When the Beatles played New York’s Shea Stadium in 1965, the audience included Bob Dylan, who had first met the band a year earlier. What followed was a long-standing friendship, mixed with fierce competitiveness. In Jim Windolf’s Where The Music Had To Go, we find a photo of 1969’s Isle Of Wight festival, with three Beatles attentively watching Dylan’s set. It turned out their paths frequently overlapped after the Beatles split, too.
New York Times features editor Windolf casts his beady eye over the twin histories of these cultural icons. Paul McCartney is sat down for a revealing interview about his friendship with, and mutual respect between, himself and Dylan; D.A. Pennebaker, who shot ‘Dylan on the road’ documentary Don’t Look Back and filmed John Lennon and Dylan hanging out together for Eat The Document, makes a few appearances. Where The Music Had To Go is a meticulously researched and unputdownable read with a feast of new information for even the most learned Dylan or Beatles scholar.
