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One would not anticipate a conventional memoir from Bob Dylan--indeed, one would not have foreseen an autobiography at all from the pen of the notoriously private legend. What Chronicles: Volume 1 delivers is an odd but ultimately illuminating memoir that is as impulsive, eccentric, and inspired as Dylan's greatest music.

Eschewing chronology and skipping over most of the "highlights" that his many biographers have assigned him, Dylan drifts and rambles through his tale, amplifying a series of major and minor epiphanies. If you're interested in a behind-the-scenes look at his encounters with the Beatles, look elsewhere. Dylan describes the sensation of hearing the group's "Do You Want to Know a Secret" on the radio, but devotes far more ink to a Louisiana shopkeeper named Sun Pie, who tells him, "I think all the good in the world might already been done" and sells him a World's Greatest Grandpa bumper sticker. Dylan certainly sticks to his own agenda--a newspaper article about journeymen heavyweights Jerry Quarry and Jimmy Ellis and soul singer Joe Tex's appearance on The Tonight Show inspire heartfelt musings, and yet the 1963 assassination of John Kennedy prompts nary a word from the era's greatest protest singer.

For all the small revelations (it turns out he's been a big fan of Barry Goldwater, Mickey Rourke, and Ice-T), there are eye-opening disclosures, including his confession that a large portion of his recorded output was designed to alienate his audience and free him from the burden of being a "the voice of a generation."

Off the beaten path as it is, Chronicles is nevertheless an astonishing achievement. As revelatory in its own way as Blonde on Blonde or Highway 61 Revisited, it provides ephemeral insights into the mind one of the most significant artistic voices of the 20th century while creating a completely new set of mysteries. --Steven Stolder

鮑勃·迪倫，20世紀的搖滾教父，跨時代的文化偶像。1941年齣生於美國明尼蘇達州的希賓，20多年以後，成瞭60年代世界反主流文化的主將。“傳奇、偶像、謎…… 這類稱號或者誠心實意，或者無關痛癢，或者老生常談，拈來用之，還算輕易。但先知、基督、救星等等頭銜，就不是鬧著玩的瞭。”鮑勃•迪倫卻也確實稱得起所有這些頭銜，他是先知，是基督，是救星。他孕育瞭年輕一代的夢想、反抗和希望。他有力地呐喊對舊世界的否決。他賦予他那個時代某種自由的理念。他所塑造的新神話至今仍影響著我們。鮑勃•迪倫，既是享樂又是清醒，既是流行音樂又是哲學，既標新立異又尋根守底。是的，正是他，憑藉著幾首歌，創造瞭二十世紀的六十年代。《像一塊滾石》、《答案在風中飄蕩》、《手鼓先生》、《政治世界》、《重訪61號公路》等作品，不僅確立瞭迪倫在搖滾音樂史的教父級地位，也奠定瞭他作為20世紀偉大詩人的身份。