Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan

by Howard Sounes

'Engagingly written and scrupulously researched' Observer

This new edition of Howard Sounes' classic, definitive biography of Bob Dylan offers a new chapter that brings the story of the legend right up to date for his 80th birthday. Critically acclaimed, Down the Highway gives the complete picture of the man, the artist and performer. Meticulously researched and including hundreds of interviews with Dylan's closest associates, it also contains a brand new chapter covering the last ten years of Dylan's life, and the last (and previously unpublished) interview with Dylan's first serious girlfriend.

A compelling, fast-paced and revelatory read, Down the Highway takes the reader on a journey from Dylan's childhood in a Minnesota mining town to the status he enjoys today as the leading poet-troubadour of popular song, and one of the most iconic figures of contemporary culture.

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

624 pages, Paperback

First published April 2, 2001

About the author

Biographer of Bob Dylan, Charles Bukowski and Paul McCartney. Also histories and true crime - Fred & Rose, Heist - with The Fred West Tapes new in 2025.

Reviews

[Clif Hostetler · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a big book so it seems not much can be missing from it. The range of information contained in this book includes Dylan's second marriage and love child, his illness, his finances, court cases, his various residences, relationships, family, and idiosyncratic behavior that ranged being a loner to sexually promiscuous, sensitive to indifferent. And of course his professional career of composing songs, writing lyrics and performance are also thoroughly covered by the book.

The book contains numerous quotations from Dylan's associates and friends which are obviously the product of numerous interviews and in-depth research. The quotations from Bob Dylan himself are brief and scattered and appear to probably be taken from published interviews by others. I suspect that Dylan did not make himself available for an interview with the author, Howard Sounes. Based on some of the Dylan comments included it's unlikely any memories of his could be considered a reliable account of actual history. There are times in his life, particularly early in his career, when he told outright lies about his background. (e.g. He claimed to be an orphan with no parents). Even late in life he kept his second marriage secret, and its existence may have never become public is it had not mentioned in his memoir.

Dylan's memoir titled Chronicles, Vol. 1 was published in 2004. In Sounes' review he describes the memoir as a hop, skip, and jump through the chronology of Dylan's life with surprising detail and frankness at a few places but other whole years missing. Sounes says Dylan did indeed write the memoir himself not using a ghost writer; consequently the publishing date was delayed several times waiting for the manuscript.

I was motivated to read Down the Highway by a desire to prepare for a meeting of the Great Books KC group that is planning to discuss poetry (i.e. song lyrics) by Bob Dylan on April 28, 2017. We limited our scope to those lyrics published at least 50 years ago. Wikipedia lists a total of 38 albums by Dylan, but only eight were published prior to 1967. Below are links song lyrics from Albums 2 through 8. The first album is not included because it contained only two songs written by Bob Dylan, and they are not well known. Lyrics for one of the songs on the 2nd album are not included because they were not authored by Dylan.

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963, 2nd Album)

The Times They Are a-Changin' (1964, 3rd Album)

Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964, 4th Album) 

Bringing It All Back Home (1965, 5th Album)

Highway 61 Revisited (1965, 6th Album)

Blonde on Blonde (1966, 7th Album) 

John Wesley Harding (1967, 8th Album)

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is the fourth (?) book I've read about Bob Dylan. Can you tell I'm a fan? This one is the most extensive biography I've read and it's great. It balances his personal life, music, quirky personality, and his cultural impact well. It also goes almost up to the present day, including his 2020 masterpiece Rough and Rowdy Ways (though Sounes did not spend as much time on that album as I think it deserves). Overall, a fantastic biography that I think hardcore Dylan fans and more casual fans would enjoy.

[Nigeyb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have somewhat belatedly become mildly obsessed by Bob Dylan. I've always enjoyed the classic albums and watched the main documentaries but, after nearly 60 years on the planet, I've started to take more of a deep dive into his life and work.

So far as I can glean Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan by Howard Sounes and No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan by Robert Shelton are considered the most definitive. That said there is no real consensus on this. Many praise Clinton Heylin's numerous Dylan books.

As Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan is available on Audible I decided to start with this. It was first published in 2001 and then updated in 2011, so it's not bang up to date.

I cannot compare and contrast with other offerings however conclude it's a great entry biography which pleasingly blends Bob's career and his personal life. I felt I got to know a lot about Bob's life and personality, as well as a good overview of his career and musical output. I was enthralled from start to finish.

As all good biographies should, it has inspired me to seek out more of the music, more of the documentaries and read other books about this extraordinary and enigmatic artist.

