Clint Heylin continually amazes with the depth and wide-ranging topicality he brings to Bob Dylan studies.

I reviewed this book on my year-end list of the best rock history books of 2021, at http://www.richieunterberger.com/wordpress/top-25-or-so-music-history-books-of-2021/. The review follows below:

9. The Double Life of Bob Dylan: A Restless, Hungry Feeling (1941-1966), by Clinton Heylin (Little, Brown). Heylin has issued a few books on Dylan, and while they’re not flawless, his status as one of the leading authorities on the man is unquestioned. Why another one, considering he’s covered Dylan’s career in depth already, with specialized volumes on his recording sessions and songwriting in addition to the more standard biographical overview Behind the Shades? He’s been able to do a lot more research in the last few years, particularly since he had access to the personal archive Dylan sold to the George Kaiser Family Foundation in 2016.

So this is kind of an expanded retelling of the first 25 years of Dylan’s life, focusing on the six or so first years of the ‘60s, when he rose from unknown Minnesota folkie to one of the world’s biggest stars. Those who haven’t read many other Dylan books, however, might feel lost by the crush of information, not all of which goes through his songs and career path in a standard fashion. There’s a lot of space given to previously undocumented material that illuminates or challenges the familiar storyline, like between-take session chatter, unreleased concert recordings, personal and business correspondence, and (less interesting) his writing as he worked toward the book eventually published as Tarantula.

For someone like me who knows the core story well (even if Dylan isn’t one of my very favorite artists), that’s pretty interesting, even if some of the detail is still rather extraneous. Others might find the scope disorienting, especially as the chapters don’t proceed in a strictly chronological fashion, jumping between his boyhood and his early career in the early sections. It’s a bit like a fill-in-the-blanks of what’s known by knowledgeable fans, though Heylin pays some attention to the singer’s general career arc, ending with the famous July 1966 motorcycle accident that pretty much put his public career on hold for a year and a half. One would guess that there will be volumes covering his subsequent career, though this is the era that fascinates fans and readers the most.

Like some of Heylin’s other books on Dylan and other subjects, this has occasional smug putdowns of other authors and critics. In the introduction, they’re more than occasional. Far from elevating the stature of his own work, they diminish it. His efforts would be better appreciated if he let the quality of his research and appraisals speak for itself.

The author of The Double Life of Bob Dylan complains a bit about other biographers and that Dylan researches are "obsessives" while Shakespeare researchers are "scholars", is there a double standard?  Maybe... but this is his 11th book on Dylan.  Is that obsessive? Scholarly?   Either way - this is a great biography of Dylan and also has a Tulsa, OK connection.  If you're not aware, Downtown Tulsa is going to be getting a Bob Dylan center to open next May. (Hopefully around when I am visiting so I can check it out!)  This is because in 2016, the George Kaiser Foundation purchased the personal archive from Bob Dylan.  It is this archive that the author went through in order to write this new biography, after realizing there was misinformation in previous biographies.  Despite there being many books out there on Bob Dylan - this one has new information included and while it took me some time to get through, it certainly was very interesting and got me even more excited for the center in Tulsa to open.

I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

Thank you Netgalley for supplying me an ARC of this book.

As a rather weird 12 or 13 year old, I read Anthony Scaduto's biography of Bob Dylan. When I was that young, I was shocked and dismayed that Dylan, who I was a nonfanatical fan of, lifted records from his friends and told tall tales.

Now as a 58 year old, I'm not even the slightest bit horrified of the antics of the young Dylan, and Mr. Heylin has found more of them for me to be nonplussed about. This book adds much richer details to Scaduto's outline. There are also new discussions of the drugs and women that Dylan used.

Why don't I care about young Dylan's antics anymore? I'm old, Dylan was young. Young people do strange stuff. Young people who become famous will succumb to those extreme pressures and act out even more. All this stuff happened over 50 years ago.

This book is an extremely comprehensive outline of Dylan's early ventures into fame. This will be one of the top books that scholars will refer to in 100 years if scholars are still studying Dylan.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Little, Brown and Company for an advanced copy of this musical biography.

At the end of this musical encomium you will know more about the musician Bob Dylan up to the age of 25 than you will ever know about your family, crushes, exes and even your pets. Clinton Heylin, the Dylan scholar/obsessive has after ten or more books on the songwriter, has written in The Double Life of Bob Dylan: A Restless, Hungry Feeling, 1941-1966 the most complete and best biography yet on the man. Using new sources, mostly from the George Kaiser Foundation in Tulsa, who purchased Bob Dylan's personal archive, Mr. Heylin was given a chance to go through the collection to see what exactly was purchased. The author dug deep finding out more about the enigma that was once called Robert Zimmerman.

Bob Dylan is a constant fabulist about his life, his, past, his art, and his loves. He deflected when the truth was easier, and lied to make a good story better, and to make him look even better. He was a womanizer who stepped out constantly, and he seemed to have no problem with young girls, not woman on a few occasions. Dylan in this book comes across as very unpleasant man. Mr. Heylin tries to explain the charisma, but to me and the stories told by people who wer once close, and who found themselves cut out, I don't see the attraction. Dylan seemed a lot of a jerk.

