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Bob Dylan's influence on popular music is incalculable.
As a songwriter, he pioneered several different schools
of pop songwriting, from confessional singer/songwriter
to winding, hallucinatory, stream-of-conscious narratives.
As a vocalist, he broke down the notions that in order
to perform, a singer had to have a conventionally good
voice, thereby redefining the role of vocalist in popular
music. As a musician, he sparked several genres of pop
music, including electrified folk-rock and country-rock.
And that just touches on the tip of his achievements.
Dylan's force was evident during his height of popularity
in the '60s -- the Beatles' shift toward introspective
songwriting in the mid-'60s never would have happened
without him -- but his influence echoed throughout several
subsequent generations. Many of his songs became popular
standards, and his best albums were undisputed classics
of the rock & roll canon.
Dylan's influence throughout folk music was equally
powerful, and he marks a pivotal turning point in its
20th century evolution, signifying when the genre moved
away from traditional songs and toward personal songwriting.
Even when his sales declined in the '80s and '90s, Dylan's
presence was calculable.
Dylan came from humble beginnings and was raised in
Hibbing, MN, from the age of six. As a child he learned
how to play guitar and harmonica, forming a rock & roll
band called the Golden Chords when he was in high school.
Following his graduation in 1959, he began studying
art at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. While
at college, he began performing folk songs at coffeehouses
under the name Bob Dylan, taking his last name from
the poet Dylan Thomas. Already inspired by Hank Williams
and Woody Guthrie, Dylan began listening to blues while
at college, and the genre weaved its way into his music.
Dylan spent the summer of 1960 in Denver, where he met
bluesman Jesse Fuller, the inspiration behind the songwriter's
signature harmonica rack and guitar. By the time he
returned to Minneapolis in the fall, he had grown substantially
as a performer and was determined to become a professional
musician.
Dylan made his way to New York City in January of 1961,
immediately making a substantial impression on the folk
community of Greenwich Village. He began visiting his
idol Guthrie in the hospital, where he was slowly dying
from Huntington's chorea. Dylan also began performing
in coffeehouses, and his rough charisma won him a significant
following. In April, he opened for John Lee Hooker at
Gerde's Folk City. Five months later, Dylan performed
another concert at the venue, which was reviewed positively
by Robert Shelton in the New York Times. Columbia A&R
man John Hammond sought out Dylan on the strength of
the review, and signed the songwriter in the fall of
1961. Hammond produced Dylan's eponymous debut album
(released in March 1962), a collection of folk and blues
standards that boasted only two original songs.
Over the course of 1962, Dylan began to write a large
batch of original songs, many of which were political
protest songs in the vein of his Greenwich contemporaries.
These songs were showcased on his second album, The
Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Before its release, Freewheelin'
went through several incarnations. Dylan had recorded
a rock & roll single, "Mixed Up Confusion," at the end
of 1962, but his manager, Albert Grossman, made sure
the record was deleted because he wanted to present
Dylan as an acoustic folky. Similarly, several tracks
with a full backing band that were recorded for Freewheelin'
were scrapped before the album's release. Furthermore,
several tracks recorded for the album -- including "Talking
John Birch Society Blues" -- were eliminated from the
album before its release. Comprised entirely of original
songs, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan made a huge impact
in the U.S. folk community, and many performers began
covering songs from the album. Of these, the most significant
were Peter, Paul & Mary, who made "Blowin' in the Wind"
into a huge pop hit in the summer of 1963 and thereby
made Bob Dylan into a recognizable household name.
On the strength of Peter, Paul & Mary's cover and his
opening gigs for popular folky Joan Baez, Freewheelin'
became a hit in the fall of 1963, climbing to number
23 on the charts. By that point, Baez and Dylan had
become romantically involved, and she was beginning
to record his songs frequently. Dylan was writing just
as fast, and was performing hundreds of concerts a year.
By the time The Times They Are A-Changin' was released
in early 1964, Dylan's songwriting had developed far
beyond that of his New York peers. Heavily inspired
by poets like Arthur Rimbaud and John Keats, his writing
took on a more literate and evocative quality. Around
the same time, he began to expand his musical boundaries,
adding more blues and R&B influences to his songs.
Released in the summer of 1964, Another Side of Bob
Dylan made these changes evident. However, Dylan was
moving faster than his records could indicate. By the
end of 1964, he had ended his romantic relationship
with Baez and had begun dating a former model named
Sara Lowndes, whom he subsequently married. Simultaneously,
he gave the Byrds "Mr. Tambourine Man" to record for
their debut album. The Byrds gave the song a ringing,
electric arrangement, but by the time the single became
a hit, Dylan was already exploring his own brand of
folk-rock. Inspired by the British Invasion, particularly
the Animals' version of "House of the Rising Sun," Dylan
recorded a set of original songs backed by a loud rock
& roll band for his next album. While Bringing It All
Back Home (March 1965) still had a side of acoustic
material, it made clear that Dylan had turned his back
on folk music.
