The Dylan Companion

“To this day, wherever great rock music is being made, there is the shadow of Bob Dylan,” said Bruce Springsteen at the induction of Dylan into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988. Or to quote John Rockwell, “Anyone who didn’t live through the sixties simply cannot realize how important his albums seemed then; they defined a community.” Dylan is a musical, literary, political, and religious icon whose lyrics and mystique have spawned countless articles and books. The Dylan Companion is a generous helping of the best, most pungent, and most insightful commentary on Dylan from all phases of his career right up to the present: personal recollections and professional assessments from the likes of Ken Kesey, Greil Marcus, Joan Baez, Andrew Motion, Lester Bangs, Kurt Loder, Allen Ginsberg, Pauline Kael, Geoff Dyer, Simon Winchester, and Robert Christgau — over fifty pieces celebrating the sixty-year-old performer who somehow manages to stay forever young.