in Dover or anywhere in England.

2006 – 9 : Theme Time Radio. A whole new style to go with them . A hilarious series of one hour internet radio shows

2007 : I’m Not There. Well, I thought the whole thing was really wonderful, especially the genius idea of getting Cate Blanchett to play mid-60s thin androgynous amphetamine Dylan, which she did as if to the manor born

2008 : Tell Tale Signs Although composed of outtakes and random songs composed for obscure movies no one saw it can’t be a surprise to anyone that this was Bob’s second late masterpiece, after Love & Theft.

2009 : Together Through Life. Great title – these artists, who last so long, like Dylan, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, they really are with you through your life if you been listening as long as me.

2009 : Christmas in the Heart. A surprise career move, but don’t dismiss it until you see this video

2012 : Tempest. I stick my neck out and say I believe this will probably turn out to be the last original Dylan album. But it’s a mug’s game, making Dylan predictions.

2013 : Another Self Portrait. A fabulous example of why Dylan never fails to be interesting. Extracted from some of the apparently worst years, musically, of Dylan’s career, we find many gorgeous versions of old folk songs. Have we seen the last of these remarkable exhumations from the Dylan mines? I don’t think so.


THIS BOOK

I was only interested in the last 250 pages, the account of this latter golden autumnal Dylan period; I already read about Dylan’s earlier years too many times to count. This book is an excellent meditation on all the curious (singing for the Pope, already?), aggravating (too many bad concerts), depressing (Victoria’s Secret advert?), delightful and serendipitous aspects of the whole story; and particularly he takes many pages to debate the major charges of plagiarism which certain critics (called “wussies and pussies” by Dylan himself) have made much of since Love & Theft and Chronicles. It’s the debate I’ve been needing to read for a long time.

Recommended to diehard Dylan fans – I know there are way too many Dylan biographies, but this one is much more an affectionate journey through the music itself with a serious guy who knows his stuff and covers pretty much everything in detail, right up to about June this year.

[Sarah Paolantonio · Rating 4 out of 5]

I now know more about Bob Dylan than I ever thought I would. Where do I even begin when talking about this, part two of a biography, 535 pages of Dylan, starting in 1975? I ended my last review of part one, 'Once Upon A Time: The Lives Of Bob Dylan', with the realization that Bob Dylan is indeed a life-as-performance-artist. And here I am to say, it's the most realistic realization about Dylan. It helps me grasp what he's doing in his music, even when it's the records of his I don't want to listen to. It helps rationalize his stupid, weird, behavior. It helps me understand the game he's playing.

I wrote more in this book and dog-eared more pages. I had no idea "Visions of Joanna" was about Dylan's heroin addiction. I didn't realize how awful he was to women, specifically to his first wife, Sara. The breaking point in their marriage was when Dylan's mistresses would show up at the breakfast table without him, while his kids and Sara were there. I find that disturbing on so many levels. He slept around, cheated, and was never there for his kids, simply because the road called (calls) to him. At first, The Never Ending Tour was explained because he owed Sara alimony but really I think it's because he doesn't know how to exist in any other way. He doesn't need the money (there's Victoria Secret commercials for that, his no-longer Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour, his art, and the etched-signed harmonicas for sale online) he's a performer and nothing else. Also, another astounding fact about his divorce from Sara: in addition to custody of their five children, houses, and money, she won half the royalties to the song written during their marriage (1965-1977).

Part two helped me discover 'Blood On The Tracks' and 'Desire.' Throughout the book the trilogy theory of Dylan's albums is discussed--that they always appear in threes. Dylan is famous for the three that came out in succession: 'Bringin' It All Back Home' ('65), 'Highway 61 Revisited' ('65) and 'Blonde On Blonde' ('66). For the most part, these are the only Dylan records you need. 'Blood On The Tracks' ('75) and a few latter ones are inspiring and just as encouraging to listeners, reminding us that yes Dylan is a wonderful songwriter and knows how to mold melodies. He gets it. But I believe that because of that trilogy from the '60s, he was able to do anything he wanted. There is a cult following that allowed him to paint his face, wear masks, and spend millions on The Rolling Thunder Revue, '75-'76, (my GOD the face painting--someone yesterday told me they think it's Dylan's answer to glam, a genius theory); that gave Dylan four more records with Columbia after his born-again trilogy; that Dylan got a book deal for more volumes of 'Chronicles' on his 65th birthday. Those three records from 1965 and 1966 are proof that if you have one really good idea, if you're given enough money and freedom, you might just have another.

