Clinton Heylin

Clinton Heylin (born 8 April 1960) is an English author who has written extensively about popular music and the work of Bob Dylan.

Heylin attended Manchester Grammar School. He read history at Bedford College, University of London, followed by an M.A. in history at the University of Sussex.

Heylin has written extensively on the life and work of Bob Dylan, combining interviews with discographical research. He has published a full-length biography Dylan: Behind the Shades (1991) which was republished in a revised second edition: Bob Dylan: Behind The Shades - Take Two (UK edition, 2000), Bob Dylan: Behind The Shades Revisited (US edition, 2001).

Heylin published a detailed analysis of every song by Dylan in two volumes: Revolution In The Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan: Vol. 1: 1957-73 (2009), and Still On The Road: The Songs of Bob Dylan: Vol. 2: 1974-2008 (2010). These books analyse 610 songs written by Dylan, devoting a numbered section to each song.

In 2011, to mark Dylan's 70th birthday, Heylin published Behind the Shades: The 20th Anniversary Edition, which contained 60,000 words of new material to cover Dylan's work since 2000.

He has also written biographies on Van Morrison and Sandy Denny.

Heylin has also published favorably reviewed studies of Orson Welles, Despite The System: Orson Welles versus The Hollywood Studios, and Shakespeare's sonnets, So Long As Men Can Breathe.

In 2012, Heylin published a book about the theme of mental illness in British rock music in the 1960s and 1970s, All The Madmen. The book featured chapters on the Dialectics of Liberation conference of 1967, Syd Barrett, the Pink Floyd's album The Dark Side Of The Moon, David Bowie's theme of schizophrenia in his songs, The Who's Quadrophenia album, and Nick Drake.

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