Where the Music Had to Go

This “exquisite” (Salon) and “astonishing” (The New York Times) dual biography by acclaimed journalist Jim Windolf dives into the surprisingly supportive, occasionally rivalrous, and always fertile relationship between Bob Dylan and the Beatles, uncovering how they inspired and transformed each other as songwriters, recording artists, and cultural icons.

From Dylan’s initial dismissal of the Beatles as being for “teenyboppers” to his realization that they were “pointing the direction where music had to go”—and from the Beatles’ obsessive spinning of early Dylan records to their impromptu renditions of fifteen Dylan songs during the 1969 Get Back sessions—the book captures the moments that pushed Dylan to “go electric” and inspired the Beatles to deepen their lyrics. Highly entertaining and packed with backstage anecdotes, Where the Music Had to Go is a deep-focus portrait of a heretofore unexamined relationship, one full of camaraderie, competition, and mutual evolution.

More than a music biography, this is a “revelatory” (Rosanne Cash) front-row seat to the forces that shaped an era, “meticulously [and] lovingly told” (Jann Wenner, cofounder of Rolling Stone)—an unmissable experience for music lovers, pop-culture buffs, and anyone curious about the magic that happens when legends collide.

Jim Windolf is a features editor at The New York Times. He has published articles, reviews, essays, and humor pieces in Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, New York magazine, Rolling Stone and other publications. Additionally, his short fiction has appeared in Ontario Review, 3:AM Magazine, Puerto del Sol and other literary journals. He lives in New York City.