If you say the word God, Dylan answers.
—Poet Jeff Friedman, “Bob Dylan Is God,” 2009
Bob Dylan is an American singer, songwriter and musician. However, over the course of his long career beginning in the early 1960s, he has also branched into other artistic realms, ranging from poetry and acting to nonfiction writing and painting. Dylan initially rose to fame as a folksinger. He penned songs that would go on to serve as anthems for the 1960s’ generation of young people searching for new ways to address civil rights issues, global warfare, and other inequalities, including “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are A-Changin.’ ” Based on his poetic lyrics and storytelling ability, Dylan revolutionized the music industry, becoming to some commentators, “the voice of a generation.” Later, as he transitioned from folksongs to rock and roll, Dylan’s fame escalated, as well as his influence on other musicians. Dylan quickly became one of the world’s most iconic figures.
Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota, lived in the city until he turned six years old. Then, the Zimmerman family moved to a nearby mining town called Hibbing, some 70 miles from his birthplace, where his mother was raised and her family still lived. The Zimmermans were one of the few Jewish families in the predominantly Catholic region, resulting in a close kinship between them and the other Jewish families. Dylan attended Hibbing High School, but put most of his energy toward music, either listening to the sounds of country, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll coming from the radio or forming his own bands. After graduating from high school, Dylan enrolled in the University of Minnesota in 1959 to appease his parents who wanted him to have a traditional career. After a brief stint at the university, where he spent more time in local coffeehouses and folk-music joints than class, the young man left Minnesota for New York City. Even in his wildest dreams he could not have predicted how the story would play out.
Dylan arrived in New York City with hopes of becoming a folksinger and meeting his idol, the legendary singer and songwriter Woody Guthrie, who had earlier penned such classics as “This Land Is Your Land.” Dylan quickly achieved both, developing into a darling of the Greenwich Village folk scene and turning out to be a favorite of Guthrie, who although ill and bedridden correctly predicted that the young singer would be a star. Dylan caught the eye of John Hammond, a powerful Columbia Records executive, who signed the young man to a record deal. After a first album primarily doing cover songs that flopped commercially, Dylan began writing his own songs and discovered a talent for capturing the protest movement lyrically. He produced several penetrating anthems, such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” which attracted a wide audience, particularly among those in the civil rights and antiwar movements. People soon realized the depths of his talents and other bands recorded his songs, which resulted in a series of top-10 singles and wide airplay. Next, Dylan released The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963) and The Times They Are A-Changin’ (1964), which elevated his fame exponentially. Many of his songs served as anthems that would then be used as theme songs for various protest groups. Dylan quickly transformed from little-known folksinger to sage. Fans and others treated the young singer and songwriter like a deity.
By 1964, Dylan grew tired of being viewed as a mouthpiece for his generation and gradually transitioned from folk to rock music. Despite the outcry, he eventually released a trio of albums that are considered among the best ever created, including Highway 61 Revisited (1965) and Blonde on Blonde (1966). In addition, his hit single “Like A Rolling Stone” revolutionized popular music, establishing nonlinear narrative as a storytelling technique and demonstrating that a long single could be popular. However, the constant pressure on Dylan to tour and demands from fans and others who wanted something from him led to heightened anxiety and a chaotic lifestyle. The turmoil came to a head in July 1966 when Dylan wrecked his motorcycle and went into seclusion. He did not release another album until December 1967.
The 1970s and 1980s were filled with tumultuous times for Dylan as an artist and an individual. He produced a gamut of work, ranging from country-stylized rock to Christian music. Fans reacted negatively to some of the work, but the era included masterpieces, including Blood on the Tracks (1975) and several bootleg albums that demonstrated Dylan at his musical best. He also returned to touring in 1974 after a seven-year absence, embarking on several high-profile solo tours then and later with Tom Petty and the Grateful Dead. Later, he performed on the USA for Africa single “We Are the World” and served as the closing act at 1985’s Live Aid concert in Philadelphia.
The 1990s started slowly for Dylan, who rarely seemed able to live up to his iconic image created in the 1960s. In 1991, he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1995, bowing to a hot trend, he released a CD based on his MTV Unplugged performance. No one could have predicted the way the decade would change for Dylan, however, when Time Out of Mind (1997) hit the shelves. The CD seemed like a spectacular comeback, particularly since Dylan had faced a life-threatening heart infection prior to its release. The popularity of the new music led to a new generation of fans and won his first “Album of the Year” Grammy Award. In December 1997, Dylan was awarded a Kennedy Center Honor by President Bill Clinton.
Dylan remained a prolific singer and songwriter and iconic figure in popular culture in the 2000s, bolstered by the reignited fame as a result of Time Out of Mind. In 2000, he won both a Golden Globe for Best Original Song and an Academy Award for Best Song for “Things Have Changed,” which appeared on the Wonder Boys soundtrack. In the new millennium, he has released a series of groundbreaking works, including “Love and Theft” (2001), Modern Times (2006), Together Through Life (2009), and Tempest (2012). His reissues have been just as prolific, including The Essential Bob Dylan (2000), Live 1975 (2002), Live 1964 (2004), No Direction Home (2005), The Best of Bob Dylan (2005), and Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989–2006 (2008). The awards and accolades continued to pile up, too, including “Like a Rolling Stone” being named the top rock song of all time by Rolling Stone magazine and Modern Times debuting at No. 1 on the U.S. music chart.
In addition to music, Dylan’s influence is demonstrated across other genres. In 2004, he published his memoir, Chronicles: Volume One, a critically acclaimed treatment of his early life in New York City among the folk crowd, which was later nominated for a National Book Award and led to calls for Dylan to win the Nobel Prize in Literature for his lifetime’s work. The musician also cowrote and starred in the film Masked & Anonymous with an all-star cast. The film explored fame, a dystopian future, and the role of war in contemporary life. In 2005, Dylan served as the subject of a documentary No Direction Home, filmed by director Martin Scorsese. The film centered on the singer’s early years through his motorcycle accident. In 2007, I’m Not There, a biography of Dylan written and directed by Todd Haynes, hit the theaters. Six different characters played Dylan at different junctures of his career, including Heath Ledger, Richard Gere, and even Cate Blanchett. The award-winning film explored Dylan’s fame without ever naming him explicitly. The soundtrack featured a star-studded group of musicians who recreated his songs. Dylan also hosted a weekly radio show on XM Satellite Radio from 2006 to 2009, titled Theme Time Radio Hour.
Dylan’s commitment to touring has continued a relentless pace in the 2010s, which he began in the late 1980s. He routinely plays approximately 100 shows a year, often in small venues that enable fans to get close to their hero. In his spare time, the musician finds time to paint, with a book of drawings published, as well as exhibits. In early 2012, President Barack Obama awarded Dylan a Presidential Medal of Freedom for his lifetime of music and influence. He continues to record new music and release past material, including live recordings and alternative takes. Dylan has also been the subject of countless books, articles, and essays by scholars, journalists, historians, and others who employ him and his music to explore culture in contemporary America.
When examining Dylan’s career, the range of accomplishments span from the tactical to the all-encompassing. Included in the former could be the way his poetic, lyrical songwriting changed the way audiences interpret popular music. From a broader perspective, Dylan has also served as a personification of American beliefs and ideals blasted from mountaintop to mountaintop for successive generations. Today, Dylan’s legacy is heard and felt worldwide in the way songs are written and performed, as well as in the cries, chants, and demands for freedom and equality among the oppressed and down-on-their-luck.