Down the Highway - by Howard Sounes (Paperback)

About the Book

Now in a new edition with a new chapter chronicling Bob Dylan's life over the last decade, Down the Highway has been and will remain the most comprehensive Dylan biography available around the world.

Book Synopsis

NEW UPDATED EDITION

Bob Dylan is one of the most iconic figures in modern music, and for two decades, Howard Sounes' Down the Highway has been the definitive biography of an American icon. Based on years of research, 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. . . . This book makes us realize now, while he's still with us, how valuable he has been to our culture these last forty years."

Sounes's prodigious research has resulted in new insights on every aspect of Dylan's life. 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.

As Dylan approaches his eightieth year, Howard Sounes once again brings Down the Highway up to date, following the last decade of Dylan's life and career. 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.

Review Quotes

"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

About the Author

Howard Sounes was born in England in 1965. He has worked as a newspaper journalist in Britain and abroad. He is also the author of 27: A History of the 27 Club through the Lives of Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse, The Life of Lou Reed: Notes from the Velvet Underground, Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney, Charles Bukowski: Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life, a history of modern men's professional golf, and Fred & Rose, the best-selling book about the lives and crimes of mass murderers Fred and Rosemary West. He lives in London.