On the Road with Bob Dylan Paperback – August 27, 2002

Larry Sloman's "On the Road with Bob Dylan" is one of the best books about both Dylan, and what it's like to be a reporter, on the road, trying to cover one of the biggest rock stars.I love this book.Sloman cares so much about Dylan and Dylan's art, and that comes through time and time again. Sloman isn't just a reporter out covering the tour. He knows Dylan, and he knows most of the other musicians who were on the Rolling Thunder Review with Dylan including Joan Baez, Roger McGuinn and Ramblin' Jack Elliott, so he is able to provide a perspective that you can't get from most people who write about Dylan.Sloman's vivid, you-are-there descriptions of Rolling Thunder Review concerts `caused me to seek out bootlegs of the shows so I could hear fro myself the music he enthuses about.The book is aptly titled, as it really is `On the Road' meets Dylan.While a good portion of the book is concerned with Sloman's problems as a journalist on assignment for Rolling Stone getting access to Dylan and the other stars of the Rolling Thunder Revue, there are many scenes in which Sloman interacts with Dylan and Dylan's former wife Sara. The reader gets a real sense of what they're like.At one point Sloman talks to Michael Bloomfield on the telephone about Bloomfield's relationship to Dylan, and gets Bloomfield's take on Dylan and that alone is worth the price of admission.As a former Rolling Stone Senior writer, I've dealt with some of the same problems Sloman deal with in his book and what he rights is the authentic deal for sure.I'm also a huge Dylan fan - my recent novel, True Love Scars, (True Love Scars (The Freak Scene Dream Trilogy) (Volume 1)) features a main character who is obsessed with Dylan - so every detail of the Rolling Thunder Review is of interest to me.I didn't want Sloman's book to end.Bob Dylan himself called Sloman's book, "The War and Peace of rock `n' roll."Quite a compliment.If you dig Dylan, this book is for you.

Fantastic insights into Dylan on the road, the Rolling Thunder Revue ... Sloman has great access to Dylan, there is a friendship, but he also has the nads to make the tough inquiries ... if you've zipped thru Chronicles, this is a MUST as a next read. Enjoy.

Since Dylan came, I've been there. So have lots of us. He's the iconic figure that helps connect the dots for everybody 50 or 60 years old. I've read, collected, listened, copied, imitated, shunned, exhorted, and every other kind of recognizable mental acknowledgment an attitude for the times. I like finding out new facts about the real Bob Dylan. The more I read about Bob, the more it seems the same stories keep resurfacing with a different twist. Everything is a version of what some "out of the dark" associated person may have said or for sure, according to quotes, did say. Who knows? Before I began plowing into this "On The Road One",I just finished another Dylan book, "Behind The Shades, Revisited", . So far, it's very interesting reading, except for the fact I stay confused about this Ratso fellow. He never seems to show up in any other Dylan biographies, although he writes as if he was continuously on the scene. For me the Rolling Thunder sections of the other Dylan histories represented a boring aspect of the times. Especially when the outsiders are brought into the fold and they are illuminated for the reader's interest. I think the Rolling Thunder aspect of Dylan's history is a large pathetic waste of Dylan's life and performances. There's very little quality listen able music from those times. The jam band, drug infested, hedonistic debacles staged every night throughout the World's stages seem boring. I guess you had to have been there, and probably on stage. So I'm going to continue digging through this first person Dylan tale, and see if Ratso becomes more bonified, and maybe even give the "Renaldo and Clara" episodes more thought.