For the folk audience, the true breaking point arrived
a few months after the album's release, when he played
the Newport Folk Festival supported by the Paul Butterfield
Blues Band. The audience greeted him with vicious derision,
but he had already been accepted by the growing rock
& roll community. Dylan's spring tour of Britain was
the basis for D.A. Pennebaker's documentary Don't Look
Back, a film that captures the songwriter's edgy charisma
and charm. Dylan made his breakthrough to the pop audience
in the summer of 1965, when "Like a Rolling Stone" became
a number two hit. Driven by a circular organ riff and
a steady beat, the six-minute single broke the barrier
of the three-minute pop single. Dylan became the subject
of innumerable articles, and his lyrics became the subject
of literary analyses across the U.S. and U.K.
Well over 100 artists covered his songs between 1964
and 1966; the Byrds and the Turtles, in particular,
had big hits with his compositions. Highway 61 Revisited,
his first full-fledged rock & roll album, became a Top
Ten hit shortly after its summer 1965 release. "Positively
4th Street" and "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" became Top
Ten hits in the fall of 1965 and spring of 1966, respectively.
Following the May 1966 release of the double-album Blonde
on Blonde, he had sold over ten million records around
the world. During the fall of 1965, Dylan hired the
Hawks, formerly Ronnie Hawkins' backing group, as his
touring band. The Hawks, who changed their name to the
Band in 1968, would become Dylan's most famous backing
band, primarily because of their intuitive chemistry
and "wild, thin mercury sound," but also because of
their British tour in the spring of 1966.
The tour was the first time Britain had heard the electric
Dylan, and their reaction was disagreeable and violent.
At the tour's Royal Albert Hall concert, generally acknowledged
to have occurred in Manchester, an audience member called
Dylan "Judas," inspiring a positively vicious version
of "Like a Rolling Stone" from the Band. The performance
was immortalized on countless bootleg albums (an official
release finally surfaced in 1998), and it indicates
the intensity of Dylan in the middle of 1966. He had
assumed control of Pennebaker's second Dylan documentary,
Eat the Document, and was under deadline to complete
his book -Tarantula, as well as record a new record.
Following the British tour, he returned to America.
On July 29, 1966, he was injured in a motorcycle accident
outside of his home in Woodstock, NY, suffering injuries
to his neck vertebrae and a concussion. Details of the
accident remain elusive -- he was reportedly in critical
condition for a week and had amnesia -- and some biographers
have questioned its severity, but the event was a pivotal
turning point in his career. After the accident, Dylan
became a recluse, disappearing into his home in Woodstock
and raising his family with his wife, Sara. After a
few months, he retreated with the Band to a rented house,
subsequently dubbed Big Pink, in West Saugerties to
record a number of demos. For several months, Dylan
and the Band recorded an enormous amount of material,
ranging from old folk, country, and blues songs to newly
written originals. The songs indicated that Dylan's
songwriting had undergone a metamorphosis, becoming
streamlined and more direct.
Similarly, his music had changed, owing less to traditional
rock & roll, and demonstrating heavy country, blues,
and traditional folk influences. None of the Big Pink
recordings were intended to be released, but tapes from
the sessions were circulated by Dylan's music publisher
with the intent of generating cover versions. Copies
of these tapes, as well as other songs, were available
on illegal bootleg albums by the end of the '60s; it
was the first time that bootleg copies of unreleased
recordings became widely circulated. Portions of the
tapes were officially released in 1975 as the double-album
The Basement Tapes. While Dylan was in seclusion, rock
& roll had become heavier and artier in the wake of
the psychedelic revolution. When Dylan returned with
John Wesley Harding in December of 1967, its quiet,
country ambience was a surprise to the general public,
but it was a significant hit, peaking at number two
in the U.S. and number one in the U.K. Furthermore,
the record arguably became the first significant country-rock
record to be released, setting the stage for efforts
by the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers later in
1969. Dylan followed his country inclinations on his
next album, 1969's Nashville Skyline, which was recorded
in Nashville with several of the country industry's
top session men. While the album was a hit, spawning
the Top Ten single "Lay Lady Lay," it was criticized
in some quarters for uneven material. The mixed reception
was the beginning of a full-blown backlash that arrived
with the double-album Self Portrait. Released early
in June of 1970, the album was a hodgepodge of covers,
live tracks, re-interpretations, and new songs greeted
with negative reviews from all quarters of the press.
