[Rolling Thunder Logbook] is more remarkable for what was left out than for what was put in. In his introduction, Shepard cannily seeks to defuse such criticism by saying that reasons for the tour and the failure of the film don't matter, that the only purpose of the book is to provide a taste of the experience.

That's thin reasoning for an equally thin book. Shepard's style here could best be described as hit-and-run journalism; an image garnered here, a scrap picked up there. There are some good scraps, nonetheless: Roger McGuinn's nightmares about being assassinated onstage; the buffoonery behind the attempts at making a film; Jack Kerouac's brother-in-law's bar; the transformation of a reporter following the tour into a shameless Dylan groupie.

Shepard seems to have been totally intimidated by rock & roll's complete lack of structure. He confesses that he came out of [Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue...