Perfection Would Have Flawed Bob Dylan
By Nikhil Krishnan
Bob Dylan’s yearbook prediction was ‘to join Little Richard on the rock n’ roll expedition’. Since then, each and every Bob Dylan fan knows he has ended up doing much more than that. At the height of his career, Dylan’s lyrics were quoted in politicians’ speeches, taught in poetry classes and worshipped by people because he sang for them. With a long musical career spanning five decades, Bob Dylan’s incalculable musical impact has influenced the worlds of music, literature and politics and has been only surpassed by The Beatles. Every generation has since used popular music effectively to express their imperative issues. Yet, Dylan never realizes his impact and continues on his musical expedition, recreating history. Bruce Springsteen said of him as follows, “Bob Dylan freed your mind just as Elvis Presley freed your body.”
Quiet and serious, Robert Allen Zimmerman was born in Duluth, Minnesota. Though his life was luxurious, he showed an early interest in serving the needy and underprivileged. At a very young age, he showed interest in music and mostly recorded his private thoughts in poetry. At high school, he performed at several talent shows, but he was consistently booed because of his lousy singing voice.
Zimmerman gave away his early affinity for rock music when he heard obscure folk and country records by Hank Williams Sr., Pete Seeger, and most importantly, Woody Guthrie. He then started to perform folk music at various coffeehouses where he started calling himself Bob Dylan in the honor of Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas. It was not until his second album with Columbia Records, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963) that he identified himself as more of a songwriter than a singer. The album included several anti-war classics such as Blowin’ in the Wind, and A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall, etc. Dylan instantly clicked with the people, becoming the leader of the 1960s American folk music revival at a time when British Bands such as The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones dominated the musical world. After folk albums including The Times They Are-A Changin’, Dylan controversially ventured into rock music, which in turn influenced The Beatles in expanding their musical creativity. Bringing It All Back Home (1965) spanned classics such as Mr. Tambourine Man and Subterranean Homesick Blues. Dylan got the opportunity to fuse his sophisticated poetic lyrics with the then non-serious rock n’ roll, introducing his social critique to a wider audience. Heading to the paramount of his career, he released Highway 61 Revisited (1965) which included his surreal classic Like a Rolling Stone that is most famous for topping the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list by the Rolling Stone magazine. Other great Bob Dylan albums include Blonde on Blonde (1966) and Blood on the Tracks (1975).
Bob Dylan ventures back and forth from folk to rock on his recent albums such as Time Out of Mind (1997), “Love and Theft” (2001) and Modern Times (2006). With honors ranging from countless Grammys and Academy Awards to the Kennedy Center Honors and the Pulitzer Prize, Bob Dylan has always asked questions and done things differently, paving the way for many others to do the same.
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