Bob Dylan (b. 1941) has spent decades augmenting his singular talent by mythologizing, misdirecting, and outright lying about his life. This ambitious biography seeks the truth. Noted music historian and critic Heylin has already written 10 books about Dylan, including the well-regarded biography Bob Dylan Behind the Shades (1991), as well as portraits of the Velvet Underground, Sex Pistols, Springsteen, and other rock luminaries. Here, the author is armed with material from Dylan's papers and outtake footage from tour documentaries now housed at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa. Even with those documents, not to mention Dylan's own autobiography, Chronicles, and hundreds of interviews and press conferences over the years, the story of how Bobby Zimmerman from Minnesota became one of music's most influential and enduring artists remains murky. To his credit, Heylin leans into the confusion, documenting who said what and how they would know even though it makes some parts, especially the chapters on Dylan's early years, hard to follow. We still don't even get a straight story on the origin of the name change. "Even in 1960," writes the author, "he delighted in spinning yarns, telling close friend Dave Whitaker that it 'was his mother's name, and that he had taken it because…he didn't want to be known by his father's name.' " The last part of that statement, at least, was true. But since his Jewish mother's family had come from Russia, it must have seemed to the worldly Whitaker rather unlikely that her family name was Welsh for 'son of the sea.' " Heylin is on stronger footing in his discussions with eyewitnesses and analysis of documentary footage and studio recordings from sessions for such classics as "Like a Rolling Stone" or "Visions of Johanna." In these passages, the narrative becomes an enlightening, informative delight. Impressively researched, this deep look at Dylan's early career and initial stardom is a decidedly uneven but enjoyable ride. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

The latest work on Bob Dylan by his longtime biographer Heylin (Dylan: Behind the Shades) focuses on the artist's first 25 years and attempts to sort out many myths of his life. Heylin's endeavor to understand all things Dylan might never be fully realized, but this book is filled with absorbing details that help flesh out this most elusive of characters. What sets the book apart from other biographies is Heylin's access to Dylan's archive, held temporarily at Tulsa's Gilcrease Museum, with its collection of manuscripts, recordings, and outtakes from documentaries. Heylin covers Dylan's songwriting, recording, and performing, as well as his evolving persona and the friends and lovers who surrounded him as his fame and influence mounted. The heart of this book is a narrative of the roughly 18 months during 1965--66 when Dylan recorded three masterpiece songs, "went electric" at the Newport Folk Festival, and launched one of the most infamous tours in rock history, where angry folk fans heckled Dylan for his new sound. Heylin relies on contemporaneous remarks and more recent remembrances that reflect potentially faulty memories and even some myth-making of their own. VERDICT Dylan remains an enigmatic figure. Heylin's book will be appreciated by devoted fans and is another valuable addition to a puzzle that might never be completed.--James Collins, Morristown-Morris Twp. P.L., NJ

Virtually no one has written as much about Bob Dylan as Heylin, yet he has more to say. Much more, after scouring the Bob Dylan Archive at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The previously unseen material he viewed there led him to the conclusion that he had to rethink Dylan's entire life and career. Heylin begins in the summer of 1953 at Camp Herzl in northern Wisconsin, where the young Bobby Zimmerman made his public performing debut on Talent Night, vamping on the piano with the risqué R & B classic "Annie Had a Baby" and proclaiming that he was going to be a rock n roll star. The book concludes with the summer of 1966 with Dylan living in Woodstock, New York. It's always been difficult to separate fact from fantasy when considering this iconic songwriter and performer, but, as always, Heylin separates the chaff from the wheat. Full of dizzying amounts of detail and plentiful anecdotes, the result is an exhaustively meticulous but thoroughly entertaining account of the early to middle years of the elusive Mr. Dylan. We may never really get to know him, but Heylin may well have taken us as close as we can get. A must for Dylan fans and for admirers of Heylin's work and a mesmerizing triumph.