Anthony Scaduto (1932–2017)

While this biography ends just after 1971's Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2, Dylan's reluctant participation makes it probably about the best Dylan biography available. This covers his Minnesota roots, the impact of key relationships like Suze Rotolo, the relationship with Joan Baez, and the circling into his post-protest folk electric career from his roots as a Little Richard fan and general rocker. Ever the chameleon, this tells the story of a Woody Guthrie worshipper and imitator that show more dropped into the NYC Greenwich Village scene to dominate the protest folk movement only to walk away from feuling social change to become a pop icon. Much of Dylan's petulance and using of people puts feet of clay on the edifice, but the track-by-track notes on those classic early albums reminds us of what really matters.

There is all the Dylan-Goes-Electric thing... here it is not that much of a surprise giving his rock background. Also, it seems the negative reaction was more about how he went electric, not that he did. The story here is that a pushy Bloomfield Blues Band pressured Dylan into allowing them to back him at a venu they could not get on: Newport Folk Festival. This resulted in a more or less impromptu electric debut with improper mixing and many of the vocal complaints merely being because Dylan couldn't be heard and it all would have went better had Dylan chosen a time and a place not dedicated to acoustic folk purism. show less

The Dylan Tapes: Friends, Players, and Lovers Talkin' Early Bob Dylan is a collection of transcribed recorded interviews Anthony Scaduto had from his landmark biography of Dylan.

My rating is not about the readability of this as a single book so much as a valuation of it as a wonderful source of information as well as a wonderful example of how to interview people. Most of the interviews do make good reading, so I guess you could view this in a similar way to how you view a collection of show more themed essays or stories.

What I really found intriguing was how much of each interviewee's personality came through. I found myself not particularly liking a couple, liking some, and for the most part feeling like I was right there for the interview.

For the Dylan fan this offers even more insight into who he was in his youth and early years. It has been decades since I read Scaduto's biography but I think it would be interesting to see how much made it into the book and how much didn't.

While definitely a great read for Dylan fans I would also imagine that aspiring journalists and writers could learn a lot from how these interviews went. I found them engaging and it seemed like the interviewees were mostly put at ease, though someone in the field may well find things that maybe aren't recommended when interviewing. But the results presented here are phenomenal.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less

A fantastic, very valuable book. It consists of transcriptions of the interviews Anthony Scaduto conducted as research for his landmark first biography of Dylan, including a couple chats he had with Dylan towards the end of the process.

The causal Dylan fan, who is not up on the biography, probably shouldn't read this one, and for the early years should look at Clinton Heylin's most recent bio. Lots has been learned since then, for starters. This is kind of a first-draft, and even considering show more the interviews were conducted just a few years after these people knew Dylan, there are lots of minor details that are wrong or unnecessary. And many of these people's memories include some grudges that may or may not have been settled since then, as many of them have had continuing relationships with Bob.

That said, if you DO know Dylan's life (and I read the Scaduto when it first appeared, and have read all the bios since then), this is really good for many personalities. Though Izzy Young doesn't come off too well, and the one with Carl Oglesby adds nothing about his knowledge of Dylan as a person, it's just some sort of criticism of Dylan because he didn't sing about the things he wanted Bob to sing about. Very highly recommended for those who know. show less

The problem with Dylan biographies is that he's been famous for so long and changed so many times that biographies age out pretty quickly. If I'm remembering correctly, this was the first serious biography that actually tracked down factual material rather than working from what Dylan said. It's very readable and interesting. If you're interested in how the folk scene worked in the early sixties and how Dylan changed it, I recommend this book.