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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 nearly 70-year career. With an estimated more than 125 million records sold worldwide, he is one of the best-selling musicians of all time. Dylan added increasingly sophisticated lyrical techniques to the
folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...
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 Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...
conventions and appealing to the burgeoning
counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...
. Dylan was born in St. Louis County, Minnesota. He moved to New York City in 1961 to pursue a career in music. Following his 1962 debut album, ''
Bob Dylan 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 nearly 70-year ...
'', featuring traditional folk and blues material, he released his breakthrough album '' The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'' (1963), which included " Girl from the North Country" and "
A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" is a song written by American musician and Nobel laureate Bob Dylan in the summer of 1962 and recorded later that year for his second studio album, '' The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'' (1963). Its lyrical structure is based ...
", 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 Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...
and
antiwar An anti-war movement is a social movement in opposition to one or more nations' decision to start or carry on an armed conflict. The term ''anti-war'' can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during co ...
movements. In 1965 and 1966, Dylan created controversy among folk purists when he used electrically amplified rock instrumentation for his albums '' Bringing It All Back Home'', ''
Highway 61 Revisited ''Highway 61 Revisited'' is the sixth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on August 30, 1965, by Columbia Records. Dylan continued the musical approach of his previous album ''Bringing It All Back Home'' (1965), usi ...
'' (both 1965), and '' Blonde on Blonde'' (1966). His six-minute single "
Like a Rolling Stone "Like a Rolling Stone" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on July 20, 1965, by Columbia Records. Its confrontational lyrics originated in an extended piece of verse Dylan wrote in June 1965, when he returned exhauste ...
" (1965) expanded commercial and creative boundaries in popular music. In July 1966, a motorcycle crash led Dylan to cease touring for seven years. During this period, he recorded a large body of songs with members of
the Band The Band was a Canadian-American rock music, rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario, in 1957. It consisted of the Canadians Rick Danko (bass, guitar, vocals, fiddle), Garth Hudson (organ, keyboards, accordion, saxophone), Richard Manuel (piano, d ...
which produced the album '' The Basement Tapes'' (1975). Dylan explored
country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...
and rural themes on the albums '' John Wesley Harding'' (1967), '' Nashville Skyline'' (1969) and '' New Morning'' (1970). He gained critical attention 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 The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is an award presented by the The Recording Academy, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the r ...
. Dylan still releases music and has toured continuously 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 documentaries and the biopic '' A Complete Unknown'' (2024). Dylan's numerous accolades include an
Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
, ten
Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...
s and a
Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are awards presented for excellence in both international film and television. It is an annual award ceremony held since 1944 to honor artists and professionals and their work. The ceremony is normally held every Janua ...
. He was honored with the
Kennedy Center Honors The Kennedy Center Honors are annual honors given to those in the performing arts for their lifetime of contributions to Culture of the United States, American culture. They have been presented annually since 1978, culminating each December in ...
in 1997,
National Medal of Arts The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and Patronage, patrons of the arts. A prestigious American honor, it is the highest honor given to artists and ar ...
in 2009, and the
Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, alongside the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by decision of the president of the United States to "any person recommended to the President ...
in 2012. Dylan has been inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the ...
, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the
Songwriters Hall of Fame The Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) is an American institution founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer, music publisher/songwriter Abe Olman, and publisher/executive Howie Richmond to honor those whose work represent and maintain the heri ...
. He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize special citation in 2008, and the 2016
Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...
"for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".


Early life and education

Bob Dylan was born ''Robert Allen Zimmerman'' (his
Hebrew name A Hebrew name is a name of Hebrew origin. In a more narrow meaning, it is a name used by Jews only in a religious context and different from an individual's secular name for everyday use. Names with Hebrew origins, especially those from the ...
is ''Shabtai Zisl ben Avraham'')Sounes, p. 14, gives his Hebrew name as Shabtai Zisel ben Avraham in St. Mary's Hospital on May 24, 1941, in
Duluth, Minnesota Duluth ( ) is a Port, port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of St. Louis County, Minnesota, St. Louis County. Located on Lake Superior in Minnesota's Arrowhead Region, the city is a hub for cargo shipping. The population ...
. Dylan's paternal grandparents, Anna Kirghiz and Zigman Zimmerman, emigrated from
Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...
in the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
(now Ukraine) to the United States, following the 1905 pogroms against Jews.Sounes, pp. 12–13. His maternal grandparents, Florence and Ben Stone, were
Lithuanian Jews {{Jews and Judaism sidebar , Population Litvaks ({{Langx, yi, ליטװאַקעס) or Lita'im ({{Langx, he, לִיטָאִים) are Jews who historically resided in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (covering present-day Lithuan ...
who had arrived in the US in 1902. Dylan wrote that his paternal grandmother's family was originally from the Kağızman District of
Kars Province Kars Province (; Azerbaijani: Qars Rayonu; ; ) is a province of Turkey, located in the northeastern part of the country. It shares part of its closed border with Armenia. Its area is 10,193 km2, and its population is 274,829 (2022). The pr ...
, northeastern Turkey. Dylan's father Abram Zimmerman and his mother Beatrice "Beatty" Stone were part of a small, close-knit Jewish community. They lived in Duluth until Dylan was six, when his father contracted
polio Poliomyelitis ( ), commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 75% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe ...
and the family returned to his mother's hometown of Hibbing, where they lived for the rest of Dylan's childhood, and his father and paternal uncles ran a furniture and appliance store. In the early 1950s, Dylan listened to the ''
Grand Ole Opry The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a regular live country music, country-music Radio broadcasting, radio broadcast originating from Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee, on WSM (AM), WSM, held between two and five nights per week, depending on the ...
'' radio show and heard the songs of
Hank Williams Hiram "Hank" Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. An early pioneer of country music, he is regarded as one of the most significant and influential musicians of the 20th century. W ...
. He later wrote: "The sound of his voice went through me like an electric rod." Dylan was also impressed by the delivery of
Johnnie Ray John Alvin Ray (January 10, 1927 – February 24, 1990) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Highly popular for most of the 1950s, Ray has been cited by critics as a major precursor to what became rock and roll, for his jazz and blu ...
: "He was the first singer whose voice and style, I guess, I totally fell in love with.... I loved his style, wanted to dress like him too." As a teenager, Dylan heard
rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...
on radio stations broadcasting from
Shreveport Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, third-most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, Lo ...
and
Little Rock Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...
.Shelton, pp. 38–39. Dylan formed several bands while attending Hibbing High School. In the Golden Chords, he performed covers of songs by
Little Richard Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American singer, pianist, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as the "Ar ...
and
Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...
. Their performance of Danny & the Juniors' " Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay" at their high school talent show was so loud that the principal cut the microphone. On January 31, 1959, 17-year-old Dylan saw
Buddy Holly Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer, songwriter, and musician who was a central and pioneering figure of rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texa ...
perform at the Duluth Armory, four days before Holly's fatal plane crash. Dylan was electrified and in his Nobel Prize lecture he explained: "Buddy wrote songs – songs that had beautiful melodies and imaginative verses. And he sang great – sang in more than a few voices. He was the archetype. Everything I wasn't and wanted to be." In 1959, Dylan's high school yearbook carried the caption "Robert Zimmerman: to join 'Little Richard. That year, as Elston Gunnn, he performed twice with Bobby Vee, playing piano and clapping. In September 1959, Dylan enrolled at the
University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...
. Living at the Jewish-centric fraternity Sigma Alpha Mu house, Dylan began to perform at the Ten O'Clock Scholar, a coffeehouse near campus, and became involved in the
Dinkytown Dinkytown is a commercial district within the Marcy-Holmes, Minneapolis, Marcy-Holmes neighborhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Centered at 14th Avenue Southeast and 4th Street Southeast, the district contains several city blocks occupied by vari ...
folk music circuit.This is related in
Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November17, 1942) is an American filmmaker. One of the major figures of the New Hollywood era, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Martin Scorsese, many accolades, including an Academ ...
's documentary ''
No Direction Home ''No Direction Home: Bob Dylan'' is a 2005 documentary film directed by Martin Scorsese that traces the life of Bob Dylan, and his impact on 20th-century American popular music and culture. The film focuses on the period between Dylan's arriva ...
''. broadcast September 26, 2005, PBS &
BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...
.
His focus on rock and roll gave way to
American folk music The term American folk music encompasses numerous music genres, variously known as ''traditional music'', ''traditional folk music'', ''contemporary folk music'', ''vernacular music,'' or ''roots music''. Many traditional songs have been sung ...
, as he explained in a 1985 interview: During this period, he began to introduce himself as "Bob Dylan". In his memoir, he wrote that he considered adopting the surname ''Dillon'' before unexpectedly seeing poems by Dylan Thomas, and deciding upon the given name spelling.According to Dylan biographer Robert Shelton, Dylan first confided his change of name to his high school girlfriend, Echo Helstrom, in 1958, telling her that he had found a "great name, Bob Dillon". Shelton surmises that Dillon had two sources: Marshal Matt Dillon was the hero of the TV western ''
Gunsmoke ''Gunsmoke'' is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centered on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, during the settlement of the American West. The central charact ...
''; Dillon was also the name of one of Hibbing's principal families. While Shelton was writing Dylan's biography in the 1960s, Dylan told him, "Straighten out in your book that I did not take my name from Dylan Thomas. Dylan Thomas's poetry is for people that aren't really satisfied in their bed, for people who dig masculine romance." At the University of Minnesota, Dylan told a few friends that Dillon was his mother's maiden name, which was untrue. He later told reporters that he had an uncle named Dillon. Shelton added that only when he reached New York in 1961 did he begin to spell his name "Dylan", by which time he was acquainted with the life and work of Dylan Thomas. Shelton (2011), pp. 44–45.
In a 2004 interview, he said, "You're born, you know, the wrong names, wrong parents. I mean, that happens. You call yourself what you want to call yourself. This is the land of the free."


Career


1960–1962: Relocation to New York and stardom

Dylan dropped out of college in May 1960 at the end of his first year. In January 1961, he traveled to New York City to perform and visit his musical idol
Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer, songwriter, and composer widely considered to be one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American Left, A ...
at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in New Jersey. Guthrie had been a revelation to Dylan and influenced his early performances. He wrote of Guthrie's impact: "The songs themselves had the infinite sweep of humanity in them... ewas the true voice of the American spirit. I said to myself I was going to be Guthrie's greatest disciple". In addition to Guthrie, Dylan wrote in ''Chronicles'' that major influences on his early song writing included
Robert Johnson Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His singing, guitar playing and songwriting on his landmark 1936 and 1937 recordings have influenced later generations of musicians. Although his r ...
's
blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...
Dylan, pp. 281–288. and what he called the "architectural forms" of
Hank Williams Hiram "Hank" Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. An early pioneer of country music, he is regarded as one of the most significant and influential musicians of the 20th century. W ...
's
country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...
songs.Dylan, pp. 95–97. From February 1961, Dylan played at clubs around
Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...
, befriending and picking up material from folk singers, including Dave Van Ronk,
Fred Neil Fred Neil (born Frederick Ralph Morlock Jr.; March 16, 1936 – July 7, 2001) was an American folk singer-songwriter active in the 1960s and early 1970s. He is mainly known through other people's recordings of his material – particularl ...
, Odetta, the New Lost City Ramblers and Irish musicians the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. In September, ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' critic Robert Shelton boosted Dylan's career with a very enthusiastic review of his performance at Gerde's Folk City: "Bob Dylan: A Distinctive Folk-Song Stylist". That month, Dylan played harmonica on folk singer
Carolyn Hester Carolyn Sue Hester (born January 28, 1937) is an American folk singer and songwriter. She was a figure in the early 1960s American folk music revival. Biography Hester's first album was produced by Norman Petty in 1957. She made her second a ...
's third album, bringing him to the attention of the album's producer John Hammond, who signed Dylan to
Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...
. Dylan's debut album, ''
Bob Dylan 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 nearly 70-year ...
'', released March 19, 1962, consisted of traditional folk, blues and
gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...
material with just two original compositions, " Talkin' New York" and " Song to Woody". The album sold 5,000 copies in its first year, just breaking even.Scaduto, p. 110. On August 9, 1962, Dylan legally changed his name to Robert Dylan in the St. Louis County Court, Hibbing. His father, Abraham Zimmerman, was the witness. The same month, Dylan signed a management contract with Albert Grossman. Grossman remained Dylan's manager until 1970, and was known for his sometimes confrontational personality and protective loyalty. Dylan said, "He was kind of like a
Colonel Tom Parker Colonel Thomas Andrew Parker (born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk; June 26, 1909 January 21, 1997) was a Dutch people, Dutch talent manager and concert promoter, best known as the manager of Elvis Presley. Parker was born in the Netherlands and Il ...
figure ... you could smell him coming." Tension between Grossman and John Hammond led to the latter suggesting Dylan work with the jazz producer Tom Wilson, who produced several tracks for the second album without formal credit. Wilson produced the next three albums Dylan recorded. Dylan made his first trip to the United Kingdom from December 1962 to January 1963.Heylin (1996), pp. 35–39. He had been invited by television director Philip Saville to appear in '' Madhouse on Castle Street'', which Saville was directing for
BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...
. At the end of the play, Dylan performed " Blowin' in the Wind", one of its first public performances. While in London, Dylan performed at several folk clubs, including the Troubadour, Les Cousins, and Bunjies. He also learned material from UK performers, including
Martin Carthy Martin Dominic Forbes Carthy MBE (born 21 May 1941) is an English singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in English folk music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, as well as later ar ...
. With the release of Dylan's second album, '' The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'', in May 1963, he began to make his name as a singer-songwriter. Many songs on the album were labeled protest songs, inspired partly by Guthrie and influenced by
Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...
's passion for topical songs. " Oxford Town" was an account of James Meredith's ordeal as the first Black student at the
University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (Epithet, byname Ole Miss) is a Public university, public research university in University, near Oxford, Mississippi, United States, with a University of Mississippi Medical Center, medical center in Jackson, Miss ...
. The first song on the album, "Blowin' in the Wind", partly derived its melody from the traditional slave song "No More Auction Block", while its lyrics questioned the status quo. The song was widely recorded by other artists and became a hit for Peter, Paul, and Mary. "
A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" is a song written by American musician and Nobel laureate Bob Dylan in the summer of 1962 and recorded later that year for his second studio album, '' The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'' (1963). Its lyrical structure is based ...
" was based on the folk ballad " Lord Randall". With its apocalyptic premonitions, the song gained resonance when the
Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis () in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis (), was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of Nuclear weapons d ...
developed a few weeks after Dylan began performing it.In a May 1963 interview with Studs Terkel, Dylan broadened the meaning of the song, saying "the pellets of poison flooding the waters" refers to "the lies people are told on their radios and in their newspapers." Cott (2006), p. 8. Both songs marked a new direction in songwriting, blending a stream-of-consciousness,
imagist Imagism was a movement in early-20th-century poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. It is considered to be the first organized literary modernism, modernist literary movement in the English language. Imagism has bee ...
lyrical attack with traditional folk form. Dylan's topical songs led to his being viewed as more than just a songwriter. Janet Maslin wrote of ''Freewheelin'':
These were the songs that established ylanas the voice of his generation —someone who implicitly understood how concerned young Americans felt about
nuclear disarmament Nuclear disarmament is the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons. Its end state can also be a nuclear-weapons-free world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated. The term ''denuclearization'' is also used to describe the pro ...
and the growing civil rights movement: his mixture of moral authority and nonconformity was perhaps the most timely of his attributes.The title "Spokesman of a Generation" was viewed by Dylan with disgust in later years. He came to feel it was a label the media had pinned on him, and in his autobiography, '' Chronicles'', Dylan wrote: "The press never let up. Once in a while I would have to rise up and offer myself for an interview so they wouldn't beat the door down. Later an article would hit the streets with the headline 'Spokesman Denies That He's A Spokesman.' I felt like a piece of meat that someone had thrown to the dogs." Dylan (2004), p.119
''Freewheelin'' also included love songs and surreal talking blues. Humor was an important part of Dylan's persona, and the range of material on the album impressed listeners, including
the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...
.
George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Culture ...
said of the album: "We just played it, just wore it out. The content of the song lyrics and just the attitude — it was incredibly original and wonderful". The rough edge of Dylan's singing unsettled some, but attracted others. Author
Joyce Carol Oates Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her novels ''Black ...
wrote: "When we first heard this raw, very young, and seemingly untrained voice, frankly nasal, as if sandpaper could sing, the effect was dramatic and electrifying". Many early Dylan songs reached the public through more palatable versions by other performers, such as
Joan Baez Joan Chandos Baez (, ; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing mo ...
, who became Dylan's advocate and lover. Baez was influential in bringing Dylan to prominence by recording several of his early songs and inviting him on stage during her concerts. Others who had hits with Dylan's songs in the early 1960s included
the Byrds The Byrds () were an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) being the so ...
, Sonny & Cher, the Hollies,
the Association The Association is an American sunshine pop band from Los Angeles, California. During the late 1960s, the band had numerous hits at or near the top of the Billboard charts, ''Billboard'' charts (including "Windy (The Association song), Windy" ...
,
Manfred Mann Manfred Mann were an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. They were named after their keyboardist Manfred Mann (musician), Manfred Mann, who later led the successful 1970s group Manfred Mann's Earth Band. The group had two l ...
, and the Turtles. " Mixed-Up Confusion", recorded during the ''Freewheelin sessions with a backing band, was released as Dylan's first single in December 1962, but then swiftly withdrawn. In contrast to the mostly solo acoustic performances on the album, the single showed a willingness to experiment with a
rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre, it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western musi ...
sound. Cameron Crowe described it as "a fascinating look at a folk artist with his mind wandering towards Elvis Presley and
Sun Records Sun Records is an American independent record label founded by producer Sam Phillips in Memphis, Tennessee on February 1, 1952. Sun was the first label to record Elvis Presley, Charlie Rich, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Jo ...
".


