Steve

If you want to know Bob Dylan, if you've seen Don't Look Back but felt that it scratched the surface and you wanted more, if you want to see how Mr. Dylan saw his relationship to the folk scene, his roots, the milieu that the artist tapped into for creative inspiration and how he responded to it, check out Chronicles Volume 1. It's at one time, a fluid, lucid account, written in as imaginative a style as his most dreamlike work, which may not appeal to some, and at the same time, a disparate journey through the mind of the artist. Almost as much can be learned about him by how he says it, as by what he says. A candid account that strikes a questioning note when you think about the paths he took to get where he wanted to go, and the alternate routes he needed to take to avoid those paths that others wanted him to take and be who others wanted him to be. Do Moon River and polkas really provide the inspiration he says? Or is he still creating that alternate Him, still hiding out? A Dylanesque look into the source of his imagery, fortitude, passion. While I'm not clamoring for the Old Him, I happen to be one of those fans that never made the transition to Mr. Dylan's later works, post John Wesley Harding, but when Volume 2 comes out, it will be high on my list.