Encounters with Bob Dylan [Paperback]

As the greatest - not to mention most important, in every sense of the word - songwriter of the 20th century, Bob Dylan has, unsurprisingly, inspired a legion of devoted fans. Although every major artist has their share of obsessives and fanatics, the ones who follow Dylan have far surpassed mere "groupie" or "hard-core" status: they reside in a legendary status - even mythological. Some of these, branded "Dylanologists", have achieved a level of notoriety compared in a small way with the artist himself. Many fans know of the famous (or infamous) "Garbologist", A. J. Weberman, who even went so far as searching through the dumpsters outside Bob's house for his baby's soiled diapers - allegedly looking for clues to obscure lyrics, and even conjuring up a paranoid fantasy conspiracy that the government was out to get Dylan for raising sentiment against the Vietnam War, and that Dylan knew it, and alluded to it, through subtle messages in his songs. Bob Dylan's history is filled with many other such characters and ancedotes. Perhaps it comes as no surprise, then, that Dylan is a very mysterious character, and known for his ambivalence towards fans. Securing a personal meeting with Dylan is a difficult thing to do, and those fans who do manage it are held in a kind of revered awe by the faithful. This book is a record of such encounters. There are many books available on Dylan (certainly more serious and scholarly works than on any other rock musician), but this is just about the only one where the air of pretentious intellectual refinement is removed, and you hear it straight from the mouth of the ones who really matter: the fans. These are the fans personal reminisces of meeting Dylan, or otherwise coming close in some way. These are the normal, everyday fans - people like you and me (although there are certainly a few obsessives - such as the man who keeps a "Dylan shrine" in his house), although there are a handful of semi-famous names in here as well. The accounts range from revelatory (people being personally invited backstage by Dylan, a record store employee purporting not to know who he is, a man who retrieves Dylan's stolen cap); to hilarous (a fan who meets Dylan in a cafe and asks him a strange question, a meeting between Dylan and a fan in an alley before a concert), to just plain boring and inane. You are hearing these recollections as told straight from the fans - granted, then, the prose is often crude, and some stories are better than others. This, then, is a book you'll want if you're looking for personal, often funny, sometimes touching stories from the fans themselves - rather than pseudo-intellectual exposition from so-called "rock scholars." I would not rate this as an essential Dylan book: rather I reccommend it if you are a fan and want a slightly more personal and unique book about Dylan than you normally find.

Each story in this book is such a treat and a treasure, I had to ration them and limit myself to reading a few a day, to make the pleasure last as long as possible. Some of the stories brought tears (because they were so touching), and some brought chuckles, and all were inspirational and uplifting because they let the rest of us less priveledged obsessed fans know that it IS actually possible to meet Bob. What I especially appreciated about the book was the fact that it wasn't heavily edited and rewritten, like Reader's Digest, for instance, and that we are able to experience the unique writing styles and 'tone-of-voice' of each writer. I have many books about Dylan, but this one will be my most treasured; it is a gem of a book. All of those ponderous volumes of analyses and suppositions can't compare to reading about people's actual encounters with The Man, in thier own words. Except maybe for Daniel Kramer's worshipful account of the time he spent with him... BUY this book, so the author will be encouraged to bless us with more stories like these!

"Encounters With Bob Dylan" runs the gamut of Dylan's personalities. This is not musical analysis or lyrical analysis, but a look at sometimes momentary encounters by musicians, technicians, and ordinary Dylan fans. Truly reveals charisma of Dylan the human.

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