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jfkaess's review against another edition
4.0
Very interesting read. Bob Dylan is a very unusual, maybe strange guy who clearly thinks much differently than the rest of us. His thought process is very stream of consciousness, and while his songs seem introspective he repeatedly claims that is not so, that he just writes what he feels. His growth and maturity become very clear as you move from his earlier interviews to his later ones.
neilrcoulter's review
4.0
I recently read Chronicles, vol. 1 and loved it for what it is: a deliberately crafted, non-chronological version of Dylan's life. I accept that Chronicles is more of a folk ballad, using bits and pieces of historical fact, stretching the truth, and outright making things up, which tells the reader more about how Dylan's mind enjoys seeing the world than about what the actual events of his life were like.
But after I read that, I wanted to get into more of what really happened, year by year, and so I was glad to find this collection of 34 interviews with Dylan, from 1962 to 2009. I thought this would help me see Dylan more chronologically, and to understand his development as an artist.
Reading all of these interviews did give me some of that, but it also confirms that Dylan can be a difficult person to get to know. He's a true artist, and I think he wants people to discuss his songs, but he equally genuinely doesn't want to talk about meanings or interpretations. Even with that stance, though, reading the panorama of interviews gives an interesting picture of who Dylan is.
It wasn't really until the 1980s that he seemed to actually start talking like a real person in interviews. The interviews from the 1960s are full of half-truths, evasions, clever soundbytes, and persona that's not meant to be taken as a persona (and anyone who has any interest in Dylan at all should watch his 1965 press conference in San Francisco, transcribed here as chapter 8). Interviews from the 1970s see him talking about his movie, Renaldo and Clara, and then at the turn of the next decade about his conversion to Christianity.
But then later in the 1980s and through the end of the book, it seems like he feels more comfortable just being himself. He still won't be pinned down to any particular political or religious belief, nor to any specific interpretation of his songs. I really appreciate his perspective on politics, actually, and I think it would be a valuable point of view for more people to take right now:
Almost every interviewer wants to know something about Dylan's songwriting process. Where does he get his inspiration? What comes first, the words or the music? What's the best time of day for songwriting? Dylan rarely answers these sorts of questions at all. But occasionally, he gives a glimpse into how he views his craft, as in this comment in 1986:
Reading this selection of interviews helps me—someone born to a world that had already had Dylan for quite a few years—understand how influential and important he has been in music since the 1960s. I also found this volume fascinating as a look at what it has meant to be an artist of integrity in America in the 20th and 21st centuries. Dylan's experience is not exactly anyone else's, but I saw a lot of resonance with other artists I know of in these same years.
But after I read that, I wanted to get into more of what really happened, year by year, and so I was glad to find this collection of 34 interviews with Dylan, from 1962 to 2009. I thought this would help me see Dylan more chronologically, and to understand his development as an artist.
Reading all of these interviews did give me some of that, but it also confirms that Dylan can be a difficult person to get to know. He's a true artist, and I think he wants people to discuss his songs, but he equally genuinely doesn't want to talk about meanings or interpretations. Even with that stance, though, reading the panorama of interviews gives an interesting picture of who Dylan is.
It wasn't really until the 1980s that he seemed to actually start talking like a real person in interviews. The interviews from the 1960s are full of half-truths, evasions, clever soundbytes, and persona that's not meant to be taken as a persona (and anyone who has any interest in Dylan at all should watch his 1965 press conference in San Francisco, transcribed here as chapter 8). Interviews from the 1970s see him talking about his movie, Renaldo and Clara, and then at the turn of the next decade about his conversion to Christianity.
But then later in the 1980s and through the end of the book, it seems like he feels more comfortable just being himself. He still won't be pinned down to any particular political or religious belief, nor to any specific interpretation of his songs. I really appreciate his perspective on politics, actually, and I think it would be a valuable point of view for more people to take right now:
Well, for me, there is no right and there is no left. There's truth and there's untruth, y'know? There's honesty and there's hypocrisy. Look in the Bible, you don't see nothing about right or left. Other people might have other ideas about things, but I don't, because I'm not that smart. I hate to keep beating people over the head with the Bible, but that's the only instrument I know, the only thing that stays true. (367)In these later interviews, he is more real about who he is and what he's interested in. We see that he actually loves literature of all kinds, whereas earlier on he had put forth an anti–higher education persona that didn't much care about literature except for Beat poets. He's a little more willing to accept that he is a celebrity, but he remains consistently bemused about it. "It's not a good idea and it's bad luck to look for life's guidance to popular entertainers," he says in 1991.
It's bad luck to do that. No one should do that. Popular entertainers are fine, there's nothing the matter with that but as long as you know where you're standing and what ground you're on. Many of them, they don't know what they're doing either. (396)These later interviews, where he describes his frustrations at studio recording, also really help to explain the long section in Chronicles where he describes the sessions for Oh Mercy, with Daniel Lanois. I see why he wanted to go into such detail about the pain of trying to get everything together just right in the studio. That one moment was typical of many times in his life.
Almost every interviewer wants to know something about Dylan's songwriting process. Where does he get his inspiration? What comes first, the words or the music? What's the best time of day for songwriting? Dylan rarely answers these sorts of questions at all. But occasionally, he gives a glimpse into how he views his craft, as in this comment in 1986:
I strive for something that feels right to me. It could be a lot of different kinds of moods and phrasings, or lines that might not seem to be too connected at the time with the music. They're all connected. A lot of times people will take the music out of my lyrics and just read them as lyrics. That's not really fair because the music and the lyrics I've always felt are pretty closely wrapped up. You can't separate one from the other that simply. A lot of time the meaning is more in the way a line is sung, and not just in the line. (349)I think that says a lot about why he won't be cornered on particular meanings. What he does is all connected, and it's both meaning and feeling. I think in his mind, it makes no sense to separate everything that's connected, nor to lock all of that into a single way of performing or understanding.
Reading this selection of interviews helps me—someone born to a world that had already had Dylan for quite a few years—understand how influential and important he has been in music since the 1960s. I also found this volume fascinating as a look at what it has meant to be an artist of integrity in America in the 20th and 21st centuries. Dylan's experience is not exactly anyone else's, but I saw a lot of resonance with other artists I know of in these same years.
margaret_j_c's review against another edition
If ever there were a testament to the power of being oneself.
adamcarrico91's review against another edition
5.0
It’s fun to see Dylan’s different interview “strategies” over the years. There’s lots of BS, but that’s part of the allure. It’s frustrating to read interviews where he’s deflecting every question, but somehow it’s still enlightening. The best portions are when the interviewers get him to geek out on his influences, whether it be music, writers, or movies.
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