4/5



The blurb....

Hailed as "Music Book of the Year" by Uncut magazine on publication, and a finalist for the Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award, Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan is an essential biography for Bob Dylan fans and all music enthusiasts, delivering the full, fascinating story of the life and work of this great artist.

Author Howard Sounes interviewed more than 250 key people in Dylan’s circle, and gained access to previously unseen documents, to create a fresh and compelling book that takes the reader on a journey from Dylan’s childhood in a Minnesota mining town, through his rise to fame in the 1960s, to his current status as the senior figure in popular music.

Howard Sounes is known for writing detailed and revelatory biographies of extraordinary personalities, including the American poet Charles Bukowski (Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life) and the singer-songwriters Paul McCartney (Fab) and Lou Reed (Notes from the Velvet Underground).

[Still · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is possibly my all-time favorite Dylan bio.

It's gossipy and deliciously so: how many children by how many different women do you think Bob has?

Why did Bob Dylan start his own publishing company (Dwarf Music) in January of 1966 and how did he come to name it "Dwarf"?

How many roads must a man walk down before he finds out what price you have to pay to get out of going through all "these things" twice?

After reading this you'll find yourself unable to declare in regards to Bob Dylan: nothing was revealed.

[James Lundy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading "Down the Highway" not because it is a well-written book (it isn't) and not because Howard Sounes has any insights into the music of Bob Dylan (he doesn't). I enjoyed the book because this is the first biography of the man that gives the reader a feel for what it's like being Bob Dylan on a day-to-day, year-to-year basis. The three years of research that went into the biography focused more on "digging the dirt" on Dylan rather than Clinton Heylin's (much better executed) book "Behind the Shades." That book focuses on Bob Dylan's performance art (in the studio or live) in a very thorough yet opinionated manner.
There's a lot of new information in Sounes's book, like Dylan's second marriage and love child, his illness, his finances, court cases, his various residences, relationships, family, etc. This is all very fascinating stuff to learn about and appeals to the side of me that leafs through the tabloids when I'm in line at the grocery store. On the other hand, the book is written in a stilted, un-engaging style that has me guessing that English is not Howard Sounes's first language. He has an annoying way of analyzing Dylan's songs by paraphrasing them. Here's an example concerning the song "Meet Me in the Morning" from "Blood on the Tracks": "Bob sang of the sun `sinking like a ship' and his voice brimmed with emotion as he wailed that this was just like his heart when he kissed his lover's lips." (p. 283). Contrast that with Clinton Heylin's peremptory but outstanding musical commentary from his various books and it comes up pretty lame, indeed.

[Paulina · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writer did a great job covering the beginning of Bob's life and fame, but at about the mid 70's he started losing his touch - or the book just got annoying. Yes, there's a lot of information, lots of 'I was with Bob so many years, so I will comment about this' stuff, but it lacks feeling. Where's Dylan the Joker? where's the poetry? Howard Sounes describes the many loves of Bob without any feelings - sometimes I felt as if I was reading a big guest book of Dylan's lovelife, just names and dates, no why, no how...
I was starting to get tired of this book, but when I found out that the last hundred pages was only notes and sources, I could only ask - is this it? Where's Bob Dylan whom I had to find in those pages?
But oh well. 4 stars because even bad writing can't kill my love for Dylan and everything about him.

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in a goodreads drawing.

A thorough, well written biography of the influential singer, from his childhood in Minnesota to his time with The Travelling Wilburys and beyond. For a famous person, Dylan was very secretive. This book attempts to unravel them.

Very interesting.

[James Hartley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read, gossipy, overview of Dylan's career which suffers in the end, from being more a summary of what he did than an attempt to analyse or examine it. The problem for any biographer is that Dylan has lived more than one life; he's more than one person, someone making life up as he goes along, and that means anything other than what Sounes has done here is going to be subjective and limited.
Revelations, as trumpeted in the book by the author himself, come in the shape of Bob's second wife and marriage - which is as gossipy and tabloidy as it gets. There's nothing revealing or new in any of what for me are the most interesting aspects of the Dylan story - his relationship with Robert Zimmerman, his Woodstock-era rejection of what he'd become, his conversion and his eighties-life, but I guess everyone who's interested in the story has their own favourite parts.
In the end, this reads like a good, long article summarising Dylan's life and career. End of.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is for you if you care more about the tabloid biography, if you care, for instance, more about the women Dylan has bedded than the actual life events and experiences that inspired the artistic output of a master songwriter. You probably should pass on this book if you value the accuracy of little details like the ACTUAL setlist to his seminal Newport "Dylan-goes-electric" show. Sure he did play 'Mr. Tambourine Man' but isn't it more important that he came back onstage and played 'It's All Over Now Baby Blue' as a kiss off to the crowd after being booed for plugging in.

