Not Home Yet

Finished No Direction Home by Robert Sheldon last night. It was released 18 years ago. Here is a quick summary of what happens. There is a town called Duluth, Minnesota in America. Robert Zimmerman is born. Duluth mines run dry and the whole town is moved, Simpson's style, to Hibbing. Robert loves old blues records, Little Richard and Chuck Berry. He starts up a few school bands. He goes to University. He changes his name to Bob Dylan. He drops out and moves to the Village in New York. He meets Woody Guthrie. He meet lots of folk singer. He performs. He invents meaningful lyrics. He becomes really big. He goes electric. He invents reinvents rock and roll. He is booed everywhere. He has a motorcycle crash. He lives in Woodstock. He writes songs with the Band. He goes country. He makes a film. He tours. He gets divorced. Rolling Thunder Revue. He becomes a Christian. He becomes Jewish again. It is 1985.

Robert Sheldon was in the right place at the right time. He was a music journalist in the 1960's for the New York Times. From the time Dylan is born to about 1966, the book is very detailed and personal. Sheldon obviously hung out with Dylan a lot in the New York, around the Greenwich, getting drunk and talking. He even reviewed his first gig in 1961 when he was an unknown folk singer. He also did a lot of research into Dylan before he became a star, interviewing his parents and school friends, before Dylan silenced them. Sheldon and Dylan also seemed to be good friends. Dylan's truculent behaviour to the media is well documented, but he seemed to open up to Sheldon, most apparent is the private interview in the airplane in 1965. Sheldon knew a lot about Dylan, even down to his local grocery store and bagel shop in New York.

But after the 60's, Sheldon appears to be out of the loop. He writes from a distance. After the 60's there is about a third of the book left. More emphasis is placed on the 70's, with the release of Desire and Blood on the Track, but they are written by a critic, not a friend. The change in writing style is swift and also clear. It unbalances the book. The big problem I have is important periods of Dylan's life are dismissively covered, such as his divorce of Sara, which spawned Blood on the Track and his Christian period. After the 60's the biography is almost perfunctory. The detailed overview of his 70's period is concentrated on Dylan's work rather than his personal life.

You could argue that Dylan's most important years are the 60's, from folk hero to rock star, so more time should be dedicated to that. Sheldon does give true insight to Dylan at that time. He successfully conveys that period's atmosphere and zeitgeist. He even gives a song by song critique of all his earlier albums (it become sporadic after John Wesley Harding ie the 60's).

I heard Clinton Heylin's biography, Behind the Shades, is a more even story of Dylan's life. The second edition also has an extra chapters to cover Dylan's 90's release Time Out of Mind. But with the release of Love and Thief, and the upcoming film Masked and Anonymous (plus Dylan's own autobiography Chronicles), there seems to be plenty of life in the old crooner yet. I've decided not to read another biography until he's finally knocking on heaven's door. (Sheldon does this all the time, slipping in Dylan lyrics whenever he can. It's not good. It's like an uncle trying to tell a corny joke at the family christmas dinner. Appreciate that I only did it once and not many times over 300 pages. :-) )

No Direction Home is good, and for a fan is definite worth while read. For all it's faults in the later years (and I guess stopping at 1985 isn't really his fault either), the prose is always sharp and intelligent. It is well researched (with quotes from Greil Marcus to John Lennon) and Sheldon has a fan's passion for Dylan and his music. Deleted for a long time, rumours are that it has been republished in America (look on Amazon kids!), otherwise look at your local second hand books store. For non-Dylan fans (WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!!!) I think you're better off waiting until he dies for a definitive biography.