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.