1963–1965: Protest music and ''Another Side''

In May 1963, Dylan's political profile rose when he walked out of ''
The Ed Sullivan Show ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York City, New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the ''CB ...
''. During rehearsals, Dylan had been told by CBS television's head of program practices that " Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues" was potentially libelous to the John Birch Society. Rather than comply with censorship, Dylan refused to appear. Dylan and Baez were prominent in the civil rights movement, singing together at the
March on Washington The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (commonly known as the March on Washington or the Great March on Washington) was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic rig ...
on August 28, 1963. Dylan performed " Only a Pawn in Their Game" and " When the Ship Comes In". Dylan's third album, '' The Times They Are a-Changin''', reflected a more politicized Dylan. The songs often took as their subject matter contemporary stories, with " Only a Pawn in Their Game" addressing the murder of civil rights worker
Medgar Evers Medgar Wiley Evers (; July 2, 1925June 12, 1963) was an American civil rights activist and soldier who was the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi. Evers, a United States Army veteran who served in World War II, was engaged in efforts ...
, and the Brechtian "
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" is a topical song written by the United States, American musician Bob Dylan. Recorded on October 23, 1963, the song was released on Dylan's 1964 album ''The Times They Are a-Changin' (album), The Times They A ...
" the death of Black hotel barmaid Hattie Carroll at the hands of young White socialite William Zantzinger. " Ballad of Hollis Brown" and " North Country Blues" addressed despair engendered by the breakdown of farming and mining communities. The final track on the album expressed Dylan's angry response to a hostile profile published in ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
''. As biographer Clinton Heylin puts it, the profile wrote about "the way the Bar Mitzvah boy from Hibbing, Minnesota, had reinvented himself as the prince of protest", emphasising his birth name, his attendance at the University of Minnesota, and his close relationship with his parents from whom he claimed to be estranged. The day after the article appeared, Dylan returned to the studio to record " Restless Farewell" which ends with his vow to "make my stand/ And remain as I am/ And bid farewell and not give a damn". By the end of 1963, Dylan felt manipulated and constrained by the folk and protest movements. Accepting the " Tom Paine Award" from the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee three weeks after the
assassination of John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Kennedy was in the vehicle with his wife Jacqueline Kennedy Onas ...
, an intoxicated Dylan questioned the role of the committee, characterized the members as old and balding, and claimed to see something of himself and of every man in Kennedy's assassin,
Lee Harvey Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963. Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at age 12 for truan ...
.
Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter. Most of his music contains themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially songs from the later stages of his career. ...
supported Dylan in his refusal to conform when he wrote a letter to '' Broadside'' magazine in March 1964, expressing admiration for Dylan's writing and ending with the injunction: "Shut up! And let him sing!" When Cash died in 2003, Dylan remembered: "Johnny wrote the magazine saying to shut up and let me sing, that I knew what I was doing. This was before I had ever met him, and the letter meant the world to me." Cash and Dylan met for the first time at the Newport Folk Festival in July 1964 and became friends. '' Another Side of Bob Dylan'', recorded in a single evening on June 9, 1964, had a lighter mood. The humorous Dylan reemerged on " I Shall Be Free No. 10" and "Motorpsycho Nightmare". " Spanish Harlem Incident" and " To Ramona" are passionate love songs, while " Black Crow Blues" and " I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)" suggest the rock and roll soon to dominate Dylan's music. "
It Ain't Me Babe "It Ain't Me Babe" is a song by Bob Dylan that originally appeared on his fourth album '' Another Side of Bob Dylan'', which was released in 1964 by Columbia Records. According to music critic Oliver Trager, this song, along with others on the al ...
", on the surface a song about spurned love, has been described as a rejection of the role of political spokesman thrust upon him. His new direction was signaled by two lengthy songs: the impressionistic " Chimes of Freedom", which sets social commentary against a metaphorical landscape in a style characterized by Allen Ginsberg as "chains of flashing images,"In an interview with Seth Goddard for ''Life'' (July 5, 2001) Ginsberg said Dylan's technique had been inspired by
Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian ...
: "(Dylan) pulled ''
Mexico City Blues ''Mexico City Blues'' is a long poem by Jack Kerouac, composed of 242 "choruses" or stanzas, which was first published in 1959. Written between 1954 and 1957, the poem is the product of Kerouac's spontaneous prose technique, his Buddhist faith ...
'' from my hand and started reading it and I said, 'What do you know about that?' He said, 'Somebody handed it to me in '59 in St. Paul and it blew my mind.' So I said 'Why?' He said, 'It was the first poetry that spoke to me in my own language.' So those chains of flashing images you get in Dylan, like 'the motorcycle black Madonna two-wheeled gypsy queen and her silver- studded phantom lover,' they're influenced by Kerouac's chains of flashing images and spontaneous writing, and that spreads out into the people".
and " My Back Pages", which attacks the simplistic seriousness of his own earlier topical songs and seems to predict the backlash he was about to encounter from his former champions. In late 1964 and early 1965, Dylan moved from folk songwriter to folk-rock pop-music star. His jeans and work shirts were replaced by a
Carnaby Street Carnaby Street is a Pedestrian zone, pedestrianised shopping street in Soho in the City of Westminster, Central London. Close to Oxford Street and Regent Street, it is home to fashion and lifestyle retailers, including many independent fashion ...
wardrobe, sunglasses day and night, and pointed " Beatle boots". A London reporter noted "Hair that would set the teeth of a comb on edge. A loud shirt that would dim the neon lights of
Leicester Square Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised town square, square in the West End of London, England, and is the centre of London's entertainment district. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leice ...
. He looks like an undernourished
cockatoo A cockatoo is any of the 21 species of parrots belonging to the family Cacatuidae, the only family in the superfamily Cacatuoidea. Along with the Psittacoidea ( true parrots) and the Strigopoidea (large New Zealand parrots), they make up t ...
." Dylan began to spar with interviewers. While on Les Crane's television show, asked about a movie he planned, he told Crane it would be a "cowboy horror movie". Asked if he played the cowboy, Dylan replied, "No, I play my mother."


