solid but not definitive
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Good, but my feeling is it rests too much on the laurels of the newly-uncovered information at the expense of covering other ground more fully. For example, the born-again period is light to say the least, and other apparently important moments seemed to get sidelined.
As often the case, there's a practically day-by-day account of Dylan during the mercurial '63-'66 period, but thereafter noticeable blank spots start to appear.
It may be that BD is too successful at keeping things under wraps, or, more plainly, that he wasn't doing anything interesting during those periods (although I find that hard to believe.) In any event, particularly during the final couple of chapters, things do tend to tail off into almost reportage and that is a shame.
What we really need is a biographer part Sounes and part Heylin, to give us the right balance of personal biography and musical assessment.
Definitely worth a read - if only because there is a lot of new info on the personal side.
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Indispensible Dylan Biography
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Aside from Bob Dylan's own book 'Chronicles', 'Down The Highway' is one of the truly indispensible books written about Bob. It's perhaps less scolarly in its approach than Michael Gray's predominantly lyrical thesis 'Song And Dance Man' and although it does share in common with Clinton Heylin's 'Behind The Shades' a desire to write a more conventional biography its approach is a little different placing more emphasis on Bob's non-musical activities.
Howard Sounes does an excellent job of uncovering information particuarly about Bob's relationship with women which also includes his second marriage which up to the point of this book's appearance was pure speculation. Although Howard Sounes is not a music journalist like many of Bob's biographers he leaves little doubt that he does have a sincere love of Bob's music as well as a desire to uncover what he can about Bob's private life.
Of course Bob has always been careful to cover his tracks to maintain his privacy so 'Down The Highway' is always going to lack some of the fine detail that can be found with biographies written about many of Bob's contemporaries. Despite seemingly decidedly sketchy in places it is most definitely an illuminating read. I find Bob's poor treatment of women the book's main talking point and i do feel at a loss to understand how someone who can write such meaningful music which has such a strong moral thread running through it can be so callous, uncaring and deceiving.
I raise my hands to Howard Sounes for bringing this (and many other details relating to Bob) to my attention.
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So - what's so great about this?
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I'm pretty confused about the amount of praise lavished on this book. First off - this seems like a very BIG book but, when examined, the print size is large and so the actual text probably doesn't amount to half that of Clinton Heylin's Dylan biography "Behind the Shades". When I started reading this Sounes book I was struck by a certain freshness since it seemed clear that Sounes wasn't what you might call one of the Dylan initiated writers like Heylin or Michael Gray. These people give the impression that they have been huge fans for most of their lives and litter their writings with lots of implicit Dylan references. This can sometimes be tiresome and Sounes gives the impression that he was approaching Dylan from a virgin perspective i.e. taking nothing for granted. However after a while I realised that what I'd taken for freshness was really a complete lack of insight and imagination. Sounes even starts quoting Heylin at one point. There are a couple of memorable observations e.g. that Dylan's wild singing style may have been based on Woody Guthrie's voice as it sounded when he was deteriorating from Huntingdon's Chorea. But on the whole this is a turgid rehash of all too familiar territory. It's especially embarrassing whenever Sounes lapses into direct speech as on page 118 when the young Dylan has been asked to work a certain gig: "With who?", asked Bob, knowing he would be supporting a name act.
"With John Lee Hooker"
"Ooo yeah", said Bob excitedly. Is Sounes writing for children? I'm left with the feeling that Sounes could have written about anyone - Elton John or Max Bygraves or whoever - and he would have employed the same automatic pilot procedure with no special feeling for his subject. Heylin's biography has its flaws. It's very opinionated but I feel that's the price you have to pay for a book with distinction and wit. He also makes you feel that all those Dylan stories you probably already know seem fresh with all the additional detail he provides. That's the book to read. Definitely not this.
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Great Book
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As someone who's listened and loved Dylan's music for years, but never read much about him, I thought this was a great introduction to his life and music. Well-researched and informative, but at the same time never boring or overly-pedantic. It also felt a really balanced and intelligent book to me: one that didn't gloss over Dylan's personal difficulties, but also didn't try to paint him more negatively than need be. It conveyed both his strengths and his weaknesses, and ultimately much of his humanity.
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Warts & All
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Having already read Larry Sloman's account of The Rolling Thunder Revue Tour, I was under no illusions as to the lifestyle of such a prominent songwriter/performer as Bob Dylan. However, this book will remove any gloss that remains from your picture of a star and the image of what it is to live the showbiz lifestyle.
The account is so thorough and author so consciencious, that at times, I had to re-read previous paragraphs to keep up with the ever changing cast of characters who enter and leave the stage which is Bob's turbulent life.
I doubt any auto-biography could approach the candid portrayal given in this book, as most celebrities would surely choose to omit certain less palatable events from their memory.
My only criticism, is that it has become something of a reference book to me, but as it wasn't written as such, it can take some time to retrieve a key item about Bob's life, with which to fascinate your friends!
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