Positively Bob Dylan

“The Producer: John Hammond and the Soul of American Music” is the ultimate guide to one of America’s key figures in popular music, John Hammond.- The man who recognized and supported the talents of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen among many others at the earliest stage of their careers.
Author Dunstan Prial, a freelance journalist, builds his well written and carefully researched biography upon interviews with family members, friends and musicians. Dylan fans will particularly be interested in his account of signing Bob Dylan to Columbia Records, but there’s much more of essential value in the book for anyone interested in music history. Hammond’s journey was a constant search for distinct talent and personality, and it was his extraordinary love for music that made him find it in Dylan, Springsteen, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Leonard Cohen, and many others.
Prial’s book is a must-read for anyone interested in popular culture and music, especially for Bob Dylan fans.

> “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” produced by John Hammond 1963
> “The Producer” Paperback at Amazon.com

It seemed so impossible, yet it happened: During the past 3 years Dylan wrote his (first) autobiography entitled “Chronicles, Vol. 1″. It was released on October 5 and is also available as an audio book (CD and cassette) read by actor Sean Penn.
There’s two important facts that you need to know if you haven’t already read it: First, the book is written much like a Dylan song itself, mysterious and dark, it leaves a lot of space for interpretation, it’s neither complete nor chronological. And secondly, Dylan leaves out everything that might diminish his status as the unknown superstar. There’s not a single hint concerning his relationships, drugs, or religion. On bobdylan.com you can read that Chronicles focuses “on significant periods in Dylan’s life and career”, but what’s behind Dylan’s closed doors remains unknown. Read it, it’s a great piece of art, but if you want a complete biography you might very well better take a look at Clinton Heylin’s “Behind The Shades Revisited”.