The middle of this book dragged for me. The aftermath of the Presidential election got to me and I found it harder to read anything but the news for a week or two. That's on me. But there's the middle phase of Dylan's work where the music loses interest, even it itself. Once I found my footing in the pages again, the 1980s and 1990s had flown by. A majority of the prose was spent discussing Dylan's relationship to politics, Reagan, Clinton, and Dylan's inability to address the fact that even though for decades he says he's not a protest song writer, that he actually is one. I think he just doesn't like labels. Again, as in part one, a lot of time is spent on the continuing Bootleg series and the Basement Tapes. Dylan knows what he's doing, Bell writers, allowing a constant flow of music to be released for purchase.

Bell spends a hundred or so pages discussing Dylan's plagiarism of Ovid, Shakespeare, and multiple photographer and sketch artists--even Dylan's physical art was based on someone else's ideas. Bell writes back to back stanzas of poetry that Dylan took lines and overarching themes from. He follows them up with interview clips of Dylan saying 'that that's just what folk music is. We're all taking from one another.' It's maddening. But that's what Dylan does.

Ian Bell passed away before he got to see Dylan win the Nobel. This is a major bummer considering how much time Bell devotes, in both books, to the complicated history of Dylan and the Nobel. Dylan was nominated every year since 1997 and Bell dives right into all the hullabaloo about how Dylan doesn't deserve it: he's only a songwriter, not a poet or novelist, and his lines look like shit on the page. Playwrights were awarded the Nobel, so why is it different for Dylan who's art *also* needs to be performed to be understood, Bell asks? I wish Bell was around to write an updated afterword, but maybe Bell's great life work needed to be incomplete, the same way nothing is ever finished. If anyone were to understand Wabi-Sabi, it would be Dylan.

The day after I finished this book it was announced that Bob Dylan's Nobel speech wouldn't be delivered by him. Instead, Patti Smith would show up in his honor and sing 'A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall.' Some people have told me they think it's Dylan spitting in the face of the Nobel committee, that it's a waste of time. But I think it's an idiot savant move. It's a great song choice, it's a great performer choice, it's a woman in his place (Patti Smith is one lucky girl from NJ), and he is technically allowed to do whatever he wants. I think it's genius and I honestly wouldn't expect anything else from him. I was looking forward to hearing what he'd have to say during his Nobel speech, that is if we could understand him, but this is another kind of mystery-legacy-tale that Dylan is telling.

Bob Dylan is such a fake, always asking in interviews "Who Am I?" "Am I You?" When he took off his mask during The Rolling Thunder Revue to reveal Bob Dylan, a white painted face and all, he's telling us something there (mask>face paint>c'mon people). He plays with time, it helps that he has had so much of it, but he is truly committed to the being "Bob Dylan." It's a persona he is often not sure of and it is a fascinating piece of art.

I never thought I'd read more than a thousand pages on one person, but here we are. I joked that it would've been better if he was dead in the end, but it only lead me to something else: perhaps when he dies, the answer to a question no one knew to ask will come out. Perhaps there's something behind him that he's hiding? Maybe there's something there no one knows to look for because we can't see its borders. I will be very sad when he passes away. Until then, his antics and songs entertain me and make me always question what art can be. I truly think he understands it better than anyone else. Just take a look at his weird, genius, idiot life. Bob Dylan: I love you, I hate you. Thank you for making art.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This second volume of Ian Bell’s treatment (“biography” is the wrong word) of Dylan is as good as the first. As in Once Upon a Time, Bell’s writing is muscular and energetic: every sentence is written by someone who has spent his life reading about and listening to Dylan—but who never sounds like a fanboy or longing-to-be-hip academic. Also as in the first volume, Bell sometimes editorializes too long about American politics or the electorate, but the writing is good enough that the reader can bear it for a few pages at a time. (He is as wrong about Reagan as he is about the Grateful Dead.) But if Bell is sometimes off-base with politics, he is dead-on with poetics. Beginning with 1975’s Blood on the Tracks and ending with 2013’s Tempest, Bell examines the career of Dylan (or “Dylan”) as American troubadour, artist, and icon. “His life,” Bell states, “had become a mixture of high art and low commerce, of thoughtful statements one the state of man and the modern world interspersed with textbook examples of the kind of behavior that gives stardom its disreputable name.”

