Dylan, Bob, 1941-

<p>Bob Dylan was born on May 24, 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota. He grew up in the city of Hibbing. As a teenager, he played in various bands and with time his interest in music deepened, with a particular passion for American folk music and blues. One of his idols was the folk singer Woody Guthrie. He was also influenced by the early authors of the Beat Generation, as well as by modernist poets.</p>

<p>Dylan moved to New York City in 1961 and began to perform in clubs and cafés in Greenwich Village. He met the record producer John Hammond, with whom he signed a contract for his debut album, <i>Bob Dylan</i> (1962). In the following years, he recorded a number of albums which have had a tremendous impact on popular music: <i>Bringing It All Back Home</i> and <i>Highway 61 Revisited</i> in 1965, <i>Blonde On Blonde</i> in 1966 and <i>Blood On The Tracks</i> in 1975. His productivity continued in the following decades, resulting in masterpieces like <i>Oh Mercy</i> (1989), <i>Time Out Of Mind</i> (1997) and <i>Modern Times</i> (2006).</p>

<p>Dylan’s tours in 1965 and 1966 attracted a lot of attention. For a period, he was accompanied by film maker D. A. Pennebaker, who documented life around the stage in what would come to be the movie <i>Dont Look Back</i> (1967). Dylan has recorded a large number of albums revolving around topics such as: the social conditions of man, religion, politics and love. The lyrics have continuously been published in new editions starting in 1973, under the title <i>WritingsandDrawings</i>, subsequently changed to <i>Lyrics</i>. As an artist, he is strikingly versatile; he has been active as a painter, actor and scriptwriter.</p>

<p>Besides his large production of albums, Dylan has published experimental work like the prose poetry collection <i>Tarantula</i> (1971). He has written an autobiography, <i>Chronicles</i> (2004), which depicts memories from the early years in New York and which provides glimpses of his life at the center of popular culture. Since the late 1980s, Bob Dylan has toured consistently, playing over 3000 concerts during the last 20 years. Dylan has the status of an icon. His influence on contemporary culture is profound, and he is the object of a steady stream of literary and musical analysis.</p>

<p>Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman; May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, author, and visual artist who has been a major figure in popular culture for more than 50 years. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" (1963) and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" (1964) became anthems for the civil rights and anti-war movements. His lyrics during this period incorporated a range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences, defied pop music conventions and appealed to the burgeoning counterculture.</p>

<p>Following his self-titled debut album in 1962, which mainly comprised traditional folk songs, Dylan made his breakthrough as a songwriter with the release of <i>The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan</i> the following year. The album featured "Blowin' in the Wind" and the thematically complex "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall". For many of these songs, he adapted the tunes and phraseology of older folk songs. He went on to release the politically charged <i>The Times They Are A-Changin'</i> and the more lyrically abstract and introspective <i>Another Side Of Bob Dylan</i> in 1964. In 1965 and 1966, Dylan drew controversy when he adopted electrically amplified rock instrumentation, and in the space of 15 months recorded three of the most important and influential rock albums of the 1960s: <i>Bringing It All Back Home</i> (1965), <i>Highway 61 Revisited</i> (1965) and <i>Blonde On Blonde</i> (1966). Commenting on the six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" (1965), <i>Rolling Stone</i> wrote: "No other pop song has so thoroughly challenged and transformed the commercial laws and artistic conventions of its time, for all time."</p>

<p>In July 1966, Dylan withdrew from touring after a motorcycle accident. During this period, he recorded a large body of songs with members of the Band, who had previously backed him on tour. These recordings were released as the collaborative album <i>The Basement Tapes</i> in 1975. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Dylan explored country music and rural themes in <i>John Wesley Harding</i> (1967), <i>Nashville Skyline</i> (1969), and <i>New Morning</i> (1970). In 1975, he released <i>Blood On The Tracks</i>, which many saw as a return to form. In the late 1970s, he became a born-again Christian and released a series of albums of contemporary gospel music before returning to his more familiar rock-based idiom in the early 1980s. The major works of his later career include <i>Time Out Of Mind</i> (1997), <i>"Love and Theft"</i> (2001), <i>Modern Times</i> (2006) and <i>Tempest</i> (2012). In the 2010s, he recorded a series of three albums comprising versions of traditional American standards, especially songs recorded by Frank Sinatra. Dylan released his first original song in eight years in 2020, "Murder Most Foul", which addresses the assassination of President Kennedy. Backed by a changing lineup of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour.</p>

<p>Since 1994, Dylan has published eight books of drawings and paintings, and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries. He has sold more than 100 million records, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. He has received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, ten Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award. Dylan has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Pulitzer Prize Board in 2008 awarded him a special citation for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power". In 2016, Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".</p>

<p>Bob Dylan — the legendary singer-songwriter who elevated the craft of songwriting by melding visionary lyric poetry with sturdy, unforgettable folk-style melodies — grew up in the mining town of Hibbing, Minnesota. During his six months as a freshman student at the University of Minnesota, he began singing in coffeehouses and changed his name to Bob Dylan. He traveled to New Jersey to meet one of his folk songwriting idols, Woody Guthrie.</p>

<p>After singing in the folk clubs of Greenwich Village in Manhattan, Dylan was discovered by Columbia Records talent scout John Hammond. Dylan's first LP appeared in 1961. Peter, Paul & Mary began to popularize his songs in 1963.</p>

<p>Dylan's four key albums of the mid-1960s were <i>Another Side Of Bob Dylan</i> (1964), <i>Highway 61 Revisited</i> (1965), <i>Bringing It All Back Home</i> (1965) and <i>Blonde On Blonde</i> (1966). These found him adding rock-music textures to his sound, and he began to have hit singles on the pop charts.</p>

<p>In 1966, Bob Dylan had a nearly fatal motorcycle accident and dropped out of the public eye. When he reemerged on disc, he adopted a country-influenced style. In the 1970s, he began collaborating with The Band both in concert and on records. He also formed his highly successful Rolling Thunder Revue multi-artist touring troupe.</p>

<p>Around 1979 and on into the early 1980s, Dylan embraced Christianity and began releasing albums and songs reflecting that. By the mid 1980s, he had returned to his Jewish roots.</p>

<p>In the late 1980s, he became a member of the supergroup called the Traveling Wilburys, alongside George Harrison, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison. Dylan continued to tour and record into the new millennium.</p>

<p>From the outset of his career, Dylan's songs were recorded by Nashville stars such as Johnny Cash, Bobby Bare and Waylon Jennings. "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight," "It Ain't Me Babe," "To Make You Feel My Love" and "You Ain't Going Nowhere" were all country smash hits penned by Dylan.</p>

<p>In addition, he brought international prominence to Nashville as a recording center by cutting his <i>Blonde On Blonde</i>, <i>John Wesley Harding</i>, <i>Nashville Skyline</i>, and <i>Self Portrait</i> LPs in Music City.</p>

He is easily one of the most influential songwriters of all time, regardless of genre. Dylan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991. He published a critically acclaimed autobiography, <i>Chronicles: Volume One</i>, in 2004.