1965–1969: Going electric and motorcycle accident

Dylan's late March 1965 album, '' Bringing It All Back Home'', was another leap, featuring his first recordings with electric instruments, under producer Tom Wilson's guidance. The first single, " Subterranean Homesick Blues", owed much to
Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, guitarist and songwriter who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and de ...
's " Too Much Monkey Business", its free-association lyrics described as harking back to the energy of beat poetry and as a forerunner of rap and
hip-hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...
. The song was provided with an early music video, which opened D. A. Pennebaker's cinéma vérité presentation of Dylan's 1965 British tour, '' Dont Look Back''. Instead of miming, Dylan illustrated the lyrics by throwing cue cards containing key words on the ground. Pennebaker said the sequence was Dylan's idea, and it has been imitated in music videos and advertisements. The second side of ''Bringing It All Back Home'' contained four long songs on which Dylan accompanied himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica.Sounes, pp. 168–169. " Mr. Tambourine Man" became one of his best-known songs when
The Byrds The Byrds () were an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) being the so ...
recorded an electric version, which reached number one in the US and UK. "
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan and featured on his '' Bringing It All Back Home'' album, released on March 22, 1965, by Columbia Records. The song was recorded on January 15, 1965, with Dylan's acous ...
" and " It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" were two of Dylan's most important compositions. In 1965, headlining the Newport Folk Festival, Dylan performed his first electric set since high school with a pickup group featuring
Mike Bloomfield Michael Bernard Bloomfield (July 28, 1943 – February 15, 1981) was an American blues guitarist and composer. Born in Chicago, he became one of the first popular music stars of the 1960s to earn his reputation almost entirely on his instrume ...
on guitar and Al Kooper on organ. Dylan had appeared at Newport in 1963 and 1964, but in 1965 he was met with cheering and booing and left the stage after three songs. One version has it that the boos were from folk fans whom Dylan had alienated by appearing, unexpectedly, with an electric guitar. Murray Lerner, who filmed the performance, said: "I absolutely think that they were booing Dylan going electric." An alternative account claims audience members were upset by poor sound and a short set. Dylan's performance provoked a hostile response from the folk music establishment. In the September issue of ''
Sing Out! ''Sing Out!'' was a quarterly journal of folk music and folk songs that was published from May 1950 through spring 2014. It was originally based in New York City, with a national circulation of approximately 10,000 by 1960. Background ''Sing O ...
'', Ewan MacColl wrote: "Our traditional songs and ballads are the creations of extraordinarily talented artists working inside disciplines formulated over time.... 'But what of Bobby Dylan?' scream the outraged teenagers.... Only a completely non-critical audience, nourished on the watery pap of pop music, could have fallen for such tenth-rate drivel". On July 29, four days after Newport, Dylan was back in the studio in New York, recording " Positively 4th Street". The lyrics contained images of vengeance and paranoia, and have been interpreted as Dylan's put-down of former friends from the folk community he had known in clubs along West 4th Street. ''Highway 61 Revisited'' and ''Blonde on Blonde'' In July 1965, Dylan's six-minute single "
Like a Rolling Stone "Like a Rolling Stone" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on July 20, 1965, by Columbia Records. Its confrontational lyrics originated in an extended piece of verse Dylan wrote in June 1965, when he returned exhauste ...
" peaked at number two in the US chart. In 2004 and in 2011, ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
'' listed it as number one on " The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...
recalled first hearing the song: "that snare shot sounded like somebody'd kicked open the door to your mind." The song opened Dylan's next album, ''
Highway 61 Revisited ''Highway 61 Revisited'' is the sixth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on August 30, 1965, by Columbia Records. Dylan continued the musical approach of his previous album ''Bringing It All Back Home'' (1965), usi ...
'', named after the road that led from Dylan's Minnesota to the musical hotbed of
New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
. The songs were in the same vein as the hit single, flavored by Mike Bloomfield's blues guitar and Al Kooper's organ riffs. " Desolation Row", backed by acoustic guitar and understated bass, offers the sole exception, with Dylan alluding to figures in Western culture in a song described by Andy Gill as "an 11-minute epic of entropy, which takes the form of a Fellini-esque parade of grotesques and oddities featuring a huge cast of celebrated characters". Poet Philip Larkin, who also reviewed jazz for ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...
'', wrote "I'm afraid I poached Bob Dylan's ''Highway 61 Revisited'' (CBS) out of curiosity and found myself well rewarded." In support of the album, Dylan was booked for two US concerts with Al Kooper and Harvey Brooks from his studio crew and
Robbie Robertson Jaime Royal Robertson (July 5, 1943 – August 9, 2023) was a Canadian musician of Indigenous and Jewish ancestry. He was the lead guitarist for Bob Dylan's backing band in the mid-late 1960s and early-mid 1970s. Robertson was also the ...
and Levon Helm, former members of
Ronnie Hawkins Ronald Cornett Hawkins (January 10, 1935 – May 29, 2022) was an American rock and roll singer, long based in Canada, whose career spanned more than half a century. His career began in Arkansas, United States, where he was born and raised. He ...
's backing band the Hawks. On August 28 at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, the group was heckled by an audience still annoyed by Dylan's electric sound, though their reception on September 3 at the Hollywood Bowl was more favorable. From September 24, 1965, in Austin, Texas, Dylan toured the US and Canada for six months, backed by the five musicians from the Hawks who became known as
the Band The Band was a Canadian-American rock music, rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario, in 1957. It consisted of the Canadians Rick Danko (bass, guitar, vocals, fiddle), Garth Hudson (organ, keyboards, accordion, saxophone), Richard Manuel (piano, d ...
. While Dylan and the Hawks met increasingly receptive audiences, their studio efforts floundered. Producer Bob Johnston persuaded Dylan to record in
Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
in February 1966, and surrounded him with top-notch session men. At Dylan's insistence, Robertson and Kooper came from New York City to play on the sessions. The Nashville sessions produced the double album '' Blonde on Blonde'' (1966), featuring what Dylan called "that thin wild mercury sound". Kooper described it as "taking two cultures and smashing them together with a huge explosion": the musical worlds of Nashville and of the "quintessential New York hipster" Bob Dylan. On November 22, 1965, Dylan quietly married 25-year-old former model Sara Lownds.Sounes, p. 193. Some of Dylan's friends, including Ramblin' Jack Elliott, say that, immediately after the event, Dylan denied he was married. Writer
Nora Ephron Nora Ephron ( ; May 19, 1941 – June 26, 2012) was an American journalist, writer, and filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing romantic comedy films and received numerous accolades including a British Academy Film Award as ...
made the news public in the ''
New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates three online sites: NYPost. ...
'' in February 1966 with the headline "Hush! Bob Dylan is wed". Dylan toured Australia and Europe in April and May 1966. Each show was split in two. Dylan performed solo during the first half, accompanying himself on
acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...
and harmonica. In the second, backed by the Hawks, he played electrically amplified music. This contrast provoked many fans, who jeered and slow clapped. The tour culminated in a raucous confrontation between Dylan and his audience at the Manchester
Free Trade Hall The Free Trade Hall on Peter Street, Manchester, England, was constructed in 1853–56 on St Peter's Fields, the site of the Peterloo Massacre. It is now a Radisson Hotels, Radisson hotel. The hall was built to commemorate the repeal of the Corn ...
in England on May 17, 1966. A recording of this concert was released in 1998: '' The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966''. At the climax of the evening, a member of the audience, angered by Dylan's electric backing, shouted: " Judas!" to which Dylan responded, "I don't believe you ... You're a liar!" Dylan turned to his band and said, "Play it fucking loud!" During his 1966 tour, Dylan was described as exhausted and acting "as if on a death trip". D. A. Pennebaker, the filmmaker accompanying the tour, described Dylan as "taking a lot of amphetamine and who-knows-what-else". In a 1969 interview with
Jann Wenner Jann Simon Wenner ( ; born January 7, 1946) is an American businessman who co-founded the popular culture magazine ''Rolling Stone'' with Ralph J. Gleason and is the former owner of '' Men's Journal'' magazine. He participated in the Free S ...
, Dylan said, "I was on the road for almost five years. It wore me down. I was on drugs, a lot of things ... just to keep going, you know?" On July 29, 1966, Dylan crashed his motorcycle, a Triumph Tiger 100, near his home in
Woodstock, New York Woodstock is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Ulster County, New York, United States, in the northern part of the county, northwest of Kingston, New York, Kingston. It lies within the borders of the Catskill Park. The popula ...
. Dylan said he broke several
vertebrae Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spinal ...
in his neck.Sounes, pp. 217–219. The circumstances of the accident are unclear since no ambulance was called to the scene and Dylan was not hospitalized. Dylan's biographers have written that the crash offered him the chance to escape the pressures around him.Heylin (2000), p. 268. Dylan concurred: "I had been in a motorcycle accident and I'd been hurt, but I recovered. Truth was that I wanted to get out of the rat race." He made very few public appearances, and did not tour again for almost eight years. Once Dylan was well enough to resume creative work, he began to edit D. A. Pennebaker's film of his 1966 tour. A rough cut was shown to ABC Television, but they rejected it as incomprehensible to mainstream audiences. The film, titled '' Eat the Document'' on bootleg copies, has since been screened at a few film festivals. Secluded from public gaze, Dylan recorded over 100 songs during 1967 at his Woodstock home and in the basement of the Hawks' nearby house, " Big Pink". These songs were initially offered as demos for other artists to record and were hits for Julie Driscoll, the Byrds, and Manfred Mann. The public heard these recordings when '' Great White Wonder'', the first "
bootleg recording A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. Making and distributing such recordings is known as ''bootlegging''. Recordings may be copied and traded ...
", appeared in West Coast shops in July 1969, containing Dylan material recorded in Minneapolis in 1961 and seven Basement Tapes songs. This record gave birth to a minor industry in the illicit release of recordings by Dylan and other major rock artists. Columbia released a Basement selection in 1975 as '' The Basement Tapes''. In late 1967, Dylan returned to studio recording in Nashville, accompanied by
Charlie McCoy Charlie McCoy (born Charles Ray McCoy, March 28, 1941) is an American harmonica virtuoso and multi-instrumentalist in country music. He is best known for his harmonica solos on iconic recordings such as " Candy Man" ( Roy Orbison), "He Stoppe ...
on bass, Kenny Buttrey on drums and Pete Drake on steel guitar. The result was '' John Wesley Harding'', a record of short songs thematically drawing on the
American West The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is census regions United States Census Bureau As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the mea ...
and the Bible. The sparse structure and instrumentation, with lyrics that took the
Judeo-Christian The term ''Judeo-Christian'' is used to group Christianity and Judaism together, either in reference to Christianity's derivation from Judaism, Christianity's recognition of Jewish scripture to constitute the Old Testament of the Christian Bibl ...
tradition seriously, was a departure from Dylan's previous work. It included " All Along the Watchtower", famously covered by
Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...
. ''Biograph'', 1985, Liner notes & text by Cameron Crowe.Later recorded by
Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...
, whose version Dylan acknowledged as definitive.
Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer, songwriter, and composer widely considered to be one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American Left, A ...
died in October 1967, and Dylan made his first live appearance in twenty months at a memorial concert held at
Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...
on January 20, 1968, where he was backed by the Band. '' Nashville Skyline'' (1969), featured Nashville musicians, a mellow-voiced Dylan, a duet with
Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter. Most of his music contains themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially songs from the later stages of his career. ...
and the single " Lay Lady Lay". '' Variety'' wrote, "Dylan is definitely doing something that can be called singing. Somehow he has managed to add an octave to his range." During one recording session, Dylan and Cash recorded a series of duets, but only their version of " Girl from the North Country" appeared on the album. The album influenced the nascent genre of
country rock Country rock is a music genre that fuses rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal sty ...
. In 1969, Dylan was asked to write songs for ''Scratch'',
Archibald MacLeish Archibald MacLeish (May 7, 1892 – April 20, 1982) was an American poet and writer, who was associated with the modernist school of poetry. MacLeish studied English at Yale University and law at Harvard University. He enlisted in and saw action ...
's musical adaptation of " The Devil and Daniel Webster". MacLeish initially praised Dylan's contributions, writing to him "Those songs of yours have been haunting me—and exciting me," but creative differences led to Dylan leaving the project. Some of the songs were later recorded by Dylan in a revised form. In May 1969, Dylan appeared on the first episode of '' The Johnny Cash Show'' where he sang a duet with Cash on "Girl from the North Country" and played solos of "Living the Blues" and " I Threw It All Away". Dylan traveled to England to top the bill at the
Isle of Wight Festival The Isle of Wight Festival is a British music festival which takes place annually in Newport, Isle of Wight, Newport on the Isle of Wight, England. It was originally a Counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture event held from 1968 to 1970. Th ...
on August 31, 1969, after rejecting overtures to appear at the
Woodstock Festival The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. Billed as "a ...
closer to home.


1970–1979: Return to touring and Christian music

In the early 1970s, critics charged that Dylan's output was varied and unpredictable. Greil Marcus asked "What is this shit?" upon first hearing ''
Self Portrait Self-portraits are Portrait painting, portraits artists make of themselves. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, the practice of self-portraiture only gaining momentum in the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century ...
'', released in June 1970. It was a double LP including few original songs and was poorly received. In October 1970, Dylan released '' New Morning'', considered a return to form. The title track was from Dylan's ill-fated collaboration with MacLeish, and "Day of the Locusts" was his account of receiving an honorary degree from
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
on June 9, 1970. In November 1968, Dylan co-wrote " I'd Have You Anytime" with George Harrison; Harrison recorded that song and Dylan's " If Not for You" for his album ''
All Things Must Pass ''All Things Must Pass'' is the third studio album by George Harrison. Released as a triple album in November 1970, it was Harrison's first solo work after Break-up of the Beatles, the break-up of the Beatles in April that year. It includes th ...
''.
Olivia Newton-John Dame Olivia Newton-John (26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022) was a British and Australian singer and actress. With over 100 million records sold, Newton-John was one of the List of best-selling music artists#100 million to 119 million record ...
covered "If Not For You" on her debut album and " The Man in Me" was prominently featured in the film '' The Big Lebowski'' (1998). ''
Tarantula Tarantulas comprise a group of large and often hairy spiders of the family Theraphosidae. , 1,100 species have been identified, with 166 genera. The term "tarantula" is usually used to describe members of the family Theraphosidae, although ...
'', a freeform book of prose-poetry, had been written by Dylan during a creative burst in 1964–65. Dylan shelved his book for several years, apparently uncertain of its status, until he suddenly informed Macmillan at the end of 1970 that the time had come to publish it. The book attracted negative reviews but later critics have suggested its affinities with ''
Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish literature, Irish writer James Joyce. It was published in instalments starting in 1924, under the title "fragments from ''Work in Progress''". The final title was only revealed when the book was publishe ...
'' and '' A Season in Hell''. Between March 16 and 19, 1971, Dylan recorded with Leon Russell at Blue Rock, a small studio in Greenwich Village. These sessions resulted in " Watching the River Flow" and a new recording of " When I Paint My Masterpiece". On November 4, 1971, Dylan recorded " George Jackson", which he released a week later. For many, the single was a surprising return to protest material, mourning the killing of
Black Panther A black panther is the Melanism, melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical Rosette (zoology), rosettes are al ...
George Jackson in San Quentin State Prison. Dylan's surprise appearance at Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh on August 1, 1971, attracted media coverage as his live appearances had become rare. In 1972, Dylan joined Sam Peckinpah's film '' Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid'', providing the soundtrack and playing "Alias", a member of Billy's gang. Despite the film's failure at the box office, "
Knockin' on Heaven's Door "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, written for the soundtrack of the 1973 film '' Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid''. Released as a single two months after the film's premiere, it became a worldwide hit, ...
" became one of Dylan's most covered songs. That same year, Dylan protested the move to deport
John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...
and
Yoko Ono Yoko Ono (, usually spelled in katakana as ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up in Tokyo and moved to New York ...
, who had been convicted for
marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...
possession, by sending a letter to the US Immigration Service which read in part: "Hurray for John & Yoko. Let them stay and live here and breathe. The country's got plenty of room and space. Let John and Yoko stay!" Dylan began 1973 by signing with a new label, David Geffen's Asylum Records, when his contract with Columbia Records expired. His next album, '' Planet Waves'', was recorded in the fall of 1973, using the Band as his backing group as they rehearsed for a major tour. The album included two versions of "Forever Young", which became one of his most popular songs.Sounes, pp. 273–274. As one critic described it, the song projected "something hymnal and heartfelt that spoke of the father in Dylan", and Dylan said "I wrote it thinking about one of my boys and not wanting to be too sentimental". Columbia Records simultaneously released '' Dylan'', a collection of studio outtakes, widely interpreted as a churlish response to Dylan's signing with a rival record label. In January 1974, Dylan, backed by the Band, embarked on a North American tour of 40 concerts—his first tour for seven years. A live double album, '' Before the Flood'', was released on Asylum Records. Soon, according to
Clive Davis Clive Jay Davis (born April 4, 1932) is an American record producer, A&R executive, record executive, and lawyer. He has won five Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a non-performer, in 2000. From 1967 to 1 ...
, Columbia Records sent word they "will spare nothing to bring Dylan back into the fold".Shelton, p. 378. Dylan had second thoughts about Asylum, unhappy that Geffen had sold only 600,000 copies of ''Planet Waves'' despite millions of unfulfilled ticket requests for the 1974 tour; he returned to Columbia Records, which reissued his two Asylum albums. After the tour, Dylan and his wife became estranged. He filled three small notebooks with songs about relationships and ruptures, and recorded the album '' Blood on the Tracks'' in September 1974. Dylan delayed the album's release and re-recorded half the songs at Sound 80 Studios in Minneapolis with production assistance from his brother, David Zimmerman. Released in early 1975, ''Blood on the Tracks'' received mixed reviews. In ''
NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...
'', Nick Kent described the "accompaniments" as "often so trashy they sound like mere practice takes".Heylin (2000), p. 383. In ''Rolling Stone'',
Jon Landau Jon Landau (born May 14, 1947) is an American music critic, manager, and record producer. He has worked with Bruce Springsteen. He is the head of the nominating committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and received that institution's Ahme ...
wrote that "the record has been made with typical shoddiness". Over the years critics came to see it as one of Dylan's masterpieces. In ''
Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, ...
'', journalist Bill Wyman wrote:
''Blood on the Tracks'' is his only flawless album and his best produced; the songs, each of them, are constructed in disciplined fashion. It is his kindest album and most dismayed, and seems in hindsight to have achieved a sublime balance between the logorrhea-plagued excesses of his mid-1960s output and the self-consciously simple compositions of his post-accident years.
In the middle of 1975, Dylan championed boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, imprisoned for triple murder, with his ballad "
Hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its ...
" making the case for Carter's innocence. Despite its length—over eight minutes—the song was released as a single, peaking at 33 on the US Billboard chart, and performed at every 1975 date of Dylan's next tour, the
Rolling Thunder Revue The Rolling Thunder Revue was a 1975–76 concert tour by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan with numerous musicians and collaborators. The purpose of the tour was to allow Dylan, who was a major recording artist and concert performer, to play ...
.According to Shelton, Dylan named the tour Rolling Thunder and then "appeared pleased when someone told him to native Americans, rolling thunder means speaking the truth." A
Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...
medicine man A medicine man (from Ojibwe ''mashkikiiwinini'') or medicine woman (from Ojibwe ''mashkikiiwininiikwe'') is a traditional healer and spiritual leader who serves a community of Indigenous people of the Americas. Each culture has its own name i ...
named Rolling Thunder appeared on stage at Providence, RI, "stroking a feather in time to the music." Shelton (2011), p. 310.
Running through late 1975 and again through early 1976, the tour featured about one hundred performers and supporters from the Greenwich Village folk scene, among them Ramblin' Jack Elliott, T-Bone Burnett,
Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan Mitchell (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and painter. As one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitch ...
, David Mansfield,
Roger McGuinn James Roger McGuinn (; born James Joseph McGuinn III; July 13, 1942) is an American musician, best known for being the frontman and leader of the Byrds. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 as a member of the band. As a so ...
,
Mick Ronson Michael Ronson (26 May 1946 – 29 April 1993) was an English musician, songwriter, arranger, and producer. He achieved critical and commercial success working with David Bowie as the guitarist of the Spiders from Mars. He was a session musici ...
, Ronee Blakely, Joan Baez and Scarlet Rivera, whom Dylan discovered walking down the street, her violin case on her back. The tour encompassed the January 1976 release of the album ''
Desire Desires are states of mind that are expressed by terms like "wanting", "wishing", "longing" or "craving". A great variety of features is commonly associated with desires. They are seen as propositional attitudes towards conceivable states of affa ...
''. Many of ''Desires songs featuring a travelogue-like narrative style, influenced by Dylan's new collaborator, playwright
Jacques Levy Jacques Levy (July 29, 1935 – September 30, 2004) was an American songwriter, theatre director and clinical psychologist. Early life and education Levy was born in New York City in 1935 and graduated from the City College of New York in 19 ...
. The 1976 half of the tour was documented by a TV concert special, ''Hard Rain'', and the LP '' Hard Rain''. The 1975 tour with the Revue provided the backdrop to Dylan's film '' Renaldo and Clara'', a sprawling narrative mixed with concert footage and reminiscences. Actor and playwright Sam Shepard accompanied the Revue and was to serve as screenwriter, but much of the film was improvised. Released in 1978, it received negative, sometimes scathing, reviews. Later in the year, a two-hour edit, dominated by the concert performances, was more widely released. In November 1976, Dylan appeared at the Band's farewell concert with
Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English Rock music, rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s l ...
,
Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913April 30, 1983), better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer-songwriter and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of moder ...
,
Van Morrison Sir George Ivan "Van" Morrison (born 31 August 1945) is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician whose recording career started in the 1960s. Morrison's albums have performed well in the UK and Ireland, with more than 40 reaching the UK ...
,
Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...
and Joni Mitchell.
Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November17, 1942) is an American filmmaker. One of the major figures of the New Hollywood era, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Martin Scorsese, many accolades, including an Academ ...
's 1978 film of the concert, '' The Last Waltz'', included most of Dylan's set. In 1978, Dylan embarked on a year-long world tour, performing 114 shows in Japan, the Far East, Europe and North America, to a total audience of two million. Dylan assembled an eight-piece band and three backing singers. Concerts in Tokyo in February and March were released as the live double album '' Bob Dylan at Budokan''.Sounes, pp. 314–316. Reviews were mixed.
Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...
awarded the album a C+ rating, while Janet Maslin defended it: "These latest live versions of his old songs have the effect of liberating Bob Dylan from the originals". When Dylan brought the tour to the US in September 1978, the press described the look and sound as a "Las Vegas Tour". The 1978 tour grossed more than $20 million, and Dylan told the ''Los Angeles Times'' that he had debts because "I had a couple of bad years. I put a lot of money into the movie, built a big house  ... and it costs a lot to get divorced in California." In April and May 1978, Dylan took the same band and vocalists into Rundown Studios in
Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
, California, to record an album of new material, '' Street-Legal''. It was described by Michael Gray as "after ''Blood On The Tracks'', arguably Dylan's best record of the 1970s: a crucial album documenting a crucial period in Dylan's own life". However, it had poor sound and mixing (attributed to Dylan's studio practices), muddying the instrumental detail until a remastered CD release in 1999 restored some of the songs' strengths. In the late 1970s, Dylan converted to
Evangelical Christianity Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...
, undertaking a three-month discipleship course run by the Association of Vineyard Churches. He released three albums of contemporary
gospel music Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music vary according to culture and social context. Gospel music is compo ...
. '' Slow Train Coming'' (1979) featured
Dire Straits Dire Straits were a British rock band formed in London in 1977 by Mark Knopfler (lead vocals, lead guitar), David Knopfler (rhythm guitar, backing vocals), John Illsley (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Pick Withers (drums, percussion). Th ...
guitarist
Mark Knopfler Mark Freuder Knopfler OBE (born 12 August 1949) is a British musician. He was the lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of the rock band Dire Straits from 1977 to 1995, and he is the one of the two members who stayed during the band's existence ...
and was produced by veteran R&B producer
Jerry Wexler Gerald Wexler (January 10, 1917 – August 15, 2008) was a music journalist turned music producer, and was a major influence on American popular music from the 1950s through the 1980s. He coined the term "rhythm and blues", and was integra ...
. Wexler said that Dylan had tried to evangelize him during the recording. He replied: "Bob, you're dealing with a 62-year-old Jewish atheist. Let's just make an album." Dylan won the
Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance was a Grammy Awards, Grammy Award presented to male recording artists for works (songs or albums) containing quality vocal performances in the rock music genre. Originally called the Grammy Aw ...
for the song "
Gotta Serve Somebody "Gotta Serve Somebody" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released as the opening track on his 1979 studio album '' Slow Train Coming''. It won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Male in ...
". When touring in late 1979 and early 1980, Dylan would not play his older, secular works, and he delivered declarations of his faith from the stage, such as: Dylan's Christianity was unpopular with some fans and musicians. John Lennon, shortly before being murdered, recorded "Serve Yourself" in response to "Gotta Serve Somebody". In 1981,
Stephen Holden Stephen Holden (born July 18, 1941) is an American writer, poet, and music and film critic. Biography Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963. He worked as a photo editor, staff writer, and eventually be ...
wrote in ''The New York Times'' that "neither age (he's now 40) nor his much-publicized conversion to born-again Christianity has altered his essentially iconoclastic temperament".


