With Bob Dylan one of the most influential figures in music history is celebrating his 80th birthday. The beginning of his career in particular will not be forgotten.
Bob Dylan was born on May 24, 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota, as Robert Allen Zimmerman. His parents Abraham “Abe” Zimmerman and Beatrice “Betty” Stone were descendants of immigrants who sought their fortune in the American Midwest shortly after the turn of the century. Because Abe fell ill and lost his job in 1946, the young family moved to Hibbing, Minnesota, where he joined his two brothers’ business after his recovery.
Because there wasn’t much to experience in the mining and industrial town, the young Bobby Zimmerman listened to the icons of his time on the radio. These included Howlin ‘Wolf (1910-1976, “Moanin’ In The Moonlight”) and Muddy Waters (1913-1983, “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man”). Legend has it that, thanks to those blues artists, he first learned to play the piano and then to play the guitar.
Hitchhiked across the USA once
When rock and roll hit in 1955 and artists like Hank Williams (1923-1953, “Lovesick Blues”), Chuck Berry (1916-2017, “Roll Over Beethoven”) and Bill Haley (1925-1981, “We’re Gonna Rock Around The Clock Tonight “) paved the way for Elvis Presley (1935-1977,” Love Me Tender “), Bob Dylan orientated himself on one thing in particular: Little Richard (1932-2020,” Tutti Frutti “). In high school, he joined the band The Golden Chords, who covered songs by Little Richard. As Bobby Zimmerman And The Golden Chords, they took part in music competitions – without Bob Dylan’s talent having found recognition.
In the late 1950s, the young Bobby Zimmerman changed his name – and the legend of Bob Dylan was born. Numerous versions entwine around the origin of his artist name, to which he himself has gladly contributed over the decades. There was one thing he never made a secret: his admiration for folk music legend Woody Guthrie (1912-1967, “This Land Is Your Land”). When Bob Dylan found out in 1959 that Guthrie was hospitalized in New York City, he packed his things and hitchhiked across the United States to meet his idol.
Dylan’s breakthrough in New York
In January 1961, Bob Dylan arrived in New York. Not only did he visit, play, and read to Guthrie regularly at Greystone Hospital, they also became friends. In “Song To Woody” and the poem “Last Thoughts On Woody”, which he read aloud once on stage in 1963, he processed what he had experienced. During his time in the New York borough of Greenwich Village, Bob Dylan quickly got to know other great musicians of his time, such as folk musician Pete Seeger (1919-2014, “If I Had A Hammer”) or singer Odetta Holmes (1930-2008, ” Odetta “). They helped him get gigs in New York where he didn’t make a lot of money at first.
That changed when, on September 29, 1961, an article appeared in the New York Times that reported benevolently on the young bard’s talent. The then legendary producer John Hammond (78) became aware of Bob Dylan and on October 25, 1961 he became the first folk musician to sign a record deal with a major label.
The first album with the simple title “Bob Dylan” was created in a six-hour recording session, was released in 1962 and flopped. But in the course of the following year the wind turned. Songs like “Blowin ‘In The Wind”, “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” or “Masters of War” not only attracted attention with their social criticism: During the Vietnam War, a generation of the peace movement was grateful that someone expressed their feelings in words.
Historic day in Washington
Step by step, Bob Dylan became the incarnate symbol of the civil rights movement. This development reached its peak on August 28, 1963. At the famous “March on Washington” he sang from the same podium where Martin Luther King (1929-1968) gave his famous “I have a dream” speech on the same day Song “Only A Pawn In Their Game”. At this point, Bob Dylan was 21 years old and, to the press, “the voice of a new generation”.
But the young star didn’t want to know anything about it. Dylan did not allow himself to be reduced to the political, after all, according to companions, he “only absorbed what happened around him and gave it to the word”. The break occurred without notice, namely at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965: The living symbol of the folk scene, the Crown Prince Woody Guthries, picked up the frowned upon electric guitar. For this he received boos and the accusation that recurred in his career that he had betrayed his ideals.
Disappeared from the scene
Bob Dylan never wanted to hear of these ideals that others ascribed to him. The only ideal he was committed to was art. From then on he devoted himself to this in New York, spending a lot of time with the writer Allen Ginsberg (1929-1997, “The Howling”). At the time, Dylan spoke of taking his art to a new level, it was no longer as one-dimensional as it was before, instead his sound was now “3D”. The album trilogy “Bringing It All Back Home”, “Highway 61 Revisited” and “Blonde en Blonde” are milestones in rock history.
At the end of July 1966, all that changed suddenly: Bob Dylan broke his public life because of a motorcycle accident, of which it is still unclear how serious it was. Instead, he withdrew completely into private life with his wife Sara Lowndes (born 1939), whom he married in late 1965. The couple had four children: Jesse (born 1966), Anna (born 1967), Samuel (born 1968) and Jakob (born 1969). Until 1972 Dylan appeared rarely and was part of individual publications. But even here he was involved in timeless pieces such as “Knocking On Heaven’s Door”.
Not a bit tired of old age
After the divorce from Sara, Bob Dylan was back on stage in 1974 – and never disappeared from her. By the end of the 1970s he turned to Christianity with his music, but, like before, disappointed folk fans with his early departure from the genre. He stayed on stage, Dylan tirelessly wrote songs and released albums, even if the reception of his new works and live performances during the 1980s was mixed.
Since 1988 he has been on his unofficially so-called “Neverending Tour”, which is still going on 33 years later. Like everyone else, his concerts of the corona virus were canceled due to 2020, and performances in Japan and the USA were planned. Dylan’s last concert so far took place on December 8, 2019. His last song was released in March 2020, the track entitled “Murder Most Foul” is about the Kennedy assassination in 1963.
On his 80th birthday, Bob Dylan can look back on an eventful life in which he had to fight for artistic freedom, especially at the beginning of his career. His steadfastness and authenticity have been rewarded with thousands of live concerts and countless prizes and awards, including his membership in the Hall of Fame of Rock’n’Roll in 1988 and winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016.