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.