IndexBiographical InformationMajor WorksCritical ReceptionThe most influential singer-songwriter of his era, Bob Dylan proved that rock and roll lyrics, once known for their lightheartedness, could be rich, serious, and meaningful. Combining forms borrowed from folk ballad verse, blues, country and western, gospel music, and techniques acquired from French symbolists and beat poets, Dylan revitalized folk song and inspired other musicians to follow his example in the expression of if. Songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are A-Changin'" endeared him to anti-war protesters and supporters of the civil rights movement, and he was commonly referred to as the spokesman for his generation , a title he disavowed. As Dylan tirelessly ventured from folk music to electrically amplified rock music to country music to gospel to blues to bluegrass, his audience followed. Over the course of a career that began professionally in 1961, Dylan wrote more than three hundred songs, released more than forty albums, and performed live at more than two thousand concerts. Among his most famous songs are “Mr. Tambourine Man", "Like a Rolling Stone", "Subterranean Blues", "Lay Lady Lay", "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and "Tangled Up In Blue". Dylan has garnered widespread praise for the literary merit of his lyrical compositions ; his merits as a poet have been repeatedly compared to those of literary giants such as Walt Whitman, T. S. Eliot and Allen Ginsberg. Dylan has received numerous honors and awards, including an Academy Award, and was named by Life magazine as one of the One Hundred Most Important Americans of the 20th Century. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Biographical Information Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941 , in a Jewish family in Duluth, Minnesota. His father was a co-owner of the Zimmerman Furniture and Appliance Co. In 1947, the family moved to Hibbing, Minnesota. Dylan began writing poetry at the age of ten and learned to play music the guitar at the age of fourteen. Inspired by Elvis Presley, Hank Williams and Little Richard, Dylan formed several bands in high school, one called the Golden Chords, which played country music and rhythm and blues. Dylan won a scholarship to the University of Minnesota in 1959 and became acquainted with Bound for Glory, Woody Guthrie's autobiography. Dylan was very impressed with the book and soon learned dozens of Guthrie's songs. He performed many of them in local cafés, first appearing under his adopted name Bob Dylan (legally changed in 1962). His renditions of popular songs were filled with the influence of his rock and roll background. After a few months in Madison, Wisconsin, and then Chicago, Dylan borrowed passage to New York in late 1960. He played folk music in the clubs and coffeehouses of Greenwich Village and visited the ailing Woody Guthrie in the hospital. As an opening act Dylan received a rave review from the New York Times. The next day, during a studio session as a harmonica player, he was signed to Columbia Records by John Hammond. Although his debut album Bob Dylan (1962), sold a whopping 5,000 copies, his second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963), earned him cult status because it included "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" and “Blowin’ in.” the wind.” Peter, Paul and Mary's cover of “Blowin' in the Wind” was a phenomenal success and popularized the socially conscious folk song. Dylan became a favorite of the countercultural movement and gave them an eloquent voice and anthem with the title song of his third album, The Times They Are A-Changin'(1964). Dylan was soon overwhelmed by his political status and closed himself off with Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964). In one of his songs, “My Back Pages,” Dylan signals a break with his past: “Ah, but I was much older then / I'm younger than I am now.” Dylan further separated himself from folk purists and political activists when he performed a series of loud, electrically amplified new compositions at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Although he lost some of his fans during the transition, he gained many more, and in the same year he released a hit single with "Like to Rolling Stone,” which made him a pop superstar. Exhausted by international concert tours and the pressures of stardom, Dylan used a motorcycle accident in 1966 as an excuse to take a step back from his career. Although he continued to write and recording new material, he performed in public only a few times until 1974, when he held a record-breaking comeback tour. At the end of the year he recorded what is considered one of his best albums, Blood on the Tracks (1975), followed by Desire (1976), topped the charts. Dylan's conversion to Christianity brought further controversy in 1979. Many fans were outraged that Dylan refused to perform any of his classic songs written before his religious conversion and were even more offended by his proselytizing on stage, but he had a another hit single with "Gotta Serve Somebody", which earned him a Grammy Award in 1980. Dylan began performing his early classics again by the end of the year. In 1982 he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Also in the early 1980s, Dylan converted from Christianity to Hasidic Judaism. In 1988 Dylan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and, with other music stars George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, formed a group called the Traveling Wilburys; their debut album delighted