It's peppered with many sentences in the "it can be revealed here for the first time..." pseudo-journalistic style that really began to rub me the wrong way after many repetitions. I would rather not applaud the fact that the author dug up evidence of a previous marriage that no one knew about publicly.

There is a certain line any biographer must walk between presenting necessary personal information critical to the background of the subject (a private relationship could have a very profound effect on an artist's public output) and being exploitative and voyeuristic for sensationalism's sake. Unfortunately, I think this book crosses that line and enters into the later category.

[Michele bookloverforever · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading this, I feel very sorry for Mr.Dylan. He may be blessed with talent and money/property but it does not seem to have brought him happiness. He appears to be a very private person. The author does not appear to have interviewed either Mr. Dylan or his immediate family and is on the outside looking into a very complicated individual. But then, great artists are usually complicated. The respect this author has for Mr. Dylan's music is profound and that comes through loud and clear. Just as the disdain this author had for John Lennon & Paul McCartney came through in "FAB". Perhaps his personal music tastes have influenced the author's work?

[Geoff Menzies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deep dive into the delightful, distant, delinquent, difficult, and diabolical Dylan

[John Jensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

good read. Was more interested in Dylan after watching the Complete Unknown. I wasn't aware of all of the songs he wrote and let others sing.

[Thomas Rice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got tons of new Bob lore which I loved — but it read like it was written by a highly-competent 7th grader: very matter of fact with simple sentence structure and lacked a little richness that would have pulled me in more.

Still 100% worth reading for an aspiring Bob head — if nothing else to have as training wheels as it goes album-by-album through his daunting discography, helping discern which ones are worth paying special attention to, and to give a sense of where he was personally and what was going on in the world (musically and otherwise), and how those things affected his approach.

[hadey · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I saw this book on the bookstore I didn't really know why but I knew I had to buy this book, it was some kind of an instinct, I guess. At that time the only thing I knew about Bob Dylan was - he had written Knocking on Heaven's door . But now, after finishing this book I feel like I know everything about this great man/artist.
I thought the story was brilliant. I am amazed by how the author could write all of this information without contacting Bob Dylan himself but, damn, he had access to a lot of people who knew Bob, family members and at that time secret/confidential documents.
This book changed the way I listened to Bob Dylan's songs. It changed the way I look at Bob Dylan himself, even though I didn't really know about his existence before this book because he hadn't been very popular here in Latvia, where I am from, and, well, I was born in 1996, when Bob had already 29 albums, if that says anything.
According to this book, Bob and I actually have a surprising lot of things in common. When I was reading this book, not only did I got to know Bob Dylan but also I learned many things about myself.
I'm sure that this wasn't the last time I read this book. Ok, maybe I'm lying. I want to read it english, but the copy I own is in latvian. Anyways, the language it is written in doesn't change the fact that this is my favorite book so far.

[Mat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty good biography on Dylan and the first one I read on our 20th century bard. While the bio by Heylin is more detailed overall, there are some interesting stories in here about Dylan when he was growing up that did not appear in Behind the Shades.
Sounes is also a lot less arrogant than Heylin but Heylin is undoubtedly a better biographer (even though I wish he would stop being so subjective in his analysis of Bob's albums).
This is a good place to start if you want to find about Bob's life but Behind the Shades is better. With every year, it seems like more and more bios are coming out on Bob.

[Dianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, wow, wow what a mammoth read. Well worth the effort though. What a figure head. Loads of fabulous facts and figures about this living legend and his works. Music, movies, radio, poetry, paintings, art work, sculptures etc. he did the lot . He helped a lot of music and artistic people and they in turned helped him too. He collaborated with so many artists, young and old to perform so so many concerts and shows all around the world. If you are a fan or even if you aren’t this is a compelling read.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bob Dylan is enigmatic, eccentric, and extremely gifted. I will love him forever.

[Larry Bassett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this audible book while I followed along also with the e-book. The e-book edition has an extra chapter that follows Bob a little further into his life which still goes on in his 80s until today. The e-book also has pictures which are a plus. It is possible that there are quite a few books about Bob Dylan or at least the author of this book alludes to that fact. I am not quite sure why he thought we needed another one, and it seems pretty obvious that this particular book is not one with which the subject cooperated. At the end of this book, it mentions that Bob Dylan actually began writing what is supposed to be a four volume autobiography, and the first small volume had been published.

