Name: Down the Highway
ISBN: 9780802138910

Howard Sounes

Draws on exclusive interviews and previously hidden documents to chronicle the singer/songwriter's life and career.

The Life of Bob Dylan

Down the Highway

Isabella Agostino

Sounes is an exceptionally remarkable storyteller. His gifts are magnified by the subject matter, not made to be the background. He takes an honest look at Dylan’s life and doesn’t shy away from the ugliness. He lets the reader make their own judgment calls and interjects with opinions only to present us with options every once in a while. The length wasn’t an issue, because every phase of Dylan’s life, albeit stories in themselves, weren’t just chronicled here but carefully laid out. Sounes is accessible to all levels of Dylan fans. Any major event that a Dylan nerd would be familiar with Sounes anticipates with teasing. That is fun! For the explorative reader who is less familiar with Dylan, Sounes is sure not to empty name-drop. Honestly, I used reading this book as a way to get to know some basic Dylan facts. It was a tremendous read! Highly recommend.

Andrew Marti

Dylan's life in-depth. This book covers the major episodes of his life, all including new chapters at the end that takes us all the way to 2020. 

Dylan's life includes some of the most dramatic episodes in popular music. All are chronicled here:
 - Going electric at the Newport Folk Festival to the disapproval and boos of the crowd
 - The fan yelling "Judas!" at the Royal Albert Hall concert in 1965
 - The insane creative process behind classics like "Blonde on Blonde"
 - The famous (and likely invented) motorcycle accident, ending Dylan's first furious creative period while leading to another period of vital, but different introspective creativity with The Band. 

These are the episodes any casual Dylan fan knows of already. 

But the book is filled with so many other rich, less know details including:
- In 1959, when Buddy Holly played in Duluth MN, with a young Dylan on the front row. Holly died in a plane crash two days later.
- Details of how Dylan moved to New York and worked hard to get to know Woody Guthrie's family, leading to meeting the musician and providing so much early inspiration to Dylan. 
- The relative peace and normalcy of his first marriage and homelife with Sara Dylan. Dylan was a doting, and normal father until it all unraveled in the mid-1970s. 
- The wanderings and complex parade of relationships, including his previously undocumented secret marriage to Carolyn Dennis.

The portrait here of Dylan is a complex, even bizarre artist. Likely lonely. Continuously working his craft and reinventing himself. 

Minor quibble: Two new chapters are added, one for each new edition since the original publication in 2001. They feel added on and unnecessary, like a movie with too many endings. 

But perhaps Dylan's life is like that. A movie with many endings. You think it's over, but it keeps going, with new chapters and new angles. Always creating, touring, and reinventing.

Down the Highway The Life of Bob Dylan

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