Bell spends a hundred pages or so on the inaccurately-named “Gospel trilogy” and Dylan’s conversion—which Bell argues was never really so much a “conversion” as another of Dylan’s identities—that he had since Greenwich Village and which runs throughout his work. To his credit, Bell lets Dylan do the talking here and never tries to explain away or undermine his subject’s faith in Revelations or doubt his sincerity, even when his music suffered. Bell takes Slow Train Comingas seriously as Dylan might wish, and his seriousness is illuminating for the reader, who wonders what Dylan was thinking in the literal, as opposed to the ironic, sense. That Slow Train Coming sold more copies than Blood on the Tracks is another revelation.

The book is also a terrific study of the relationship between art and money. In Moby-Dick, Ishmael states the obvious regarding the difference between paying and being paid: “What will compare with it? The urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvelous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no account can a moneyed man enter heaven.” One of Bell’s themes is the shocking notion that Dylan likes being paid as much as anyone else. His Victoria’s Secret commercial, the Rolling Thunder Review, the Never-Ending Tour, the Bootleg Series—even the selling of limited edition harmonicas—are all examined in light of Dylan’s urge to capitalism. Bell’s book ends before the Superbowl Chrysler ad, but the effect is the same thing: anyone who groused that Dylan was somehow “betraying” his art in making a car ad seeks to speak from a position of innocence and cast the first stone.

One interesting minor note: neither of the two volumes feature a single photograph, pointed out here to reflect the strength of Bell’s writing. Who needs pictures?

Bell often treats Dylan’s incomprehensible choices—of producers, material, touring bands, and, most of all, songs left off of albums. He (as in the first volume) offers long examinations of songs that strike him as worthy of comment—but not always positive. Thus, the reader gets long analyses of “Blind Willie McTell” and “Jokerman” as emblematic Dylan achievements, and one just as long on “Isis,” in which Bell states that the listener has to “muster a certain tolerance for a laboring melody” and lyrics filled with “New Age bric-a-brac.” Bell examines the plagiarism issue (which, for him, is ridiculous), the reception of Chronicles: Volume One, and Dylan’s voice, which he calls a “magnificent ruin.” Nothing is left unsaid or unexamined: Bell treats each album, each phase, and each incarnation of Dylan with similarly impeccable judgment. For the Dylan fan, this is required reading.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the greatest rock I've ever read (and that includes Keef's book). Time Out of Mind is volume 2 in a 2 volume set. Well over a thousand pages of "Bob." The shame of it is that Bell would pass away shortly before Dylan would win the Nobel in Literature. Bell raised it as a distinct possibility back in volume 1.

That said, Bell is (for the most part) not a fanboy. Oh, he lets his mask slip a bit when he says Dylan's voice was once an "exquisite instrument." WTF? Dylan's voice was never good (IMHO), with the possible exception being "Nashville Skyline" (where it was rumored that Dylan's new, richer voice was the result of laying off the smokes). I was reminded of something Emmylou Harris (a truly great singer) said when asked about Dylan's voice. Without casting shade, she said the genius to Dylan's singing was not in the voice itself, but in his unique phrasing. Similarly, about the mid-way point of the book, the playwright (and co-author) Sam Shepard would express concern over the length of some of the lines for "Danville Girl" (soon the be "Brownsville Girl"). Dylan told him not to worry, he, Dylan, would take care of that. He sure did, since the only great song on a really bad album ("Knocked Out Loaded").

I probably liked this volume better than volume 1. Volume 1 covered previously read ground, starting with Dylan's beginnings, the early success, all the way up to the eve of the "Blood on the Tracks" sessions. Bell, with his insightful writing, made all of it fresh and somewhat new again. These were Dylan's golden years. Toward the end of volume 1, Bell sensed exhaustion and a troubled marriage setting in. With volume 2 Bell picks up with "Blood on the Tracks," which involved a more personal album for Dylan, and arguably his greatest. But it would a one-trick pony, as the following "Desire" would make plain. "Desire," to my mind, is really great album, but Bell makes a good argument for being no where near to "Blood on the Tracks." He portrays the album as a hodge-podge effort that lacks thematic coherence. On top of that, many of the songs were co-written. Dylan's lack of attachment to these songs would show, in time, to their lack of presence in Dylan's set-lists in the years to come.