Book is in good condition. Looks interesting

Rated it down for the gratuitous use of racial slurs- the writer didn't have the balls to use his favorite derogatory word to Hurricane Carter's face, so why were readers subjected to it repeatedly?I enjoyed reading about the elusive Sara, who has always intrigued me, and the pages devoted to Dylan's mother were sweet. Everyone seemed to adore Beattie. Ratso, who was the tour doormat and had his car sabotaged several times so he couldn't follow the caravan, switches the to the 3rd person after Joan Baez gives him his nickname. This dulled the narrative a bit for me, but not enough to completely kill the vibe.If you're looking for extensive details about each setlist and which chords each performer played, this isn't it. If you're interested in Ratso's endless headbutting with Louie Kemp and Imhoff, you'll get plenty of that. This book is more about Ratso's experiences during the tour, not about the musicianship itself. There are some interesting quotes from His Bobness, but a majority of the book had Ratso trying to gain access to him while being repeatedly thwarted by Kemp.Minuses: not enough mentions of Sam Shepard, unnecessary bigotry, Mohammed Ali's appearance at the prison show needed more detail than the passing mention he got, and Ratso asks dull questions when he manages to finally score interviews with Bob.Pluses: decent interviews with Mike Bloomfield and Beattie Zimmerman, Joan Baez living up to her feisty reputation, many pages of Joni Mitchell's ramblings, and a few peeks of Sara Dylan being warm and generous.I recommend this if you want a sense of the overall vibe of the Rolling Thunder Review, but don't expect a lot of shop talk among the musicians.

You feel like you’re in the room with Bob, Sarah and the tour

The reading of the work brings it to life. I might not have read the book; listening to it is engaging.

Cualquier libro de Bob Dylan hacen bastante feliz a mi suegro. Estos son libros nada fácil de encontrar en México y Amazon, como siempre, es muy eficaz con los envíos

Read Dylan's Chronicles and you find he's left out exactly this part of his life - The Rolling Thunder Tour of 1975/76. Here's where"Ratso" Sloman comes and in a most fascinating way takes you back in time and on this tour, not only with Bob, but with somany other interesting personalities of more or less stature, that you just get swept away reading and find it hard to lay thatbook down. Try it! It's worth it!!

This is the best book I have read about Bob Dylan in forty years. It is certainly the most entertaining.Larry followed Bob and his cohorts on the famed Rolling Thunder Tour in 1975. In this book he follows the ups and downs and sees Bob and his fellow performers, painting touching human portraits of all of them. His role was not 'official' so he himself frequently suffers the kinds of mishaps and mistreatment one would expect when having to deal with managers, security and crazed fans whilst following a world famous artist. Despite this he gets really close to Bob, maybe the closest any writer has got to the sphinx-like singer-songwriter. I also found out about artistes I was unaware of - for example Kinky Friedman the Jewish country singer who I find is both excellent and hilarious.I can only recommend this book to anyone who loves rock and folk music.

アメリカ建国二百年にあたって、60年代をすぎ、ショー・ビジネス化していくロックンロールを見直し、アメリカ再発見をめざした、ボブ・ディランによる「ローリング・サンダー・レビュー」。本書は、この「レビュー」についてリポートした1978年初版の再刊。写真ページが16ページ。ちなみに、本書のごく一部が、2002年発売のライヴ盤『ローリング・サンダー・レビュー』のライナー・ノーツとなっています。さて、本書がすばらしいのは、ディランやラッツォが「レビュー」という夢を追ったさいに遭遇した現実の政治経済的な制約・困難までをも書いていることです。著者のラリー・“ラッツォ”・スローマンは、「レビュー」に同行を許された内部観察者として、ライヴの雰囲気、当事者（冤罪で投獄されたプロ・ボクサー、ルービン・“ハリケーン”・カーターを含む）のインタビュー、与太話を楽しく記すだけではありません。「レビュー」がアルバム『欲望』のセッションなくしてはありえなかったこと、ディランの妻・サラがロックの世界を冷笑していたこと、ディランが「レビュー」の企画を所属レコード会社にもち込んだところ、「ばかな！」のひとことでかたづけられたこと、ラッツォとディラン側との関係もすんなりとはいかなかったこと、映画『レナルド＆クララ』の制作費までを賄うためにも、大会場中心で高チケット代にせざるをえなかったこと、それを当時のジャーナリズムに批判されたこと、そしてラッツォがジャーナリズムの下世話な関心に応えた記事を書かなかったので早々に解雇されたこと、など興味深いエピソードが満載です。

Wer sich für Bob Dylans "Rolling Thunder Tour" interessiert, die neue CD-Box besitzt und z.B. auch noch den entsprechenden Film von Martin Scorsese gesehen hat, dem sei dieses Buch empfohlen. Es ist nicht nur witzig und professionell geschrieben, sondern wartet auch mit einer riesigen Fülle interessanter Details rund um das Tourgeschehen auf.