1980–1989: Career fluctuations

In late 1980, Dylan briefly played concerts billed as "A Musical Retrospective", restoring popular 1960s songs to the repertoire. His second Christian album, '' Saved'' (1980), received mixed reviews, described by Michael Gray as "the nearest thing to a follow-up album Dylan has ever made, ''Slow Train Coming II'' and inferior". His third Christian album was '' Shot of Love'' (1981). The album featured his first secular compositions in more than two years, mixed with Christian songs. The lyrics of "Every Grain of Sand" recall
William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the Romantic poetry, poetry and visual art of the Roma ...
's " Auguries of Innocence".
Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, author and television host. According to ''Rolling Stone'', Costello "reinvigorated the literate, lyrical ...
wrote that "''Shot of Love'' may not be your favorite Bob Dylan record, but it might contain his best song: 'Every Grain of Sand'." Reception of Dylan's 1980s recordings varied. Gray criticized Dylan's 1980s albums for carelessness in the studio and for failing to release his best songs. ''
Infidels An infidel (literally "unfaithful") is a person who is accused of disbelief in the central tenets of one's own religion, such as members of another religion, or irreligion, irreligious people. Infidel is an Ecclesiology, ecclesiastical term in Ch ...
'' (1983) employed Knopfler again as lead guitarist and also as producer; the sessions resulted in several songs that Dylan left off the album. Best regarded of these were "
Blind Willie McTell Blind Willie McTell (born William Samuel McTier; May 5, 1898 – August 19, 1959) was an American Piedmont blues and ragtime singer, songwriter and guitarist. He played in a fluid, syncopated finger picking guitar style common among many Eas ...
", which was both a tribute to the eponymous blues musician and an evocation of African American history, "Foot of Pride" and " Lord Protect My Child". These three songs were later released on '' The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991''. Between July 1984 and March 1985, Dylan recorded '' Empire Burlesque''.Sounes, p. 362. Arthur Baker, who had remixed hits for Bruce Springsteen and
Cyndi Lauper Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper ( ; born June 22, 1953) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Known for her distinctive image, featuring a variety of hair colors and eccentric clothing, and for her powerful four-octave vocal range;Jerome, ...
, was asked to engineer and mix the album. Baker said he felt he was hired to make Dylan's album sound "a little bit more contemporary". In 1985 Dylan sang on
USA for Africa "We Are the World" is a charity record, charity single recorded by the charity supergroup, supergroup USA for Africa in 1985. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones for the album ''We Are the World (al ...
's famine relief single "
We Are the World "We Are the World" is a charity single recorded by the supergroup USA for Africa in 1985. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones for the album '' We Are the World''. With sales in excess of 20 milli ...
". He also joined Artists United Against Apartheid, providing vocals for their single " Sun City". On July 13, 1985, he appeared at the
Live Aid Live Aid was a two-venue benefit concert and music-based fundraising initiative held on Saturday, 13 July 1985. The event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia, a m ...
concert at JFK Stadium, Philadelphia. Backed by
Keith Richards Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943) is an English musician, songwriter, singer and record producer who is an original member, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-principal songwriter of the Rolling Stones. His songwriting partnership wi ...
and Ronnie Wood, he performed a ragged version of "Ballad of Hollis Brown", a tale of rural poverty, and then said to the worldwide audience: "I hope that some of the money ... maybe they can just take a little bit of it, maybe ... one or two million, maybe ... and use it to pay the mortgages on some of the farms and, the farmers here, owe to the banks". His remarks were widely criticized as inappropriate, but inspired
Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and activist. He was one of the main figures of the outlaw country subgenre that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restr ...
to organize a concert, Farm Aid, to benefit debt-ridden American farmers. In October 1985, Dylan released ''Biograph'', a box set featuring 53 tracks, 18 of them previously unreleased.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and former senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of multiple artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance ...
wrote: "Historically, ''Biograph'' is significant not for what it did for Dylan's career, but for establishing the box set, complete with hits and rarities, as a viable part of rock history." ''Biograph'' also contained liner notes by Cameron Crowe in which Dylan discussed the origins of some of his songs. In April 1986, Dylan made a foray into rap when he added vocals to the opening verse of "Street Rock" on
Kurtis Blow Kurtis Walker (born August 9, 1959), known professionally by his stage name Kurtis Blow, is an American rapping , rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Walker is the first commercially successful rapper and the first to sign with a major rec ...
's album '' Kingdom Blow''. Dylan's next studio album, '' Knocked Out Loaded'' (1986), contained three covers (by
Junior Parker Herman "Junior" Parker (March 27, 1932November 18, 1971), ...
,
Kris Kristofferson Kristoffer Kristofferson (June 22, 1936 – September 28, 2024) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was a pioneering figure in the outlaw country movement of the 1970s, moving away from the polished Nashville sound and toward a m ...
and the gospel hymn " Precious Memories"), plus three collaborations (with
Tom Petty Thomas Earl Petty (October 20, 1950October 2, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He was the leader and frontman of the Rock music, rock bands Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Mudcrutch and a member of the late 1980s sup ...
, Sam Shepard and
Carole Bayer Sager Carole Bayer Sager (born Carol Bayer on March 8, 1944) is an American lyricist, singer, songwriter, and painter. Early life and career Carole Bayer was born in New York City, to Anita Nathan Bayer and Eli Bayer. Her family was Jewish. She gradu ...
), and two solo compositions by Dylan. A reviewer wrote:
the record follows too many detours to be consistently compelling, and some of those detours wind down roads that are indisputably dead ends. By 1986, such uneven records weren't entirely unexpected by Dylan, but that didn't make them any less frustrating.
It was the first Dylan album since his 1962 debut to fail to make the Top 50. Some critics have called the song Dylan co-wrote with Shepard, " Brownsville Girl", a masterpiece. In 1986 and 1987, Dylan toured with
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were an American rock band formed in Gainesville, Florida, in 1976. The band originally comprised lead singer and rhythm guitarist Tom Petty, lead guitarist Mike Campbell, keyboardist Benmont Tench, drummer ...
, sharing vocals with Petty on several songs each night. Dylan also toured with the
Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...
in 1987, resulting in the live album '' Dylan & The Dead'', which received negative reviews; Erlewine said it was "quite possibly the worst album by either Bob Dylan or the Grateful Dead". Dylan initiated what came to be called the Never Ending Tour on June 7, 1988, performing with a back-up band featuring guitarist G. E. Smith. Dylan would continue to tour with a small, changing band for the next 30 years. In 1987, Dylan starred in
Richard Marquand Richard Alfred Marquand (22 September 1937 – 4 September 1987) was a Welsh film and television director active in both US and UK film productions, best known for directing the 1983 space opera '' Return of the Jedi'', the final film in the or ...
's movie '' Hearts of Fire'', in which he played Billy Parker, a washed-up rock star turned chicken farmer whose teenage lover ( Fiona) leaves him for a jaded English synth-pop sensation (
Rupert Everett Rupert James Hector Everett (; born 29 May 1959) is an English actor. He first came to public attention in 1981 when he was cast in Julian Mitchell's play and subsequent film '' Another Country'' (1984) as a gay pupil at an English public scho ...
). Dylan also contributed two original songs to the soundtrack—"Night After Night", and "Had a Dream About You, Baby", as well as a cover of John Hiatt's "The Usual". The film was a critical and commercial flop. Dylan was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the ...
in January 1988. Bruce Springsteen, in his introduction, declared, "Bob freed your mind the way Elvis freed your body. He showed us that just because music was innately physical did not mean that it was anti-intellectual". '' Down in the Groove'' (1988) sold even more poorly than ''Knocked Out Loaded''.Sounes, p. 385. Gray wrote: "The very title undercuts any idea that inspired work may lie within. Here was a further devaluing of the notion of a new Bob Dylan album as something significant."Gray (2000), p. 13. The critical and commercial disappointment of that album was swiftly followed by the success of the
Traveling Wilburys The Traveling Wilburys were a British-American supergroup formed in Los Angeles in 1988, consisting of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty. They were a roots rock band and described as "perhaps the biggest sup ...
, a supergroup Dylan co-founded with George Harrison,
Jeff Lynne Jeffrey Lynne (born 30 December 1947) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. He is the co-founder and, latterly, sole member of the rock band Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) which was formed in 1970. He has written all of ...
,
Roy Orbison Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist known for his distinctive and powerful voice, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Orbison's most successful periods were ...
and Tom Petty. In late 1988, their '' Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1'' reached number three on the US albums chart, featuring songs described as Dylan's most accessible in years. Despite Orbison's death in December 1988, the remaining four recorded a second album in May 1990, '' Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3''. Dylan finished the decade on a critical high note with '' Oh Mercy'', produced by
Daniel Lanois Daniel Roland Lanois ( , ; born September 19, 1951) is a Canadian record producer and musician. He has produced albums by artists including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Robbie Robertson, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, and Harold Budd ...
. Gray praised the album as "Attentively written, vocally distinctive, musically warm, and uncompromisingly professional, this cohesive whole is the nearest thing to a great Bob Dylan album in the 1980s." " Most of the Time", a lost-love composition, was prominently featured in the film ''High Fidelity'' (2000), while " What Was It You Wanted" has been interpreted both as a catechism and a wry comment on the expectations of critics and fans. The religious imagery of "Ring Them Bells" struck some critics as a re-affirmation of faith.


