Bob DylanOf the rumours and myths with which Dylan has constantly shrouded his career--indeed, whole life--one thing is not open to doubt: he was determined to make it. He began singing in folk clubs as soon as he arrived in New York in January, 1961, and regularly visited Woodie Guthrie in the hospital. Dylan had a strong desire to emulate the itinerant folk-minstrel, and boasted about his acquaintance with his hero. He had a personal magnetism, an unpolished but effective singing style, and was good at hustling. He had been there only a couple of months before he began to win wide attention, and in the spring of 1961 was given second billing to John Lee Hooker at Gerde's Folk City in Greenwich Village. Dylan cut his first album late in 1961 and it was released in March, 1962. Titled "Bob Dylan", with its traditional blues songs and Dylan's earthily urgent instrumental style, caused a mild sensation, though the record company (Columbia) was not overly impressed. The "Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" was the album that established him. It was a total departure from "Bob Dylan", containing all his own material; the compositions showed that Dylan had discovered the folk-protest movement and dived into it with charismatic commitment. Songs like "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall", "Blowin' In The Wind", and "Masters of War" became classics of the genre, while "Oxford Town" showed his excellence as a commentator on contemporary social/political events. "The Times They Are A-Changin'" featured more mature political statements, particularly about the treatment of Negroes in America ("The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll" and "Only A Pawn In Their Game") as well as a powerful anti-war song ("With God On Our Side") and the title track, which became an all-purpose anthem for youth movements (and later, in 1965, his first hit single in Britain). "Bringing It All Back Home" featured a solo Dylan on one side, and, on the other, tracks with him and a small ensemble of musicians. Of the songs, "Mr. Tamborine Man" was evidence of his increasing interest in drugs, while others--"Gates Of Eden" and "Subterranean Homesick Blues"--were fully-developed exercises in allusive surrealism for which Dylan became best known. By now he was already more of an international phenomenon than a recording star. His albums sold in large quantities, his shows were sellouts. He was a familiar figure in his denim cap and suede jacket, and his semi-beatnik lifestyle and penchant for unpredictable utterances made for good newspaper copy. He was seen as the spokesman of a disillusioned, alienated, but nevertheless articulate generation. His songs also advanced the careers of less gifted rock stars. Peter, Paul, & Mary had an international hit with "Blowin' In The Wind", and The Byrds inaugurated their own legend with versions of two Dylan songs, "Mr. Tamborine Man" and "All I Really Wanna Do". "Highway 61 Revisited", recorded in New York, 1965, was a quite remarkable album with a sustained level of extraordinarily creative lyricism, containing what is arguably Dylan's quintessential performance, "Like A Rolling Stone", and also the tour de force "Desolation Row". By now Dylan was touring with The Band, then known as the Hawks. A mysterious retirement followed. The official explanation--now generally accepted-- is that Dylan had a serious motorcycle accident which almost killed him. There are, however, reasons for doubting the truth of this story (mainly the desultory way in which information filtered through); what can be said is that if Dylan had not had a motorcycle accident it would have been necessary to invent one. During his convalescence and/or period of withdrawal, Dylan cut the legendary "Basement Tapes" at Big Pink in Woodstock with The Band. Though the tapes, not issued until Dylan re-signed with Columbia in 1975, only helped swell the mythology at the time (who else would record a double album of stunningly inventive material, and then refuse to sanction its commercial release?), the songs began to be circulating freely in Britain and America and cover versions were appearing. Peter, Paul, & Mary recorded "Too Much Of Nothing", and Manfred Mann's "The Mighty Quinn" was a No. 1 in Britain in 1968. When Dylan finally broke his silence, there was again a surprise awaiting his public. His voice had lost its gritty huskiness and mellowed; his songs were of austere understatement, many permeated with religious imagery. The album, "John Wesley Harding", introduced songs such as "All Along The Watchtower", which Hendrix later rendered in his own inimitable fashion. In 1973, Dylan surprisingly agreed to play a supporting role as a character call Alias (it was a part he seemed to have written for himself) in Sam Peckinpah's movie "Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid", starring Kris Kristofferson. Dylan wrote a score and the title-theme "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" became one of his largest latterday hits. In 1976 Dylan produced another new album "Desire". The single take from it, "Hurricane", about a wrongful imprisonment of boxer Hurricane Carter, showed that Dylan's political sensibilities were as sharp as ever. In 1978 he released a new studio album Street Legal and in 1979 the live album, At Budokan. Still in '79 he announced that he was a born-again Christain, and released a series of Christian albums, mostly to poor reviews. He returned to secular recording with 1983's Infidels, which was greeted with good reviews and once again made his fans happy. Empire Burlesque, his self-produced follow-up to Infidels, was released in '85. In 1986, Dylan hit the road with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers for a successful tour, but his album that year, Knocked Out Loaded, was received poorly. The following year, he toured with the Grateful Dead as his backing band. Then in 1988, Dylan embarked on what became known as "The Never-Ending Tour" a constant stream of shows that ran on and off into the late '90s In 1988 he formed the group the Traveling Wilburys with former Beatle George Harrison, former Electric Light Orchestra leader Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and Roy Orbison. The group represented three generations of rock stars and put out two great albums, but they never toured. Dylan would put out five more albums in the 90s: Under the Red Sky (1990) which was a album of covers, 1992's Good As I Been to You, World Gone Wrong in '93, MTV Unplugged in '95 and finally 1997's Time Out Of My Mind. In December '97, Dylan was honored in the U.S. for artistic excellence with the Kennedy Center Honors. Finally in 2001, he won the Academy Award for Best Song, "Things Have Changed". Even more of an honor is the fact that since 1963, hundreds of other performers have record many of his songs. No one else has written lyrics quite like Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan's importance to the development of rock is rivalled only by that of The Beatles. His influence went much further than the innovative qualities of his lyrics, his semi-visionary songs effecting a change in the consciousness of an entire generation, and opening up a general awareness of attitudes, both personal and political, that, without him, might still be stifled and denied today. |
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