Listen free for 30 days
-
Time Out of Mind
- The Lives of Bob Dylan
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 26 hrs and 30 mins
- Categories: Arts & Entertainment, Music
People who bought this also bought...
-
Once Upon a Time: The Lives of Bob Dylan
- By: Ian Bell
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 26 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The ultimate biography of Bob Dylan. Half a century ago a youth appeared from the American hinterland and began a cultural revolution. The world is still coming to terms with what he did. How he did it - and why - has never been fully explored. In Once Upon a Time, award-winning writer Ian Bell draws together the tangled strands of the many lives of Bob Dylan in all their contradictory brilliance. For the first time, the laureate of modern America is set in his entire context: musical, historical, literary, political, and personal.
-
-
Painful and above all dull
- By Phil on 06-09-16
-
Down the Highway
- The Life of Bob Dylan
- By: Howard Sounes
- Narrated by: Peter Markinker
- Length: 20 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Truly entertaining look at Bob Dylan
- By Doug Heff on 25-03-20
-
Chronicles
- Volume One
- By: Bob Dylan
- Narrated by: Sean Penn
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
One of my favourite artists. Great read / listen
- By Will Bale on 14-05-18
-
Substance
- Inside New Order
- By: Peter Hook
- Narrated by: Peter Hook, Keir Stewart
- Length: 19 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two acclaimed albums and an upcoming US tour - Joy Division had the world at their feet. Then, on the eve of that tour, the band’s troubled lead singer, Ian Curtis, killed himself. The next time they got together, they were a new band. That band was New Order - their label was Factory Records; their club, The Haçienda. Their distinctive sound paved the way for the dance music explosion that followed, earning them the reputation as one of the most influential bands of their generation and changing the course of popular music.
-
-
Hooky's best book yet
- By Anonymous on 22-03-21
-
John Lennon
- The Life
- By: Phillip Norman
- Narrated by: Russell Boulter
- Length: 32 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For more than a quarter of a century, Philip Norman's internationally best-selling Shout! has been unchallenged as the definitive biography of the Beatles. Now, at last, Norman turns his formidable talent to the Beatle for whom belonging to the world's most beloved pop group was never enough. Drawing on previously untapped sources, and with unprecedented access to all the major characters, here is the most complete and revealing portrait of John Lennon that is ever likely to be published.
-
-
Never written a review before, but...
- By MaryB on 06-01-10
-
The Beatles - All These Years
- Volume One: Tune In
- By: Mark Lewisohn
- Narrated by: Clive Mantle
- Length: 43 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Beatles have been at the top for 50 years, their music remains exciting, their influence is still huge, their acclaim and achievements cannot be surpassed. But who really were the Beatles, and how did they and everything else in the 1960s fuse so explosively? Mark Lewisohn's three-part biography is the first true and accurate account of the Beatles, a contextual history built upon impeccable research and written with energy, style, objectivity and insight.
-
-
The only Beatles story to listen to
- By mr lyndon p brookes on 14-03-17
-
Once Upon a Time: The Lives of Bob Dylan
- By: Ian Bell
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 26 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The ultimate biography of Bob Dylan. Half a century ago a youth appeared from the American hinterland and began a cultural revolution. The world is still coming to terms with what he did. How he did it - and why - has never been fully explored. In Once Upon a Time, award-winning writer Ian Bell draws together the tangled strands of the many lives of Bob Dylan in all their contradictory brilliance. For the first time, the laureate of modern America is set in his entire context: musical, historical, literary, political, and personal.
-
-
Painful and above all dull
- By Phil on 06-09-16
-
Down the Highway
- The Life of Bob Dylan
- By: Howard Sounes
- Narrated by: Peter Markinker
- Length: 20 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Truly entertaining look at Bob Dylan
- By Doug Heff on 25-03-20
-
Chronicles
- Volume One
- By: Bob Dylan
- Narrated by: Sean Penn
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
One of my favourite artists. Great read / listen
- By Will Bale on 14-05-18
-
Substance
- Inside New Order
- By: Peter Hook
- Narrated by: Peter Hook, Keir Stewart
- Length: 19 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two acclaimed albums and an upcoming US tour - Joy Division had the world at their feet. Then, on the eve of that tour, the band’s troubled lead singer, Ian Curtis, killed himself. The next time they got together, they were a new band. That band was New Order - their label was Factory Records; their club, The Haçienda. Their distinctive sound paved the way for the dance music explosion that followed, earning them the reputation as one of the most influential bands of their generation and changing the course of popular music.