1990–1999: Return to Folk music and resurgence

Dylan's 1990s began with '' Under the Red Sky'' (1990), an about-face from the serious ''Oh Mercy''. It contained several apparently simple songs, including "Under the Red Sky" and "Wiggle Wiggle". The album was dedicated to "Gabby Goo Goo", a nickname for the daughter of Dylan and Carolyn Dennis, Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan, who was four. Musicians on the album included George Harrison, Slash,
David Crosby David Van Cortlandt Crosby (August 14, 1941 – January 18, 2023) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He first found fame as a member of the Byrds, with whom he helped pioneer the genres of folk rock and psychedelic music, psych ...
,
Bruce Hornsby Bruce Randall Hornsby (born November 23, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. His music draws from folk rock, jazz, bluegrass music, bluegrass, folk music, folk, Southern rock, country rock, jam band, rock music, rock, heartland r ...
,
Stevie Ray Vaughan Stephen Ray Vaughan (also known as SRV; October 3, 1954 – August 27, 1990) was an American musician, best known as the guitarist and frontman of the blues rock trio Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble (band), Double Trouble. Although his ma ...
, and
Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...
. The record received negative reviews and sold poorly. In 1990 and 1991 Dylan was described by his biographers as drinking heavily, impairing his performances on stage. In an interview with ''Rolling Stone'', Dylan dismissed allegations that drinking was interfering with his music: "That's completely inaccurate. I can drink or not drink. I don't know why people would associate drinking with ''anything'' I do, really". Defilement and remorse were themes Dylan addressed when he received a
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is a special Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achiev ...
from
Jack Nicholson John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American retired actor and filmmaker. Nicholson is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of the 20th century, often playing rebels fighting against the social structure. Over his five-de ...
in February 1991. The event coincided with the start of the
Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...
and Dylan played " Masters of War"; ''Rolling Stone'' called his performance "almost unintelligible". He made a short speech: "My daddy once said to me, he said, 'Son, it is possible for you to become so defiled in this world that your own mother and father will abandon you. If that happens, God will believe in your ability to mend your own ways.Heylin (2000), pp. 664–665. This was a paraphrase of 19th-century Orthodox Rabbi
Samson Raphael Hirsch Samson Raphael Hirsch (; June 20, 1808 – December 31, 1888) was a German Orthodox rabbi best known as the intellectual founder of the '' Torah im Derech Eretz'' school of contemporary Orthodox Judaism. Occasionally termed ''neo-Orthodoxy'', hi ...
's commentary on Psalm 27. On October 16, 1992, the thirtieth anniversary of Dylan's debut album was celebrated with a concert at
Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...
, christened "Bobfest" by Neil Young and featuring
John Mellencamp John J. Mellencamp (born October 7, 1951), previously known as Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, is an American singer-songwriter. He is known for his brand of heartland rock, which emphasizes traditional instrumentation ...
,
Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris (; Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th c ...
,
Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Althoug ...
,
Eddie Vedder Eddie Jerome Vedder (born Edward Louis Severson III; December 23, 1964) is an American singer, musician, and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist, primary lyricist, and one of three guitarists for the rock band Pearl Jam. He was previously a gues ...
, Dylan and others. It was recorded as the live album '' The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration''. Over the next few years Dylan returned to his roots with two albums covering traditional folk and blues songs: '' Good as I Been to You'' (1992) and '' World Gone Wrong'' (1993), backed solely by his acoustic guitar. Many critics and fans noted the quiet beauty of the song "Lone Pilgrim", written by a 19th-century teacher. In August 1994, he played at Woodstock '94; ''Rolling Stone'' called his performance "triumphant". In November, Dylan recorded two live shows for ''
MTV Unplugged ''MTV Unplugged'' is an American television series on MTV. It showcases recorded live performances of popular music artists playing acoustic instrument, acoustic or "unplugged" variations of songs. The show aired regularly from 1989 to 1999. F ...
''. He said his wish to perform traditional songs was overruled by
Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...
executives who insisted on hits. The resulting album, ''
MTV Unplugged ''MTV Unplugged'' is an American television series on MTV. It showcases recorded live performances of popular music artists playing acoustic instrument, acoustic or "unplugged" variations of songs. The show aired regularly from 1989 to 1999. F ...
'', included "John Brown", an unreleased 1962 song about how enthusiasm for war ends in mutilation and disillusionment. With a collection of songs reportedly written while snowed in on his Minnesota ranch, Dylan booked recording time with Daniel Lanois at Miami's Criteria Studios in January 1997. The subsequent recording sessions were, by some accounts, fraught with musical tension. Before the album's release Dylan was hospitalized with life-threatening
pericarditis Pericarditis () is inflammation of the pericardium, the fibrous sac surrounding the heart. Symptoms typically include sudden onset of sharp chest pain, which may also be felt in the shoulders, neck, or back. The pain is typically less severe whe ...
, brought on by histoplasmosis. His scheduled European tour was canceled, but Dylan made a speedy recovery and left the hospital saying, "I really thought I'd be seeing Elvis soon". He was back on the road by mid-year, and performed before
Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...
at the World Eucharistic Conference in
Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
, Italy. The Pope treated the audience of 200,000 to a
homily A homily (from Greek ὁμιλία, ''homilía'') is a commentary that follows a reading of scripture, giving the "public explanation of a sacred doctrine" or text. The works of Origen and John Chrysostom (known as Paschal Homily) are considered ...
based on Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind". In September, Dylan released the new Lanois-produced album, ''Time Out of Mind''. With its bitter assessments of love and morbid ruminations, Dylan's first collection of original songs in seven years was highly acclaimed.
Alex Ross Nelson Alexander Ross (born January 22, 1970) is an American comic book creator, comic book writer and artist known primarily for his painted interiors, covers, and design work. He first became known with the 1994 miniseries ''Marvels'', on which ...
called it "a thrilling return to form". " Cold Irons Bound" won Dylan another Grammy For Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, and the album won him his first
Grammy Award for Album of the Year The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is an award presented by the The Recording Academy, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the r ...
. The album's first single, " Not Dark Yet", has been called one of Dylan's best songs and "
Make You Feel My Love "Make You Feel My Love", also known as "To Make You Feel My Love", is a song written by Bob Dylan for his album '' Time Out of Mind'', released in September 1997. It was first released commercially in August 1997 by Billy Joel for his compilation ...
" was covered by
Billy Joel William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Piano Man" after his Signature song, signature 1973 song Piano Man (song), of the same name, Joel has ha ...
,
Garth Brooks Troyal Garth Brooks (born February 7, 1962) is an American Country music, country singer and songwriter. His integration of pop and rock elements into the country genre has earned him his immense popularity, particularly in the United States, ...
,
Adele Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (; born 5 May 1988) is an English singer-songwriter. Regarded as a British cultural icon, icon, she is known for her mezzo-soprano vocals and sentimental songwriting. List of awards and nominations received by Adele, ...
and others. Elvis Costello said "I think it might be the best record he's made."


2000–2009: Oscar win, memoir, and ''Modern Times''

In 2001, Dylan won an
Academy Award for Best Original Song The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the Film industry, motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is presented to the ''songwriters'' who h ...
for " Things Have Changed", written for the film '' Wonder Boys''. '' "Love and Theft"'' was released on September 11, 2001. Recorded with his touring band, Dylan produced the album under the alias Jack Frost. Critics noted that Dylan was widening his musical palette to include
rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre, it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western musi ...
,
Western swing Western swing, country jazz or smooth country is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands. It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which att ...
,
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
and
lounge music Lounge music is a type of easy listening music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It may be meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place, usually with a tranquil theme, such as a jungle, an island paradise or outer space. The ra ...
. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. Controversy ensued when ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'' pointed out similarities between the album's lyrics and Junichi Saga's book '' Confessions of a Yakuza''. Saga was not familiar with Dylan's work, but said he was flattered. Upon hearing the album, Saga said of Dylan: "His lines flow from one image to the next and don't always make sense. But they have a great atmosphere." In 2003, Dylan revisited the evangelical songs from his Christian period and participated in the project '' Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan''. That year, Dylan released '' Masked & Anonymous'', which he co-wrote with director Larry Charles under the alias Sergei Petrov. Dylan starred as Jack Fate, alongside a cast that included
Jeff Bridges Jeffrey Leon Bridges (born December 4, 1949) is an American actor. He is known for his Leading actor, leading man roles in film and television. In a career spanning over seven decades, he has received List of awards and nominations received by ...
, Penélope Cruz and
John Goodman John Stephen Goodman (born June 20, 1952) is an American actor. He rose to prominence in television before becoming an acclaimed and popular film actor. Goodman has received List of awards and nominations received by John Goodman, various acc ...
. The film polarized critics. In ''The New York Times'', A. O. Scott called it as an "incoherent mess"; a few treated it as a serious work of art. In 2004, Dylan published the first part of his memoir, '' Chronicles: Volume One''. Confounding expectations, Dylan devoted three chapters to his first year in New York City in 1961–1962, virtually ignoring the mid-1960s when his fame was at its height, while devoting chapters to the albums ''New Morning'' (1970) and ''Oh Mercy'' (1989). The book reached number two on ''The New York Times Hardcover Non-Fiction bestseller list in December 2004 and was nominated for a
National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...
. Critics noted that ''Chronicles'' contained many examples of pastiche and borrowing; sources included ''Time'' magazine and the novels of
Jack London John Griffith London (; January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors t ...
. Biographer Clinton Heylin queried the veracity of Dylan's autobiography, noting "Not a single checkable story held water; not one anecdote couldn't be shot full of holes by any half-decent researcher." Martin Scorsese's Dylan documentary ''
No Direction Home ''No Direction Home: Bob Dylan'' is a 2005 documentary film directed by Martin Scorsese that traces the life of Bob Dylan, and his impact on 20th-century American popular music and culture. The film focuses on the period between Dylan's arriva ...
'' was broadcast on September 26–27, 2005, on
BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...
in the UK and as part of '' American Masters'' on PBS in the US. It covers the period from Dylan's arrival in New York in 1961 to his motorcycle crash in 1966, featuring interviews with Suze Rotolo, Liam Clancy, Joan Baez, Allen Ginsberg, Pete Seeger,
Mavis Staples Mavis Staples (born July 10, 1939) is an American rhythm and blues and gospel music, gospel singer and civil rights activism, activist. She rose to fame as a member of her family's band The Staple Singers, of which she is the last surviving memb ...
and Dylan himself. The film earned a
Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and in ...
and a Columbia-duPont Award. The accompanying soundtrack featured unreleased songs from Dylan's early years. Dylan's career as a radio presenter began on May 3, 2006, with his weekly program, '' Theme Time Radio Hour'', on
XM Satellite Radio XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (XM) was one of the three satellite radio ( SDARS) and online radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Holdings. It provided pay-for-service radio, analogous to subscription cable ...
. He played songs with a common theme, such as "Weather", "Weddings", "Dance" and "Dreams". Dylan's records ranged from
Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913April 30, 1983), better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer-songwriter and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of moder ...
to
Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...
,
L.L. Cool J James Todd Smith (born January 14, 1968), known professionally as LL Cool J (short for Ladies Love Cool James), is an American rapper and actor. He is one of the earliest rappers to achieve commercial success, alongside fellow New-school hip-hop ...
to
the Streets The Streets is an English musical project led by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Mike Skinner (musician), Mike Skinner. The project was founded in the early 90s, while Skinner was still a teenager; however, no music would formally eventuat ...
. Dylan's show was praised for the breadth of his musical selections and for his jokes, stories and eclectic references. In April 2009, Dylan broadcast the 100th show in his radio series; the theme was "Goodbye" and he signed off with Woody Guthrie's " So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh". Dylan released ''Modern Times'' in August 2006. Despite some coarsening of Dylan's voice (a critic for ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' characterized his singing on the album as "a catarrhal death rattle") most reviewers praised the album, and many described it as the final installment of a successful trilogy, encompassing ''Time Out of Mind'' and ''"Love and Theft"''. ''Modern Times'' entered the US charts at number one, making it Dylan's first album to reach that position since 1976's ''Desire''. ''The New York Times'' published an article exploring similarities between some of Dylan's lyrics in ''Modern Times'' and the work of the
Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
poet Henry Timrod. ''Modern Times'' won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album and Dylan won Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance for "Someday Baby". ''Modern Times'' was named Album of the Year by ''Rolling Stone'' and '' Uncut''. On the same day that ''Modern Times'' was released, the iTunes Music Store released '' Bob Dylan: The Collection'', a digital box set containing all of his albums (773 tracks), along with 42 rare and unreleased tracks. On October 1, 2007, Columbia Records released the triple CD retrospective '' Dylan'', anthologizing his entire career under the ''Dylan 07'' logo. The sophistication of the ''Dylan 07'' marketing campaign was a reminder that Dylan's commercial profile had risen considerably since the 1990s. This became evident in 2004, when Dylan appeared in a TV advertisement for
Victoria's Secret Victoria's Secret is an American lingerie, clothing and beauty products, beauty retailer. Founded in 1977 by a Stanford graduate student and his wife, Roy Raymond, Roy and Gaye Raymond, the company's five lingerie stores were sold to Les Wexner i ...
. In October 2007, he participated in a multi-media campaign for the 2008 Cadillac Escalade. In 2009 he gave the highest profile endorsement of his career to date, appearing with rapper will.i.am in a
Pepsi Pepsi is a Carbonated water, carbonated soft drink with a cola flavor, manufactured by PepsiCo which serves as its flagship product. In 2023, Pepsi was the second most valuable soft drink brand worldwide behind Coca-Cola; the two share a long ...
ad that debuted during Super Bowl XLIII. The ad opened with Dylan singing the first verse of "Forever Young" followed by will.i.am doing a
hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...
version of the song's final verse. '' The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 – Tell Tale Signs'' was released in October 2008, as both a two-CD set and a three-CD version with a 150-page hardcover book. The set contains live performances and outtakes from selected studio albums from ''Oh Mercy'' to ''Modern Times'', as well as soundtrack contributions and collaborations with David Bromberg and Ralph Stanley. The pricing of the album—the two-CD set went on sale for $18.99 and the three-CD version for $129.99—led to complaints about "rip-off packaging". The release was widely acclaimed by critics. The abundance of alternative takes and unreleased material suggested to one reviewer that this volume of old outtakes "feels like a new Bob Dylan record, not only for the astonishing freshness of the material, but also for the incredible sound quality and organic feeling of everything here". Dylan released '' Together Through Life'' on April 28, 2009. In a conversation with music journalist Bill Flanagan, Dylan explained it originated when French director Olivier Dahan asked him to supply a song for his movie '' My Own Love Song''. He initially intended to record a single track, "Life Is Hard", but "the record sort of took its own direction". Nine of the album's ten songs are credited as co-written by Dylan and Robert Hunter. The album received largely favorable reviews, although several critics described it as a minor addition to Dylan's canon. In its first week of release, the album reached number one on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart in the US, making Dylan, at 67 years of age, the oldest artist to ever debut at number one on that chart. Dylan's '' Christmas in the Heart'' was released in October 2009, comprising such Christmas standards as " Little Drummer Boy", "
Winter Wonderland "Winter Wonderland" is a song written in 1934 by Felix Bernard and lyricist Richard Bernhard Smith. Due to its seasonal theme, it is often regarded as a Christmas song in the Northern Hemisphere. Since its original recording by Richard Himb ...
" and " Here Comes Santa Claus". Edna Gundersen wrote that Dylan was "revisiting yuletide styles popularized by
Nat King Cole Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, alternatively billed as Nat "King" Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's career as a jazz and Traditional pop, pop ...
,
Mel Tormé Melvin Howard Tormé (September 13, 1925 – June 5, 1999), nicknamed "the Velvet Fog", was an American musician, singer, composer, arrangement, arranger, drummer, actor, and author. He composed the music for "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts Roa ...
, and the Ray Conniff Singers". Dylan's royalties from the album were donated to the charities
Feeding America Feeding America is a United States–based Nonprofit organization, non-profit organization that is a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks that feed more than 46 million people through food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and other c ...
in the US,
Crisis A crisis (: crises; : critical) is any event or period that will lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, or all of society. Crises are negative changes in the human or environmental affairs, especially when ...
in the UK, and the
World Food Programme The World Food Programme (WFP) is an international organization within the United Nations that provides food assistance worldwide. It is the world's largest humanitarian organization and the leading provider of school meals. Founded in 1961 ...
. The album received generally favorable reviews. In an interview published in ''
The Big Issue ''The Big Issue'' is a United Kingdom–based street newspaper founded by John Bird and Gordon Roddick in September 1991 and published in four continents. ''The Big Issue'' is one of the UK's leading social businesses and exists to offer ho ...
'', Flanagan asked Dylan why he had performed the songs in a straightforward style, and he replied: "There wasn't any other way to play it. These songs are part of my life, just like folk songs. You have to play them straight too."