I didn’t know much about Bob Dylan other than his early most famous to me at least songs, and then his relationship with Joan Baez. Then I pretty much lost track of him in spite of the fact that he kept putting out albums and touring the world and the country. But as far as I can tell, he will always be singing blowing in the wind. But now that I have listen to this pretty lengthy book, I know that he has gone through a lot of changes and a lot of women and has probably been around the tree more than twice. He was born Jewish and then was born again in his early 30s and went on a pretty significant bender for Christ.

I am not sure if you would call this book hagiographic. But I can say that it certainly was not authorized and approved by Bob Dylan. I think this author tries to call the balls and strikes as he sees them but we know that nobody can get every pitch, right . And Bob tries pretty hard through most of his career to keep quite a few things under cover. Women throw themselves at him and he catches a few. Even when he is married or supposedly going steady with someone else. He had some kids, but with only one wife And is portrayed as a pretty good father who tried to keep his kids out of the spotlight. He got famous really quickly in the 1960s. He started out when people weren’t making that much money whether they were rock stars or sports stars. But pretty quickly he was into the big bucks, the really big bucks.

He must be pretty good at what he does because his success wasn’t exactly a fluke, although he did have some downtime mid course and a fair share of problems. But money can cure a lot of problems, and he definitely had a lot of money.

As a guy who is going on 77 himself, I was amazed to discover recently that Bob Dylan was in his 80s. So the end of this book and actually throughout the book people that he knows are dying. And because he is in the rockstar business, some of them are dying of drug overdoses, and the like . Supposedly, Bob Dylan didn’t do hard drugs, but did have some problems with too much alcohol mid course. Supposedly he quit drinking because of his kids asking him.

There is plenty of He said she said in this book and there are a few efforts to actually get serious about what life was really all about for this guy. He occasionally hung out with the biggest names in the music business and of course he himself was one of the biggest names in the music business. And because I was alive, during the same era, he was it was interesting to learn a little bit more about him. And because I did listen to music some, there was quite a bit here that was familiar to me and interesting to see a little bit more of the story.

But the book pretty much tracks through Bob Dylan‘s life by tracking through his albums, and the author of the book does a lot of evaluating his albums like you might read about in rolling stone or other rock magazines. After the first several albums, I had never heard anything about most of them and had not heard about a lot of the songs that he wrote after the 1960s. I did try to listen to some of his music while I was experiencing this book because there was so much conversation about the Depth and significance of his lyrics. But I did not end this book being any more of a Bob Dylan fan than I was to begin with. Probably a little bit less of a fan, because there was plenty in the book that made me think a little bit less of him as a person. He mostly made donations to good causes by giving free concerts rather than giving away money. Some of his children had musical talents, but evidently all of them had enough money from dad that they could have chosen never to work, their whole life and his two ex-wives did pretty well financially. who knows, maybe they earned it. So yeah, the book has a lot of that kind of Dreke in it.

But I’m glad I listen to the book and I’m pretty sure I learned a few things about how life is for some people that I will never know!

[Santiago González · Rating 3 out of 5]

Things have changed

Nunca había leído una biografía, esta me cayó de regalo de una amiga intermitente, y no pude decirle que no. Sí había leído autobiografías: una de Pinti cuando todavía sus chistes me causaban gracia, la Verdad Tropical de Caetano Veloso y justamente la geniales "Crónicas 1" del propio Dylan.

Es raro el género biográfico. Es un texto del que se sabe cómo termina, y está claro que si un escritor elige retratar a alguien es porque en el fondo hay cierta admiración, no? Es complicada la imparcialidad. Me dieron ganas de leer la del Che de Anderson y la de Perón de Page.

Se supone que esta, entre todas las que hay del genio de Duluth, tiene el plus de que descubrió que Dylan estuvo casado en segundas nupcias en los ochenta.

Hay una cita de Perón que no sé si es verdad pero me gusta mucho: en su exilio en Puerta de Hierro solía decir "Sabe por qué mantiene su prestigio Dios? Porque se muestra poco". Este es el negocio de Dylan - y, en otra escala, del Indio Solari - que desde el primer minuto de su vida, cuando se inventó hasta su prehistoria.

Lo bueno de una biografía musical como esta es que uno se va tarareando las canciones. Lo malo es que se me hizo un poco larga, al final me la quería sacar de encima, como parece que también el autor.

