Rent Chronicles: Volume One (Chronicles)

Synopsis

The first volume of the long-awaited Bob Dylan autobiography, CHRONICLES, is a first-person journey through three decades. Dylan travels in time from his Minnesota youth to his 1960s Greenwich Village early years--a period of cultural upheaval whose idiosyncrasies and charming eccentricities he describes in stunning detail--and the equally rich atmosphere of 1980s New Orleans, where he records with producer Daniel Lanois. With genuine enthusiasm, Dylan relates the thrill of meeting his early heroes, like the pioneering folk singers Cisco Houston and the awe-inspiring Dave Van Ronk, and poignantly depicts his visits to the legendary, ailing Woody Guthrie. Flashing forward, Dylan also describes his outraged reaction to the continual invasion of his privacy at his Woodstock home, characterizing himself as having 'very little in common with and knowing less about a generation that I was supposed to be the voice of,' and adding, 'I was more a cowpuncher than a Pied Piper.' CHRONICLES emphasizes Dylan's humanity--there's a genuine shock in reading the anguished reactions of an ordinary mortal to the unrelenting public analysis of his life and work. Ultimately, the biggest revelation here for hardcore Dylan fans is that the iconic object of their dissection is a living, breathing, feeling individual, often badly in need of a little down time.

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