2010–2019: ''Tempest'' and continued recordings

Volume 9 of Dylan's Bootleg Series, ''The Witmark Demos'', was issued in October 18, 2010. It comprised 47 demo recordings of songs taped between 1962 and 1964 for Dylan's earliest music publishers: Leeds Music in 1962, and Witmark Music from 1962 to 1964. One reviewer described the set as "a hearty glimpse of young Bob Dylan changing the music business, and the world, one note at a time." On the critical aggregator
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, the album has a score of 86, indicating "universal acclaim". In the same week, Sony Legacy released '' Bob Dylan: The Original Mono Recordings'', a box set that presented Dylan's eight earliest albums, from ''Bob Dylan'' (1962) to ''John Wesley Harding'' (1967), in their original mono mix in the CD format for the first time. The set was accompanied by a booklet featuring an essay by Greil Marcus. On April 12, 2011, Legacy Recordings released '' Bob Dylan in Concert – Brandeis University 1963'', taped at
Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...
on May 10, 1963, two weeks before the release of ''The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan''. The tape was discovered in the archive of music writer Ralph J. Gleason, and the recording carries liner notes by Michael Gray, who says it captures Dylan
from way back when Kennedy was President and the Beatles hadn't yet reached America. It reveals him not at any Big Moment but giving a performance like his folk club sets of the period ... This is the last live performance we have of Bob Dylan before he becomes a star.
On Dylan's 70th birthday, three universities organized symposia on his work: the
University of Mainz The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz () is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany. It has been named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. it had approximately 32,000 students enrolled in around 100 a ...
, the
University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...
, and the
University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...
invited literary critics and cultural historians to give papers on aspects of Dylan's work. Other events, including tribute bands, discussions and simple singalongs, took place around the world, as reported in ''The Guardian'': "From Moscow to Madrid, Norway to Northampton and Malaysia to his home state of Minnesota, self-confessed 'Bobcats' will gather today to celebrate the 70th birthday of a giant of popular music." Dylan's 35th studio album, ''Tempest'', was released on September 11, 2012. The album features a tribute to John Lennon, " Roll On John", and the title track is a 14-minute song about the sinking of the ''Titanic''. In ''Rolling Stone'', Will Hermes gave ''Tempest'' five out of five stars, writing: "Lyrically, Dylan is at the top of his game, joking around, dropping wordplay and allegories that evade pat readings and quoting other folks' words like a freestyle rapper on fire". Volume 10 of Dylan's Bootleg Series, '' Another Self Portrait (1969–1971)'', was released in August 2013. The album contained 35 previously unreleased tracks, including alternative takes and demos from Dylan's 1969–1971 recording sessions during the making of the ''Self Portrait'' and ''New Morning'' albums. The box set also included a live recording of Dylan's performance with the Band at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1969. Thom Jurek wrote, "For fans, this is more than a curiosity, it's an indispensable addition to the catalog." Columbia Records released a boxed set containing all 35 Dylan studio albums, six albums of live recordings and a collection of non-album material (''Sidetracks'') as ''Bob Dylan: Complete Album Collection: Vol. One'', in November 2013. To publicize the box set, a video of "Like a Rolling Stone" was released on Dylan's website. The interactive video, created by director Vania Heymann, allowed viewers to switch between 16 simulated TV channels, all featuring characters who are lip-synching the lyrics. Dylan appeared in a commercial for the Chrysler 200 car which aired during the 2014 Super Bowl. In it, he says that "Detroit made cars and cars made America... So let Germany brew your beer, let Switzerland make your watch, let Asia assemble your phone. ''We'' will build your car." Dylan's ad was criticized for its
protectionist Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulations. ...
implications, and people wondered whether he had " sold out". ''The Lyrics: Since 1962'' was published by
Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...
in the fall of 2014. The book was edited by literary critic
Christopher Ricks Sir Christopher Bruce Ricks (born 18 September 1933) is a British literary critic and scholar. He is the William M. and Sara B. Warren Professor of the Humanities at Boston University (US), co-director of the Editorial Institute at Boston ...
, Julie Nemrow and Lisa Nemrow and offered variant versions of Dylan's songs, sourced from out-takes and live performances. A limited edition of 50 books, signed by Dylan, was priced at $5,000. "It's the biggest, most expensive book we've ever published, as far as I know", said Jonathan Karp, Simon & Schuster's president and publisher. A comprehensive edition of the Basement Tapes, songs recorded by Dylan and the Band in 1967, was released as '' The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete'' in November 2014. The album included 138 tracks in a six-CD box; the 1975 album ''The Basement Tapes'' contained just 24 tracks from the material which Dylan and the Band had recorded at their homes in Woodstock, New York in 1967. Subsequently, over 100 recordings and alternate takes had circulated on bootleg records. The sleeve notes are by author
Sid Griffin Albert Sidney "Sid" Griffin (born September 18, 1955) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist-mandolinist, bandleader, and author who lives in London, England. He led the Long Ryders band in the 1980s, founded the Coal Porters group in ...
. ''The Basement Tapes Complete'' won the Grammy Award for Best Historical Album. The box set earned a score of 99 on Metacritic. In February 2015, Dylan released '' Shadows in the Night'', featuring ten songs written between 1923 and 1963, which have been described as part of the Great American Songbook. All of the songs had been recorded by
Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...
, but both critics and Dylan himself cautioned against seeing the record as a collection of "Sinatra covers". Dylan explained: "I don't see myself as covering these songs in any way. They've been covered enough. Buried, as a matter a fact. What me and my band are basically doing is uncovering them. Lifting them out of the grave and bringing them into the light of day". Critics praised the restrained instrumental backings and the quality of Dylan's singing. The album debuted at number one in the
UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...
in its first week of release. '' The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966'', consisting of previously unreleased material from the three albums Dylan recorded between January 1965 and March 1966 (''Bringing It All Back Home'', ''Highway 61 Revisited'' and ''Blonde on Blonde'') was released in November 2015. The set was released in three formats: a 2-CD "Best Of" version, a 6-CD "Deluxe edition", and an 18-CD "Collector's Edition". On Dylan's website the "Collector's Edition" was described as containing "every single note recorded by Bob Dylan in the studio in 1965/1966". ''The Best of the Cutting Edge'' entered the ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' Top Rock Albums chart at number one on November 18, based on its first-week sales. Dylan released '' Fallen Angels'', described as "a direct continuation of the work of 'uncovering' the Great Songbook that he began on ''Shadows In the Night''", in May. The album contained twelve songs by classic songwriters such as
Harold Arlen Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck; February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film ' ...
,
Sammy Cahn Samuel Cohen (June 18, 1913 – January 15, 1993), known professionally as Sammy Cahn, was an American lyricist, songwriter, and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premie ...
and
Johnny Mercer John Herndon Mercer (November 18, 1909 – June 25, 1976) was an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer, as well as a record label executive who co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessmen Buddy DeSylva and Wallichs Music Cit ...
, eleven of which had been recorded by Sinatra. Jim Farber wrote in ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
'': "Tellingly, ylandelivers these songs of love lost and cherished not with a burning passion but with the wistfulness of experience. They're memory songs now, intoned with a present sense of commitment. Released just four days ahead of his 75th birthday, they couldn't be more age-appropriate". '' The 1966 Live Recordings'', including every known recording of Dylan's 1966 concert tour, was released in November 2016. The recordings commence with the concert in White Plains New York on February 5, 1966, and end with the
Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...
concert in London on May 27. ''The New York Times'' reported most of the concerts had "never been heard in any form", and described the set as "a monumental addition to the corpus". In March 2017, Dylan released a triple album of 30 more recordings of classic American songs, ''Triplicate (Bob Dylan album), Triplicate''. Dylan's 38th studio album was recorded in Capitol Studios, Hollywood's Capitol Studios and features his touring band. Dylan posted a long interview on his website to promote the album, and was asked if this material was an exercise in nostalgia.
Nostalgic? No I wouldn't say that. It's not taking a trip down memory lane or longing and yearning for the good old days or fond memories of what's no more. A song like Sentimental Journey (song), 'Sentimental Journey' is not a way back when song, it doesn't emulate the past, it's attainable and down to earth, it's in the here and now.
Critics praised the thoroughness of Dylan's exploration of the Great American Songbook, though, in the opinion of ''Uncut'', "For all its easy charms, ''Triplicate'' labours its point to the brink of overkill. After five albums' worth of croon toons, this feels like a fat full stop on a fascinating chapter." The next volume of Dylan's Bootleg Series revisited his "Born Again" Christian period of 1979 to 1981, described by ''Rolling Stone'' as "an intense, wildly controversial time that produced three albums and some of the most confrontational concerts of his long career". Reviewing the box set ''The Bootleg Series Vol. 13: Trouble No More 1979–1981'', comprising 8 CDs and 1 DVD, Jon Pareles wrote in ''The New York Times'':
Decades later, what comes through these recordings above all is Mr. Dylan's unmistakable fervor, his sense of mission. The studio albums are subdued, even tentative, compared with what the songs became on the road. Mr. Dylan's voice is clear, cutting and ever improvisational; working the crowds, he was emphatic, committed, sometimes teasingly combative. And the band tears into the music.
''Trouble No More'' includes a DVD of a film directed by Jennifer Lebeau consisting of live footage of Dylan's gospel performances interspersed with sermons delivered by actor Michael Shannon. In April 2018, Dylan made a contribution to the compilation EP ''Universal Love – Wedding Songs Reimagined, Universal Love'', a collection of reimagined wedding songs for the LGBT community. The album was funded by MGM Resorts International and the songs are intended to function as "wedding anthems for same-sex couples". Dylan recorded the 1929 song "She's Funny That Way", changing the gender pronoun to "He's Funny That Way". The song was previously recorded by Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra. That same month, ''The New York Times'' reported that Dylan was launching Heaven's Door, a range of three whisky, whiskeys. The ''Times'' described the venture as "Mr. Dylan's entry into the booming celebrity-branded spirits market, the latest career twist for an artist who has spent five decades confounding expectations". Dylan has been involved in both the creation and the marketing of the range; on September 21, 2020, Dylan resurrected ''Theme Time Radio Hour'' with a two-hour special with the theme of "Whiskey". On November 2, 2018, Dylan released ''The Bootleg Series Vol. 14: More Blood, More Tracks, More Blood, More Tracks'' as Volume 14 in the Bootleg Series. The set comprises all Dylan's recordings for ''Blood On the Tracks'' and was issued as a single CD and also as a six-CD Deluxe Edition. In 2019, Netflix released ''Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese'', billed as "Part documentary, part concert film, part fever dream". The film received largely positive reviews but also aroused controversy because it mixed documentary footage filmed during the Rolling Thunder Revue in the fall of 1975 with fictitious characters and stories. Coinciding with the film release, the box set ''Bob Dylan – The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings, The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings'', was released by Columbia Records. The set comprises five full Dylan performances from the tour and recently discovered tapes from Dylan's tour rehearsals. The box set received an aggregate score of 89 on Metacritic, indicating "universal acclaim". The next installment of Dylan's Bootleg Series, ''The Bootleg Series Vol. 15: Travelin' Thru, 1967–1969, Bob Dylan (featuring Johnny Cash) – Travelin' Thru, 1967 – 1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 15'', was released on November 1. The set comprises outtakes from Dylan's albums ''John Wesley Harding'' and ''Nashville Skyline'', and songs that Dylan recorded with Johnny Cash in Nashville in 1969 and with Earl Scruggs in 1970.


2020–present

''Rough and Rowdy Ways'' On March 26, 2020, Dylan released "Murder Most Foul (song), Murder Most Foul", a seventeen-minute song revolving around the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, Kennedy assassination, on his YouTube channel. ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' reported on April 8 that "Murder Most Foul" had topped the Billboard Rock Digital Song Sales Chart, the first time that Dylan had scored a number one song on a pop chart under his own name. Three weeks later, on April 17, 2020, Dylan released another new song, "I Contain Multitudes". The title is from Walt Whitman's poem "Song of Myself". On May 7, Dylan released a third single, "False Prophet (song), False Prophet", accompanied by the news that the three songs would all appear on a forthcoming double album. ''Rough and Rowdy Ways'', Dylan's 39th studio album and his first album of original material since 2012, was released on June 19 to favorable reviews. Alexis Petridis wrote: "For all its bleakness, ''Rough and Rowdy Ways'' might well be Bob Dylan's most consistently brilliant set of songs in years: the die-hards can spend months unravelling the knottier lyrics, but you don't need a PhD in Dylanology to appreciate its singular quality and power." Rob Sheffield wrote: "While the world keeps trying to celebrate him as an institution, pin him down, cast him in the Nobel Prize canon, embalm his past, this drifter always keeps on making his next escape. On ''Rough and Rowdy Ways'', Dylan is exploring terrain nobody else has reached before—yet he just keeps pushing on into the future". The album earned a score of 95 on Metacritic, indicating "universal acclaim". In its first week of release ''Rough and Rowdy Ways'' reached number one on the UK album chart, making Dylan "the oldest artist to score a No. 1 of new, original material". In December 2020, it was announced that Dylan had sold his entire song catalog to Universal Music Publishing Group, including both the income he receives as a songwriter and his control of their copyright. Universal, a division of the French media conglomerate Vivendi, will collect all future income from the songs. ''The New York Times'' stated Universal had purchased the copyright to over 600 songs and the price was "estimated at more than $300 million", although other reports suggested the figure was closer to $400 million. In February 2021, Columbia Records released ''1970'', a three-CD set of recordings from the ''Self Portrait'' and ''New Morning'' sessions, including the entirety of the session Dylan recorded with George Harrison on May 1, 1970. Dylan's 80th birthday was commemorated by a virtual conference, Dylan@80, organized by the University of Tulsa Institute for Bob Dylan Studies. The program featured seventeen sessions over three days delivered by over fifty international scholars, journalists and musicians. Several new biographies and studies of Dylan were published. In July 2021, livestream platform Veeps presented a 50-minute performance by Dylan, ''Shadow Kingdom: The Early Songs of Bob Dylan''. Filmed in black and white with a film noir look, Dylan performed 13 songs in a club setting with an audience. The performance was favorably reviewed, and one critic suggested the backing band resembled the style of the musical ''Girl from the North Country (musical), Girl from the North Country''. The Shadow Kingdom, soundtrack to the film was released on 2 LP and CD formats in June 2023. In September, Dylan released ''The Bootleg Series Vol. 16: Springtime in New York 1980–1985, Springtime in New York: The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 (1980–1985)'', issued in 2 LP, 2 CD and 5 CD formats. It comprised rehearsals, live recordings, out-takes and alternative takes from ''Shot of Love'', ''Infidels'' and ''Empire Burlesque''. In ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...
'', Neil McCormick wrote: "These bootleg sessions remind us that Dylan's worst period is still more interesting than most artists' purple patches". ''Springtime in New York'' received an aggregate score of 85 on Metacritic. On July 7, 2022, Christie's, London, auctioned a 2021 recording of Dylan singing "Blowin' in the Wind". The record was in an innovative "one of one" recording medium, branded as Ionic Original, which producer T Bone Burnett claimed "surpasses the sonic excellence and depth for which analogue sound is renowned, while at the same time boasting the durability of a digital recording." The recording fetched GBP £1,482,000—equivalent to $1,769,508. In November, Dylan published ''The Philosophy of Modern Song'', a collection of 66 essays on songs by other artists. ''The New Yorker'' described it as "a rich, riffy, funny, and completely engaging book of essays". Other reviewers praised the book's eclectic outlook, while some questioned its variations in style and dearth of female songwriters. In January 2023, Dylan released ''The Bootleg Series Vol. 17: Fragments – Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996–1997)'' in multiple formats. The 5-CD version comprised a re-mix of the 1997 album "to sound more like how the songs came across when the musicians originally played them in the room" without the effects and processing which producer Daniel Lanois applied later; 25 previously unreleased out-takes from the studio sessions; and a disc of live performances of each song on the album performed by Dylan and his band in concert. On November 17, 2023, Dylan released ''The Complete Budokan 1978'', containing the full recordings of the February 28 and March 1 Tokyo concerts from his 1978 Tour. Dylan contributed a cover version of Cole Porter's song "Don't Fence Me In (song), Don't Fence Me In" to the soundtrack of the biographical film ''Reagan_(2024_film), Reagan'', which was released on August 30, 2024. On September 20, 2024, Dylan released ''The 1974 Live Recordings'', a 27-disc CD boxset of recordings from the 1974 Bob Dylan & The Band tour, featuring 417 previously unreleased live tracks.