-
-
Hooky's best book yet
- By Anonymous on 22-03-21
-
John Lennon
- The Life
- By: Phillip Norman
- Narrated by: Russell Boulter
- Length: 32 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For more than a quarter of a century, Philip Norman's internationally best-selling Shout! has been unchallenged as the definitive biography of the Beatles. Now, at last, Norman turns his formidable talent to the Beatle for whom belonging to the world's most beloved pop group was never enough. Drawing on previously untapped sources, and with unprecedented access to all the major characters, here is the most complete and revealing portrait of John Lennon that is ever likely to be published.
-
-
Never written a review before, but...
- By MaryB on 06-01-10
-
The Beatles - All These Years
- Volume One: Tune In
- By: Mark Lewisohn
- Narrated by: Clive Mantle
- Length: 43 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Beatles have been at the top for 50 years, their music remains exciting, their influence is still huge, their acclaim and achievements cannot be surpassed. But who really were the Beatles, and how did they and everything else in the 1960s fuse so explosively? Mark Lewisohn's three-part biography is the first true and accurate account of the Beatles, a contextual history built upon impeccable research and written with energy, style, objectivity and insight.
-
-
The only Beatles story to listen to
- By mr lyndon p brookes on 14-03-17
-
Paul McCartney: The Biography
- By: Philip Norman
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 30 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since the age of 20, Paul McCartney has lived one of the ultimate rock 'n' roll lives played out on the most public of stages. Now Paul's story is told by rock music's foremost biographer, with McCartney's consent and access to family members and close friends who have never spoken on the record before. Paul McCartney reveals the complex character behind the façade and sheds new light on his childhood - blighted by his mother's death but redeemed by the father who introduced him to music.
-
-
Detailed biography of a true genius
- By James on 13-05-17
-
Fab: The Intimate Life of Paul McCartney
- By: Howard Sounes
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 25 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
He is the proud torchbearer of the Beatles, the greatest band in the history of popular music, and one of the most closely-studied artists in show business, yet secrets and surprises remain in the life of Sir Paul McCartney. The full story is told in Fab. Howard Sounes, author of the acclaimed Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan, spent more than two years investigating every aspect of Sir Paul’s life and work, including interviewing over 200 people.
-
-
Thanks for the memories
- By C. N. TURNER on 30-07-15
-
What Fresh Lunacy Is This?
- The Authorised Biography of Oliver Reed
- By: Robert Sellers
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 17 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Oliver Reed may not have been Britain's biggest film star - for a period in the early 70s he came within a hairsbreadth of replacing Sean Connery as James Bond - but he is an august member of that small band of people, like George Best and Eric Morecambe, who transcended their chosen medium, became too big for it even, and grew into cultural icons. For the first time Reed's close family has agreed to collaborate on a project about the man himself.
-
-
Thoroughly enjoyable!!
- By Jay on 14-11-13
-
One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time
- By: Craig Brown
- Narrated by: Mark McGann, Kate Robbins, Craig Brown
- Length: 20 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One Two Three Four traces the chance fusion of the four key elements that made up the Beatles: fire (John), water (Paul), air (George) and earth (Ringo). It also tells the bizarre and often unfortunate tales of the disparate and colourful people within their orbit. History, etymology, diaries, autobiography, fan letters, essays, parallel lives, party lists, charts, interviews, announcements and stories.
-
-
Disappointing
- By Ms on 11-05-20
-
Moon the Loon
- By: Dougal Butler, Chris Trengove, Peter Lawrence
- Narrated by: Karl Howman
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The legendary tale of industrial strength pranking, drumming, '70’s excess, big laughs, desperation, and The Who performed with gusto by Karl Howman. Set in London, LA, and on tour with one of the world’s greatest live rock bands, The Who.
