Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina and Richard Farina - David Hajdu

A valuable read for me. As a member of the public who can recognize Bob Dylan and others of the 60s folk scene, but can't separate legend from reality, this insightful biography is the bridge to help me understand and relate to a few popular musicians of the period. The most notable is, of course, Bob Dylan. His misadventures is defined as a shy youth whose silence was confused for cool. Dylan tried to keep his biographical details under wraps in relationship to other musicians. The Baez Sisters and Richard Farina get the clearest portrait. Farina is shown as a showman always on the up while the Baez sisters are individuals just looking for their piece of the pie. Hajdu occassionaly reminds readers of general points of the place folk music had in the 60s scene, but this book is a dedication to a scene and period. The story seems to end as it began, which is inadvertently. Memory makes it look distinct, but the book loses itself in the details of life on the run and in the fast lane.