Never Ending Tour

The Never Ending Tour commenced on June 7, 1988. Dylan has played roughly 100 dates a year since, a heavier schedule than most performers who started in the 1960s. By April 2019, Dylan and his band had played more than 3,000 shows, anchored by long-time bassist Tony Garnier (musician), Tony Garnier. To the dismay of some of his audience, Dylan's performances are unpredictable as he often alters his arrangements and changes his vocal approach. These variable performances have divided critics. Richard Williams (journalist), Richard Williams and Andy Gill argued that Dylan has found a successful way to present his rich legacy of material. Others have criticized his live performances for changing "the greatest lyrics ever written so that they are effectively unrecognisable", and giving so little to the audience that "it is difficult to understand what he is doing on stage at all". In September 2021, Dylan's touring company announced a series of tours which were billed as the "Rough and Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour, Rough and Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour, 2021–2024". The Rough and Rowdy Ways World Tour replaced Dylan's varied set lists with a more stable repertory, performing nine of the ten songs on his Rough and Rowdy Ways, 2020 album. Nevertheless, the tour has been referred to by the media as an extension of his ongoing Never Ending Tour. In February 2025, Dylan announced that he would undertake a U.S. leg of his Rough and Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour, commencing in Tulsa, Oklahoma on March 25, and ending in Williamsport, Pennsylvania on April 22. It was also announced that Dylan would take part in the Outlaw Music Festival 2025 Tour, appearing alongside
Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and activist. He was one of the main figures of the outlaw country subgenre that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restr ...
and other artists, beginning on May 13 in Phoenix, Arizona, and finishing on September 19 in East Troy, Wisconsin. Alex Ross has summarised Dylan's touring career: "his shows cause his songs to mutate, so that no definitive or ideal version exists. Dylan's legacy will be the sum of thousands of performances, over many decades... Every night, whether he's in good or bad form, he says, in effect, 'Think again.'"


Personal life


Romantic relationships


Echo Helstrom

Echo Helstrom was Dylan's high school girlfriend. The couple listened together to rhythm-and-blues on the radio, and her family exposed him to singers such as Jimmie Rodgers on Phonograph record#78 rpm disc developments, 78 RPM records, and a range of folk music magazines, sheet music, and manuscripts. Helstrom is believed by some to be the inspiration for Dylan's song " Girl from the North Country", though this is disputed.


Suze Rotolo

Dylan's first serious relationship was with artist Suze Rotolo, a daughter of Communist Party USA radicals. According to Dylan, "She was the most erotic thing I'd ever seen ... The air was suddenly filled with banana leaves. We started talking and my head started to spin". Rotolo was photographed arm-in-arm with Dylan on the cover of his album ''The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan''. Critics have connected Rotolo to some of Dylan's early love songs, including "Don't Think Twice It's All Right". The relationship ended in 1964. In 2008, Rotolo published a memoir about her life in Greenwich Village and relationship with Dylan in the 1960s, ''A Freewheelin' Time''.


Joan Baez

When
Joan Baez Joan Chandos Baez (, ; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing mo ...
met Dylan in April 1961, she had already released her Joan Baez (album), first album and was acclaimed as the "Queen of Folk". On hearing Dylan perform his song "With God on Our Side (song), With God on Our Side", Baez later said, "I never thought anything so powerful could come out of that little toad". In July 1963, Baez invited Dylan to join her on stage at the Newport Folk Festival, setting the scene for similar duets over the next two years.Gray, ''The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia'', 2006, pp. 28–31. By the time of Dylan's 1965 tour of the UK, their romantic relationship had begun to fizzle out, as captured in D. A. Pennebaker's documentary film '' Dont Look Back''. Baez later toured with Dylan as a performer on his Rolling Thunder Revue in 1975–76. Baez also starred as "The Woman In White" in the film ''Renaldo and Clara'' (1978), directed by Dylan. Dylan and Baez toured together again in 1984 with Carlos Santana. Baez recalled her relationship with Dylan in
Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November17, 1942) is an American filmmaker. One of the major figures of the New Hollywood era, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Martin Scorsese, many accolades, including an Academ ...
's documentary film ''No Direction Home'' (2005). Baez wrote about Dylan in two autobiographies—admiringly in ''Daybreak'' (1968), and less admiringly in ''And A Voice to Sing With'' (1987). Her song "Diamonds & Rust (song), Diamonds & Rust" has been described as "an acute portrait" of Dylan.


Sara Lownds

Dylan married Sara Lownds, who had worked as a model and secretary at Robert Drew, Drew Associates, on November 22, 1965. They had four children: Jesse Dylan, Jesse Byron (born January 6, 1966), Anna Lea (born July 11, 1967), Samuel Isaac Abram (born July 30, 1968), and Jakob Dylan, Jakob Luke (born December 9, 1969). Dylan also adopted Sara's daughter from a prior marriage, Maria Lownds (later Dylan, born October 21, 1961). Sara Dylan played the role of Clara in Dylan's film ''Renaldo and Clara'' (1978). Bob and Sara Dylan were divorced on June 29, 1977.Gray (2006), pp. 198–200.


Carolyn Dennis

Dylan and his backing singer Carolyn Dennis (often professionally known as Carol Dennis) have a daughter, Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan, born on January 31, 1986. The couple were married on June 4, 1986, and divorced in October 1992. Their marriage and child remained a closely guarded secret until the publication of Howard Sounes's biography ''Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan'', in 2001.


Home

When not touring, Dylan is believed to live primarily in Point Dume, on the coast of Malibu, California, though he owns property around the world.


Religious beliefs

Growing up in Hibbing, Minnesota, Dylan and his family were part of the area's small, close-knit Jewish community, and Dylan had his ''bar mitzvah'' in May 1954. Around the time of his 30th birthday, in 1971, Dylan visited Israel, and also met Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the New York-based Jewish Defense League. In the late 1970s, Dylan converted to Christianity. In November 1978, guided by his friend Mary Alice Artes, Dylan made contact with the Vineyard Christian Fellowship, Vineyard School of Discipleship. Vineyard Pastor Kenn Gulliksen recalled: "Larry Myers and Paul Emond went over to Bob's house and ministered to him. He responded by saying yes, he did in fact want Christ in his life. And he prayed that day and received the Lord". From January to March 1979, Dylan attended Vineyard's Bible study classes in Reseda, California. By 1984, Dylan was distancing himself from the "Born again (Christianity), born again" label. He told Kurt Loder of ''Rolling Stone'': "I've never said I'm 'born again'. That's just a media term. I don't think I've been an agnostic. I've always thought there's a superior power, that this is not the real world and that there's a world to come." In 1997, he told David Gates (author), David Gates of ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
'': Dylan has supported the Chabad, Chabad Lubavitch movement, and has privately participated in Jewish religious events, including his sons' ''bar mitzvahs'' and services at Hadar Hatorah, a Chabad Lubavitch yeshiva. In 1989 and 1991, he appeared on the Chabad telethon. Dylan has continued to perform songs from his gospel albums in concert, occasionally covering traditional religious songs. He has made passing references to his religious faith, such as in a 2004 interview with ''60 Minutes'', when he told Ed Bradley, "the only person you have to think twice about lying to is either yourself or to God". He explained his constant touring schedule as part of a bargain he made a long time ago with the "chief commander—in this earth and in the world we can't see". Speaking to Jeff Slate of ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'' in December 2022, Dylan reaffirmed his religious outlook: "I read the scriptures a lot, meditate and pray, light candles in church. I believe in damnation and salvation as well as predestination. The Five Books of Moses, Pauline Epistles, Intercession of saints, Invocation of the Saints, all of it."


Accolades and honors

Dylan has been inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the ...
, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and
Songwriters Hall of Fame The Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) is an American institution founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer, music publisher/songwriter Abe Olman, and publisher/executive Howie Richmond to honor those whose work represent and maintain the heri ...
. In 1997, US President Bill Clinton presented Dylan with a Kennedy Center Honor in the East Room of the White House, saying: "He probably had more impact on people of my generation than any other creative artist. His voice and lyrics haven't always been easy on the ear, but throughout his career Bob Dylan has never aimed to please. He's disturbed the peace and discomforted the powerful". In May 2000, Dylan received the Polar Music Prize from Sweden's Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, King Carl XVI. In June 2007, Dylan received the Princess of Asturias Award, Prince of Asturias Award in the Arts category; the jury called him "a living myth in the history of popular music and a light for a generation that dreamed of changing the world." In 2008, the Pulitzer Prize jury awarded him a special citation for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power". Dylan received the
Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, alongside the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by decision of the president of the United States to "any person recommended to the President ...
in May 2012. President Barack Obama, presenting Dylan with the award, said "There is not a bigger giant in the history of American music." Obama praised Dylan's voice for its "unique gravelly power that redefined not just what music sounded like but the message it carried and how it made people feel". In November 2013, Dylan was awarded France's highest honor, the Légion d'Honneur, despite the misgiving of the grand chancellor of the Légion, who had declared him unworthy. In February 2015, Dylan accepted the MusiCares Person of the Year award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, in recognition of his philanthropic and artistic contributions.


Nobel Prize in Literature

In 1996, Gordon Ball of the Virginia Military Institute nominated Dylan for the
Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...
, initiating a campaign that lasted for 20 years. On October 13, 2016, the Nobel committee announced that it would be awarding Dylan the prize "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition". ''The New York Times'' reported: "Mr. Dylan, 75, is the first musician to win the award, and his selection on Thursday is perhaps the most radical choice in a history stretching back to 1901." Dylan remained silent for days after receiving the award, and then told journalist Edna Gundersen that it was "amazing, incredible. Whoever dreams about something like that?" Dylan's Nobel Lecture was posted on the Nobel Prize website on June 5, 2017. Horace Engdahl, a member of the Nobel Committee, described Dylan's place in literary history:


