Bob Dylan was the most influential force on the popular music scene of
the 1960s. His most famous song, “Blowin’ in the Wind,” became the
unofficial anthem of the civil rights movement.
Learns to be different
Robert Allen Zimmerman was born on May 24, 1941, in Minnesota. At
the age of six, he moved with his family to the mining town of Hibbing,
Minnesota, where the majority of residents were Catholic immigrants.
Dylan was Jewish and learned at an early age what it meant to be an outsider and not fit in with the crowd.
Dylan grew up in a comfortable, middle-class home. Feeling stifled
in Minnesota, he moved to Greenwich Village in New York to pursue a
career as a singer of folk music. There he reinvented himself by telling
people he had been orphaned at a young age and had run away from
home ten times between the ages of ten and eighteen. According to his imaginary biography, Dylan had ridden a train from one end of the
country to the other, played in striptease joints, and played piano for pop
singer Bobby Vee (1943–), a fellow midwesterner.
Lifelong love
Music had been a love of Dylan’s since he could sit at a piano. He learned
to play the keys and guitar as a young child, and as a shy teenager he used
music to express himself. His goal was to one day be more popular than
rock and roll legend Elvis Presley (1935–1977).
Dylan graduated from high school and attended the University of
Minnesota for a short time. While at the university, he spent much of his
time playing folk music in local Minneapolis coffeehouses. During this
period, he read the autobiography of popular folk singer Woody
Guthrie (1912 –1967). Dylan could not get enough of Guthrie’s music,
and he was able to relate to the folk hero’s use of music as a tool to advocate for social awareness and concern for the downtrodden. Dylan
wanted his music to be a political weapon, a vehicle for social protest,
just like Guthrie’s.
Makes his own fame
In 1961, Dylan dropped out of school and relocated to Greenwich
Village. He played regularly in folk clubs and actually met his idol
Guthrie, who was dying a slow death from Huntington’s disease. Guthrie
encouraged Dylan to write and perform his own songs, and one of
Dylan’s most popular early tunes was titled “Song to Woody.” Dylan
worked to imitate Guthrie’s style.
Notable music critic Robert Shelton (1926–1995) heard Dylan perform in Greenwich Village and wrote a glowing review of the young folk
singer. That review helped cement Dylan’s place in music history, and a
few weeks later he signed a recording contract with Columbia Records.
Before long, Dylan skyrocketed to fame by writing and recording a series of protest songs that would come to define an entire generation.
Many of his songs dealt with issues of the civil rights movement.
“The Ballad of Emmett Till” recounts the story of a teenage African
American boy who was beaten to death for daring to speak to a white
woman. “Only a Pawn in Their Game” tells of the murder of African
American civil rights leader Medgar Evers (1925–1963) and is credited with keeping alive the case until his murderer was finally convicted and
brought to justice.
Dylan’s famous tune “Blowin’ in the Wind” poses questions about
racial justice and peace. In addition to becoming the spiritual anthem for
the civil rights and antiwar movements, it became a smash hit when
performed by the popular folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary in 1963.
Joan Baez and the 1960s
Dylan became romantically involved with another popular folk singer of
the 1960s, Joan Baez (1941–). It has been said that Dylan was more interested in her younger sister, Mimi, but the media could not resist the
pull of the idea of romance between the two musicians. Baez was already
a star on the folk circuit, and she invited Dylan to join her on a concert
tour in 1963. This mingling of talent widened Dylan’s audience and
marked a high point in his career. The two shared an on-again, off-again
relationship for four years before Dylan quietly married another woman,
Sara Lownds (1939–). They would eventually have four children; Dylan
also adopted Lownds’s daughter from a previous marriage.
Dylan branched out from protest songs and recorded an album, his
fourth, of deeply personal songs. In 1965, he stunned audiences by appearing at the Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island, with
an electric guitar and amplified backup band. His fans responded to
what they perceived as a shocking change with hisses and boos. Dylan refused to back down, explaining he no longer wanted to be anyone’s
spokesperson.
Dylan and a band called the Hawks (later known as The Band) went
on a world tour in 1966. It was no secret that he had been abusing drugs
for several years, and his health was not robust. Near Woodstock, New
York, he had a motorcycle accident and suffered serious injuries. The accident seemed to be his wake-up call, and Dylan stopped using hard
drugs after that.
Dylan settled down near Woodstock and concentrated on his family. He did not release another album until 1968. Years of drug use
proved to be too much for his wife and children, however, and the marriage fell apart in the 1970s. The pain of Dylan’s marriage troubles was
reflected on his 1975 album, Blood on the Tracks. Critics regard the
album as a masterpiece, equal to his best songs of the 1960s.
Dylan converted to Christianity for a brief period in the 1980s. His
conversion and newfound faith were reflected on three albums from that
time. By the mid-1980s, he returned to his Jewish roots. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and given a
Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammy ceremonies in 1991.
His album Time Out of Mind, released in 1997, was the first collection of original songs he had released in seven years. It won him three
Grammy Awards in 1998, including best album.