-
-
10 years in the life
- By Pete on 17-04-15
-
Last Train to Memphis
- The Rise of Elvis Presley
- By: Peter Guralnick
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 22 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley is the first biography to go past that myth and present an Elvis beyond the legend. Based on hundreds of interviews and nearly a decade of research, it traces the evolution not just of the man but of the music and of the culture he left utterly transformed, creating a completely fresh portrait of Elvis and his world. This volume tracks the first 24 years of Elvis' life, covering his childhood, the stunning first recordings at Sun Records, and the early RCA hits.
-
-
Wow! Never thought it would be this good
- By Brendan on 08-11-12
-
Mick Jagger
- By: Philip Norman
- Narrated by: Cameron Stewart
- Length: 22 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bestselling biographer Philip Norman offers an unparalleled account of the life of a living legend, Mick Jagger. From Home Counties schoolboy, to rebel without a cause, to Sixties sensation and global idol, Norman unravels the myth of the inimitable frontman of The Rolling Stones.
-
-
Loved it !
- By deirdre o sullivan on 09-11-12
-
Revolution in the Head
- The Beatles Records and the Sixties
- By: Ian MacDonald
- Narrated by: David Morrissey, Robyn Hitchcock, Danny Baker, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Regarded as the greatest and most revealing account of how the Beatles recorded every one of their songs, Revolution in the Head is brimming with details of the personal highs and lows experienced by Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr as they made some of the most enduring popular music ever created.
-
-
What a pleasure!
- By staedtler on 26-05-15
-
The History of Jazz, Second Edition
- By: Ted Gioia
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 21 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ted Gioia's History of Jazz has been universally hailed as a classic - acclaimed by jazz critics and fans around the world. Now Gioia brings his magnificent work completely up-to-date, drawing on the latest research and revisiting virtually every aspect of the music, past and present. Gioia tells the story of jazz as it had never been told before, in a book that brilliantly portrays the legendary jazz players, the breakthrough styles, and the world in which it evolved. Here are the giants of jazz and the great moments of jazz history.
-
-
Good introduction
- By G. A. Thart on 11-10-19
-
Uncommon People
- The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars 1955-1994
- By: David Hepworth
- Narrated by: David Hepworth
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The age of the rock star, like the age of the cowboy, has passed. Like the cowboy, the idea of the rock star lives on in our imaginations. What did we see in them? Swagger. Recklessness. Sexual charisma. Damn-the-torpedoes self-belief. A certain way of carrying themselves. Good hair. Interesting shoes. Talent we wished we had. What did we want of them? To be larger than life but also like us. To live out their songs. To stay young forever. No wonder many didn't stay the course.
-
-
Bliss
- By Professor Pat Tissington on 23-11-17
-
Guitar King
- Michael Bloomfield's Life in the Blues
- By: David Dann
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 31 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Named one of the world's great blues-rock guitarists by Rolling Stone, Mike Bloomfield (1943-1981) remains beloved by fans nearly 40 years after his untimely death. Taking listeners backstage, onstage, and into the recording studio with this legendary virtuoso, David Dann tells the riveting stories behind Bloomfield's work in the seminal Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the mesmerizing Electric Flag, as well as the Super Session album with Al Kooper and Stephen Stills, Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, and soundtrack work with Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson.
-
Life
- By: Keith Richards
- Narrated by: Johnny Depp, Joe Hurley, Keith Richards
- Length: 23 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With the Rolling Stones, Keith Richards created the riffs, the lyrics and the songs that roused the world, and over four decades he lived the original rock-and-roll life: taking the chances he wanted, speaking his mind, and making it all work in a way that no one before him had ever done. Now, at last, the man himself tells us the story of life in the crossfire hurricane. And what a life....
-
-
Disappointed by the change of reader
- By Sukhbir on 17-01-11
Summary
The second and concluding volume of Ian Bell's critically lauded study of the inimitable Bob Dylan.