La redacción tampoco me gustó mucho, por un momento me pareció estar leyendo una larga, larguísima entrada de Wikipedia, hay un problema de estilo.

Y además - yo leí la edición de Reservoir Books - necesita una actualización. Este libro termina con el disco de canciones navideñas; después vino un discazo como Tempest, los de canciones cantadas por Sinatra y nada menos que el Nobel de Literatura.

En fin, hasta luego, me voy cantando, "I used to care but things have changed...".

[Dylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really solid biography of Bob Dylan, a little dry at times but very thorough. If you’re looking for analysis of Bob’s music, you won’t find it here (Sounes sometimes comments on the quality of the music, but honestly I found myself disagreeing with him), this is strictly a history covering Bob’s whole life (my edition was updated to 2020). The book is easy to read and does a good job placing Bob’s music in its historical context and timeline. I found the chapters about Bob’s mid-to-late career especially moving, the author really highlights the sadness and isolation that came with his fame. You do have to take it with a grain of salt as Bob himself did not speak to the author, so the main primary sources are the people who knew Bob over the years. Some of these people clearly hold grudges against Bob and the author includes a lot of what reads like slander which I thought was a really weird/bad choice.

[Yanyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5

Now I can go back to watch I’m Not There and actually understand it!

[KRKO · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an incredible introduction to the life and work of Bob Dylan. I knew some of his albums before reading this, but going through the book was an absolutely wonderful trip down the road of Dylan's inventive works and often tragic life.

The research for this biography was thorough and in-depth (to the point of starting off talking about Dylan's distant ancestors) and goes through each one of his "phases" rather well. It's the only Dylan bio I've read so it's hard to compare to others, but it acted as a great introduction for me to further explore whatever eras of Dylan I may be most interested in.

The book seems long but is a breeze to get through, and I recommend also listening to the albums discussed in the book while making your way through it as a means to really understand Dylan's mindset and ideas at various points of his life.

The only thing that hinders this book is, at times, the biographer buts his way in a bit too much. He'll sometimes interject with things along the lines of "...and this information has not been published until this book" and it's a bit cheap. The last chapter was also a bit of a letdown. Rather than feeling like a conclusion to a cohesive biographical work, it feels more like a rushed Sparksnotes of Dylan's current output without much deep reflection.

Overall, I recommend this book, especially as an introduction to anyone wanting to know more about one of America's greatest living artists. Dylanologists may prefer other biographies of him, but this is a great place to begin before exploring more of what Dylan's life has to offer (and there's always more).

[Michał Kosiba · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascynująca

[Eric Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recommend this book to the serious Dylan fan. In Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan, Howard Sounes manages to capture Bob Dylan’s poetic and musical genius, from an unknown singer imitating Woodie Guthrie to multimillionaire recluse while leaving one wondering who the man is. Even with all the research, one gets the feeling of standing outside looking in. Perhaps we have to chalk that up to the nature of a subject who strove from the early sixties on to obfuscate his background and motivations. In addition, it’s no wonder a man who’s running from fans and even colleagues becomes to a large extent “the man who wasn’t there”—isolated, with few friends or confidants. Described many times as shy and withdrawn even at the height of his fame, one wonders how he could have stood up in front of a hundred thousand people to perform.

The author spends a surprising amount of time on Robert Zimmerman’s early years in Hibbing and at the University of Minnesota; these pages detailed his family life, friends, and early musical influences, not to mention his strong ambition to become a famous musician. He was driven.

This is not a “hit piece,” but Sounes does not spare Dylan; he was known for using and then discarding more established performers in his early days, and then forcing out or firing his musicians and other staff after he became a powerful force on the music scene.

Of course, Sounes thoroughly covers Dylan’s lack of interest in left-wing politics as well as the changes in his music from pure folk to electrified rock and blues and to what extent friends and fans hated him for that evolution. To this reader it was also informative to what extent his evangelical conversion devastated his career in terms of the quality of several of his recordings and his ability to draw the crowds who wanted to hear “greatest hits” concerts but stayed away to avoid being proselytized.

Oh, and the women. There were obviously far too many to mention so the author tries to concentrate on fifteen or so, many of whom he stayed in contact with over multiple decades—an interesting insight into Dylan’s character.

The author pierces the veil of mystery Dylan tried to maintain to expose detail of his ethnic and religious backgrounds, and in several places one gets the feeling the author may have made deals with some of his sources so he could get their viewpoints and information in return for keeping them in the background—in two-dimensional roles.