Legacy

Dylan has been described as one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, musically and culturally. He was included in the Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century, ''Time'' 100: The Most Important People of the Century, where he was called "master poet, caustic social critic and intrepid, guiding spirit of the counterculture generation". Paul Simon suggested that Dylan's early compositions virtually took over the folk genre: "[Dylan's] early songs were very rich ... with strong melodies. 'Blowin' in the Wind' has a really strong melody. He so enlarged himself through the folk background that he incorporated it for a while. He defined the genre for a while." For many critics, Dylan's greatest achievement was the cultural synthesis exemplified by his mid-1960s trilogy of albums—''Bringing It All Back Home'', ''Highway 61 Revisited'' and ''Blonde on Blonde''. In Mike Marqusee's words: Michael Gray initiated serious critical scrutiny when he published ''Song & Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan'' in 1972, situating Dylan's work in the context of the English literary tradition, John Donne, Donne, Robert Browning, Browning and T. S. Eliot. Also in 1972, Craig McGregor published ''Bob Dylan: A Retrospective'', an anthology containing critical essays about Dylan by Robert Shelton, Nat Hentoff, Ellen Willis and other contemporary cultural critics. In 1998, Stanford University sponsored the first international academic conference on Bob Dylan held in the United States. In 2004, Richard F. Thomas, Classics professor at Harvard University, created a freshman seminar titled "Dylan", which aimed "to put the artist in context of not just popular culture of the last half-century, but the tradition of classical poets like Virgil and Homer." Thomas went on to publish ''Why Bob Dylan Matters'', exploring Dylan's connections with Classical antiquity, Greco-Roman literature. Literary critic
Christopher Ricks Sir Christopher Bruce Ricks (born 18 September 1933) is a British literary critic and scholar. He is the William M. and Sara B. Warren Professor of the Humanities at Boston University (US), co-director of the Editorial Institute at Boston ...
published ''Dylan's Visions of Sin'', an appreciation of Dylan's work. Following Dylan's Nobel win, Ricks reflected: "I'd not have written a book about Dylan, to stand alongside my books on John Milton, Milton and John Keats, Keats, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Tennyson and T.S. Eliot, if I didn't think Dylan a genius of and with language." The critical consensus that Dylan's songwriting was his outstanding creative achievement was articulated by ''Encyclopædia Britannica'': "Hailed as the Shakespeare of his generation, Dylan ... set the standard for lyric writing." Former British poet laureate Andrew Motion said Dylan's lyrics should be studied in schools. His lyrics have entered the vernacular; Edna Gundersen notes that
Lines that branded Dylan a poet and counterculture valedictorian in the '60s are imprinted on the culture: "When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose"; "a hard rain's a-gonna fall"; "to live outside the law you must be honest." Some lyrics — "you don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows" and "the times they are a-changin' " — appear in ''Bartlett's Familiar Quotations''.
''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
'' ranked Dylan first on its 2015 list of the Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time, 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time, fifteenth on its 2023 list of the Greatest Singers of All Time, and placed "Like A Rolling Stone" first on their Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, list of greatest songs in 2004 and 2011. He was listed second on the magazine's Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, list of the hundred greatest artists. The ''Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll'' writes that "His lyrics—the first in rock to be seriously regarded as literature—became so well known that politicians from Jimmy Carter to Václav Havel have cited them as an influence." Dylan's voice also received critical attention. Robert Shelton described his early vocal style as "a rusty voice suggesting Guthrie's old performances, etched in gravel like Dave Van Ronk's". His voice continued to develop as he began to work with rock'n'roll backing bands; Michael Gray described the sound of Dylan's vocal work on "
Like a Rolling Stone "Like a Rolling Stone" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on July 20, 1965, by Columbia Records. Its confrontational lyrics originated in an extended piece of verse Dylan wrote in June 1965, when he returned exhauste ...
" as "at once young and jeeringly cynical". As Dylan's voice aged during the 1980s, for some critics, it became more expressive. Christophe Lebold writes in the journal ''Oral Tradition (journal), Oral Tradition'':
Dylan's more recent broken voice enables him to present a world view at the sonic surface of the songs—this voice carries us across the landscape of a broken, fallen world. The anatomy of a broken world in "Everything is Broken" (on the album '' Oh Mercy'') is but an example of how the thematic concern with all things broken is grounded in a concrete sonic reality.
Among musicians who have acknowledged his influence are
John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...
, Paul McCartney, Jerry Garcia, Pete Townshend, Syd Barrett, Tim Buckley,
Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan Mitchell (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and painter. As one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitch ...
,
Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...
,
Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...
, David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Patti Smith, Joe Strummer, Bono, Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Ole Paus and Chuck D. Dylan significantly contributed to the initial success of both
the Byrds The Byrds () were an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) being the so ...
and
the Band The Band was a Canadian-American rock music, rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario, in 1957. It consisted of the Canadians Rick Danko (bass, guitar, vocals, fiddle), Garth Hudson (organ, keyboards, accordion, saxophone), Richard Manuel (piano, d ...
: the Byrds achieved chart success with their version of "Mr. Tambourine Man#The Byrds' version, Mr. Tambourine Man" and the Mr. Tambourine Man (album), subsequent album, while the Band were Dylan's backing band Bob Dylan World Tour 1966, on his 1966 tour, recorded ''The Basement Tapes'' with him in 1967 and featured three previously unreleased Dylan songs on their Music From Big Pink, debut album.
Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter. Most of his music contains themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially songs from the later stages of his career. ...
, introducing "Wanted Man", said "I don't have to tell you who Bob Dylan is—the greatest writer of our time." Some critics have dissented from the view of Dylan as a visionary figure in popular music. In his book ''Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom'', Nik Cohn objected: "I can't take the vision of Dylan as seer, as teenage messiah, as everything else he's been worshipped as. The way I see him, he's a minor talent with a major gift for self-hype". Australian critic Jack Marx credited Dylan with changing the persona of the rock star: "What cannot be disputed is that Dylan invented the arrogant, faux-cerebral posturing that has been the dominant style in rock since, with everyone from Mick Jagger to Eminem educating themselves from the Dylan handbook". Fellow musicians have also expressed critical views. Joni Mitchell described Dylan as a "plagiarist" and his voice as "fake" in a 2010 interview in the ''Los Angeles Times''. Mitchell's comments led to discussions on Dylan's use of other people's material, both supporting and criticizing him. Talking to Mikal Gilmore in ''Rolling Stone'' in 2012, Dylan responded to the allegation of plagiarism, including his use of Henry Timrod's verse in his album ''Modern Times'', by saying that it was "part of the tradition".Dylan told Gilmore: "As far as Henry Timrod is concerned, have you even heard of him? Who's been reading him lately? And who's pushed him to the forefront? ... And if you think it's so easy to quote him and it can help your work, do it yourself and see how far you can get. Wussies and pussies complain about that stuff. It's an old thing—it's part of the tradition." Dylan's music has inspired artists in other fields. Dave Gibbons recalls how he and Alan Moore were inspired by the lines of " Desolation Row" beginning "At midnight, all the agents/ And the superhuman crew...":
It was a glimpse, a mere fragment of something; something ominous, paranoid and threatening. But something that showed that comics, like poetry or rock and roll or Bob Dylan himself, might feasibly become part of the greater cultural continuum. The lines must have also lodged in Alan's consciousness for, nearly twenty years later, Dylan's words eventually provided the title of the first issue of our comic book series ''Watchmen.''
In 2007, Todd Haynes released ''I'm Not There'', "inspired by the music and many lives of Bob Dylan". The movie used six actors, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Ben Whishaw, to explore different facets of Dylan's life. Dylan's previously unreleased 1967 song from which the film takes its name was included on the I'm Not There (soundtrack), original soundtrack along with covers of Dylan songs by such diverse artists as Sonic Youth, Calexico (band), Calexico and Yo La Tengo. Irish playwright Conor McPherson wrote and directed the musical Girl from the North Country (musical), ''Girl from the North Country'', which used Dylan's songs to tell the stories of characters during the Great Depression, Depression years, set in Dylan's birthplace,
Duluth, Minnesota Duluth ( ) is a Port, port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of St. Louis County, Minnesota, St. Louis County. Located on Lake Superior in Minnesota's Arrowhead Region, the city is a hub for cargo shipping. The population ...
. The play premiered in London in 2017. If Dylan's work in the 1960s was seen as bringing intellectual ambition to popular music, critics in the 21st century described him as a figure who had greatly expanded the folk culture from which he initially emerged. In his review of ''I'm Not There'', J. Hoberman wrote: Dylan's rise to stardom, from his arrival in New York in 1961 to his Electric Dylan controversy , controversial performance at Newport in 1965, was portrayed by the feature film '' A Complete Unknown'', which opened in the U.S. on December 25, 2024. The film garnered generally favorable reviews, with praise for actor Timothée Chalamet as Dylan.


Archives and recognition

The sale of The Bob Dylan Archive, Dylan's archive of about 6,000 notebooks, drafts of lyrics, recordings, and correspondence to the George Kaiser, George Kaiser Family Foundation and the University of Tulsa was announced in March 2016. The sale price was "an estimated $15 million to $20 million". To house the archive, the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma opened on May 10, 2022. In 2005, 7th Avenue East in Hibbing, Minnesota, where Dylan lived from ages 6 to 18, received the honorary name Bob Dylan Drive. In 2006, the Bob Dylan Way cultural path was inaugurated in Duluth, Minnesota; it links "cultural and historically significant areas of downtown for the tourists". In 2015, a 160-foot-wide Dylan mural by Brazilian street artist Eduardo Kobra was unveiled in downtown Minneapolis. In December 2013, the Fender Stratocaster which Dylan had played at the Electric Dylan controversy, 1965 Newport Folk Festival fetched $965,000, the second highest price paid for a guitar. In June 2014, Dylan's hand-written lyrics of "Like a Rolling Stone" fetched $2 million at auction, a record for a popular music manuscript.


Visual arts


Painting

Dylan's visual art was first seen by the public via a painting he contributed for the cover of
the Band The Band was a Canadian-American rock music, rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario, in 1957. It consisted of the Canadians Rick Danko (bass, guitar, vocals, fiddle), Garth Hudson (organ, keyboards, accordion, saxophone), Richard Manuel (piano, d ...
's ''Music from Big Pink'' album in 1968. The cover of Dylan's own 1970 album Self Portrait (Bob Dylan album), ''Self Portrait'' features the painting of a human face by Dylan. More of Dylan's artwork was revealed with the 1973 publication of his book ''Writings and Drawings''. The cover of Dylan's 1974 album '' Planet Waves'' again featured one of his paintings. In 1994 Random House published ''Drawn Blank'', a book of Dylan's drawings. In 2007, the first public exhibition of Dylan's paintings, ''The Drawn Blank Series'', opened at the Kunstsammlungen in Chemnitz, Germany; it showcased more than 200 watercolors and gouaches made from the original drawings. The exhibition coincided with the publication of ''Bob Dylan: The Drawn Blank Series'', which includes 170 reproductions from the series. From September 2010 until April 2011, the Statens Museum for Kunst, National Gallery of Denmark exhibited 40 large-scale acrylic paintings by Dylan, ''The Brazil Series''. In July 2011, a leading contemporary art gallery, Gagosian Gallery, announced their representation of Dylan's paintings. An exhibition of Dylan's art, ''The Asia Series'', opened at the Gagosian Madison Avenue Gallery on September 20, displaying Dylan's paintings of scenes in China and the Far East. ''The New York Times'' reported that "some fans and Dylanologists have raised questions about whether some of these paintings are based on the singer's own experiences and observations, or on photographs that are widely available and were not taken by Mr. Dylan". ''The Times'' pointed to close resemblances between Dylan's paintings and historic photos of Japan and China, and photos taken by Dmitri Kessel and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Art critic Blake Gopnik has defended Dylan's artistic practice, arguing: "Ever since the birth of photography, painters have used it as the basis for their works: Edgar Degas and Édouard Vuillard and other favorite artists—even Edvard Munch—all took or used photos as sources for their art, sometimes barely altering them". The Magnum Photos, Magnum photo agency confirmed that Dylan had licensed the reproduction rights of these photographs. Dylan's second show at the Gagosian Gallery, ''Revisionist Art'', opened in November 2012. The show consisted of thirty paintings, transforming and satirizing popular magazines, including ''Playboy'' and ''Babytalk (magazine), Babytalk''. In February 2013, Dylan exhibited the ''New Orleans Series'' of paintings at the Royal Palace of Milan, Palazzo Reale in Milan. In August 2013, Britain's National Portrait Gallery, London hosted Dylan's first major UK exhibition, ''Face Value'', featuring twelve pastel portraits. In November 2016, the Halcyon Gallery featured a collection of artworks by Dylan. The exhibition, ''The Beaten Path'', depicted American landscapes and urban scenes, inspired by Dylan's travels across the US. The show was reviewed by ''Vanity Fair (magazine), Vanity Fair'' and ''Asia Times Online''. In October 2018, the Halcyon Gallery mounted an exhibition of Dylan's drawings, ''Mondo Scripto''. The works consisted of Dylan hand-written lyrics of his songs, with each song illustrated by a drawing. ''Retrospectrum'', the largest retrospective of Dylan's visual art to date, consisting of over 250 works in various media, debuted at the Modern Art Museum in Shanghai in 2019. Building on the exhibition in China, a version of ''Retrospectrum'', which includes a new series of paintings, "Deep Focus", drawn from film imagery, opened at the Frost Art Museum in Miami on November 30, 2021, while from December 16, 2022, to April 30, 2023, the MAXXI, MAXXI Museum in Rome hosted the retrospective which was the first European monographic exhibition dedicated to Dylan’s visual art. Also in 2022, ''Drawn Blank in Provence'', his first painting exhibition in France, opened at ''Château Lacoste'', a contemporary art center in Provence that combines a vineyard, a luxury hotel, several restaurants, and an open-air sculpture park, offering an experience where art, architecture, gastronomy, and nature come together. The exhibition took place alongside his first permanent sculpture installation in the country, titled ''Rail Car''. Since 1994, Dylan has published ten books of paintings and drawings. In November 2022, Dylan apologized for using an autopen to sign books and artwork which were subsequently sold as "hand-signed" since 2019.


Sculpture

Bob Dylan has also been active as a sculptor, specialising in work with iron. For thirty years, he crafted metal sculptures for family and friends before showcasing his work publicly in November 2013 with ''Mood Swings'', an exhibition of seven wrought iron gates at London’s Halcyon Gallery. In a statement released by the gallery, Dylan said :
I've been around iron all my life ever since I was a kid. I was born and raised in iron ore country, where you could breathe it and smell it every day. Gates appeal to me because of the negative space they allow. They can be closed but at the same time they allow the seasons and breezes to enter and flow. They can shut you out or shut you in. And in some ways there is no difference.
Dylan collects metal objects, including farm tools, antique firearms, gears, chains, and axes, and welds them together to create sculptural pieces. One of his most prominent installations in the United States is ''Portal'', a monumental iron archway permanently displayed at the entrance of the MGM National Harbor resort in Maryland.Cold Iron Bound: Bob Dylan’s Metal Work
''Whitehotmagazine.com'', May 2021.
Created in 2016, this sculpture was welded by Dylan and comprises repurposed metal objects including tools and machine parts, reflecting a fascination with Americana and industrial materials.Bob Dylan Unveils Enormous Metal Sculpture To Adorn Entrance To A $1.3 Billion Resort Casino
'' Forbes '', September 7, 2016.
In 2022, his first permanent sculpture installation in France, titled ''Rail Car'', was inaugurated at Château Lacoste in Provence. This immersive work, made up of a wrought-iron freight car set on rails, evokes both industrial history and Dylan’s personal history. It is displayed alongside works by leading contemporary artists and architects such as Ai Weiwei, Louise Bourgeois, Tracy Emin and Tadao Ando and was accompanied for a while by an exhibition of 24 paintings by Dylan, ''Drawn blank in Provence'' (his first painting exhibition in France), shedding light on previously unseen aspects of his artistic practice.Bob Dylan: Rail Car at Château Lacoste
''Halcyongallery.com'', May 9, 2022.


Written works

Dylan has published Tarantula (poetry collection), ''Tarantula'', a work of prose poetry; '' Chronicles: Volume One'', the first part of his memoirs; several books of the lyrics of his songs, and ten books of his art. Dylan's third full length book, ''The Philosophy of Modern Song'', which contains 66 essays on songs by other artists, was published on November 1, 2022. Dylan has also been the subject of numerous biographies and critical studies.


Discography

* ''
Bob Dylan 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 nearly 70-year ...
'' (1962) * '' The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'' (1963) * ''The Times They Are a-Changin' (Bob Dylan album), The Times They Are a-Changin''' (1964) * '' Another Side of Bob Dylan'' (1964) * '' Bringing It All Back Home'' (1965) * ''
Highway 61 Revisited ''Highway 61 Revisited'' is the sixth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on August 30, 1965, by Columbia Records. Dylan continued the musical approach of his previous album ''Bringing It All Back Home'' (1965), usi ...
'' (1965) * '' Blonde on Blonde'' (1966) * '' John Wesley Harding'' (1967) * '' Nashville Skyline'' (1969) * ''
Self Portrait Self-portraits are Portrait painting, portraits artists make of themselves. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, the practice of self-portraiture only gaining momentum in the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century ...
'' (1970) * '' New Morning'' (1970) * ''Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (album), Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid'' (1973) * '' Dylan'' (1973) * '' Planet Waves'' (1974) * '' Blood on the Tracks'' (1975) * '' The Basement Tapes'' (1975) * ''
Desire Desires are states of mind that are expressed by terms like "wanting", "wishing", "longing" or "craving". A great variety of features is commonly associated with desires. They are seen as propositional attitudes towards conceivable states of affa ...
'' (1976) * '' Street-Legal'' (1978) * '' Slow Train Coming'' (1979) * '' Saved'' (1980) * '' Shot of Love'' (1981) * ''
Infidels An infidel (literally "unfaithful") is a person who is accused of disbelief in the central tenets of one's own religion, such as members of another religion, or irreligion, irreligious people. Infidel is an Ecclesiology, ecclesiastical term in Ch ...
'' (1983) * '' Empire Burlesque'' (1985) * '' Knocked Out Loaded'' (1986) * '' Down in the Groove'' (1988) * '' Oh Mercy'' (1989) * '' Under the Red Sky'' (1990) * '' Good as I Been to You'' (1992) * '' World Gone Wrong'' (1993) * ''Time Out of Mind (Bob Dylan album), Time Out of Mind'' (1997) * ''Love and Theft (Bob Dylan album), "Love and Theft"'' (2001) * ''Modern Times (Bob Dylan album), Modern Times'' (2006) * '' Together Through Life'' (2009) * '' Christmas in the Heart'' (2009) * ''Tempest (Bob Dylan album), Tempest'' (2012) * '' Shadows in the Night'' (2015) * '' Fallen Angels'' (2016) * ''Triplicate (Bob Dylan album), Triplicate'' (2017) * ''Rough and Rowdy Ways'' (2020) * ''Shadow Kingdom'' (2023)


Notes


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External links

*
Expecting Rain
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