Dylan followed the album quickly with New Morning, which
was hailed as a comeback. Following the release of New
Morning, Dylan began to wander restlessly. In 1969 or
1970, he moved back to Greenwich Village, published
-Tarantula for the first time in November of 1970, and
performed at the Concert for Bangladesh. During 1972,
he began his acting career by playing Alias in Sam Peckinpah's
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, which was released in
1973. He also wrote the soundtrack for the film, which
featured "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," his biggest hit
since "Lay Lady Lay." The Pat Garrett soundtrack was
the final record released under his Columbia contract
before he moved to David Geffen's fledgling Asylum Records.
As retaliation, Columbia assembled Dylan, a collection
of Self Portrait outtakes, for release at the end of
1973. Dylan only recorded two albums -- including 1974's
Planet Waves, coincidentally his first number one album
-- before he moved back to Columbia. The Band supported
Dylan on Planet Waves and its accompanying tour, which
became the most successful tour in rock & roll history;
it was captured on 1974's double-live album Before the
Flood. Dylan's 1974 tour was the beginning of a comeback
culminated by 1975's Blood on the Tracks. Largely inspired
by the disintegration of his marriage, Blood on the
Tracks was hailed as a return to form by critics and
it became his second number one album. After jamming
with folkies in Greenwich Village, Dylan decided to
launch a gigantic tour, loosely based on traveling medicine
shows. Lining up an extensive list of supporting musicians
-- including Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Rambling Jack
Elliott, Arlo Guthrie, Mick Ronson, Roger McGuinn, and
poet Allen Ginsberg -- Dylan dubbed the tour the Rolling
Thunder Revue and set out on the road in the fall of
1975. For the next year, the Rolling Thunder Revue toured
on and off, with Dylan filming many of the concerts
for a future film. During the tour, Desire was released
to considerable acclaim and success, spending five weeks
on the top of the charts. Throughout the Rolling Thunder
Revue, Dylan showcased "Hurricane," a protest song he
had written about boxer Rubin Carter, who had been unjustly
imprisoned for murder. The live album Hard Rain was
released at the end of the tour. Dylan released Renaldo
and Clara, a four-hour film based on the Rolling Thunder
tour, to poor reviews in early 1978. Early in 1978,
Dylan set out on another extensive tour, this time backed
by a band that resembled a Las Vegas lounge band. The
group was featured on the 1978 album Street Legal and
the 1979 live album At Budokan. At the conclusion of
the tour in late 1978, Dylan announced that he was a
born-again Christian, and he launched a series of Christian
albums that following summer with Slow Train Coming.
Though the reviews were mixed, the album was a success,
peaking at number three and going platinum. His supporting
tour for Slow Train Coming featured only his new religious
material, much to the bafflement of his long-term fans.
Two other religious albums -- Saved (1980) and Shot
of Love (1981) -- followed, both to poor reviews. In
1982, Dylan traveled to Israel, sparking rumors that
his conversion to Christianity was short-lived. He returned
to secular recording with 1983's Infidels, which was
greeted with favorable reviews. Dylan returned to performing
in 1984, releasing the live album Real Live at the end
of the year. Empire Burlesque followed in 1985, but
its odd mix of dance tracks and rock & roll won few
fans. However, the five-album/triple-disc retrospective
box set Biograph appeared that same year to great acclaim.
In 1986, Dylan hit the road with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
for a successful and acclaimed tour, but his album that
year, Knocked Out Loaded, was received poorly. The following
year, he toured with the Grateful Dead as his backing
band; two years later, the souvenir album Dylan & the
Dead appeared. In 1988, Dylan embarked on what became
known as "The Never-Ending Tour" -- a constant stream
of shows that ran on and off into the late '90s. That
same year, he released Down in the Groove, an album
largely comprised of covers. The Never-Ending Tour received
far stronger reviews than Down in the Groove, but 1989's
Oh Mercy was his most acclaimed album since 1974's Blood
on the Tracks.
However, his 1990 follow-up, Under the Red Sky, was
received poorly, especially when compared to the enthusiastic
reception for the 1991 box set The Bootleg Series, Vols.
1-3 (Rare & Unreleased), a collection of previously
unreleased outtakes and rarities. For the remainder
of the '90s, Dylan divided his time between live concerts
and painting. In 1992, he returned to recording with
Good As I Been to You, an acoustic collection of traditional
folk songs. It was followed in 1993 by another folk
album, World Gone Wrong, which won the Grammy for Best
Traditional Folk Album. After the release of World Gone
Wrong, Dylan released a greatest-hits album and a live
record. Dylan released Time Out of Mind, his first album
of original material in seven years, in the fall of
1997. Time Out of Mind received his strongest reviews
in years and unexpectedly debuted in the Top Ten. Its
success sparked a revival of interest in Dylan -- he
appeared on the cover of Newsweek and his concerts became
sell-outs. Early in 1998, Time Out of Mind received
three Grammy Awards -- Album of the Year, Best Contemporary
Folk Album and Best Male Rock Vocal.
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