Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades Revisited

It was difficult choosing a Dylan bio. - but, after reading reviews of this one and others - it seemed that this was the most comprehensive and honest of the bunch. It has exceeded my expectations, and I'm an avid, critical reader who's always on the lookout for rumor, innuendo and false narratives.The author is smart, organized, concise and detail-oriented. No fluff here or recycled material from prior books. He tells Dylan's story without embellishment or being overly critical (when criticism is much deserved). What starts to emerge is a comprehensive picture of Dylan - 1) the ambitious, 2) the rebel, 3) the man in search of a persona, 4) the opportunist, 5) the user, 6) the genius, 7) the liar, 8) the great imitator/innovator, 9) lover of women, and 10) the visionary.Even though some of Dylan's attributes were less than virtuous - does it really matter? It becomes obvious that Dylan was going to achieve his ultimate mission and change 60's Rock into a meaningful art form - no matter how many obstacles crossed his path. It seems that everything he did before "Like A Rolling Stone" was an exercise in finding a niche', developing writing skills, discovering a well-spring of poetical brilliance, perfecting a vocal style, and ultimately pushing the evolution of 60's music to a more sophisticated and much higher standard.The author brings Dylan's complex personality to light and the reader begins to understand that the "Dylan persona" and the real person are quite different. Also, the humorous side of Dylan is underscored as well as his skillful abilities to exaggerate, charm, persist, and get his way by any means necessary. Does it matter? For those who are interested in "how Dylan came to be" - this biography describes the step-by-step development of a mastermind who paid his dues, experienced hardship and failure, but eventually came and conquered. A great read!

4-1/2 stars, actually. If session details bore you, you might consider skipping the book, fully half of which consists of session details (players, circumstances, controversies, production conundrums, on-the-fly composition, variations of Bob's unusual "live" studio preferences, etc. etc. etc.) and deliberations over, controversies involving, criticism of setlists for the numerous tours (up to the first decade of the Never-Ending Tour) and hundreds upon hundreds of performances. (I happily put myself on the side of "More Session Details!" I still buy jazz CDs in the expectation that the "liner notes" - and here I date myself - will have all the desire session content as well as, with the case of historic performances - all the context and controversies, etc. one might wonder about.)For me, this is an absolutely essential contribution to the Dylan literature, collecting so many unusual, sometimes revealing, observations from so many significant Dylan comrades, colleagues, lovers, haters, running buddies, etc. that one is hard pressed to speak authoritatively on any significant Dylan topic without reference to it. But so many of Heylin's hundreds...no, thousands...of opinions and judgments, based on his sources, to be sure, but also simply the personal sense he makes of an incomplete mosaic, raise so many questions about their sources that I - I'd categorize myself as an indefatigable, almost anal, researcher - needed the sourcing. And, more than a decade after the book's release, here's the key issue: Heylin has no website, and I could not locate the page-by-page sourcing he promises in the bibliographic note...not in the Internet Archive Way back Machine or anywhere else. His bibliographic note is helpful but incomplete - Heylin has heard performances he could not have attended but provides no suggestion as to how or where he heard or saw tape or whose views he might have informally adopted to categorize any bit of an evening's gig as, in his judgment, "the greatest live performance of (fill in the blank)." I presume that information might be obtained in the detailed full-source documentation. But it's not there. If anyone out there in Cyberland has any idea how I might obtain a pdf file of Heylin's sourcing, or an email address via which I might make a request, I'd be most grateful.The index is useful but far from exhaustive. Names that come up in the text are often missing, particularly if they walk on and walk off a few times and aren't part of the quoted dramatis personae whose long passages Heylin builds his narrative around (he provides an appendix of useful thumbnail sketches to help you keep track of names you might not have encountered before). Other appendices - the songlist, for example, is most useful. The list of albums, however, didn't get an update for the 2nd edition (at least in the copy I own) and ends c.1990.All that said, Behind the Shades-Revisited is a deeply researched and copiously reported bio, vastly informative and illuminating across many dimensions, brimming with Heylin's considered opinions, factual details and fact-based speculation on Dylan's family life, insatiable sexual and substance/stimulant/depressant appetites, links between life and art, and so much more, and thus remains an indispensable document...even if it fails to get to the heart of the enigma of Bob Dylan.I'm looking forward to reading the 60,000 words Heylin has added to the 20th anniversary edition.

I have 4 other books on Dylan - all very interesting - I realize this author is an authority on Dylan, however, this is the first book i purchased by this author - and was a little disappointed. The book is focused on the songs and sessions with dribs and drabs on his personal life - so many characters mentioned - hard to keep track - It is a heavy book with a wealth of info on Dylan's method of writing and people associated with him from his early days - all 4 books I have - basically, have same info as far as his early days - but also goes into his personal life - his womanizing and his many moods....which, let's face it that's what makes him so mysterious and interesting - plus the fact that he wrote some beautiful music early on.

Very well written. Details of recording a real treat and a lot of Dylan personal biographical stuff that was backed up with 2nd sources was of value.

This book is probably rightfully touted as the definitive Dylan biography. It's exceptionally well researched, and the author is clearly very intelligent. The book is very well written, and a pleasure to read for anyone interested in learning more about the enigma within the enigma that is Dylan.All that said, Heylin dismisses "Time out of Mind" early on in the book as "built on sand" and says it doesn't stand up to some of Dylan's all time classics. He also says nothing Dylan has released since "Oh Mercy" is any good, and predicts he'll never release any more masterpieces (although, to his credit, he hopes he's wrong).I think he is wrong. "Time out of mind" and its successor, "Love and theft" both stand with any of Dylan's classics from previous decades (arguably more so as far as "Time out of mind" is concerned), and I suspect Mr. Dylan has more than one more classic in him before his final biography can be written.

Great bio, and all as others have stated. However I did think I had the revised version that picked up the story after 1990. Apparently not.

Great product

So glad to have this book. Thank you.