• Chronicles

  • Volume One
  • By: Bob Dylan
  • Narrated by: Sean Penn
  • Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (1,118 ratings)

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Chronicles  By  cover art

Chronicles

By: Bob Dylan
Narrated by: Sean Penn
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Editorial reviews

Why we think it's Essential: Sean Penn reading Bob Dylan's memoirs. It doesn't get any better than this. Dylan mixes his life with his music, his thoughts with his lyrics, and Sean Penn puts us right inside his head. Dylan and Penn are a perfect combination, spanning two generations of celebrity, making us feel the weight and breadth of life for Dylan and the people who have hung on his every word and note. — Chris Doheny

Publisher's summary

Bob Dylan's Chronicles: Volume One explores the critical junctions in his life and career. Through Dylan's eyes and open mind, we see Greenwich Village, circa 1961, when he first arrives in Manhattan. Dylan's New York is a magical city of possibilities: smoky, nightlong parties; literary awakenings; transient loves and unbreakable friendships. Elegiac observations are punctuated by jabs of memories, penetrating and tough. With side trips to New Orleans, Woodstock, Minnesota and points west, Chronicles: Volume One is an intimate and intensely personal recollection of extraordinary times.

Revealing, poetical, passionate and witty, Chronicles: Volume One is a mesmerizing window on Bob Dylan's thoughts and influences. Dylan's voice is distinctively American: generous of spirit, engaged, fanciful, and rhythmic. Utilizing his unparalleled gifts of storytelling and the exquisite expressiveness that are the hallmarks of his music, Bob Dylan turns Chronicles: Volume One into a poignant reflection on life, and the people and places that helped shape the man and the art.

©2004 Bob Dylan (P)2004 Simon & Schuster Inc. AUDIOWORKS is an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Critic reviews

  • Audie Award Winner, Biography/Memoir, 2005
  • 2005 Quill Award Nominee
  • Grammy Award Nominee, Best Spoken Word Album, 2005

"Volume 1 of Dylan's memoirs was pretty cool to begin with. But to have it read by Sean Penn on audio takes it to a new level: the most talented songwriter of all time as performed by the most talented actor of his generation. Mr. Penn clearly has a blast inhabiting the role and navigating Dylan's jagged, impressionistic prose." (The New York Times)

Featured Article: Tune In to Our Favorite Music Memoirs


We’ve been finding solace in stories that follow our other favorite thing to listen to: music. We’ve gathered a selection of pitch-perfect memoirs from music legends in a variety of genres and styles. By turns bold, brash, and moving, these listens shed light on the sold-out shows, backstage drama, and sometimes dark underbelly of the recording industry, while highlighting the charisma, energy, and artistry that had us hooked from the first soundwave.

What listeners say about Chronicles

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Bob dylan should be a writer

I am not a fan of Bob. I tried to be, I liked his lyrics, but not his music. In this book, which is fantastically recorded, Bob can tell a story

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A winner on all levels

Well written, well read, and enjoyable. It seems like Dylan has really tried to distill his early influences and turning point experiences, with a writing style as uniquely his as his song lyrics.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent....

Took me back to my teenage years and I enjoyed every minute of it. An inside look into one of the greatest song writers of all time. Enjoy while you still can...

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great listen

Dylan's language & style & Penn's textured voice create a perfect marriage of content & performance.
Enjoyable on many levels.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Prepare to be underwhelmed

Dylan is one of very few musicians in the English speaking world whose lyrics one can print out, read like poetry, and not laugh. While this compliment is clearly subjective, it would be difficult to argue otherwise and be taken seriously. If any musician has ever had "a way with words", Dylan is certainly a candidate for that praise.

In "Chronicles" however, Dylan has profoundly little to say, yet manages to say it proudly. There's an astonishing shortage of quotable (or otherwise memorable) passages. I now understand why Jonah Lehrer, after searching for a quotation, felt constrained to make one up. Having read Chronicles, I no longer blame him for this (though I would be more approving if the quotation were just absurd: "I like my lagers light and my women thick" or some such).

Overall:

If you're a devoted Dylan fan, you'll still get something out of the investment. For example, I had no idea Dylan was so fond of rap (and more specifically, Ice-T).

If you're only somewhat devoted (i.e., if you CAN get enough of Dylan), you'll probably feel the five hours could have been condensed to 20 minutes without losing any worthwhile content.

Regarding the narration: Sean Penn is an incredible actor ("the Dylan of the matte white screen"), but those skills don't seem to translate very well to reading books out loud.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Brilliant storytelling with excellent narration

Brilliant storytelling, written by the master. Excellent narration in a voice that evokes Dylan's own.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Great but why abridged!?

there must be a good reason for why they record a bridge version of books but I don't get it. if you're going to offer it why not off for the whole thing

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Stunning narration of a remarkable story

Sean Penn reads this book with such conviction and authenticity, I often felt like Dylan was reading it himself.
The prose almost sounds like poetry. Which makes sense, given who Dylan is.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

interesting and revealing!

Bob's words are graphically revealing. His in depth narrative is rivetting. I very much enjoyed the book.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great book, shame about the abridgement

Dylan proves to be every bit the poetic force that he was in his seminal recordings but the abridgement makes it feel so scattershot that it leaves you wondering why they couldn't have done more.

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