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Simon & Schuster
March 2014
On Sale: May 13, 2014
Featuring: Bob Dylan
ISBN: 1451626924
EAN: 9781451626926
Kindle: B00DPM80BQ
Paperback / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
FAN: “You don’t know who I am, but I know who you are.” BOB DYLAN: “Let’s keep it that way.” Bob Dylan is the most influential songwriter of our time
and, after a half century, he remains a cultural touchstone,
an enigma, and the subject of endless fascination. From the
moment he arrived on the music scene, he attracted an
intensely fanatical cult following, and in The
Dylanologists, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist David
Kinney ventures deep into this eccentric subculture to
answer a question: What can Dylan’s grip on his most
enthusiastic listeners tell us about his towering place in
American culture? Kinney introduces us to a vibrant underground: diggers
searching for unheard tapes and lost manuscripts,
researchers obsessing over the facts of Dylan’s life and
career, writers working to decode unyieldingly mysterious
songs, road warriors who meticulously record and dissect
every concert. It’s an affectionate mania, but as far as
Dylan is concerned, a mania nonetheless. Over the years, the
intensely private and fiercely combative musician has been
frightened, annoyed, and perplexed by fans who try to peel
back his layers. He has made at least one thing crystal
clear: He does not wish to be known. The story of Dylan’s followers is also a revealing portrait
of the artist himself. Here, reflected in the fans he
inspired and the cultural movements he helped create, is
every twist and turn in a career that has swerved from lefty
activist to ultra-hip spokesman for a generation to woodsy
recluse, from secular storyteller to fire-breathing
Christian evangelist, from punch line to elder statesman.
Dylan may refuse to explain himself to his followers, but
their lives have become mirrors of his, so profoundly are
their stories intertwined. Told with tremendous insight, intelligence, and warmth, by
turns funny and affecting, The Dylanologists is ultimately a
book about our universal quest for meaning. It is populated
by characters both legendary and obscure, from aging hippies
to idealistic twentysomethings and everyone in between—a
young woman who, stirred by Dylan, attends law school and
becomes a public defender; a man who crams his New York City
apartment with memorabilia, transforming it into a
pilgrimage spot for Dylan fanatics; a woman inspired by her
hero’s redemptive music to go clean after years of drug use.
Here is a joyous, soulful, and poignant exploration of the
origins and meaning of fandom, the healing power of art, and
the importance of embracing what moves you, whatever that
may be.
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