Bob Dylan
Bio
Bob Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota, is widely regarded as the greatest songwriter in popular music history. Emerging from the Greenwich Village folk revival in the early 1960s, Dylan transformed from a Woody Guthrie acolyte into a groundbreaking poet whose lyrics captured the turmoil, idealism, and disillusionment of the 1960s counterculture. His early protest anthems—"Blowin' in the Wind," "The Times They Are a-Changin'"—became civil rights and anti-war movement staples. In 1965, he famously "went electric" at the Newport Folk Festival, alienating purists but revolutionizing rock music by infusing it with literary ambition on albums like Highway 61 Revisited (featuring "Like a Rolling Stone") and the double-album Blonde on Blonde (1966). A near-fatal motorcycle crash in 1966 led to a reclusive period, yielding the country-inflected John Wesley Harding (1967) and the intimate, bootlegged The Basement Tapes (recorded with The Band). Dylan's career has been marked by constant reinvention: born-again Christian albums, folk revivals, late-career masterpieces (Time Out of Mind, 1997; Love and Theft, 2001), and a celebrated "Never Ending Tour" that began in 1988. He is one of the few artists to have won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a Pulitzer Prize (Special Citation, 2008), and the Nobel Prize in Literature (2016)—the first musician to receive the latter, "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition." Dylan has sold over 125 million records worldwide and continues to tour and release new music into his 80s.
Accomplishments
2016 - Music:Winning the Nobel Prize in Literature (2016)
Genre: Folk / Rock / Song Poetry
Co-stars: No direct musical co-stars; the award was presented by the Swedish Academy; Dylan did not attend the ceremony (Patti Smith accepted on his behalf and performed "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall")
Brief Description: In a historic and controversial decision, Dylan became the first songwriter ever awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition." The honor elevated popular music to the level of classical poetry and prose, permanently legitimizing songwriting as a literary art form alongside figures like Ernest Hemingway and Toni Morrison.
1965 - Music: The "Going Electric" at Newport Folk Festival (July 25, 1965)
Genre: Folk Rock / Electric Rock
Co-stars: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (Mike Bloomfield on guitar, Jerome Arnold on bass, Sam Lay on drums); also joined by Al Kooper and Barry Goldberg
Brief Description: After two acoustic sets, Dylan shocked the folk establishment by plugging in an electric guitar backed by a full rock band. He was met with boos and cries of "Judas!" from purist folk fans, but the three-song set (including "Maggie's Farm") became a legendary turning point in music history. It signaled the birth of folk rock, freed Dylan from topical protest songs, and paved the way for psychedelic and experimental rock of the late 1960s.
1965 - Music: Release of Highway 61 Revisited and "Like a Rolling Stone" (1965)
Genre: Folk Rock / Rock / Blues Rock
Co-stars: Mike Bloomfield (guitar), Al Kooper (organ), Harvey Brooks (bass), Bobby Gregg (drums); produced by Bob Johnston
Brief Description: The six-minute, snarling single "Like a Rolling Stone" shattered pop radio conventions, expanding what a rock song could be in length, attitude, and lyrical density. The accompanying album Highway 61 Revisited defined folk rock, with Rolling Stone magazine naming it the second-greatest album of all time. "Like a Rolling Stone" was voted the greatest song in history by Rolling Stone and The Guardian, forever changing rock music's literary ambitions.
News
Early draft of Bob Dylan lyrics discovered inside Allen Ginsberg book
An “extremely rare” working draft of lyrics to one of Bob Dylan’s most esteemed works of songwriting could fetch between £20,000 to £40,000 at auction.
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