Bob Dylan
Bob Landy, Robert Milkwood Thomas, Tedham Porterhouse, Robert Zimmerman, Blind Boy Grunt
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Who is this?
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his 69-year career. With an estimated 125 million records sold worldwide, he is one of the best-selling musicians. Dylan added increasingly sophisticated lyrical techniques to the folk music of the early 1960s, infusing it "with the intellectualism of classic literature and poetry". His lyrics incorporated political, social, and philosophical influences, defying pop music conventions and appealing to the burgeoning counterculture. Dylan was born in St. Louis County, Minnesota. He moved to New York City in 1961 to pursue a music career. His 1962 debut album, Bob Dylan, containing traditional folk and blues material, was followed by his breakthrough album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963), which included "Girl from the North Country" and "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall", adapting older folk songs. His songs "Blowin' in the Wind" (1963) and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" (1964) became anthems for the civil rights and antiwar movements. In 1965 and 1966, Dylan created controversy when he used electrically amplified rock instrumentation for his albums Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited (both 1965), and Blonde on Blonde (1966). His six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" (1965) expanded commercial and creative boundaries in popular music. After a motorcycle crash in 1966, Dylan ceased touring for seven years. During this period, he recorded a large body of songs with members of the Band, which produced the album The Basement Tapes (1975). Dylan explored country music and rural themes on the albums John Wesley Harding (1967), Nashville Skyline (1969), and New Morning (1970). He gained acclaim for Blood on the Tracks (1975) and Time Out of Mind (1997), the latter of which earned him the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Dylan still releases music and has toured continually since the late 1980s on what has become known as the Never Ending Tour. Since 1994, Dylan has published ten books of paintings and drawings, and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries. His life has been profiled in several films, including the biopic A Complete Unknown (2024). Dylan's accolades include an Academy Award and ten Grammy Awards. He was honored with Kennedy Center Honors in 1997 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. Dylan has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize special citation in 2008, and the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".
Career
- 1941Born
- 1988Won Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
- 1991Won Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
- 2007Won Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts
- 2009Won National Medal of Arts
- 2012Won Presidential Medal of Freedom
- Member of Academy of Arts, Berlin
- Member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Member of American Academy of Arts and Letters
- Notable work: Like a Rolling Stone
- Notable work: Highway 61 Revisited
- Notable work: Bringing It All Back Home
- Notable work: Blonde on Blonde
- Notable work: Blood on the Tracks
Trivia
- •Place of birth: Duluth
- •Citizenship: United States
- •Known as: songwriter, film actor, poet, guitarist
- •Genre: rock music, blues, country music
- •Plays: guitar, harmonica, piano
- •Spouse: Sara Dylan
What happened recently
Most Musicians Dread Getting Pelted by Things From the Crowd, but It Ended up Saving Bob Dylan
The “unusual” 1974 tour Bob Dylan couldn’t relate to: “There wasn’t much we could do”
Billy Strings Recalls Surreal Bob Dylan Encounter On Theo Von’s ‘This Past Weekend’
Bob Dylan's 'Another Side' Album: Recorded in Just 3 Hours and Featuring Joan Baez's Cover
Bob Dylan's 'Forever Young': The heartfelt lullaby inspired by his son's life
1975 Folk-Rock Ballad, Written by Bob Dylan, Is Still a Powerful Listen 51 Years Later
John Hiatt Turns 74: Celebrating the Songwriter Behind Hits for Bob Dylan and Linda Ronstadt
How Bob Dylan’s 'Simple Twist of Fate' Became a Heartbreak Classic 51 Years Later
What Bob Dylan performed on this day for 1988 Never-Ending Tour set — with one song dropped from set after
The one singer Bob Dylan wanted to talk to again: “I wish he was still here”
When George Harrison, Bob Dylan and a host of stars recorded in Dave Stewart’s kitchen: “He walked around the corner to see George trying to teach Dylan how to play ‘Taxman’”
“He heard us playing his song electric. You could see the gears grinding in his head. It was like watching a slow-motion lightning bolt”: How The Byrds reinvented a great Bob Dylan song and inspired Dylan to revolutionise his music
It's hard to decide which Bob Dylan I want to keep around - The Daily News | Texas' Oldest Newspaper
Bob Dylan Wraps Up Dramatic U.S. Tour by Adding One More Guitarist Into the Mix: Jimmie Vaughan
The 2006 album that saved Bob Dylan from latter-day obscurity: “We squeezed the cow dry”
1969 Classic, Inspired by Two Rock Stars' Breakup, Earned Its Writer the Compliment 'More Talented Than Bob Dylan'
Phil Collins names Bob Dylan-featuring band as one of his favourites: ‘A little bit of magic’
28 Years Ago Today, Garth Brooks Reached No. 1 With a Bob Dylan Song His Future Wife Also Covered
This Controversial Bob Dylan Record From 1990 Proved That the Bard Was at His Best Alone
The 1965 song Bob Dylan wrote as an act of revenge: “To put somebody in their place”
Bob Dylan's 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' Made John Lennon Question His Songwriting Skills
Bob Dylan’s 2026 tour review: The man in the long white raincoat painted his masterpiece under the Vienna sky
CRITICAL MASS | OPINION: Bob Dylan’s “Blonde on Blonde” at 60 — Why the album changed rock music
Bob Dylan and his band turn in a sterling Boston performance of mostly newer material
Bask in the sounds of living legends Bob Dylan and Lauryn Hill this week in CT arts
Joan Baez on her relationship with Bob Dylan: “He’s a nutcase… but I have nothing bad to say”
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