By the middle of the 1970s, Bob Dylan's position as the preeminent artist of his generation was assured. The 1975 album Blood on the Tracks seemed to prove, finally, that an uncertain age had found its poet. Perverse or driven, Dylan refused the role. By the decade's end, the counterculture's poster child had embraced conservative, evangelical Christianity. Fans and critics alike were confused; many were aghast. Still the hits kept coming.
Then Dylan faltered. His instincts, formerly unerring, deserted him. In the 1980s, what had once appeared unthinkable came to pass: The 'voice of a generation' began to sound irrelevant, a tale told to grandchildren. Yet in the autumn of 1997 something remarkable happened. Having failed to release a single new song in seven long years, Dylan put out the equivalent of two albums in a single package. He called it Time Out of Mind. So began the renaissance, artistic and personal, that culminated in 2012's acclaimed Tempest.
In the concluding volume of his groundbreaking study, Ian Bell explores the unparalleled second act in a quintessentially American career. It is a tale of redemption, of an act of creative will against the odds, and of a writer who refused to fade away. Time Out of Mind is the story of the latest, perhaps the last, of the many Bob Dylans. This one might yet turn out to have been the most important of them all.
Born, raised and educated in Edinburgh, Ian Bell is a past holder of the George Orwell Prize for Political Journalism and the award-winning author of Dreams of Exile, a biography of Robert Louis Stevenson. Formerly the Scottish editor of The Observer, he is a columnist with The Herald and The Sunday Herald.
Critic reviews
More from the same
What listeners say about Time Out of Mind
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- robert mcguigan
- 27-07-15
Ironic yet cute
The sample doesn't give the full flavor, which before long becomes insufferable. The narrator actually switches from his droll British accent and into a Dylan imitation to quote him.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Alan Parker Thornton
- 24-02-14
sneering mawkish delivery
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
Yes, the information is pretty good. The tone is occasionally snotty which may have caused Thorpe to decide to read the entire thing as a insufferable whiner.
Who was your favorite character and why?
n/a
How could the performance have been better?
I feel strongly that another reader would be required. This guy's attempts to imitate Bob Dylan and others made me cringe repeatedly.
"...one should never be where one does not belong."
-Bob Dylan
If this book were a movie would you go see it?
n/a
Any additional comments?
I'll never buy anything else with David Thorpe reading.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anonymous User
- 11-04-21
No review needed.
One star says enough. Let’s get 15 words in. Don’t waste your time listening to this book.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Scott
- 03-03-21
Hatchet job
I don't know what Bob Dylan did to the author, but I'm sure he's sorry for it.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Thomas E. Powers
- 19-02-21
Too much politics and butchered pronunciations
The author inserts way too much of his political views as if on crusade— quite tedious and boring.
The reader consistently butchers the pronunciation of common English words and names of places and people. Very distracting
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Mrs Eye
- 02-01-21
Ian Bell is a great writer
I loved this book. It's hard not to love an author who, when writing about Dylan's religious period (paraphrasing) "Bob came close to speaking in tongues, but he had already done that with Mr. Tambourine Man".
The book is very well-researched and chock-full of zingers that are very entertaining.
The author is both Dylan's fiercest critic and his staunched defender. His knowledge is astounding.
As many have noted, the narrator switching between his British accent and then a Dylan accent was a little off-putting at first, but once I got past that I appreciated his delivery.
Give this book a chance. It's great.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anonymous User
- 30-12-20
A Bitter and Stillborn Diatribe
Too much spilled ink over Dylan for this to even rate as mediocre bile - no matter how you feel about the man or the music. This review is my public duty to warn you away from a stupid waste of time.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Paul McDonald
- 20-10-18
Avoid
I couldn't get past the piss poor narrator imitation if Bob. It ruined the book.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- joker Man Dance
- 26-02-17
Compared to the man, a very small book.
This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
And then there's the narration. An acceptable British reader. At least until the first of many passages quoting Dylan, where he breaks out his , I guess, best Dylan impersonation. Sorta like Joan Baez's, come to think of it. But her's is obviously a joke. Here it is indescribably annoying by the second chapter - and it will appear as a bizzaro world Greek chorus every few minutes. I don't understand the judgement that thought this was a good idea.