• Chronicles

  • Volume One
  • By: Bob Dylan
  • Narrated by: Sean Penn
  • Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (1,116 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

Sean Penn was perfect

Was curious how anyone could deliver Dylan’s words and Sean was a home run. Highly worth it.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Best audio book I ever heard

I have just listen to this book for 5 hours straight, I just wish it was 5 hours longer, best narrator voice I have ever heard, and what an unbelievable story. It felt like when my father would read me my favorite bedtime story, and I wish it would never end.
Thank you Sean Penn and Bob Dylan

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5 people found this helpful

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

Sean Penn does an AMAZING job

Would you consider the audio edition of Chronicles to be better than the print version?

The only reason I rated the overall as four stars instead of five is because this version is abridged. I'm not sure why some sentences and even whole paragraphs were omitted; but I found it distracting.

What did you like best about this story?

We all know that Dylan can write lyrics. Now we know he can write prose. This remarkable account of a few selected chapters in his life is absolutely enthralling; revealing more about Dylan than many of us had known before. He's well-known for being cryptic (at the very least) during interview; here he's pretty forthcoming.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I found it very affecting to read how he tried to protect his family and his family life at a time when the public and media were calling for him to come forward as a leader in the cultural wars. He was appalled every time he was reproached for not being what other people wanted him to be. People protested outside his house because of his 'failure' to lead them. There were break-ins. (When I was listening to this, I thought of John Lennon, who was so accommodating to his fans and what finally happened to him....) Dylan just wanted to have his family left alone.

I wonder how Dylan feels now as the same titles are ascribed to him: Voice of His Generation, a towering figure in American culture and a global twentieth-century icon, writer of protest songs and anthems of social movements. From now on, I'll think of him as he once described himself: A song and dance man.

Any additional comments?

Sean Penn's voice is perfect for this book. If Dylan doesn't narrate his own book, I can't think of anybody better than Penn.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Information good Narration Horrible

Well if your looking for just the information than this may be the book for you. However, If your like me I wanted the information presented in a palatabel manner. Sean Pen's reading of Chronicles is as bland and monotone as I have ever heard. At some points I had to just turn it off to keep from falling asleep at the wheel. I am not sure if his monotone delivery was intentional or not but it does not go over well at all. If you listen to audio books while commuting as I suspect most of us do then steer clear of this one in terms of keeping you engaged and awake

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

what a powerful duo!

the writing of Bob Dylan and the power of Sean Penn's voice are fantastic together

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Wow

So good. Dylan is a fantastic writer. Sean Penn's simple delivery was perfect for this.

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

Eye Opening

I love hearing stories of peoples lives before they became famous. Dylan's life is no exception. Chronicles gave me a peek into what made Dylan, Dylan. It was interesting how you end up back at the beginning at the end. I found myself trying to find a "Dylan" meaning in that but stopped myself because after hearing how much he ran from that kind of worship; I felt he would just roll his eyes and think, 'not my intentions at all".
Overall, the reading and book left me wanting more. But then I guess that's how we should feel about Bob Dylan.

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

Dylan's voice

Just an amazing experience to get some insight,possibly understand Dylan's path from young man, poet, reluctant & public representative.

Truly artistic in his thought processes and representation not concerning himself with what others think so much as to represent whatever it is his mind tells him to portray, fascinating individual!

The narration by Sean Penn was excellent!

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

Dylan Lied To Us

This clears up a lot of thd misunderstanding, though. He's just a guy who wanted to be famous. Nothing special. Its charming to confirm it in his words.

Sean Penn does a great job.

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

BD redefines what poetry can be for me.

His turn o phrase turns my face into hysterics. Hardly ever found myself laughing so hard. Beyond genius!

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