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Time Out of Mind
- The Lives of Bob Dylan
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 26 hrs and 30 mins
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Time Out of Mind
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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.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Pete
- 23-01-23
One of the best works on Dylan
Along with volume one of Ian Bell’s work on the life of Dylan, one of the best on the subject of the artist, and well performed too (although the occasional mispronunciation grates a little).
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- angela scott
- 28-06-22
Thoroughly enjoyable
Crucially both critical and admiring … a balanced in depth tale of Dylan’s life and work. Thoroughly researched and wonderfully informative. Loved both books 👍🏼
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Mike Knight
- 26-03-22
A very interesting read.
This is a long haul, but worth it in tbe end. A review of an enigma. Am I any wiser? Not sure. Educated, yes.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 15-03-22
Ian Bell-end
Ian Bell is a horrible overly critical ball sack. His treatment of classics like "Shot of Love" (most notably the review of track "Lenny Bruce") and "Time out of Mind" is disgusting. It is only the historical accounts of Dylan's life that kept me listening. The performance of the narrator is quite good; using different voices for the different characters is a good touch, but the author himself seems to churn out the same old tired listening of classic Dylan work. Shame.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- Jacqueline
- 14-02-22
dreadful and stupid
just ghastly, sneering blather, worst narrator ever as well, not sure what the point of this is
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- 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
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- 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.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- 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.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- 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.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- 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.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Jane W
- 06-11-22
Way too opinionated
I was expecting a biography that covered Dylan’s later acts and reported the facts, but this reads like a rambling record review. Author makes it very clear when he hates a record. Not only does he make it clear but he spends multiple chapters railing against an album. The reader is fine at first but he imitates Dylan’s voice and sounds like a Simpsons character and he uses British pronunciations in Dylan’s voice which is pretty distracting. Overall it was fine but I was hoping for something better.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- e glasberg
- 13-10-21
Unlistenable
David Thorpe’s constantly jeering plummy British accent is exhausting to hear. But his foul Dylan imitation makes this included freebie unlistenable, a crime against sense and the senses.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- CJF
- 23-07-21
Delightfully cranky author
The author is clearly fascinated and deeply immersed in his subject, though his relationship to Dylan's work seems like a dysfunctional marriage. At time he seems like Dylan's harshest critic, relishing the opportunity to point out all the flaws in Dylan's work. Then he pivots to chiding those who criticize and misunderstand Dylan, singing the praises of "the artist" (a term he uses constantly). And he plays both roles in a discursive, hyberbolic way. (Did he not have an editor to streamline his text and at least consolidate his tangents into some form?)
Yet I am giving the book a five-star review. What can I say: I have been a Dylan fan for 35 years. I clearly have a strange appreciation for "artists" who are eclectic, uneven, and elliptical.
You'll either love this book or hate it. Or both at the same time. Kind of like a Dylan album.
Finally, at first I thought the Dylan imitation the narrator used when quoting Bob was cheap and campy. Then it grew on me and became part of this audio book's charm.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- 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.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- 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.
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