But "Desire" does seem to usher in a downward spiral that at times seems manic. The whole Rolling Thunder Revue tour almost seems like some grandiose effort to win Sara back. The flower covered hat of "Reynaldo"(a character from Dylan's vanity movie "Reynaldo and Clara") would be replaced by an angry, bandana covered Dylan, spitting out "Idiot Wind" for the second part of the tour. A lot of drugs and adultery on that tour. At this point, Dylan seems adrift in this life, and Bell gives you everything, exhaustively so. It's never dull, you just realize that Bell is covering area that his not really been covered so far in Dylan's very long career.

Eventually Dylan comes to Jesus, or more accurately, he has a "moment" in a hotel room where he senses a presence. As Bell notes, Dylan has never renounced or walked away from that conviction. There was an attempt to recruit Dylan by the Vineyard Church, but Dylan in time would return to further studying his own Jewish identity. Essentially, Bell sees Dylan as a Messianic Jew, with a probably unhealthy fascination with the Book of Revelation. Career wise it would lead to some of Dylan's most wretched albums. It wouldn't be until 1997 that Dylan, against all odds, would put out the great "Time Out of Mind" album. What would follow would be string of excellent albums ending, at book's end, with the release of "Tempest." I would love to have read a volume 3 by Mr. Bell. If you're a Dylan fan, Bell's books are a must read.

[Jena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creo que el que está "Out of his Mind" es el autor Ian Bell, pues se toma más de 500 páginas para decir que Bob Dylan es un plagiario de los poemas de Henry Timrod, Herman Melville, Whitman y Longfellow entre muchos, y que no merece los premios que ha recibido, a la fecha en que escribe, 2013; tampoco merece ser el posible recipendario del Premio Nobel.
Con exceso de detalles disecciona los albumes que grabó en 1975 en adelante, así como su "Never Ending Tour" que empezó en 1974, y, ¡que a la fecha no ha terminado! Destroza canciones de estos discos que por lo menos yo jamás he oido y, por lo tanto, fueron conocidas localmente; menciona, también, sus fracasos en Irlanda por presentarse borracho o abandonar el concierto a la mitad, dejando a sus músicos sin dirección alguna. Critica el éxito de su exposición pictórica "Drawn Blank" que se vino abajo cuando se descubrió que los dibujos los copió de fotos tomadas por Henri Cartier-Bresson y Dimitri Kassel. Es una biografía muy larga, detallada y aburrida. ¡Qué bueno que le dieron el Nobel a pesar de los pesares!

[Greg Tank · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have always been a sucker for cynicism with a sauce of sarcasm, so Ian Bells book tasted good, but as with caviar, a little goes a long way. After about 2 hours of Mr. Bell’s well researched book about Dylan to begin to wear on me. Being a fan of Bob Dylan for more years than I want to think about, the book’s Dylan quotes will offer the reader more insight into who Dylan really is than Bell's interpretation of Dylan’s intent. I have never found Dylan to be the enigma the professional observers and writers like to pontificate as to who he is and what his songs say. I always come away from his songs and interviews saying, “makes sense to me”. I believe his friends find him enjoyable to be around and find him a quirky old soul. He has always been wise beyond his years and it is reflected in his songs, some I like and some I have only listened to once. Bell pontificates on and on about Dylan’s motives and spins a huge amount of conjecture of Dylan’s inner most thoughts, flaws and motivations. My take is that Dylan is an artist at heart and follows that heart where ever in leads. He is fully aware that he has been given a gift of genetics, of experiences, and the motivation to be in the right place at the right time. A person can learn more about who Dylan is by listening to his songs, his speeches, and interviews that from Bell who has never been within 100 feet of Bob. In the end I did enjoy Mr. Bell’s wordsmithing and cleaver prose, but found myself chuckling at times say, “this guy is clueless as to the who is the real Bob Dylan”

[Seth · Rating 5 out of 5]

With “Time Out of Mind”, Ian Bell takes on the mammoth task of chronicling fourty years of Dylan since Blood on The Tracks in 1975. The author uses an interesting blend of interpretive analysis and more objective, broader strokes aimed at providing the reader with a record by record understanding of just how the artist has changed since the mid-seventies. Bell dissects and discards the seemingly endless number of myths and legends about Dylan, which range anywhere from allegations, both fair and not, of plagiarism to the idea that Dylan has periodically reinvented himself and his life with each and every record. Shattering the enigma in order to get a clearer, more transparent view of Dylan is entirely necessary given he has been in the public eye now during seven separate decades. Bell goes into expert detail, chronicling Dylan’s conversion to Christianity and the string of widely criticised records that followed, his inability to produce an original record for seven years during the 1990s and his return to centre stage with a string of impressive records, following and beginning with 1997s Time Out of Mind. For those after a more personable, perhaps even romantic chronicle of the artist, look elsewhere. Bell has no interest in adding to the circus that is the Dylan pantheon. Instead, Time Out of Mind reads as an objective, structured insight at what the records can add to and tell us about the circumstances surrounding Dylan the man.

[Reid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ian Bell's Time Out Of Mind is the second part of his two-book Dylan 'biography', though it certainly isn't that in the traditional sense, which was refreshing. Bell combines biography with critical evaluation as well as artistic interpretation and critique.

I did not identify with this one as much as his first part, Once Upon A Time. Not as a result of disagreeing with his opinions on certain albums and songs (though I did at times), but found the writing a little dense and over-wrought in places. I appreciated the long portions dedicated to things like the 'Gospel trilogy', but would have enjoyed more time spent on the recent albums and years. There are more and more books coming out on Dylan's 2000+ period, but still gets a 'footnote' take in alot of books. Being that it's the period in which I've joined the Dylan fray (2006 on), and the fact that the early years have been covered ad nauseum, I'd like to see more in depth impressions there.

That said, in the brief time Bell covered the period, he did a solid job, hitting on the plagiarism claims and other 'controversial' highlights.

A good Dylan book and a nice change from the traditional biography.

[RM · Rating 3 out of 5]

Less a biography than a gigantic work of critical analysis of Bob Dylan since the 1970s - that is, after the period during which he became known as the voice of the Sixties generation. The book could easily have stopped after its brilliant introduction, which asks why Dylan has endured despite the dross he served up for decades after the Sixties, and why we're so intent on projecting a left-liberal persona onto a singer who is not. Much of the rest of the book never really convinces the reader why it's so important to explore its questions in the detail it does - isn't it enough to conclude that Dylan is a singer-songwriter who enjoyed a moment of perfect cultural synchronicity in the early 1960s, and it's that moment which informs everything we think we know about him? - though there are some fascinating excursions into Dylan's born-again Christianity, his parallels with Reagan and the rise of the religious right, and the persistent accusations of plagiarism.

[John Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frustratingly tedious. This is the only book I think I’ve ever skim-read. I kept looking for some meat on the bone. I found a lot of bones. It was almost like Bell was trying to construct a Bob Dylan statue out of them. It didn’t help, perhaps, that I’d just read Barney Hoskyn’s account of Woodstock-Bob in “Small Town Talk”, or country-Bob in Peter Doggett’s “Are You Ready For The Country”. I hoped Bell would take me to the next Bobs. Instead, Bell told me how much of a writer he thinks himself to be. He certainly has flashes of greatness, but they’re intermittent lightning in a long grey cloud of impending never-bursting greyness. Dull dull skim-readingly dull. Also, I didn’t much enjoy it.

[Roberta Westwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot
This book was soooo long, often going into more detail than needed. I always thought that someone choosing to write such a book would admire their subject, it seemed at times as if the author had destain for Dylan, which was disappointing. While I appreciate that it’s hard to quote a subject, the narrator’s attempts to speak as Dylan began to get on my nerves.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starting at Blood on the Tracks, Ian Bell was faced with a daunting task. How to discuss so many years of career without falling into repeating what he was saying in the first part about Dylan? What could really change? And the simple answer is not much, and everything. Dylan's guitar playing never improved, nor did his voice find a new timbre (unless we count the death's door croak). His songwriting, so instinctive and possibly chemically-aided in the 1960s, went through some stunning reversals of fortune. He had moments of being tabloid fodder. His pronouncements on politics were almost calculated to create a furore among his followers, dovetailing with Reagan's America and the rise of evangelicals and their influence. Just 4 years after Blood on the Tracks, Dylan was transmuting the Simple Twist of Fate into the omnipresent hand of God (see the Saved cover and say no more).

