Bob Dylan conducted seven independent missions throughout his historic career. In each instance, he telescoped the scene, formulated the plan, and selected the necessary tools from his treasured toolbox. The laureate’s art was not without spontaneity, but whatever unfolded was used systematically. The mission controlled everything. Bob’s mission-show-songwriting nexus responded to Dylan’s “ideas” in a methodical manner. Again, this is orchestrated art. Here we examine seven distinct manifestations of Bob’s Way. Please keep in mind that these missions are not developmental; they’re independent undertakings. While there may be stylistic signatures that weave their way in and out of the work, these missions are not phases of the artist’s development.
The lifework opens with a mission of discovery and the Folk Posturing Period that extended from his move to New York City in 1960 to Halloween 1964. This was one dynamic time frame. Dylan’s persona, script, and set designs portrayed a storyline that shot through the heart of his target audience. He became a media darling and was anointed the “voice of his generation.” His audience relished his every move. This mission involves four albums (1962’s Bob Dylan, 1963’s The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, and 1964’s The Times They Are A-Changing and Another Side of Bob Dylan) along with a host of album outtakes and assorted writings (e.g., liner notes, articles, and poetry). It was an extremely productive period. Throughout it all, Bob was posturing. This Iron Range thespian was doing his thing, and doing it oh-so-well. In fact, he may have been too good.
When his adoring public tried to dictate his agenda Dylan pushed them away, embraced a new assignment (rebellion), and ushered in the Newport Mod Era (1964–1966). This mission produced the art that propelled Bob Dylan’s work into the realm of genius. It also featured a major shift in production design. Dylan changed his clothes, hairstyles, eyewear, attitude, and added a backing band. The silly, playful, self-effacing guy who stood before folk audiences vanished. It was a complete transformation. This mission contains 1965’s Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited, 1966’s Blonde on Blonde, along with Dylan’s “novel” Tarantula and the films Dont Look Back and Eat the Document. This was a wildly creative era. The Newport Mod character was one of a kind and, unfortunately, he burned the proverbial candle at both ends. He also changed his artistic domain forever.
A July 29, 1966, motorcycle accident on a rural New York highway set the scene for the third charge, the Americana Period, and its mission of recovery (1966–1974). Dylan’s wreck placed Tarantula, his 1966 film (Eat the Document), and touring schedule on hold. Bob’s recovery ran the musical gauntlet from informal music sessions in the basement of a pink house, to Nashville-fueled country sounds, to crazed efforts to escape his fame, to Dylan’s participation in a major motion picture (Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid), to the reunion with his 1966 backing band (Tour ’74). Along with the Basement Tapes, this mission unveils six albums that are divided into three segments: John Wesley Harding (1967) and Nashville Skyline (1969); Self Portrait (1970), New Morning (1970), and Dylan (1973); and Planet Waves (1974). These were weird times for Bob Dylan. His creative nexus was broken and the songwriting staggered. A befuddled artist coped with his nutty situation in strange and unusual ways throughout the Americana Period.
With his recovery complete, Dylan entered his most creative time frame when everything fused into the signature expressions of the Crystallization Era (1975–1978) and its first mission of reorientation. Here Bob stopped working as a primitive and consciously focused his creative energies. This revision of his working method saved a floundering career. The results are golden. With its three strong albums (1975’s Blood on the Tracks, 1976’s Desire, and 1978’s Street-Legal), the unparalleled “Rolling Thunder Revue” tour (1975–1976), the unconscionable movie Renaldo & Clara, and the remarkable Bob Dylan Revue, the Crystallization Era represents a veritable tsunami of ultimate creativity. These events not only restored his creative nexus; they thoroughly reinvigorated the lifework.
