Bob Dylan, Annotated Bibliography

Hank Snow was a popular and important musical artist, active before 1960, who is not included in the Dalhousie University 2017 - 2018 Popular Music until 1960 course. Hank Snow’s, “country standard I’m Movin’ On, a twelve-bar blues, came out before 1960. ” In this paper I will argue that Hank Snow and his song I’m Movin’ On must be a required listening in this course as he has had historical significance, has influenced musical artists (several that are covered in this course) and most importantly he is a Nova Scotia native with a successful musical country career on an international scale. I will provide relevant background information on Hank Snow as well as proof of his importance in the areas of historical significance, musical influence

While it is widely rumored that many of Bob Dylan’s songs were written while he was under the influence of various drugs, I’m not so sure that those rumors are accurate. Following a 1991 interview conducted by Paul Zollo with Bob Dylan, Zollo stated that “There’s an unmistakable elegance in Dylan’s words, an almost biblical beauty” and that “Dylan’s answers give you a lot to think about while not necessarily revealing much about the man”. (Zollo 2) The same can be said with regard to many of the lyrics of Dylan’s songs. The lyrics to “Mr. Tambourine Man”, for example, are wildly descriptive and sometimes confusing and can leave a listener (or a reader) open to many different interpretations, some more complex than others, with no real meaning ever being clearly stated.

The blues have deep roots embedded within American history—particularly that of African American history. The history of the blues originated on Southern plantations in the 19th century and was created by slaves, ex-slaves, and descendants of slaves. They were created by individuals who endured great hardship while performing endless hours of arduous labor and blues served as a form of escapism. To these individuals, songs provided them with the strength to persevere through their struggles. Blues songs depicted individuals who persevered in the face of adversity. They were symbols of hope to those squandering in the depths of oppression. In relations to the blues, every song has a story behind it and within every story, there is something to be said. Blues artists, through their struggles, detail how they overcame hardship and laughed at the face of oppression. They defied the rules and in doing so, showed African Americans that they too are beacons of hope for the hopeless. The best blues is instinctive, cathartic, and intensely emotional. From irrepressible bliss to deep sadness, no form of music communicates more genuine emotion than that of the blues. Like many bluesmen of his day, Robert Johnson applied his craft as a lonely traveling musician on street corners and in juke joints. He was a lonely man whose songs romanticized that existence. With Johnson’s unique vocal style, haunting lyrics, and creative guitar techniques, Johnson’s innovation embodied the essence of

Robert Leroy Johnson was a great blues singer-songwriter and musician. His hit recordings in 1936 and ‘37, singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generations of musicians. After the re-issue of his recordings in ‘61, on the “LP King of the Delta Blues Singers,” he was recognized as a master

In conclusion, Woody Guthrie inspires so many people around the world. I appreciate everything he has done to support people everyday. Those were only some of the ways that Woody’s quotes and songs are alike and

     Langston Hughes and Bob Dylan are two poets from different eras in modern American poetry. Although Bob Dylan is more characterized as a songwriter, I see much of his work as poetry. In this essay, I will discuss Hughes’ poem “Harlem [1]” and Dylan’s “Times They Are A-Changin”’ as commentaries on are culture, but from different backgrounds.

Just as the sports industry rose, the music industry rose with it. Many lyricists, such as Bob Dylan helped it rise. Born on the day of May 24th, 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota, Dylan was the descendant of Abram Zimmerman and Beatty Zimmerman. Born with the name of Robert Allen Zimmerman, he learned how to play instruments such as the guitar, and performed in plenty of high school bands. Later on, Zimmerman changed his name to Bob Dylan while he was still in the University of Minnesota. But a while later, he dropped out and traveled to New York to visit one of his idols who was injured. Meanwhile, he also got his 1st record from Columbia Records. Even though his voice was not the best, he was a great lyricist. Dylan has been married 2 times, with Carolyn Dennis and Sara Dylan ; he divorced from both of them. Bob Dylan has recorded 35 albums throughout his music career.

The paper will focus on comparing two different songs by discussing their context and highlighting the similarities and differences between both chosen songs. The comparison will be based on the background information for each song as well as peripheral information about the albums. The comparison will also include any contextual similarities and differences between the songs. The two chosen songs for the comparison are: 'Woodstock' by Joni Mitchell and 'The Times They Are a-Changin' by Bob Dylan.

