Library Journal 9/15/04
"Everyone was pretty stoned at the time, so the book is a bit strange."

Harp November 2004
"A great read"

New York Times Book Review 10/24/04
"Fascinating because it skips the minutiae and offers its own moodily entertaining narrative...Shepard captures Dylan and his motley circle."

Relix February / March 2005
"Shepard is equally wise to Dylan's fundamental mystery and his rock star bullshit. Shepard's vignettes are part awe, part irony."

St. Paul Pioneer Press 1/27/05
"[A] fascinating book filled with snippets of dialogue, lists, and random chunks of narrative."

Creative Loafing-Charlotte 1/26/05
"Entertaining as well as a fascinating look at a particular cultural moment."

Book Description
In the autumn of 1975, ew England is festering with Bicentennial madness," Bob Dylan and his Rolling Thunder Revue-a rag-tag variety show that Dylan envisioned as a traveling gypsy circus-toured twenty-two cities across the Northeast. Swept up in the motley crew, which included Joni Mitchell, Mick Ronson, Allen Ginsberg, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, and Ramblin' Jack Elliot, was playwright Sam Shepard, ostensibly hired to write, on the spot, the script for a Fellini-esque, surreal movie that would come out of the tour. The script never materialized, but throughout the many moods and moments of his travels with Dylan and his troupe, Shepard kept an impressionistic Rolling Thunder Logbook of life on the road. Illuminated by forty candid photographs by official tour photographer Ken Regan, Shepard's mental-snap shots capture the camaraderie, isolation, head games, and pill-popping mayhem of the tour, providing a window into Dylan's singular talent, enigmatic charisma, and vision of America.

About the Author
Sam Shepard is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of more than forty-five plays, including Buried Child and True West, as well as the story collections Great Dream of Heaven and Cruising Paradise. He has appeared in more than twenty-five films and received an Oscar nomination for his performance in The Right Stuff. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Shepard lives in Minnesota.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In the autumn of 1975, when New England was festering with Bicentennial madness, Bob Dylan and his Rolling Thunder Revue - a rag-tag variety show that Dylan envisioned as a traveling gypsy circus - toured twenty-two cities across the Northeast. Swept up in the motley crew, which included Joni Mitchell, T-Bone Burnett, Allen Ginsberg, Mick Ronson, Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, and Ramblin' Jack Elliott, was playwright Sam Shepard, ostensibly hired to write, on the spot, the script for a Fellini-esque, surreal movie that would come out of the tour. The script never materialized, but throughout the many moods and moments of his travels with Dylan and the troupe, Shepard kept an impressionistic Rolling Thunder Logbook of life on the road. Illuminated by forty candid photographs by official tour photographer Ken Regan - many never-before published - Shepard's mental snapshots capture the camaraderie, isolation, head games, and pill-popping mayhem of the tour, providing a window into Dylan's singular talent, enigmatic charisma, and vision of America.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal