Davis and Dylan

Recently I've read both Bob Dylan's and Miles Davis' autobiographies. Personally I like autobiographies because they are really the only way to get into someones head. Biographies are great, but I think lots of times they are full of bullshit facts and the author always puts his/her slant on the person the book is about. But back to Davis and Dylan.

I found that they had a lot of similarities. They are both American legends in that they took a existing musical style changed it greatly and brought it to a new generation. Miles with Jazz and Bob Dylan with folk. In addition they both steered towards rock music in the later parts of their careers, but who wasn't playing rock in the 70's? The are both geminis (and believe in astrology) and they both had run ins with the Grateful Dead. The both came from the midwest and moved to New York to pursue their musical careers. Miles started off in East St. Louis and Bob started playing in Minneapolis. They both recorded for Columbia Records for the majority of their careers and they even met eachother at a party at Miles' house. Miles broke both his ankles in his Ferrari and Dylan had a bad motorcycle crash.

Anyways I thought Miles' book was far more interesting, he has some pretty crazy experiences, I think a lot of it has to do with being addicted to hard drugs (Herion from around ages 19-25 and cocaine from ages 39-54). Although he does have interesting experiences during his clean periods in his life, which in my opinion he made his best music. He hung out with Jean Paul Sarte in France and travels to Brazil, Japan and Europe. Also Miles' book covers his whole career where as Dylan's just covers a few specific periods of his life. Lastly, Miles is older so he talks about how the 40's and 50's were which I found very interesting.

In summery, I recommend both books, but Miles' is much more entertaining. And really you don't get much more bad ass than this.