I have read several Dylan bios and I picked one up I hadn’t read–Behind the Shades, Revisited, by Clinton Heylin–in the wake of the recent movie release. Here are some important items I gleaned from the bio.
Dylan has an unparalleled knowledge of the total American songbook, every song in every genre, and of the British folk songbook. He has studied, listened to, played and created variations on almost every song. It was this encyclopedic knowledge of popular music that likely allowed him to be such a prolific songwriter and interpreter of others’ songs.
Dylan is an intuitive musician, supposedly cannot read music, but immediately knows what is in a tune. He had a photographic memory for music–lyrics and melodies and a very creative impulse on how to modify or change a song.
Dylan was an astoundingly prolific songwriter, even after his very early burst which still likely represents the peak of his innovative music. He wrote thousands of songs, many of which were never recorded or even written down. Fellow musicians talk about hearing these amazing songs at rehearsals or just get togethers that simply disappeared, never to be heard by the public. Massive releases of anything ever taped by Dylan have given some sense of the total body of his work in recent years. I am constantly reminded of hits by certain groups of songs that turn out to be written by Dylan.
His early songwriting was more “inspired”, almost unconscious, he described it as magic; the words and melodies just coming to him almost spontaneously. After those early years, the song-writing became more labored, more “work”, but he still plowed ahead, writing constantly.
Many of the recorded versions of his songs are not the most powerful, particularly after the mid to late sixties. Again, fellow musicians reveal early studio efforts that were notably better than what ended up on an album and there are live versions of many songs that are far superior to the commercial release. Dylan was often his own worst enemy in second-guessing what version to release and his producers were ofter just as bad. So again, the recent dumping of lots of taped material is very interesting to get a sense of the real magic of some songs.
Dylan was bedeviled by substance abuse throughout much of his life, which almost certainly limited his productivity and certainly affected some of his live performances. He had a particularly bad problem with alcohol, particularly in mid-life. Seems a common and unfortunate method of dealing with the pressures of public expectations and fame.
Dylan was a womanizer and had difficulty forming lasting relationships. He didn’t exactly treat the women in his relationships well. Again, common to many artists, but probably led to a lot of unhappiness and tension in his life.
Dylan’s religious conversion was very real, and even after a couple of very intense years where he was almost a Christian evangelist, he remained committed to his religious views. The Bible, as you can tell from even the earliest songs, was always a very meaningful text to him and the source of many of his images and songs. As far as I can tell, he remains a “religious” person in that sense.
Dylan undoubtedly wanted to be successful, and part of the definition of that success was to have people buy his product and to be “popular” in the sense of having many people listen to his music. But he was totally unprepared for what such widespread fame meant, both in terms of reactions by music critics and by his audience. Later in life he got better at being accessible to the press and giving some straight answers and explanations, not that he owed anyone that, but the pressures of fame, the lack of privacy in particular, were another source of unhappiness for him.
Dylan is an obsessive worker; from mid-life on he has basically toured constantly. He pretty clearly wouldn’t know what to do with himself if he wasn’t writing and playing music. And he loves music, so I don’t think it feels obsessive to him, although it sounds like there were times when he didn’t always get the greatest enjoyment out of a particular tour or recording a specific album. Money issues have driven a lot of his touring and other actions over the last few decades.
His religious conversions reflects an ongoing difficulty Dylan appears to have had in understanding life, finding a meaning in it. He is obviously very insightful about human behavior and relationships, but having a sense of the really big picture has eluded him, as it has most of us; hence the focus on religion and specifically Christianity. Apprehension about death in particular appears a source of trouble for him. This bio ends around the turn of the century; I have one that covers up to the present that I will read shortly and I am very curious as to whether his philosophy/religion has changed much since then.
