Encounters with Bob Dylan - Softcover

Johnson, Tracy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0964700921 ISBN 13: 9780964700925

Publisher: Humble Pr, 2000

Synopsis

Fifty first-person accounts of fans who have had a close encounter (usually face-to-face) with Bob Dylan, one our most enigmatic and reclusive public figures and the 20th Century's most influential songwriter.

The contributors come from around the world, and some even have recognizable names, such as mandolinist David Grisman, journalist Nat Hentoff, the late Hall-of-Fame pitcher Jim "Catfish" Hunter, rapper Kurtis Blow, and noted groupie/author Pamela Des Barres. Collectively, their stories provide compelling, sometimes amusing, insight into Dylan and his long and complicated relationship with his legion of devoted admirers.

The book also includes 24 photographs, many of them previously unpublished images of Dylan.

About this title

About the Author:

Tracy Johnson is a freelance writer and longtime Dylan devotee who currently lives in San Francisco.

Review:

Bob Dylan is a reclusive, enigmatic musician who, through his compositions and songs, has had a widespread influence on a generation of fans, composers, performers, and singers. Encounters With Bob Dylan: If You See Him, Say Hello is the first biography to examine his life and career from his fans' perspectives. Included are fifty first-person accounts of fans who have personally met this elusive entertainer.

The stories are presented chronologically, beginning in 1956 with Margaret Stark's account of her high school date with Bobby Zimmerman and their subsequent meeting at Bob's 10-year Hibbing High School reunion. Due to the constantly changing circumstances of these fifty encounters, each story is unique in character and impact.

Compiled and edited by long-time Dylan devotee Tracy Johnson, and enhanced with 24 photographs (many of them previously unpublished), Encounters With Bob Dylan is must reading for all Dylan fans and serves as an example of "fan history" that would work admirably for other influential public figures. -- Midwest Book Review, March 2000

With so many quite pseudo-intellectual books on Dylan out there, I found it very refreshing to have a work that manages to both plainly entertain and give a bit of a psychological view on the man. These stories tell a lot about Dylan without ever claiming to do so.

"Encounters with Bob Dylan" is a very nice collection of interesting snapshots of moments served in bites, exactly the right thing for subway rides or the 30 minutes between going to bed and falling asleep. A highly enjoyable piece of work which I recommend to each of Dylan's fans. -- Christian Zeiser, Edlis Germany

About this edition

• Publisher: Humble Pr
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0964700921
• ISBN 13: 9780964700925
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176