Just finished Chronicles, Volume One, Bob Dylan’s recently released memoir. Wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised to find Dylan writing in a fairly straightforward way. Rather than being obscure or coy about major life-events, he offers frank, detailed (but often incomplete) takes on narrow slices of his life.
Chronicles is basically a collection of riffs on the development of his artistic consciousness. The book jumps all over the place, ignoring chronology, but Dylan is a great storyteller and this comes through on nearly every page.
Dylan recounts a variety of episodes–breaking into the folk scene in Greenwich Village; growing up on the Iron Range of Minnesota; discovering the music of Woody Guthrie while hanging out in the Dinkytown section of Minneapolis; his calculated efforts to reject the “voice of a generation” label with albums like Self-Portrait and New Morning; and a long description of his time in New Orleans working with producer Daniel Lanois on his 1989 “comeback” album Oh Mercy. The vivid descriptions of emotional/artistic trials and triumphs in making Oh Mercy and playing Cafe Wha? and the Gaslight were my favorite bits in of the book.
He mentions hundreds of people, nearly all in a positive light. He related to Rick Nelson and Frank Sanatra Jr. as artists. (I don’t doubt the former, but I think Bob might be pulling our leg about Frank Jr. and a few other observations.)
The inspiration of Woody Guthrie is palpable, but wrestler Gorgeous George inspires the young artist too!
Dave Van Ronk is saintly and John Hammond, Joan Baez, Bono, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Ray Gooch (for his sofa and library), Roy Orbison, Tony Curtis, Archibald MacLeish all have roles to play, but you’ll find more about Sun Pie (an elderly black man who runs a little junk store called “King Tut’s Museum” outside Raceland, Louisiana) than you will about The Beatles, The Band, or The Dead.
Dylan has whet our appetite with Chronicles, Volume One and raised expectations for the planned second and third volumes.
Now on to Greil Marcus’ latest…Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads.
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