The book closes by reviewing how the three themes of protest, history and spirituality intersect with each other, and drawing out some of the parallels between Dylan’s and Lennon’s different approaches to protest music, their historicism and their faith. In retrospect, it suggests, their output can only be understood in relation to its economic context – the collapse of the British Empire and the shift from Fordism to multinational capitalism. Notwithstanding their reputation

This chapter introduces Eloise Knapp Hay’s (1984) concept of dual biography and explains why Dylan and Lennon are such appropriate subjects. It examines their known meetings, intertextual references, reciprocal influences and other forms of interaction. As the dual biography unfolds it elicits findings that a study of each performer alone could not disclose. The cultural mythology around their fleeting encounters, such as when Dylan apparently introduced the Beatles to marijuana or when Dylan and Lennon filmed a cinéma vérité scene together, demonstrates the symbiotic nature of their ongoing relationship.

Chapter 1 explains the rationale for the book and the principles underlying its methodology. It introduces the two artists covered, Bob Dylan and John Lennon, and the theorists used to contextualise their work: R. Serge Denisoff, Fredric Jameson, J. Anderson Thomson and Clare Aukofer. It summarises the concepts underlying each chapter – dual biography, protest music, history and spirituality – and explores the connections between these themes.