Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited

Heylin, Clinton. Bob Dylan : behind the shades revisited, New York, NY : William Morrow, c2001.

This unauthorised biography is deemed by The New Yorker as “the most readable and reliable” of all Bob Dylan biographies. This recommendation is probably due to the fact that Manchester native Clinton Heylin wrote it with a close-up and personal narrative-style which is refreshingly free of either uncritical worship or parochial judgments. Originally published in 1991 as Behind the Shades, in 2001 Heylin added new sections, substantially reworked text, and brought the story up-to-date with the American singer/songwriter’s explosive career in 2000. Though he was denied access to Dylan for this book, his exhaustive research and 260 interviews with important people in Dylan’s life—George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Emmylou Harris, Robbie Robertson, to name a few—give Heylin story considerable depth. In 780 pages, the readers follow the story of Dylan from his humble beginnings in Minnesota to his arrival in New York in 1961, his subsequent rise in folk circuit of Greenwich Village and continued with his Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde success, his motorcycle accident, his protest-fuelled songs, to his controversial conversion to born-again Christianity. The fans will be given what they have always wanted: a chance to get to know the man behind the shades.

•Image: Goodreads | Citation: Trove | Annotation: Goodreads, Amazon

A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead

McNally, Dennis. A long strange trip : the inside history of the Grateful Dead, New York : Broadway Books, 2002.

This 684 page biography is presented as a kaleidoscopic narrative, with the same zeal and spirit that the Californian band Grateful Dead brought to their music. The band’s historian and publicist Dennis McNally packs this book full of intimate details previously unavailable, such as how the Dead treated their tie-dyed, drugged up and devoted fans 'the Deadheads' as equals—as “companions in an odyssey,” or the time the group’s janitor vetoed a suggestion from multimillion-dollar promoter Bill Graham as “too commercial.” If you want to know what happened, why it happened, how it happened, and what it was like to be in one of the most long-lived and legendary bands in rock history, this is for you.

•Image: Goodreads | Citation: Trove | Annotation: Goodreads, Amazon

Neil Young: The Definitive History

Evans, Mike. Neil Young : The Definitive History, New York : Sterling, 2012.

This coffee table book is a quick but entertaining encyclopaedia of Neil Young’s nearly six-decade rock ’n’ roll journey. Written by London based musician-cum-writer Mark Evans, this overly illustrated life retrospective traces the Canadian singer/songwriter’s collaborative work (with Crazy Horse, Buffalo Springfield, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young), solo career—highlighting almost every album, his tour—his live performances often used as his stage to advertise his political point, his activism—particularly for green causes and Farm Aid, as well as his personal life—his relationship and his near fatal brain aneurism. All in all, the book is 288 pages of informative and encyclopaedic-like chronicle which will easily appeal general adult readers and definitely hungry-for-more “Neilophytes”.

•Image: Goodreads | Citation: Trove | Annotation: Goodreads, Amazon