critics and audiences alike. Dylan accepted a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1991. In 1993 he sang "Chimes of Freedom" as part of President Clinton's inaugural celebration. In 1997 he performed for Pope John Paul II in Italy. Time Out of Mind (1997) received rave reviews and earned him three Grammy Awards for Album of the Year, Male Rock Performance and Contemporary Folk Album. That same year Dylan received the Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Achievement Award from the President. In 2001 Dylan received an Oscar for his song "Things Have Changed", written for the film Wonder Boys. His last album, "Love and Theft" (2001) received a rare five-star rating, an instant classic, from Rolling Stone magazine. Major works of Bob Dylan include only two Dylan originals, one of which, "Song to Woody", demonstrates the influence of his one-time idol. His second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, contains only two songs that are not Dylan originals, and includes protest songs like "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Masters of War," which capture the atmosphere and spirit of the early '60s counterculture, as well as "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," which remains one of his most popular songs about lost love. His third album, The Times They Are A-Changin', also contains many classic songs of folk protest and social commitment acclaimed as masterpieces, including "Ballad of Hollis Brown", "With God on Our Side", "Only a Pawn in Their Game” and “The Lonely Death of Hattie Carroll.” The liner notes show his first widely circulated poem, “11 Outlined Epitaphs.” title of his next album, Another Side of Bob Dylan, indicates his shift from political lyrics to more personal lyrics. This inward turn produced songs that demonstrate the influence of Beat poetryand psychedelic drugs. “Chimes of Freedom” expresses his spiritual side, which ultimately earned him the label of visionary. The first half of his next album, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), surprised everyone with its electric guitars. Once again the songs express social and political alienation rather than activism. "Subterranean Homesick Blues" expresses distrust of authority and sees conventions as suffocating and oppressive to the individual. "Maggie's Farm" expresses the impulse to "leave" the everyday world with the statement: "I will not work on Maggie's Farm no more." “It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding),” included on the soundtrack to the quintessential counterculture film Easy Rider (1969), further expresses the cruelty of mainstream society. "Mr. Tambourine Man," one of his most enduring songs, expresses the sense of freedom and joy that comes from giving up social mores in favor of creativity and artistic liberation. In the liner notes Dylan offers an explanation of himself and his work: “my poems are written in a rhythm of unpoetic distortion / divided by pierced ears. Fake/stolen eyelashes from people constantly torturing each other. With a melodic line of descriptive emptiness, sometimes seen through dark sunglasses, other forms of psychic explosion. A song is all that can walk on its own / I'm called a songwriter. A poem is a naked person... some say I am a poet. "Highway 61 Revisited (1965) consolidated his transition from political folk singer to alienated rock musician, still critical of society but without any specific political agenda. The double album Blonde on Blonde (1966), often considered his best work, contains mostly songs of love or bitterness about failed relationships, including the biblically inspired hits "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35," "Visions of Johanna" and "Just Come a Woman." , the first album of new Dylan songs to be released since the motorcycle accident, returns to acoustic material, quiet and thoughtful, the album is widely considered a response to the excesses of rock music exemplified by the Beatles with their Sgt. release. by Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Dylan's next two albums were heavily influenced by country music: Nashville Skyline (1969), which includes a duet with Johnny Cash, and Self Portrait (1970), a double album, largely composed of cover, which was panned by critics. Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (1971) started a trend in the music industry with the inclusion of several previously unreleased songs. Dylan wrote the score for Sam Peckinpah's western film Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) and accepted a small role in the film. In the same year Dylan published Writings and Drawings; he had never included lyrics to his songs in his albums and so this large hardcover book containing all of his published and many unreleased songs was received with great acclaim and became a bestseller. (It was updated in 1985 with the release of Lyrics, 1962-1985.) Planet Waves (1974) was released to coincide with Dylan's highly anticipated return to touring across America, a tour represented by the double album Before the Flood ( 1974). Blood on the Tracks is widely considered his best or second best album. Its impact on listeners was indicated by Rolling Stone's devotion of its entire record review section to this album, with numerous essayists giving their individual assessments. The same magazine awarded it the album of the year award, along with another album of the year, also by Dylan, The Basement Tapes. Although The Basement Tapes was not released until 1975, it dates back to 1967, when he was convalescing..