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Robert Zimmerman (1941 - present) - took his stage
name from Dylan Thomas (legally changed name in 1962)
- hero was Woody Guthrie
- left home in Minnesota (1/61) to visit Guthrie at the hospital in NYC
... he was dying of Huntington's disease
- auditioned for John Hammond (Columbia) with acoustic guitar & harmonica,
singing:
You're
No Good
- 3/62 - released his debut album containing traditional folk songs and blues,
as well as two original tunes: "Song to Woody" (tribute to Guthrie)
and:
Masters
of War
"A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" 
"Blowin' in the Wind"
Mario Savio's Free Speech Movement (with reflections by Joan Baez)
Snapshots from Dylan's early years ("all my songs are protest songs")
- 8/28/63 - participated in the March on Washington where Martin Luther King
made his impassioned "I Have a Dream"
speech
"It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" (scenes from the March on Washington
- 1/64 - with The Times They Are A-Changin', Dylan
emerged as a major star of the folk movement; typical subject matter:
- war
- racial prejudice
- social injustice
the title song: (very brief)
anti-war Dylan: "With God on Our Side" (and "Talkin' World War II Blues") ( performances by The Weavers & Pete Seeger)
- summer of 1964 - met the Beatles
- reportedly introduced them to marijuana
- commented on lack of real meaning in their lyrics ... had a marked effect
on Lennon, since he respected Dylan highly
From Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964)
"My Back Pages"
"All I Really Want to Do"
- Spring 1965 - traveled on a 3-week tour of England; captured in a documentary by D.A. Pennebaker entitled Don't Look Back
(1967)
this video provides the opening for Pennebaker's documentary
this interview provides a view of the "classic Dylan" of the period ... confident & self-assured..
"Mr. Tambourine Man"
- 7/25/65 - played at the Newport Folk Festival backed by the Paul Butterfield
Blues Band (electric guitars!!)
- started the folk rock movement along
with The Byrds' version of his "Mr. Tambourine Man"
- "Maggie's Farm" (electric performance)
- "Maggie's Farm," "Rolling Stone," and "It's All Over Baby Blue"
- 1965 - released Highway 61 Revisited
- "Like a Rolling Stone" or (with Dylan reflections)
- 7/29/66 - motorcycle accident near Woodstock, NY
- several broken vertebrae in his neck, a concussion & face lacerations!
- in critical condition for a week ... bedridden for a month
- spent nine months in seclusion ... during this time played & recorded
periodically with The Band (the series of recordings was released in 1975
as The Basement Tapes)
- 1968 - released John Wesley Harding, in which he returned to a more
mellow folk sound using a more pleasing vocal timbre
Dylan's career has been marked by radical changes ...
- on the album Nashville Skyline (1969) - Dylan turned toward country
... with slide guitar & all
- this combination of country & rock was taken to heart in the Country
Rock movement of the 70s & the current revived interest in country
Lay
Lady Lay
- 1979 - turned to the message of Christianity for 3 albums (Slow Train
Coming, Saved, and Shot of Love)
- influenced by fundamentalist teachings of Jim McGuinn [the Byrds] &
Debby Boone
- interestingly, in 1972, an English instructor at SMU claimed to have evidence that Dylan was the 2nd coming!!
- 80s material is less significant than prior releases
- toured with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and the Grateful Dead
- 1988 - became part of the Traveling Wilburys: Dylan ("Lucky";
later "Boo"), George Harrison ("Nelson," former Beatle),
Jeff Lynne ("Otis," formerly with Electric Light Orchestra), Tom
Petty ("Charlie T."; later "Muddy"), and Roy Orbison ("Lefty")
- 1994 - performed at Woodstock ‘94
- Dylan had snubbed the original in 1969
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