Positively 4th street

I wish that for just one time, you could stand inside my shoes.
You'd know what a drag it is to see you.

Have you ever felt that way about someone? I doubt there's ever been a better songwriter to put these little feelings we all have to words than little Bobby Dylan.

For some reason, back when I was worshipping this guy like some false god, this song was not on the regular albums. I guess his manager and publisher wanted me to buy Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits in 1967, even though I had all the other songs on that album already. But it was worth it. Just for those lines there.

I don't know how many times I said those lines over and over in my head as I reveled in my teen angst lovelorn dreariness. Oh, if they could only be me; for just one time. They'd know. By God; they'd know how I feel.

We all want others to feel the misery we feel, eh? I wonder why that is. I think of folks like sensei who just want others to feel better all the time; not worse. How old do you have to get before you realize that is probably a better path?

Older than me, obviously.

You got a lotta nerve
To say you are my friend.
When I was down,
You just stood there grinning.

Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina, and Richard Farina by David Hajdu. (2001).

I just finished this amazing biography of these complicated, four musicians.

I was introduced to this book by a friend of mine, who was getting into the whole 60's music thing and had read this book. Once she finished she gave it to me to read and I was immediately pulled into the story.

I was only familiar with Bob Dylan, not the Baez sisters or Richard Farina. I also had no sense of the history of the music behind that era.

David Hajdu does a wonderful job creating a portrait of these four lives, showing just how important each one was in affecting each other's music and lives.

Through friendship, sisterhood, relationships, betrayal, music, fame, drugs, and growing up together, the story of Dylan, Farina, and the Baez sisters is captivating and moving and incrediably important to the folk-music of 60s.

I am amazed by the amount I learned of "the behind-the-scenes" music information. I never had really gone beyond just listening to Bob Dylan's music, but I was shown through his music, actions, and relationships with those around him, how insanely complicated this man is. The personalities of these four artists are incredible. Dylan is presented as a sad, lost little kid using Joan Baez's fame as a way to "make it" in the world of music to an irrational, betraying rock and roll star.

Positively 4th street is beyond question one of the best biographies I have picked up. I would suggest it to anyone with interest or knowledge of Dylan and of folk and rock and roll music.