Dylan's success arises from the most humble roots. His stylistic and poetic muse was Woody Guthrie, from whom he would learn to compose truly meaningful lyrics that resonated with audiences. By adopting Woody‘s working-man mantle, Bob Dylan reinvented himself to become the heir of the American Folk Troubadour. Using Guthrie’s musical and principled example, Dylan learnt to take the current events going on around him and capture the rising sentiment of the common man, and then

Bob Dylan arrived in New York in 1960, where within a few months Bob Dylan was performing in Greenwich Village and becoming increasingly active as a folk singer. In 1964 he was among the most respected young folk singers in the United States. It was common for folksingers to write their own music, and that’s what Bob did. Dylan followed the way his idol Woody Gunthrie wrote songs, which he frequently renewed old music with new lyrics that chronicled social justice. Bob followed this by creating topical songs such as “Blowin in the Wind”, which addressed civil rights.

The displays are organized into three different sections --- the context of one of the most significant event of Woody Guthrie’s life—the Dust bowl, Woody Guthrie’s fight for the labor union during the Great Depression and the following decades, and the influence of Woody Guthrie on other famous musicians. The first part of display about the Dust Bowl is used to provide context to the audience about the era. Rather than focusing on causes or the economic effect of the Dust Bowl, it focuses on the impact it had on American people and how it fueled the political awakening of Woody Guthrie. The second part of the display songs how Woody Guthrie used music to represent the voice of the people. His political activities with the labor union was not

To understand the sixties counterculture, we must understand the important role of Bob Dylan. His lyrics fueled the rebellious youth in America. Songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times are A-Changin” made him favorable to anti-war demonstrators and supporters of the Civil Rights movement. He was commonly hailed as the spokesman for his generation. Dylan used lyrics to allow the youth to find their own form of counter-culture. The youth generation began to see the effects racism, war, etc. effect the society in America. To combat this, the youth created their own form of counter-culture to promote a peaceful change within society. Some of their actions include forming anti-war protests that opposed America’s involvement in the Vietnam War, and supporting African Americans/women get the rights they deserve through the Civil Rights Movement. Bob Dylan’s music appealed to the young generation because he openly expresses his disapproval of the establishment in order to influenced his audience to move in a direction for change. Counterculture youth rejected cultural norms of the previous generation and their values and lifestyles opposed the mainstream culture present in the 1950’s. The folk music revival of the early 1960s, as well as the counter-culture movement played an important role in advocating change. Bob Dylan wrote songs that influenced the Civil Rights Movement, New Left Movement, and Anti-War Movement.

The book is called “Chronicles: Volume One”, and it was published on October 5th, 2004 from Simon and Schuster publisher. This book contains a lot of valuable information about Dylan’s life between he records his first album and arrive in New York City. He started writing the first chapter of this 304-page book back in 1961. At the time, the content of the book was meant to play the role of a memoir, but it later turned into an autobiography. As far as content goes, the book talks about early to late 60s in three chapters, virtually ignoring his peak of fame in around mid 1960s. After that, he continues to talk about his lesser known albums like New Morning (1970) in the next two chapters. He states distaste for the title “spokesman of a generation” bestowed upon him. The values of this source include his personal point of view on different matters, going in depth about a lot of different stages in life, knowing more about the personal life and feelings, and receiving a great deal of useful information on matters that did not make it to the media and the general public. Even though this is a really useful source, it has some limitations. The main limitation is that the other volumes of the book have not been published yet, even though Dylan said that he is working on

Duluth Minnesota, May 24th 1941 Robert Allen Zimmerman (Bob Dylan) was born. 69 Years and over 45 albums later Bob Dylan has completely altered the face of popular music since his debut as a fresh faced folk singer in 1962. His early career forged him into an informal chronicler and then he later developed into an apparently reluctant figurehead of social unrest [Gray, 2006] and became a voice for a generation. His songs have been covered by many artists in a wide span of genres and he has remained a prominent and highly influential figure in the history of popular music over the past five decades. [Gates, David, 1997]

This essay will look closely at Bob Dylan’s song “Blowin’ in the Wind” “For Ramona” “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Not Dark Yet”.