Still on the Road: The Songs of Bob Dylan, 1974-2006 [Paperback]

The second of two volumes, this companion to every song that Bob Dylan ever wrote is not just opinionated commentary or literary interpretation: it consists of facts first and foremost. Together these two volumes form the most comprehensive books available on Dylan’s words.

Clinton Heylin is the world’s leading Dylan biographer and expert, and he has arranged the songs in a continually surprising chronology of when they were actually written rather than when they appeared on albums. Using newly discovered manuscripts, anecdotal evidence, and a seemingly limitless knowledge of every Bob Dylan live performance, Heylin reveals hundreds of facts about the songs. Here we learn about Dylan’s contributions to the Traveling Wilburys, the women who inspiredBlood on the TracksandDesire, the sources Dylan “plagiarized” forLove and TheftandModern Times, why he left “Blind Willie McTell” off ofInfidelsand “Series of Dreams” off ofOh Mercy, what broke the long dry spell he had in the 1990s, and much more.

This is an essential purchase for every true Bob Dylan fan.

"Clinton Heylin, master explicator of the Dylan canon, has however improbably, sorted it all out for us through the tangled '80's and beyond, completing what he started inRevolution In The Air. The book is essential." —Jonathan Lethem

"Heylin is at once a researcher, explicator and archivist . . . Taking Dylan's songs in sequential order of composition might seem to be an improbable project, but Heylin documents it with such attention to detail that one marvels at his provable and entirely correct timeline." —Shepherd Express