Bob Dylan Chronicles Volume One

Bob Dylan's first autobiography provides a peek into the mind of the mysterious folk singer from Minnesota who became one of the most influential figures of the twentieth century. Dylan is a honest and humble narrator, yet even he had some sense that fate had something grand in store for him, evident in such lines as: "America was changing. I had a feeling of destiny and I was riding the changes…if I wanted to compose folk songs I would need some kind of new template, some philosophical identity that wouldn't burn out."

Later Dylan returns to the idea of a "new template," describing his affinity for American history, specifically the post Civil War era: "America was put on the cross, died and was resurrected. There was nothing synthetic about it. The godawful truth of that would be the all-encompassing template behind everything that I would write." Lines such as this help explain why Dylan's best songs felt timeless, as if they'd be just as relevant in 1860 as they were in 1960.

One of the more interesting aspects of the book is how Dylan explains how he purposely sabotaged his own career in the late 1970's, simply because he was sick of being labeled the voice of his generation. Dylan writes: "All I'd ever done was sing songs that were dead straight and expressed powerful new realities. I had very little in common with and knew even less about a generation that I was supposed to be the voice of." Tired of being introduced as a spokesman of the times, Dylan tried to reshape his image by doing such things as recording a country album and allowing himself to be photographed in Jerusalem wearing a skullcap.

At times Dylan writes with self-deprecating humor, such as when he explains how he lost his motivation while touring with Tom Petty in the 1980's: "If I wasn't careful I would end up ranting and raving in shouting matches with the wall. The mirror had swung around and I could see the future - an old actor fumbling in garbage cans outside the theater of past triumphs." Dylan's perception of himself shifts throughout the book, from folk singer with something truthful to say to just another pawn in the game.

A large chunk of the book describes the recording of two of his lesser known albums, New Morning and Oh, Mercy! While the stories behind these records are interesting, even Dylan himself knows that what the readers want is stories about his classic albums like Highway 61, Blonde on Blonde and Blood on the Tracks. However this is merely Volume 1 of Dylan's chronicles, so perhaps he doesn't want to give up the goods too early. This is not an autobiography that goes in chronological order, as Dylan ends the book by going back to his first years in New York; thus setting the stage for a Volume 2 that will hopefully focus on the early years of Dylan's career, when he changed music and songwriting forever.