Down the Highway cover art

Down the Highway

The Life of Bob Dylan

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About this listen

Hailed as "Music Book of the Year" by Uncut magazine on publication, and a finalist for theRalph J. Gleason Music Book Award, Down the Highway is an essential biography for Bob Dylan fans and all music enthusiasts, delivering the full, fascinating story of the life and work of this great artist.

Author Howard Sounes interviewed more than 250 key people in Dylan’s circle, and gained access to previously unseen documents, to create a fresh and compelling book that takes the reader on a journey from Dylan’s childhood in a Minnesota mining town, through his rise to fame in the 1960s, to his current status as the senior figure in popular music.

Howard Sounes is known for writing detailed and revelatory biographies of extraordinary personalities, including the American poet Charles Bukowski (Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life) and the singer-songwriters Paul McCartney (Fab) and Lou Reed (Notes from the Velvet Underground).

©2011 Howard Sounes (P)2014 Audible Studios Entertainment & Celebrities Music

Critic reviews

"Dylan comes alive, strumming his guitar in a studio in Nashville or hurrying down MacDougal Street with the collar of his leather jacket turned up against the wind…[Sounes] offers information that, in sheer quantity, supersedes prior accounts." (The New York Times Book Review)
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Overall this was a good and interesting listen. It is however very lop-sided. Spending, in my humble opinion way too much time on things like Dylan's girlfriends at school (does anybody care?), whilst everything that has happened since Time Out of Mind is dashed off almost as an afterthought. It's a common issue with biographies but particularly noticeable with some like Dylan who has had such a long career. Also, the narrator has a very strange way of pronouncing some names. These gripes aside, it's a solid and thorough account.

A thorough if lop-sided listen

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Well written and interesting take on the life of Bob Dylan, would recommend to any fans.

Really enjoyed it

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This book gets you inside the life of Dylan with a sweeping intimate non judgmental story of the many lives and loves of Dylan. The narration is amazing and so entertaining, I loved the many voices especially. Thank you.

Truly entertaining look at Bob Dylan

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Entertaining from beginning to end, not quite warts and all. A different kind of homage to him.

His Bobness

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