Musician Bob Dylan – A Legend

Bob Dylan is one of the most influential musicians of the 20th and 21st centuries. He also stands for the most controversial Nobel Prize in literature in history. His music is poetry, and today we will take a look at the musician Bob Dylan.

His distinctive style broke down the walls of pop culture around the world, which is why so many consider him an icon of the counterculture.

Bob Dylan entrusted one of his biographers with the task of clarifying that he did not take his name from the poet Dylan Thomas, as many believed.

According to him, he was inspired by a character in a cowboy series called Matt Dillon.

Bob Dylan’s music is complex and interesting. It is based on rhythms that come from everything from rock and folk music to country, blues and jazz. But  his lyrics are the most fascinating.

With them he  explores social, political, literary, philosophical and spiritual themes. That is what gave him a unique personality in the music world and gave him the Nobel Prize.

Before he became the musician Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan was born in Duluth, Minnesota on May 24, 1941. His real name is Robert Allen Zimmerman. He comes from a Jewish family of Ukrainian descent on his father’s side and Lithuanian on his mother’s side.

Dylan lived in his hometown until he was six years old, when his couple contracted polio and the family was forced to move to their mother’s hometown of Hibbing – a place that seemed to have got lost in time.

His father ran an electronics store, where Bob got his first job as a sweeper. In Hibbing he also went to high school and got his first girlfriends, Gloria and Encho. They inspired his first verses and poems.

Furthermore, he also learned musk and formed his first band in the city.

A significant change

Dylan stayed briefly at the University of Minnesota but abandoned his studies after his first year to move to New York. His first appearance took place at Café Wha? There he interpreted songs by Woody Guthrie – his idol.

Bob Dylan learned a lot during this time, although he did not succeed in the true sense of the word. He was like a mushroom that looked, analyzed and drew conclusions. He wanted to know everything and immerse himself in the rhythms.

Dylan loved to read and devoured everything from the great Greeks, Kant, Walt Whitman, Ezra Pound, TS Eliot, Ginsberg, Shelley, Poe and William Burroughs, among others.

Dylan met John Hammond – a talent scout who together with manager Albert Grossman who for the next four years made the talented 20-year-old a star.

A unique artist

In 1965, Bob Dylan was well known. “Like a Rolling Stone” was the best song of the entire 20th century according to several American newspapers that year.

Dylan created an unmistakable identity with the nine albums he produced during the decade and there is still no one like him.

This singer completely revolutionized conventional pop music. His lyrics are genuine poems and his music an exquisite combination of sounds.

Dylan even had the luxury of tackling religious problems and achieved unexpected success.

He did what few have succeeded in: an audience that still follows him after many decades. He is still an active and relevant musician.

The Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016 was very controversial and the first time it went to a pop musician. However, most believe that it was well deserved. In this regard, Leonard Cohen expressed what many thought: