Bob Dylan biography

Although the album showed promised it wasn't until 1963 and his follow up, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, that our shaggy-haired hero announced his arrival. The LP contained two sixties folk anthems in Blowin' In The Wind and A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall as well as the breathtaking ballads Girl From The North Country and Don't Think Twice It's Alright. The album marked the emergence of the most distinctive and poetic voice in popular music. Dylan had now reinvented himself as a reincarnation of folk legend Woody Guthrie (who died the previous year). His early interviews were full of shaggy dog tales about how he'd bummed his way around America hanging out with hobos and bluesmen. He was now feted as the most powerful songwriter of his generation.

In the US the early sixties brought an upsurge in political protest and radicalism and Dylan was at the helm, unveiling a flood of songs that captured the spirit of the age, including the protest anthem, Masters Of War.

Dylan's next album, The Times They Are A-Changin' provided more of the same. The title track was a standout protest song but there were hints in the song Restless Farewell that he was tiring of his position at the forefront of the protest movement. And his next album, tellingly titled Another Side Of Bob Dylan, was his most introspective and least topical to date. It's finale, It Ain't Me Babe, was an explicit goodbye to the folk movement he'd helped to reinvigorate. "There ain't any finger pointing songs in here," he told a journalist about the album. "Those records I've made, some of that was me jumping into the scene to be heard and alot of it was because I didn't see anybody else doing that kind of thing."

Now with a new girlfriend, Joan Baez, Dylan was itching to move beyond folk's acoustic musical constraints and in 1965 recorded the part electric Bringing It All Back Home album which featured the biting Subterranean Homesick Blues, Mr Tambourine Man and It's All Over Now, Baby Blue. But his transition from folk troubadour to rock hero wasn't a smooth one. He was booed off stage at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival after debuting his new electric tinged material. His relationship with Joan Baez was also deteriorating and by the end of the year he would marry Sara Lowndes, a friend of his manager's wife. That year's Highway 61 Revisited album contained the monumental single, Like A Rolling Stone.

By the time of 1966's groundbreaking Blonde On Blonde album which featured the edgy rock and stream of consciousness lyrics of Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again, Dylan was taking rock and roll to new places. He was hailed as the most important voice of his generation at 25 years of age but was also starting to feel the pressure of living up to his iconic status. A near fatal motorcycle accident in July 1966 proved a blessing in disguise, allowing Dylan to retreat to the solitude of his home in Woodstock, New York with his wife Sara and their newborn son Jesse. (The couple would ultimately have four children, with Bob adopting Sara's daughter from a previous marriage; Jakob, the youngest, formed the band The Wallflowers.)

While he was recuperating he assembled The Band together in a rented house to record sessions which would be bootlegged and released eight years later as The Basement Tapes. Dylan's next albums, John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline disappointed fans' expectations - They were gentle, lilting, country rock records. Gone were his visionary lyrical flourishes. By the time of 1970's Self Portrait LP, influential US critic Greil Marcus wrote: "What is this shit?"

Seemingly floundering, Dylan accepted an invitation from legendary Western filmmaker Sam Peckinpah (of The Wild Bunch fame) to appear in and compose the score for his new film, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. But the shoot wasn't a pleasant experience, and Dylan floundered in the role of Billy's sidekick, Alias. But the soundtrack album was a success, and the single Knockin' on Heaven's Door was a Top 20 hit and went on to become one of Dylan's most covered songs.

A 1974 US tour with The Band and a No. 1 album, Planet Waves, seemed to reinvigorate Dylan's creative spirit although his personal life was in turmoil. He and wife Sarah had separated and Dylan poured his confusion, pain and anger into his next album Blood On The Tracks, a profoundly mature examination of love and loss. With tracks like Tangled Up In Blue and Idiot Wind, the LP matched the brilliance of Dylan's sixties output and in terms of eloquence and emotional maturity, he had reached new heights.

1978's Desire album was nowhere near as evocative as Blood On The Tracks although it did feature the outstanding Hurricane dedicated to the wrongly imprisoned boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. The plaintive, Sara was a heartfelt ode to his wife although it didn't win her back: The couple divorced the following year.

Dylan's first post-divorce album, Street Legal, didn't bode well for the future. At 37 he seemed professionally and personally at a loose end. But his next move took his fans and the rest of the world by surprise. He embraced Christianity and released the overtly born-again Slow Train Coming album. Much to the surprise of critics the record was a commercial success, spawning the hit single Gotta Serve Somebody and earning Dylan his first Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal.

Dylan's ensuing albums, Saved and Shot Of Love continued the religious themes with varied results. 1983's Infidels, with guitars and co-production by Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler was Dylan's best collection of songs for some years while the follow up, Empire Burlesque was also noteworthy.

The ensuing nine years saw Dylan touring regularly, whether it was with Tom Petty or The Grateful Dead or his own headlining tours. His performances were often erratic and sometimes downright sloppy with Dylan mumbling his songs and glowering at audiences.

He again confounded pundits by joining George Harrison, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison in the Travelling Wilburys in 1988. His own, Oh Mercy album, released in 1989 and produced by U2 collaborator Daniel Lanois was his most critically acclaimed album for years.

The 90's saw Dylan continue to tour, interrupting his live appearances for the poorly received Under The Red Sky album in 1990. Follow ups Good As I Been To You and 1993's World Gone Wrong received better reviews, as did 1997's Time Out Of Mind while 2001's Love And Theft was a minor return to form. Sporadically, Dylan's later work still contains flashes of genius but you can be sure that, just as the England football team is always knocked out of a tournament on penalties, Dylan's work is sure to to spark revivals, interest and debate for years to come. The legend remains very much alive.

Discography