Dylan, Bob 1941-

DYLAN, BOB 1941-

Folk and rock performer, songwriter

The Man from Minnesota

Soon after coming to national attention in 1962, Bob Dylan was recognized as one of the most promising songwriters and performers in the new folk-music revival. Born Robert Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota, he moved to New York in 1960 and soon established himself in the folk-music scene, playing in coffee-houses in Greenwich Village.

Protest Songs

In 1962 he recorded his first album, a compilation of traditional folk songs in the manner of his hero Woody Guthrie, called Bob Dylan. The same year he wrote "Blowin' in the Wind," which rhetorically questioned establishment attitudes and claimed that "the answer …is blowin' in the wind." This stance of youthful challenge and expectation of imminent social change was popular with young listeners; the song was successfully recorded by Peter, Paul & Mary the following year, setting the stage for Dylan's own successful version of his 1963 album The Freewheelin Bob Dylan, which also included the hits 'AA Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" and "Masters of War." Such songs established Dylan as a masterful writer of intelligent pro-test songs, as did his album The Times They Are a-Changin ' (1964).

New Directions

Dylan refused to stay in one place as an artist. In a 1964 profile in The New Yorker, for instance, he said that he would continue to write pro-test songs, but that this would become less prominent in his work. Indeed, in 1965 he upset many folk-music fans by combining folk music with elements of rock; some were particularly bothered by his new use of electric instruments as opposed to the guitar and harmonica he had used before. However, his entry into rock was partly responsible for the increased maturity of the field. Dylan and others wrote rock songs and lyrics as sophisticated as those he had written as a folk musician.

Further Innovations

He experimented with psychedelic rock, which sought to emulate or enhance the effects of psychedelic drugs through deliberate distortion, on Blonde on Blonde (1966), then returned to acoustic instruments on his 1968 album John Wesley Harding and the country-influenced Nashville Skyline (1969). Such continuous exploration has characterized his work since.

Sources:

Clinton Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades —A Biography (New York: Summit, 1991);

Robert Shelton, No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan (New York & London: Morrow, 1986).