Jon Friedman

Imagine a book about Bob Dylan that pretty much never discusses the songs or the performances, and which attempts to draw some life lessons not from Bob's songs but from his, well, life and career. It's a fun book, a quick read, and has a lot of insight into Bob and the life lessons aren't bad ones. I liked it quite a bit more than I thought I would.

It's a bit odd that the life lessons he draws are pretty much always positive ones, which may be a necessity for books like this. So some of show more Bob's moves are portrayed here in a positive light, when most people would read them a different way. Friedman has a different attitude than I do towards albums like Nashville Skyline and Self Portrait. He takes the lesson from those that you shouldn't be afraid to turn a different corner from where you were going. Me, I take the lesson that while you do that, you should only do it if you are totally committed to what you are doing. Going in a country direction after the rock masterpieces of the mid-60s was not a bad move in and of itself, but in making that move, Dylan didn't, in my listening, bring to it the same level of commitment to vision that he had in his greatest works.

And though he speaks with Bob's oldest son Jesse about Dylan as a father, the author (maybe rightly) ignores some life lessons from Dylan with respect to his treatment of others. Lots of people have been ill-used by Bob over the years, and to ignore that in a book like this didn't sit well with me.

Those things said, I did enjoy this book, and devoured it in one sitting, and do recommend it. show less

Not as funny as I had hoped. There were a few smirk-inducing items, but much of it was boring, or just plain bad. There's a reason the submissions were rejected, and it wasn't even worth reading in a "ohmygosh it's so BAD, it's funny" kind of way. Disappointing.

Too racy and profane for me.