Chapter 2: The Lost Land

I am currently reading Bob Dylan's biography "Chronicles Volume 1". I am enjoying the parts in which he imparts emotion or reflection although much of the book so far has been an almost list like recollection of names, dates and places. I do not recognize many of his peers' names and not spending much time in Manhattan, I also do not have a grasp on the locations of all the music bars he mentions. His recollections of his feeling and lifestyle pre-musical success are very cool and exactly what you would hope for from such a legend. This passage hits home in so many ways:


"In 1951 I was going to grade school. One of the things we were trained to do was to hide and take cover under our desks when the air-raid sirens blew because the Russians could attack us with bombs. We were also told that the Russians could be parachuting from planes over our town at any time. These were the same Russians that my uncles had fought alongside only a few years earlier. Now they had become monsters who were coming to slit our throats and incinerate us. It seemed peculiar. Living under a cloud of fear like this robs a child of his spirit. It's one thing to be afraid when someone's holding a shotgun on you, but it's another thing to be afraid of something that's just not quite real. There were a lot of folks around who took this threat seriously, though, and it rubbed off on you. It was easy to become a victim of their strange fantasy."

If you have any suggestions of other biographies that are worthwhile reads, let me know.

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