In fact, I consciously faded in on Dylan's journey in 1983, with the release of Infidels, which I heard concurrently with Masterpieces, a 3 album greatest hits set with a couple of odd choices (Like a Rolling Stone in the Self Portrait live version, Lay Lady Lay and Idiot Wind from live album Hard Rain). The two routes then had to coexist for me: as I delved more into what he'd done in the past, I had to somehow reconcile that figure with the man who went on to release Empire Burlesque, Knocked Out Loaded and Down In The Groove. I already instinctively saw and felt the multiplicity of Dylans that there were. I loved some and hated others. However, underneath it all, there was a quest within him, a perpetual search for a writer's identity and it was palpable. He turned back towards history and his own ante-Dylanian past (in particular on Time Out of Mind). He used "found words", whether from books he was reading or lines he remembered, as the basis for stories.

In some ways, one of the key tracks in this particular strand is Black Diamond Bay, on Desire, a number he has possibly never played live (it is suggested he played it once in Denver, but this has yet to be satisfactorily corroborated). It's a bit of a shaggy dog story, but it's a story. A sung story. On the same album, Hurricane is also a story, a story lent importance by its topicality and its musical attack. In the 1990s and the early part of the 21st century, he would find literary sources for the songs and put them to old time music styles. Back there in 1975, he was still in the game, putting on a communal live show (the often-thrilling Rolling Thunder Revue), making an arty film (Renaldo and Clara) and even experimenting with confessional singer-songwriting (see Blood on the Tracks and, in particular, Sara). But he was empty, so the story goes, and he was visited in a motel room by the Lord. Which led to preachy Dylan on Slow Train Coming and Saved. Musically there are plenty of things to like on both these albums. Lyrically the first is tedious (you're all doomed unless you repent and see the light) and the second is shallow (don't know about you but I was saved). In any case, this was not what Dylan's secular followers wanted at all. Shot of Love was more of the same, but with half a head out of the window, while Infidels was trumpeted as the "return" to secular life. It is not. But it was a decent album, which, if it had included Blind Willie McTell and Foot of Pride, would have been hailed as a comeback classic and possibly changed the way the next few years played out.

But then that has become the head-scratching obsession of Dylan observers: why does he leave certain songs off his albums and leave other, obviously weaker ones on? And one of the answers is that he is saving these famous outtakes for his parallel career with the Bootleg Series. And while that would an absurd way to do things, the truth is that the Bootleg Series is something unheard of in music: on the one hand the artist remains active, and on the other, his past is anthologised and reassembled and reconceived. In some ways he gets to have his cake and eat it too. He says he only looks forward, but then he sanctions a reimagining of Self Portrait which is essentially a blanket "case for the artist", putting all of the recorded work from the period into a box set and bypassing the responsibility for the choices made in 1970. And he gets away with it.

Then there are all the live shows. Dylan plays around 100 shows a year. He has trashed his voice with them. Some of the shows are great, others are shambolic. He doesn't need to do this, but he does it anyway. Or maybe he really does "need" to do them, the same way that Bruce Springsteen only really feels safe from his depressive attacks when he is on a stage somewhere.

Ian Bell, who sadly died at 59 not long after this second volume was published, is an erudite observer. He is a passionate believer in Dylan's gift, a tireless observer of the man's untruths and fictions, a campaigner for Dylan's case for the Nobel Prize (which Bell did not live to see), a fairly astute critic of the albums and a rather gobsmacked disentangler of all the contradictions has managed to wind around himself and us over all these years. And that's effectively it: we're witnessing a time-elastic, postmodern, semi-fictional, glorious/shambolic, lyric poetic, bower bird-like, primal but sophisticated, overindulged and ultimately compelling career. And this book captures all of that better than pretty well any other of the many many many Dylan biographies around.

[Glenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is volume 2 of Ian Bell's excellent biography/analysis/criticism of Bob Dylan. Volume 1 (which I haven't read yet) covered all the early days through the big tour with the Band. Volume 2 starts with "Blood on the Tracks" and ends with "Tempest". Ian Bell is an excellent critic and writer (sadly, he died soon after publication, but I'm using present tense here). Bell minces no words. He shows NO mercy in his distain of Bob's Christian phase or his 80s doldrums, which together make up much of this book. But even his discussions of Dylan's worst albums are enlightening (although I am much more forgiving of "Desire" and "Slow Train Coming". He also provides a deep and detailed analysis of the plagiarism charges against Dylan which arose after "'Love and Theft'" was released. The analysis of the claims that his "Chronicles vol 1" memoir is full of "stolen" lines from other works is fascinating. All in all, this is one of the best Dylan books out there; most likely I'll read Volume 1 very soon, simply because Bell's British perspective is quite different from the usual Dylan biographer and because he writes so well). Given what I've read in here, I'm sure I will learn a lot. I wish Bell had lived long enough to opine about the three standards albums that followed Triplicate and his latest "Rough and Rowdy Ways". That would have been very interesting.

[Allan Heron · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second and concluding part of Ian Bell's biography maintains the quality of the first.

These are essential books for any serious Dylan follower to read. Bell grapples with the many contradictions surrounding Dylan in robust fashion without suggesting that his artistic achievements are other than immense.

Sadly, Bell died not too long after this book was published. I'd have been seriously interested in his thoughts on the more recent Bootleg Series releases (not least given his comments about the periods in both books) as well as Dylan's most recent trilogy..........dang, there's another one. 😉

[Mervyn Whyte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wasn't going to bother with this after reading volume 1. But I'm glad I did. Second time around there's much less theorising and philosophising and a much stronger narrative. There's still the occasional self-conscious hipness that jars - like referring to Joseph Conrad as Joe Conrad. But on the whole this is an excellent account of the great man's second act. Full of information I've not read elsewhere and written in a more economical style, it proves the adage - or cliche, as Bell himself calls it - that less is definitely more.

[Malcolm Frawley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Firstly, I am not a Dylan fan. But I acknowledge his place in the popular music pantheon. I have read several books about him, including his own 'memoir'. This is one of the best, kicking off in 1975 with the release of Blood On The Tracks & continuing pretty much up to the publication date of 2013. Bell is clearly from the credit-where-it's-due-school & praises Dylan's best work during this period, while rubbishing his worst. He also chronicles the artist's never-ending live performances. Forensic in its detail it is still a personal evaluation. Highly recommended for music fans.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book covers Dylan's later career from the mid-seventies to around 2013 when it was published. I enjoyed it thoroughly, though I docked it a star because I think it could use some serious editing. (576 pages with many redundant and repetitious points made be the author.)

Overall, the book is very worthwhile for anyone who likes Dylan and wants to read about what he was doing post 1960's.

The author gives a very positive review of Dylan's album 'Tempest.' I must get it and check it out!

[Tom McInnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Due to the nature of this two volume set, I was very glad to be able to skip the rote, over-told, boring glory years ascent entirely and get right into the juicy stuff - faults and failures and bizarre behaviour, booze spirals and Christian revivals and all the really weird stuff that really humanises and grounds the Dylan myth.

All of this is handled with great specificity, critical faculty, and a healthy dose of cynicism. Hard for me to learn much new about Dylan at this point, but thoroughly enjoyed retracing the footsteps in such gory detail.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read Ian Bell's article for many years & enjoyed his analysis on any number of interesting topics. I was delighted he'd chosen to write on Dylan's later half of his career & his analysis was fair & insightful, writing as an obvious fan of his work but willing to point out his shortcomings as well as his triumphs. A brilliant biography & I will have to go back & read his previous book on Dylan soon.

[John Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overview of Dylan's career from mud 70's to near present (2013). Could be of particular relevance now with the Blood on the Tracks bootleg recordings just being released.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent synthetic biography by a very masterful writer. Having read upwards of a hundred books on Dylan’s life and music, this two-volume work is up there near the top for me.

[Denis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very readable, though academic, study of Dylan's work with the emphasis of his later "Time out of Mind" period. I liked it, as far as these sort of things go.