Those pivotal events established a context for the Moral Period’s mission of service (1979–1981). In another remarkable transformation, Dylan’s art now served his Lord as he orchestrated the Bob Dylan Crusade and generated three albums in support of that purpose (1979’s Slow Train Coming, 1980’s Saved, and 1981’s Shot of Love). For the one time in his prolonged career, Bob vigorously played an advocate’s role—offering personal testimony during the Crusade’s early shows. For the second time in that career, organizations impinged on his agenda and pushed him away from a role. The Moral Period most certainly demonstrates Dylan’s capacity to orchestrate an idea. From its inception to its termination, the laureate was in firm control of his multifaceted operation.
After this extraordinarily intense experience, the lifework entered its second mission of reorientation: the Pop Icon Period (1982–1992). Once again, the artist’s creative nexus was in disrepair. Dylan labored to rediscover his artistic bearings through uneven album projects (1985’s Empire Burlesque, 1986’s Knocked Out Loaded, 1988’s Down in the Groove, and 1990’s Under the Red Sky), high-quality album projects (1983’s Infidels and 1989’s Oh Mercy), lackluster live performances, energetic live performances, and the repressive trappings that accompany a living legend. He toured with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as well as the Grateful Dead. He wrote with other songwriters. He recorded other artist’s material. Bob Dylan was all over the musical map. He was thoroughly lost. Throughout this era, he searched for the proper creative equilibrium to support his art. These were 10 arduous years.
When Dylan implemented his new plan and restored his creative nexus, he entered the most productive period of his protracted career: the Jack Fate Era (1993 to date). This mission serves Bob Dylan’s songwriting and the “great American song tradition.” He devised an unprecedented tour schedule (averaging 100 shows a year), produced new material for his new character (1997’s Time Out of Mind, 2001’s Love and Theft, 2006’s Modern Times, 2009’s Together through Life, and 2012’s Tempest), orchestrated a new presentational style, and generated diverse art ranging from film (2003’s Masked and Anonymous), autobiography (2004’s Chronicles, Volume 1), radio programs (2006–2009’s Theme Time Radio Hour), painting and metalwork exhibitions, books of his drawing and painting, a variety of boxed sets, and five albums from the wonderful world of American Song (1992’s Good as I Been to You and 1993’s World Gone Wrong, along with 2015’s Shadows in the Night, 2016’s Fallen Angels, and 2017’s Triplicate). This 30-year mission drives Dylan to this day.
That magical movie screen that was the frozen tundra of Minnesota yielded a series of characters who captured the tenor and tone of their times. Bob Dylan applied his talent to weave tales tailored for specific characters and their scenic conditions: the Okie complained, the hipster mocked, the loyalist praised, the servant submitted, the icon conciliated, and the bluesman committed. They were all travelers of one form or another, and they all traveled alone—free spirits absorbed in their individual experiences. When Bob wrote for Bob Dylan and his various incarnations, he wrote the songs of a lonesome traveler in pursuit of a specific destination—Dylan’s controlling “idea” or “purpose.”
The lifework surely demonstrates the power of this Nobel laureate’s genius. The creative imperative that motivates and sustains this Iron Ranger’s art provided the inspiration to pursue his missions, the means to execute his carefully laid plans, the strength to see it all through, and the temperament to endure the public’s responses to those efforts. His exceptional abilities enabled him to do what his art does best: serve. Whether he’s attending to folk tradition, Woody Guthrie’s heritage, his rebellious inclinations, his Lord, his beloved songs or American Song, the man the world knows as Bob Dylan is at his best when he’s serving his inspirations.
But that service did more than support Dylan’s award-winning art; it protected him. He stood behind the artistic curtain he steadfastly erected. The man born Robert Allen Zimmerman was safely backstage. His onstage work was his shield. It insulated him from the chaos of celebrity. It guarded his muse. It gave him a measure of control over his professional world. Some artists wear their emotions on their sleeve; Bob is wearing somebody else’s shirt. Our actor engaged his public in his own freewheelin’ way. He played his various roles on his terms. He was free to follow his intuitions. Because, as we all know, when you’re an actor, you can go anywhere.