Dylan's method of recruiting female singers at times reflected his new proximity to Hollywood and its mores--preferring the casting couch to the microphone.

2.3 stars

Burton likely notes in a footnote the case of death by excess. They eat cookie dough while burning in sulfur in a famed poem. What about the greedy biographer? This is all too much, set lists stacked like cases of tinned peaches, page-long screeds against the effrontery of other biographers: oh, the audacity -- one images an empurpled Heylin clenching his fists at the shelves of Dylan Studies.

There is much to gained and then-- there is simply too much. Most popular forays into Dylan have it about right---feel free to end the study after the Basement Tapes. You can pull up the stakes there and worry about undue omission. All of Dylan's work is remarkable, even the shit. I don't care about his cavorting or his Jesus Time. I just don't care. ( )