Sounes recounts each recording session and tour in a straight chronological catalogue, in formulaic fashion. He might have emphasized some of these depending on their importance. I suppose his approach is perfect, though, for someone interested in a blow-by-blow of Dylan’s entire canon and how it came to be as well as Bob’s need to continually tour to financially support his failed marriages.

I did find fascinating his idiosyncratic style of recording and performing—wanting it to seem fresh and “live” by keeping the set list a mystery from his backing bands and the number of takes and rehearsals to a minimum. Many of the musicians who worked with him could only guess which songs he would play, what key he might play in, and when the chord breaks might occur.

[Jackson Joslin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, Down the Highway: the Life of Bob Dylan, is about Bob Dylan and his life. He has done and gone through many things in his life like his many girlfriends and many music groups. He has loved music all his life and has always been a natural with instruments and singing. A girl named Echo was a big character in this book, who was Bob’s first girlfriend. Bob has so many stories from times he was caught by the cops for underage smoking to the times his mind was so different from others.
My favorite character in this book was by far Bob, because of all the things he accomplished in his life. My favorite section of the book was closer to the end which was when we got inside the scenes of some of his concerts, which took so much work to perfect.
This book was a good look at who Bob Dylan really was because at first before I really knew about him I assumed he had a normal and peaceful childhood when that was not the case, he was not the best kid or teenager.
Something I dislike about the book is that we didn’t get much of his 30’s, we learned so much about his teen years but after that it really skipped to the middle of his career rather than the beginning.
This book would be great to anyone who likes music and wants to learn more about the greatest musician to ever live. This book could be read by any age who would put the time into reading it and likes nonfiction. This book isn’t too heavy with facts and has a little bit of story in it so reading this as a normal book would work just as well.
I would give this book a 5 out of 5 stars because of how interesting the book and subject is. This book was made fairly recently so it has all the good facts about his past and all of the music that is still yet to come.

[Bruce Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strangely boring title. Otherwise, a well written and deeply researched bio. Sounes is not really interested in understanding Dylan’s creative process, but focuses on the material world - the studios, the band dynamics, family dynamics, legal wrangling. And he writes well, in a conservative, journalistic style.

It is fascinating how Dylan found ways of falling back in love with music. And there is the sadness of a bifurcated life, particularly his later life, of being surrounded by employees on tour, and kids and grandkids on holiday.

There’s also a story about how the industry eats people alive. Phil Ochs, the Band, even Tom Petty, and other contemporaries who rose with him and died or diminished while Dylan kept writing songs no one else could write.

The hero of the bio, though, is Joan Baez, whose humanity, sternness, grace and forgiveness, shows what a wonderful person she is. Although I cannot bear to hear her sing.

[Isabella Agostino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sounes is an exceptionally remarkable storyteller. His gifts are magnified by the subject matter, not made to be the background. He takes an honest look at Dylan’s life and doesn’t shy away from the ugliness. He lets the reader make their own judgment calls and interjects with opinions only to present us with options every once in a while. The length wasn’t an issue, because every phase of Dylan’s life, albeit stories in themselves, weren’t just chronicled here but carefully laid out. Sounes is accessible to all levels of Dylan fans. Any major event that a Dylan nerd would be familiar with Sounes anticipates with teasing. That is fun! For the explorative reader who is less familiar with Dylan, Sounes is sure not to empty name-drop. Honestly, I used reading this book as a way to get to know some basic Dylan facts. It was a tremendous read! Highly recommend.

[John Pilecki · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a library of books about Bob Dylan, I have read most of them, and this one is the best. Mr. Sounes obviously did his research first-hand and presents all phases of Dylan's career and life - from childhood to advancing age - in a clear eyed style that is respectful and highly appreciative, not intrusive and fawning, as some life accounts of this man's musical accomplishments and personal life have been. Highly recommended for both inveterate fans and readers who want to know more about one of the most important cultural figures of the past half century.

[Braden Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has helped me to level up my Bob Dylan fandom. I look forward to going through his discography again, with this knowledge I have gained in regards to the context surrounding the recordings. For a book so meticulously researched, it is remarkably easy to read. I wonder if Sounes will have to update this again, maybe including the release of the 'A Complete Unknown' and Bob's twitter fingers.

[Luis Mario · Rating 5 out of 5]

A living legend, Bob Dylan is truly the greatest one out there, he isn’t just another musician, he’s a poet.

This is a really complete biography that includes everything there is to know, childhood, first songs, personal life, court cases, inside thoughts. It’s really wonderful.