Bob Dylan

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Bob Dylan (born Robert Zimmerman, in Hibbing, Minnesota, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, with undeniable liberal leanings and a whiney voice, most notable for his huge impact during the 1960s and his on-off involvement in protest music.

Dylan is often credited, along with the Beatles, as being one of the major driving forces in moving rock and roll (and popular music generally) into territory where it could explore complex ideas about life, poetry, politics, religion and philosophy. Throughout his career he has changed his musical style, interests and lyrical focus repeatedly, basically with every album or so, prompting his fans and critics to repeatedly accuse him of selling out or betraying allegiances, particularly during the turbulent sixties.

[edit] Overview

One of the world's finest songwriters, about to vomit all over his new pink shirt.

Growing up in the 1950s, Dylan listened to country music, blues, and especially to rock and roll artists like Little Richard. At the end of the decade, however, he became fascinated with folk music, and especially Woody Guthrie. Consequently, when he dropped out of college (the University of Minnesota, for those of you who are sticklers for details), moved to New York and started his career as a musician, it was as a folk artist.

Dylan became well known for his protest music, and his support of the civil rights movement. Like his hero, Woody Guthrie, Dylan wrote songs about news stories of the time, which illustrated the effects of bigotry, poverty or injustice.[1] He wrote songs criticising militarism and the Cold War,[2] and others that expressed general dissatisfaction with the establishment and predicted a turning of the tide.[3]

Gradually he experimented with more abstract and poetic lyrics,[4] moving away from conventional protest music. He also hung out with beatniks like Allen Ginsberg, and introduced the Beatles to marijuana. By now many rock and roll bands, including the Beatles themselves, were being influenced by Dylan's lyrical style, and writing more complex thought-provoking lyrics. Dylan shocked the folk music audience by playing rock and roll! With electric instruments!![5] A lot of his best music comes from this area, and though he alienated some traditional folkies, he gained new popularity with rock fans. He also enraged feminists with some of his songs, most notably "Just Like a Woman".[6]

Dylan withdrew from public life during the late sixties and early seventies, making some home recordings with the Band,[7] and producing an odd blend of country music[8] and other eclectic styles which puzzled and infuriated many of his fans.[9] His most inspiring work of the seventies came in the two albums he wrote after his separation from his wife, Sara Lownds.[10]

At the end of the decade, Dylan, who was from a Jewish family but seems to have previously been fairly agnostic, became a born-again Christian, and began writing and recording religious songs, although thankfully the overt influence on his music only lasted for a few albums.[11] Since then, he may or may not have joined the Chabad Lubavitch strain of Hasidic Judaism; his release of a Christmas album probably doesn't say a lot about this (given Dylan's penchant for irony). He has continued recording and touring since, and remains a highly respected figure within the music industry, although somewhat eccentric and sometimes slightly ridiculous.

In an interview published in June 2008, Bob Dylan expressed his admiration for Barack Obama.[12]

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ↑ E.g. "Oxford Town" (on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, 1963), "Ballad of Hollis Brown", "Only a Pawn In Their Game", and "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" (all on The Times They Are A-Changin', 1964).
  2. ↑ E.g. "Masters of War", "Talking World War III Blues" (both on The Freewheelin' ), and "With God On Our Side" (on The Times They Are A-Changin' ).
  3. ↑ E.g. "Blowin' in the Wind", "A Hard Rains's A-Gonna Fall" (both on The Freewheelin' ), "The Times They Are A-Changin'", and "When the Ship Comes In" (both on The Times They Are A-Changin').
  4. ↑ E.g. most of Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964), and "Mr. Tambourine Man" (on Bringing It All Back Home, 1965). He never explains what any of it means.
  5. ↑ Bringing It All Back Home (1964), Highway 61 Revisited (1965), Blonde on Blonde (1966).
  6. ↑ On Blonde on Blonde.
  7. ↑ The Basement Tapes (recorded 1967, widely bootlegged, album released in 1975).
  8. ↑ John Wesley Harding (1967), Nashville Skyline (1969).
  9. ↑ Self Portrait, New Morning (both 1970).
  10. ↑ Blood On The Tracks (1975) and Desire (1976).
  11. ↑ Slow Train Coming (1979), Saved (1980), Shot Of Love (1981).
  12. ↑ The Times, 5 June, 2008.
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