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The Double Life of Bob Dylan: A Restless, Hungry Feeling, 1941-1966
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About This Book
From the world's leading authority on Bob Dylan comes the definitive biography that promises to transform our understanding of the man and musician—thanks to early access to Dylan's never-before-studied archives. In 2016 Bob Dylan sold his personal archive to the George Kaiser Foundation in Tulsa, Oklahoma, reportedly for $22 million. As the boxes started to arrive, the Foundation asked Clinton Heylin—author of the acclaimed Bob Behind the Shades and 'perhaps the world's authority on all things Dylan' ( Rolling Stone )—to assess the material they had been given. What he found in Tulsa—as well as what he gleaned from other papers he had recently been given access to by Sony and the Dylan office—so changed his understanding of the artist, especially of his creative process, that he became convinced that a whole new biography was needed. It turns out that much of what previous biographers—Dylan himself included—have said is wrong. With fresh and revealing information on every page A Restless, Hungry Feeling tells the story of Dylan's meteoric rise to his arrival in early 1961 in New York, where he is embraced by the folk scene; his elevation to spokesman of a generation whose protest songs provide the soundtrack for the burgeoning Civil Rights movement; his alleged betrayal when he 'goes electric' at Newport in 1965; his subsequent controversial world tour with a rock 'n' roll band; and the recording of his three undisputed electric Bringing it All Back Home , Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde . At the peak of his fame in July 1966 he reportedly crashes his motorbike in Woodstock, upstate New York, and disappears from public view. When he re-emerges, he looks different, his voice sounds different, his songs are different. Clinton Heylin's meticulously researched, all-encompassing and consistently revelatory account of these fascinating early years is the closest we will ever get to a definitive life of an artist who has been the lodestar of popular culture for six decades.
Reviews
"Virtually no one has written as much about Bob Dylan as Heylin, yet he has more to say ..."
"If nothing else, A Restless, Hungry Feeling serves as the literary equivalent of being stuck at the bar next to a Dylan Guy: the sort of superfan who bores with tedious trivia and is all too eager to correct any half-formed opinion offered by the more casual listener ..."
"Heylin's book will be appreciated by devoted fans and is another valuable addition to a puzzle that might never be completed."
"If anyone is entitled to write this exhaustive biography, it's the man who was described by Rolling Stone in 2016 as 'perhaps the world's authority on all things Dylan.' And if he is as jaw-droppingly good at his job as his subject is at music, Heylin can also be just as prickly."
"Heylin has got to the bald truth, not by speaking to Dylan (who cannot be trusted), but by scraping through his relics."
"Impressively researched, this deep look at Dylan's early career and initial stardom is a decidedly uneven but enjoyable ride."
"represents a dramatic shift away from the oral history that informed Behind the Shades, and updates Heylin's take on Dylan with more than the new material unearthed in the Dylan Archive."
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