Bob+Dylan

Bob Dylan who is best known for his song writing, also is a very prestigious poet. He is known for his various poems that protest certain events through time. Such as "The Hurricane" which protests the trial and later conviction of Rubin "The Hurricane" Carter. Another event was the Vietnam War. The song "Blown In The Wind" was written to protest the war.

Robert Allen Zimmerman was born May 24, 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota. When Robert was six years old his family had moved to Hibbing, which is considered the coldest place in the United States. Robert as a young child liked to write poems. When he was a teenager he taught himself to play piano and the guitar. He had gone through many bands as a teenager. He then changed his name to Bob Dylan. He had changed this because he “thought it sounded cool.” His peers had said he changed his name in Honor of poet Dylan Thomas. Bob had spent the summer of 1960 in Denver where he met bluesman Jesse Fuller. After this people had seen a noticeable change in his music. After he came back he had incorporated a harmonica in his music. In 1961 he had dropped out of school to pursue his music and went to New York City. Bob had started out performing in small clubs. Soon after he started he had made a name for himself. His idol Woody Guthrie was a the hospital in New Jersey and dying from Huntington’s disease. He would occasionally play songs for him. John Hammond had signed Dylan in 1962 and released his first album in March of 1962. After the first album came out Dylan had found writing songs came easily. Many people say his songs were political protest songs. By the time of Dylan’s 3rd album, he was playing concert dates almost every night. As he grew older he didn’t like being called a protest singer and writer. In 1965 he began a relationship with singer Joan Baez. After this Bob wanted to try out electronic music in his songs. In 1965 at the Newport Folk Festival Bob was booed off the stage when he started to play electric guitar. He had returned in 1967 with a country rock music sound. After people got tired of his music in 1961 he wrote a book called Tarantula. This was going to be his first concert appearance in more then 5 years. Dylan’s songs and musical styles have changed greatly as he grew older. In the early 1960’s his songs “Blowin in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin” became anthems for the civil rights and protest movements. His first number one Album on the United States album chart was Modern Times. In Dylan’s early music his lyrics where mostly about political issues and focused on what is wrong with the world. Many people listened to his songs and saw how bad the world. While he went around the country, he had expanded his music style and started doing folk and blues songs. During the Blues age his songs featured the harmonica and were considered to be a musical type of poetry.

=Mr. Morone is a huge fan, ask him anything you don't know about him.=

[|Bob Dylan Lyrics]