Mr. Heylin can be rude, to other biographers, other musicians, basically anybody. However he is meticulous and the book though long, never seems to drag. Another great song is coming, another milestone in his life is around the corner. In such a small period of time, Dylan accomplished and hurt a lot of people. It is a sham that Dylan just doesn't seem to deserve all the work and time spent on him. The music yes, without a doubt. The man not so much. That said I eagerly await Volume 2 in this sprawling masterwork.

I’ve read several Dylan biographies including Chronicles Volume 1 but I couldn’t even finish this book. The author spent more time dissing other people’s work and Dylan himself than he did writing about his subject. The style was just too much for me. Not recommended

Clinton Heylin knows his Dylan. With access granted by the Dylan Archives at the University of Tulsa, this meticulously researched biography gives a fresh look into his voice, his craft and the dimensions of Dylan the man and the artist. From the early days of a young Bob Zimmerman to Greenwich Village folkie and leaping into an electric 1966 World Tour, Heylin digs deep into his changing persona, writing styles and poetic messaging that would one day lead him to Nobel laureate.
No stone is left unturned as the author taps into Dylan’s relationship with friends, family, fans, lovers, fellow musicians and his battles with the press. He also takes his own swipes at other biographers of Dylan that were less than reliable. In the same light though, Dylan’s stories changed from time to time as he reinvented himself and his history.
Volume I will take the reader from 1941 to 1966, prior to the motorcycle accident that would change this artists trajectory.
This is a well recommended and wonderful addition to Dylan’s legacy and perfectly timed with his 80th year.Dylan devotees will devour this read and eagerly await Volume II.
Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Little, Brown and Company for an ARC in exchange for an honest book review.

This book is for Dylan completists only. The author only delves into Dylan's formative years, and is meticulous about details and his own personal feels about people and songs. There are many factoids (how many people were in a car; Dylan's opinion of individual Guthrie tunes) and interviews from the mother of Suze Rotolo and as many early associates he could gather. And, in the end, Bob Dylan remains an enigma. Which is how he wants it.

One of the first LP record albums I purchased as a teen was Bob Dylan‘s Greatest Hits. The included poster hung in my bedroom. I also had the 45s of Mr. Tambourine Man and Rainy Day Women 12 & 35, now in my jukebox.


I knew a few facts about Bob Dylan. Very few. Clinton Heylin’s biography The Double Life of Bob Dylan: A Restless, Hungry Feeling 1942-1966 was a madcap, twisted, crazy funhouse ride of a story. I hated Dylan and he broke my heart.

Dylan’s determination to succeed was relentless. He was a poser. A user. A dissembler. Adept at reinventing himself.

He was a huge sponge soaking up everything and constantly writing, typing away on his typewriter, oblivious to all around him, locked into his own world as he wrote. He wrote more than he could remember.

Heylin’s depth of knowledge of all things Dylan enables him to sniff out the fake from the factual, shaking out truth from fiction. Dylan himself was a master magician at covering up his past. Other people who were ‘there’ tell conflicting stories.

Dylan arrived in New York to be embraced by the folk music scene, paying homage to Woody Guthrie in his hospital bed, and finding good souls to give him a couch or a place on the floor to crash. Leading lights of the folk music world championed him. He wrote iconic protest music that became the background music of the time. Blowing’ in the Wind. The Times They Are A Changin’.

Well, you know, it seems to be what the people like to hear.~Bob Dylan

quoted in The Double Life of Bob Dylan by Clinton Heylin
Was it genuine, arising from Dylan’s soul? He later said it was what was ‘in’. And when he was over it, he did his own thing, scandalously adopting the next big thing in music. He went electric. The audiences wanted the ‘old Bob Dylan,’ booing him across the world. In response, he turned up the volume.

Then there is the issue of talent. He arrived in New York a mediocre talent on the guitar and harmonica, with that gravely singing voice. As Bobby Zimmerman, a Minnesota Jew with a Sears Silvertone guitar given to him by his mother (the same guitar my mom bought me in 1966), he played a good rock and roll piano and admired Hank Williams. Then he heard the Kingston Trio recording of Tom Dooley. (Oh, yeah, I sure remember that one, and I have my aunt’s 45 on my juke box.) It was his first reinvention. Now, he was doing the folk thing because it was ‘in.’

He had a lot going against him but he also had a lot going for him. Self confidence, for one. The ruthlessness artists need to succeed. And something else, a charisma that grew on listeners and brought them under his thrall. Leaving protest folk, his lyrics represented a personal iconography that we can’t always translate into logical language, filled with images and references that elude us while invoking an emotional response. In other words–poetry.

The book ends in 1966, Dylan a mere twenty-five and already burned out by the cage of fame, living on the edge, fueled by alcohol, drugs, physically and psychologically worn to a skeleton from an overindulgence of the senses, at a breaking point. And another chance to reinvent his life.

Details of his career are unrolled, the recordings, the record deals, the shows. The entire culture is laid out, the shifting alliances, the sharing and stealing of songs, the late night poker games and alcohol and drugs. And of course, the women he loved and the women who loved him, the hearts he broke.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.