Sources used in this document:

Russell, Craig H. Notes. Music Library Association. 50:3. 1994. 929-933. Print.

This article is a review of the book Positively Bob Dylan: a Thirty-Year Discography. Actually, the article deals with the many different texts about Bob Dylan that had appeared on the landscape at that time. Russell points to several different texts and judges their effectiveness by the information that they provide. Of all, he seems to be most fond of Clinton Heylin's book Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades. Most of Heylin's book is based on personal accounts and interviews with the singer/songwriter. This favorable review of Heylin is counterpointed with a negative review of a book by Richard Williams. This book, entitled Dylan: A Man Called Alias, he argues is not as truthful as the Heylin book. On accusation is levied that Williams "adopts some commonly held misconceptions without reexamining the primary evidence" (931). He also describes a third book, Richard Wissolik's Bob Dylan, American Poet and Singer which he defines as the most scholarly of the three texts.

The article is useful in that it illustrates one Dylan scholar's perspective on two potential sources. It gives a third point-of-view in a dialogue between Heylin and Williams. For someone trying to write a researched analytical paper on Bob Dylan, it is helpful to have another opinion about which sources should be relied upon over others. There are so many different sources out there in the world that it is very easy to get overwhelmed and to rely on information that is potentially false. By examining this article, not only do I get Russell's impressions of those other two books, but his own experiences and understanding of Dylan himself. The article goes on to describe some other books and texts that would be helpful for a scholarly paper discussing Bob Dylan. This is a valuable asset for someone searching for viable sources.