Essay on Bob Dylan

Rock and roll then became bigger and bigger. In the 1950’s you had Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, The Big Bopper, and etc. Then in early 1960’s a group from London known as the Beatles is introduced, along with Bob Dylan, Frankie Avalon, Paul Anka, Connie Francis, Mitch Miller and many more. Several people actually thought of Bob Dylan as a conspirator for the fact that he was “abandoning” his folk-music and legitimacy. There still were numerous people who knew that this thing called “rock and roll” was going to be around for a

Let’s start off with John Lennon who at a young age was interested in a music genre called skiffle and later began forming a band called the Quarrymen in 1955 one of the influences for his name came from his school called Quarry Bank High School. [3] A year after the start of the Quarrymen, Lennon met Paul McCartney and the two began working together composing songs, starting groups before the Beatles, and meeting the other members.

After all, Dylan’s hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota, was as meat-and-potatoes as it could get. It wasn’t possible to be a rebel in Hibbing because there was nothing to rebel against. No one had any strong beliefs or ideology; they were a working class people that did not really listen to music. No one liked country, R&B or rock n’ roll – they barely knew what it was (No Direction Home). Dylan, on the other hand, was interested in music, and fiddled around on an electric guitar for a bit until he discovered folk music: “The first thing that turned me on to folksinging was Odetta. I heard a record of hers in a record store…Right then and there, I traded my electric guitar and amplifier for an acoustical guitar…[Her first album] was just something vital and personal” (McCombe). Without Odetta, folk music would have never entered Dylan’s life, and when it did, he was moved by it. It caused him to imitate Odetta’s rough, natural sound and unplug his electric guitar. Folk music was like nothing he had ever heard of before. It told the story of hard-working people just trying to get by. It wasn’t flashy or famous; instead, it was stories and songs that had been passed down from generation to generation of Americans. Odetta was just the person to introduce him to such a genre: “Bobby had become an apostle of a woman named Odetta, a husky-voiced black folksinger whose blend of

Guthrie was born in Okemeh, OK and grew up in poverty due to the unsuccessful business and real estate ventures of his father, working odd jobs, begging for meals, and often sleeping at the homes of friends as a teenager.

“Among the American folk music, the name Bob Dylan is murmured with hushed respect ("Getting To Dylan 1986 documentary”). Bob Dylan, originally named Robert Allen Zimmerman was born on May 24, 1941. At the age of eighteen, Bob Dylan attended the University of Minnesota, where he sought interest in music. “Influenced by the blues, country, and rock and roll, he began playing music as a teenager…” (“Bob Dylan”). Single-mindedly, Bob Dylan coached himself to learn how to play multiple instruments such as the guitar, harmonica, and piano, which helped lead to a plentiful amount of awards and achievements. Chronologically, Bob Dylan was announced in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, was granted a Grammy for lifetime achievements in 1991 and

Dylan, Bob, and Jonathan Cott. Bob Dylan, The Essential Interviews. New York: Wenner Books, 2006. Print.

The Vietnam War was a war many people had no clue why we were in. Many men, women, and children died in or cause of this war. From this, protests rained upon the government leading to a new kind of protest by Bob Dylan, song. Bob Dylan was born on May 24, 1941 and from an early age had always fought for what was right. His songs have changed and inspired not just our country but the world. He is the only musician with a Nobel Prize for Literature and so far is the only one who truly deserves it. His protests through his music tell people that lives are being lost and teach us to fight against the war as there was no reason to be in it. Bob Dylan’s song “The Times They Are A-Changin” was considered a national anthem for the sixties and showed that a single song can make a difference through its extraordinary lyrics protesting the Vietnam War through the use of multiple literary elements.

Bob Dylan was one of the most influential musicians of the time. Dylan was born in the fine town of Duluth, Minnesota on May 24, 1941. He grew up in Hibbing, "My life in a stolen minute, " Dylan wrote,

In the sixties the most famous American artist was Bob Dylan. People liked Dylan because he wasn’t about the fame he wanted to sing and make a difference. By writing the lyrics to his music he was making a difference.

Cohen was really the dark eminence among a modest temple of extremely influential singer-songwriters to arise in the Sixties and very early Seventies. Solely Bob Dylan put in a more profound influence upon his generation, and perhaps only Paul Simon and fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell equaled him as a music poet.

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’s style of music changed as he grew older. As he approached the 1960’s and the beginning of his career, Dylan approached the American folk music sound. A quote by Bob Dylan that talked about his folk music was found in an interview with Marcus Greil for the Rolling Stone Magazine in 2004. It states:

We all know of rock and roll; ACDC, The Beatles, Duffy. The absolute rockstars, literally, of rock. But do we know anything before, or after the golden ages? Do we understand what has happened to rock and why it is so valuable today?

          Punk rock developed in the United States out of the raw and energetic music adored and played by garage bands of the mid-sixties. Many of these garage bands were started by kids in their teens who hardly knew how to play simple chords on a guitar or bang away at drums or cymbals in their own garages. The music was often played at a high volume as well.

Bob Dylan’s interest for music started from a young age. Born on May 24, 1941 as Robert Allen Zimmerman, he started writing poems at age ten (Jarnow). By the time he was a teenager, he had taught himself to play the guitar, the piano, and the harmonica, and participated in bands in high school. After that, he enrolled at the University of Minnesota, dropping out when he became more involved in the music scene than his schoolwork. He moved to New York City, where he went to Greenwich Village and met Woody Guthrie, one of his music idols. He performed as Bob Dylan in nightclubs and coffee houses, gaining respect and recognition from his peers. He released his self titled album, Bob Dylan, in 1962, followed by The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan in 1963. His second album contained protest songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind,” which became an enduring anthem of the 1960s. By the time he released his third album, he had become a media spokesperson for the