Bob Dylan : Behind the Shades. The Biography-Take Two

In May 2001 Bob Dylan - arguably the greatest figure to have come out of popular culture in the twentieth century - will be sixty years old. Ten years previously Clinton Heylin published his ground-breaking biography, which the latest edition of THE PENGUIN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC called 'as good as definitive ... intelligent, well-written and down-to-earth'. This new edition of BEHIND THE SHADES has been completely rewritten and substantially enlarged to take account not only of the last decade but of ten more years of original research by the author. The result is a fully comprehensive and highly illuminating biography. BEHIND THE SHADES :TAKE TWO follows Bob Dylan along one of the most extraordinary paths taken by any artist in the twentieth century: from his Jewish upbringing in Minnesota to the writing of his youthful 'protest' masterpieces in New York; from the amazingly creative drug-fuelled mid-sixties to the subsequent retreat to Woodstock with his family; from the break-up of his marriage (and the masterly BLOOD ON THE TRACKS that came out of it) to the flirtation with fundamentalist Christianity; and finally to the recent restless years of endless touring. In virtually all areas of Dylan's life - his immigrant antecedents, his business dealings, his various addictions and his romantic attachments - Heylin is able to provide fascinating new information about the man who changed the whole course of popular music in the sixties and, over thirty years later, won three Grammys, including best album of 1997. As before, Heylin has given full weight to Dylan's own words and to those of his closest associates. Over 250 people are quoted in the book, and many of them were interviewed especially for this new edition. They help to provide an intricate portrait of a great and complex figure who for too long has been the subject of myth-making rather than true biography. BEHIND THE SHADES was called 'essential reading' by one reviewer; this second edition confirms its reputation as the definitive biography.