Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan - Softcover

Sounes, Howard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802138918 ISBN 13: 9780802138910

Publisher: Grove Press, 2002

Synopsis

Based on three years of research, new documentary evidence, and interviews with 250 of Dylan's intimates -- many exclusive -- Down the Highway has gone beyond the scope of other accounts to become the most complete, authoritative biography of Bob Dylan now in print. It was praised by The Orlando Sentinel "for the insights it offers to Dylan at work ... from young upstart to grand old man of rock 'n' roll." Sounes's prodigious research has resulted in new insights on every aspect of Dylan's life. His is the only biography to seriously address the past twenty years of Dylan's life, leading up to the extraordinary recent releases Time Out of Mind and Love and Theft. He has obtained exclusive information to provide the clearest picture yet of Dylan's 1966 motorcycle accident and subsequent "lost years" in Woodstock, New York, and he uncovered the star's unknown second marriage. He gives inside accounts of the tours, the creation of every album and the most celebrated songs, Dylan's labyrinthine love life, his life-threatening heart illness in 1997, and more -- directly from interviews with girlfriends, family, friends, producers, concert promoters, and fellow musicians. Candid, refreshing, and written with a sincere appreciation of Dylan's music and influence, Down the Highway is an essential book for the millions of people who have enjoyed Dylan's music over the years. "Dylan comes alive.... Sounes has added a wealth of new information to Dylan studies." -- Perry Meisel, The New York Times Book Review "Fascinating and finely written." -- Ronald Radosh, The New Republic "Convincing ... [generates] sympathy for an isolated artist." -- Daniel Cooper, The Washington Post Book World "Sounes ... opens new angles on the enigmatic polyhedron that is Dylan.... Monumental." -- Gene Santoro, The Nation " "A portrait of Mr. Dylan that is often unflattering, sometimes puzzling, but, to the author's credit, never sensational." -- Al Brumley, The Dallas Morning News "Engrossing ... fast-moving yet rich in detail ... [Down the Highway] chronicles a remarkable and contradictory artist." -- Carlo Wolff, The Kansas City Star "[This] fast-paced book has a fine interest in details [and is] rich with the observations of new witnesses." -- Sheri Linden, Variety "Irresistible ... What Dylanphile wouldn't want to sift through what Sounes has dug up." -- Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press

About this title

About the Author

Howard Sounes is the author of Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life (1999) and of Fred & Rose(1995), the bestselling account of the lives and crimes of Fred and Rosemary West which enabled him to leave his job as a journalist with the Mirror to become a full-time writer.

Review

Praise for Down the Highway

Sounes [has] produced [a] fascinating and finely written account of Dylan’s life and times, while managing at the same time to provide interesting evaluations of his music and cultural contribution.” The New Republic

Sounes . . . pieces together testimony and circumstantial evidence into a fairly detailed account of Dylan’s wreck. . . . It’s the kind of thing Sounes does well, opening new angles on the enigmatic polyhedron that is Dylan.” The Nation

[Sounes] offers information that, in sheer quantity, supersedes prior accounts.” The New York Times Book Review

Sounes’ book has the definite virtue of being the last one you’ll ever need to read about Dylan.” Salon

With little sensationalism, the inscrutable and intensely private Dylan is dissected, measured, and categorized.” Esquire

[Sounes] has scoured court documents and interviewed friends, family, lovers, band members and anyone else who had contact with the mercurial troubadour. . . . [He] appears to know every nuance of every track Dylan has ever recorded and the inspirations for famous songs.” Washington Post Book World

Irresistible . . . finally puts Dylan the human being in the rocket’s red glare.” Detroit Free Press

[A] lively, exhaustively researched book. . . . Sounes strikes a healthy balance, packing the book with musical details aimed at Dylan diehards without wallowing in the dirty laundry that will no doubt make headlines.” The Boston Globe

Praise for Charles Bukowski

Bukowski is one of those writers people remember more for the legend than for the work . . . but, as Howard Sounes shows in this exhaustively researched biography, it wasn’t the whole story.” Los Angeles Times

Engaging . . . adroit . . . revealing.” The New York Times Book Review

Howard Sounes does an admirable job of re-creating Bukowski’s journey through the underground passages of the American literary landscape.” Sarasota Herald-Tribune

A must-read for anybody who is a fan of Bukowski’s writing, Howard Sounes successfully conjures up the voice of this outrageous character and offers clear-eyed insight into his extraordinary life.” The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

Excellent. . . . A fast-paced narrative and a great read.” Minneapolis City Pages

Howard Sounes writes with wit and compassion about this irascible wild man of American letters.” Judith Wynn, Boston Herald

Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life is a generous tribute to Bukowski’s genius and it clearly and truthfully captures the essence of Bukowski both as writer and man.” John Martin, Black Sparrow Press (Bukowski’s editor)

With no shortage of anecdotes, pictures or big names, this [biography] is so thorough and sharp that it may as well be the last.” Graham Caveney, Arena

A remarkable account of the poet laureate of Skid Row’s bedeviled sojourn on planet Earth.” Iain S. Bruce, The Glasgow Herald

This is the first in-depth biography of Bukowski and succeeds by pulling into focus the hazy image of the apocryphal barfly anti-hero . . . a picaresque read.” Nick Wyke, The Times (London)

Wonderful . . . the first such serious and thorough Bukowski biography. . . . An excellent book about a remarkable man.” Ross Fortune, Time Out

A fine storyteller, descriptive and visual, Sounes sticks with the stuff that made Bukowski a legend.” Tulsa Kinney, LA Weekly

A lively portrait of American literature’s Dirty Old Man.’” William Gargan, Library Journal

The man who emerges from Sounes’s work is one who shamelessly pursued his needs for beer, women and recognition a man capable of tenderness, who always paid child support for his daughter and who resisted the seductions of belated, relished fame. This biography is an affectionate and thorough introduction that will not be rivaled for quite some time. Its effect is to revitalize rather than reduce Bukowski’s work: poems and stories that help keep people alive.” Guy Mannes-Abbott, The Independent

Edition details

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0802138918
• ISBN 13: 9780802138910
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 544