The Ballad of Bob Dylan - by Daniel Mark Epstein (Paperback)

About the Book

Drawing on revelatory interviews, a rich analysis oflyrics, and a lifelong study of one of the greatest songwriters of our time, Daniel Mark Epstein delivers a singular, nuanced, and insightful examination ofBob Dylan--the poet, the musician, and the man. Interweaving in-depthconversations with Dylan collaborators and contemporaries, including Eric Andersen, Tom Paxton, Woody Guthrie's daughter Nora Guthrie, Ramblin'Jack Elliott, Pete Seeger, Maria Muldaur, John P.Hammond, and many others, Epstein crafts a vivid and unforgettable portrait ofthe inimitable poet and performer. Readers of Christopher Ricks' Dylan's Visions of Sin, the Dylanautobiography, Chronicles, or Sean Wilentz's Dylan inAmerica, as well as fans enthralled by expository musician stories, such asKeith Richards' Life and PattiSmith's Just Kids, will be captivatedby Epstein's unprecedented and incisive look at Bob Dylan, music's mostineffable creator.

Book Synopsis

Drawing on revelatory interviews, a rich analysis oflyrics, and a lifelong study of one of the greatest songwriters of our time, Daniel Mark Epstein delivers a singular, nuanced, and insightful examination ofBob Dylan--the poet, the musician, and the man. Interweaving in-depthconversations with Dylan collaborators and contemporaries, including Eric Andersen, Tom Paxton, Woody Guthrie's daughter Nora Guthrie, Ramblin'Jack Elliott, Pete Seeger, Maria Muldaur, John P.Hammond, and many others, Epstein crafts a vivid and unforgettable portrait ofthe inimitable poet and performer. Readers of Christopher Ricks' Dylan's Visions of Sin, the Dylanautobiography, Chronicles, or Sean Wilentz's Dylan inAmerica, as well as fans enthralled by expository musician stories, such asKeith Richards' Life and PattiSmith's Just Kids, will be captivatedby Epstein's unprecedented and incisive look at Bob Dylan, music's mostineffable creator.

From the Back Cover

Through the lens of four seminal concerts, acclaimed poet and biographer Daniel Mark Epstein offers an intimate, vivid, and comprehensive portrait of Bob Dylan. Beginning in 1963, Epstein revisits Dylan's early struggles to find artistic direction; his transition from folk icon to rock star; and his secluded family life and divorce. A breathtaking account of Dylan's Never Ending Tour and his contemporary studio sessions brings us full circle, revealing how Dylan revived a flagging career and accepted his role as the éminence grise of rock and roll today.

Drawing on new interviews with those closest to Dylan--including Maria Muldaur, Nora Guthrie, and Ramblin' Jack Elliott--The Ballad of Bob Dylan is a singular take on an artist who has transformed generations and continues to inspire and surprise today.

Review Quotes

"Epstein is at his best dealing with his subject's Minnesota boyhood, embrace of folk music and meteoric early-'60s ascent; fresh recollections from Nora Guthrie, daughter of Dylan's role model Woody Guthrie, highlight the early going. Likewise, later chapters on the making of the important albums Time Out of Mind (1997) and Love and Theft (2001) benefit from revealing interviews with session men like drummer David Kemper and the late keyboardist-raconteur Jim Dickinson." - Kirkus Reviews
"In The Ballad of Bob Dylan, Daniel Mark Epstein does what few have been able to do at all, much less this well: capture that spirit, and in so doing, somehow manage to get closer to the essence of an American icon." - Dave Moyer, New York Journal of Books
"A galvanizing interpretation of Dylan's many masks and achievements. . . . Illuminates the complex symbiosis between Dylan's theatricalized personas and ever-evolving art." - Booklist
"Epstein was lucky enough to catch Dylan--and Dylan fever--early on, taking in a 1963 show, at the start of the singer's meteoric rise. His description of the show is testament to a 15-year-old's memory, packed with minutia--from each song's time signature to the position of Dylan's guitar capo. The reader quickly begins to fear the book is for only the most die-hard fanatics. But in subsequent chapters, the story picks up speed and as Epstein checks back on Dylan at subsequent concerts during various stages of the artist's career, his focus thankfully widens. . . . The Ballad of Bob Dylan works best as an introduction to one of the 20th century's most famous musician-poets or as something for hardcore fans to pick over." - Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers
"If you like Keith Richards' Life, then read The Ballad of Bob Dylan. Just in time for the musician's 70th birthday, Daniel Mark Epstein's biography offers a vivid portrait of the visionary artist." - US Weekly
"Epstein is not essentially a hagiographer, and . . . he remains essentially clear-eyed about his subject's achievements and failings. The Dylan that emerges in these pages is by turns ambitious, seductive, single-minded, generous, cruel, witty, kind, gnomic, blunt, and charismatic. . . . The accumulation of detail gives texture to Epstein's depiction of Dylan as a performer, which in turn buttresses his often perceptive analysis of the songs, both as texts and as performed works. . . . Epstein has a knack for sharp, indelibly etched character sketches. . . . Epstein's skills as an interviewer serve up a few unforgettable passages." - Webster Younce, National Review
"Though he covers all the landmarks in Dylan's life, Epstein is not engaged in biography in the strictest sense; rather, he presents an idiosyncratic and elliptical charting of Dylan's progress, and of his own life, through close examination of specific Dylan concerts he has attended through the years. . . . As a near-contemporary of Dylan, Epstein is in a better position than most to show how the meaning of an artist's work, and the nature of that work's effect on its audience, evolves over the long haul. An unabashed fan, Epstein is still no sentimentalist." - Ian McGillis, Montreal Gazette
"Brilliant--that Daniel Mark Epstein is both a poet and a biographer stands him in good stead in this penetrating, compassionate (but utterly clear-eyed), beautifully written portrait of Bob Dylan as an artist and a man. Among the very best writing about Dylan, ever." - James Kaplan, author of Frank: The Voice
"A historian who's written about Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman, Epstein's reflections on Dylan are as readable and non-pretentious as any. Also more up-to-date, obviously." - The Record (California)