In this book, Andy Gill assess the circumstances behind Dylan's most famous songs, tracing the artist's progress from young tyro folkie to acclaimed protest singer, and through the subsequent changes which saw him invent folk-rock and transform rock 'n' roll with symbolist poetry, before retreating into country-tinged conservatism just as his followers were engaged in the great psychedelic freak-show of the late 1960s.
The book has been translated into French, Japanese and Spanish.
Through the years and the editions, it had no less than four different titles:
- CLASSIC BOB DYLAN 1962-69 - MY BACK PAGES - THE STORIES BEHIND EVERY SONG, (1998)
- DON'T THINK TWICE, IT'S ALL RIGHT - BOB DYLAN THE EARLY YEARS - THE STORIES BEHIND EVERY SONG, (1998)
- BOB DYLAN - THE STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS 1962-1969, (2011)
- BOB DYLAN - THE STORIES BEHIND THE CLASSIC SONGS 1962-1969 (2021).