[Bill Keithler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume, along with its companion edition Once Upon A Time, is one of the best Dylan biographies to emerge in recent years. The books (Once Upon A Time covers Dylan's early life and career up to the release of Blood On The Tracks, Time Out Of Mind continues through the release of 2012's Tempest) combine biography and critical analysis in equal parts, and provide social and historical context not unlike the recent Beatles biography Can't Buy Me Love by Jonathan Gould (2008, Three Rivers Press). Bell does an excellent job on all three of these aspects adding color and insight into the subject's life and work, in addition to bringing fresh interpretations into well known events of Dylan's life. He clearly has great respect for Dylan as an artist and songwriter, but does not shy away from pointing out weak offerings in his oeuvre as well as his personal character flaws. He also brings new and positive commentary and points of view on frequently disparaged works such as Tarantula, Self-Portrait and the film Renaldo and Clara) that put those efforts in a new light. (The books were published prior to the recent release of Another Self-Portrait in the Official Bootleg Series--a release which has given rise to a re-evaluation of the original Self-Portrait).

The two volumes are indispensable contributions to the critical and biographical library on Bob Dylan, and should find an audience even among the less obsessed Dylan fan who is interested in enhancing his appreciation of the artist's work.

The books have only recently become published in the U.S. having previously been available in the UK.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't read Bell's first book on Dylan, though I may. I started this sone, not really expecting to finish it, as I've read most every book on Dylan. It was a mixed bag; where Bell really got serious about discussing the albums and songs, it was for the most part fascinating. His discussion of the songs on Desire, especially Hurricane, was great, as was the discussion of the Christian songs, especially their disastrous theology. But between those discussions were a lot of not biography, but discussion of the times. Maybe this historical stuff would be more interesting to younger readers who don't remember it, but I got impatient with it a lot. I also very much enjoyed the discussion of the late period renaissance albums, Time out of Mind, "Love and Theft," and Modern Times. I will use his discussion of Tempest as a template for a revisit of that album, as I don't like it much. I like Modern Times, but not a lot, and Blair gave me more respect for it. He did a great job of defending Chronicles and the late period lyrics against the "plagiarism" charges, and considered things more seriously than a lot of writers do. I did get tired of his frequent references to the "inner circle" or whatever he called it, of Dylan fans; yes there's a bubble and it feeds off itself, and is frequently too apologetic, but it felt to me like he didn't take it seriously enough. Still, maybe with the first book, this one would be a good first book on Dylan for the newbie.

[Amanda Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes snotty, sometimes insightful (usually both at once), much of it totally banal but in the worst kind of smartarse way - it's chief virtue is being a close study of the much neglected 80s/90s/00s decades (didn't bother with Volume I on the 60s, the next book on Dylan in the 60s I'll read hasn't been written yet.)

As I listened to it on audiobook I'm obliged to knock off stars because the narrator (who is otherwise fine) does a Dylan "impression" every time he reads a Bobby quote or lyric which makes it sound less like a critical biography and more like a Saturday Night Live skit. Painful. Just don't.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read, taking reader through the recent phases of Dylans work. Shed light on some details for me. Found some of his critique objectionable or dismissive but Bell mananged to keep it real enough to maintain my interest. Read the first one first if you can or have time, I didn't and probably won't. However will track down and watch " Masked and Anonymous " after having read this. Feel now that I've let go of previously delusional obssessions about his poetic 'genius', hopefully . That remains to be seen ? Chucking Tempest back in the satchell.

[Charles · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just as with volume I, Ian Bell loves the sound of his own prose and drags out each chapter needlessly. Fortunately he does succeed in explaining Dylan's rises and falls up to 2013 in a far more compelling way than in volume I. Or maybe I just learned how to read his writing and get past the inevitable frustrations due to his geeky self-involvement and/or geeky involvement in the Dylan-absorbed community. In any case, Bell gets enough right so as to make it a useful, if tedious read on many occasions.

[Juan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a compelling account of the ways in which the musician, and popular taste, and the world itself have changed –Wonderful reading.

I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads. Thank you !

[Sherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have not read this book to be honest. However, I was very excited to win it from a goodreads giveaway. I have many happy memories of pouring of Bob Dylan's lyrics in a book with my father. My father is deceased now but this book made me smile, thinking how much he would enjoy it.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second part of this massive bio/cultural studies-- intriguing, despite the harsh opinions/judgments. One of the better Bob books out there.