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That book, Chimes Of Freedom: Bob Dylan And The 1960s, was first published two years ago, but is being released in India this month in an updated, revised version.

An update and revision necessitated, of course, by Dylan8217;s own autobiography, Chronicles: Volume 1, released last year. 8216;8216;It Chronicles was fascinating because an artist who has spent 40 years denying the existence of this period8212;the early 1960s, before he became a star8212;spends a great part of the book on those 18 months of his life. So we see what created him, the influences on him. And, once again, as in every stage of his career, he tells his audience, 8216;You might think you know me but you don8217;t8217;.8217;8217;

For Marqusee, Chimes was a personal journey, allowing him to slip once more into the skin of his teenage years. 8216;8216;I8217;m 10 years younger but his greatest albums8212;Blonde On Blonde, Highway 618212;was the language I spoke. So writing about it allowed me to go back in time and appreciate, with perspective, the things I took for granted.8217;8217;

He sees much of what Dylan went through in his own youth, the turbulent years of the mid-8217;60s. That was the time of race riots8212;8216;8216;police were killing black people by the dozens8217;8217;8212;and protests against the Vietnam War. 8216;8216;I grew up in Westchester County, an all-white suburb of New York City. I thought the world I grew up in was boring, just like Dylan did8212;which is why I understand him completely. He changed his name, repudiated the identity given to him at birth. I never went that far but8230; I wasn8217;t alone in feeling like that.8217;8217;

His book deals with the 1960s; how is Dylan8212;or the spirit of those times8212;relevant today? 8216;8216;In many ways. The main thing about Dylan is that he was anti-label. The record companies were trying to categorise music for their own purposes. Dylan8217;s music was folk, rock 8217;n8217; roll, beat poetry8230; He said you want a label, that8217;s your problem.8217;8217; An important lesson for today8217;s world where labels define everything.

And protests? Protest music can8217;t be easy in a world so inured to protest and essentially blaseacute; about social issues. 8216;8216;It8217;s easier in one sense8217;8217;, says Marqusee. 8216;8216;There8217;s far more protest now than right up until the late 1960s, by when two million people had died in Vietnam. The Dixie Chicks and Steve Earle who both denounced the war in Iraq are selling more records now than ever before.8217;8217;

At another level, he believes, it8217;s water off a duck8217;s back. The establishment is far better equipped to absorb, exploit, and homogenise anything. Even virulent protest. 8216;8216;Remember the anti-WTO demonstrations in Seattle in 1999? Within months the New York boutiques were selling baggy trousers, calling it the 8216;Seattle look8217;. But young people are aware of this8230;8217;8217;

Which brings us to India, a country he8217;s visited many times. You put it to him that the Indian youth is too busy chasing dreams and wealth to be bothered about protest. 8216;8216;There is protest8212;though fragmented8212;ongoing in India all the time. Look at the general elections last year, it was the high point of the year for me. You guys did what the Americans couldn8217;t.8217;8217;

You wonder what Dylan would make of all this. Marqusee has his answer ready.