Bob Dylan Essay

Jimi Hendrix is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer who is widely considered to be the most important electric guitarist in the history of music. Although Hendrix is known for his outstanding ability to play the guitar, he is also a very famous name in Blues music. He played the acoustic guitar but is known for his outstanding ability to play the electric guitar. With songs such as Red House, Here My Train A Comin', and Born Under a Bad Sign, Hendrix is considered to be in the Chicago category and quickly made his way into the history of Blues music.

The 1960’s was an era of revolution and social change in the United States. Painters, dancers, actors, musicians and many more artists all wanted to portray societies immoral issues through their art. Musicians played a very prominent role in providing society with an outlet on the importance of this change. Within these musicians was a folk rock singer and songwriter by the name of Robert Allen Zimmerman, or as America knows him, Bob Dylan. He is known and honored around the world for his influence on popular music and culture, however, he is much more than that (Wood 313). The beginning of Bob Dylan’s career as a singer and songwriter was marked by his repetitive emphasis on social change throughout his protest songs which include “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,” “Masters of War,” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’”; with each song, Dylan exposes many issues that affected, not one, but many lives as he aimed to spread social and political consciousness to society.

Bob Dylan was born as Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota. While growing up, Bob was influenced by Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Little Richard. He was also in a few bands while growing up. While he was in college he began performing folk and country music at local cafes under the name Bob Dillon. In 1960, he dropped out of college and moved to New York. In New York, Bob met his idol Woody Guthrie and visited him regularly and became great friends with him. In 1961, he signed his first recording contract at Columbia Records and became one of the most original influential voices in the history of American popular music. Throughout his lifetime he 's been awarded with Grammy’s, Academy and Golden Globe awards. In 2012, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama. Bob Dylan wrote music based on social issues, war and civil

At only 22, he was crowned the voice of a generation. His audiences became mesmerized with his expressive lyrics and soulful harmonica. He changed the way the world looks at songwriting and protest, and inspired countless future musicians from the moment he stepped up on the stage in his railroad hat, denim jacket, and harmonica brace. However, it is clear that there is so much more behind Bob Dylan than just a rough voice and a collection of poetic songs. As one man said about Dylan’s early days in Greenwich Village, “There’s a quality of determination and of will that some people have that when they’re doing something, they’re really doing it and you

Have you ever wondered why George Strait is the King of Country music?  With Georges many followers across the world and many awards he received this means he would be set up for success right?  George has had a lot of major and minor challenges throughout his background and career, but that hasn’t slowed him down any on his awards and number one hit singles and albums.  Lets go over George’s background, career, and awards and number one hits.

Touching humans the most is the acceptance of unstoppable death. We all know that death will be our fate some day, but how we accept or how we deal with it is left to each individual. "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night," written by Dylan Thomas, emphasizes raging against death towards his dying father as he repeats this exhortation in the last line in every stanza. Imagery, sound, metrics, and tone, are used by Thomas to create the theme of his poem and what it means.

The Grateful Dead was a band that toured continuously for 30 years until the death of lead man Jerry Garcia. They were known for free flowing jams and bluegrass roots. Phish is a band that has toured consistently for the last 17 years and has in time made themselves into stealth multi-millionaires. Both are very talented bands, who have and in the Dead's case, had, created big names for themselves. Many people make wrongful association with these two groups of musicians. It is said that Phish is trying to be the Dead of this generation. This statement is very untrue. Phish is not a Grateful Dead take-off. Phish and the Dead have much more differences than similarities. There are of course a few similarities between

Arguably one of the most powerful of Dylan’s social issue charged song is The Death of Emmet Till, a young black man who was unrightfully killed by the Ku Klux Klan. By 1963, Dylan and his on and off lover Joan Baez were both very well known in the civil rights movement. Baez and Dylan would sing together at rallies including the famous March on Washington. Dylan was on stage with Martin Luther King Jr. when his gave his infamous I Have a Dream speech. Though Dylan sang of American injustices, he was never incredibly interested in politics and he was ultimately frustrated by people defining him solely as a protest singer. Dylan’s frustrations with the unsought political branding are expressed in It Ain’t Me Babe, which “appears to be a song about rejected love, [it] was actually his rejection of the role his reputation and fans had thrown on him” (Carlson).

Scott Joplin, commonly known as the "King of Ragtime" music, was born on November 24, 1868, in Bowie County, Texas near Linden. Joplin came from a large musical family. His father, Giles Joplin was a musician who had fiddled dance music while serving as a slave at his master's parties. His mother, Florence Givens Joplin, born free and out of slavery, sang and played the banjo, and four of his brothers and sisters either sang or played strings.

Not very many songs compare to Bob Dylan's timeless "Like A Rolling Stone". He explores areas that most conventional lyricists and composers do not touch. Bob tells us many of life's lessons in a mere six minutes and nine seconds. The divine Bob describes life before and after the fall from fame and fortune by telling the stories of multiple persons, speaking to them in conversation. The theme of this song is loss, whether is it loss of social status, money, or trust for humanity.

Throughout history there have been many musical "influences". One extremely important influence to modern music is The Grateful Dead.

Pete Seeger is an extremely talented artist who is very well known for his contributions to folk music. Pete Seeger is an absolute inspiration to many people around the world today. Not only was Pete Seeger just a singer/songwriter, he was also an important political activist, the author of several dozen books, an environmentalist as well as a peace advocator. He plays a very significant role in terms of historical influences. As a man of many identities, Pete Seeger will always remain an influential individual in regards to American History. It is definitely worth discussing the many roles Pete Seeger acquired and how each of these roles assisted in impacting American History.

“The song has to be of a certain quality for me to sing…One aspect it would have to have is that it didn’t repeat itself” (Bob Dylan). Transforming into new people throughout his life, Bob Dylan reverted to the Bible and other religious findings in his songs. Dylan is able to reveal a fulfillment from spirituality as he perceives his music as a sacred landscape. Bob Dylan brings up a theme of religion, referencing the book of Isaiah in his 1967 song “All Along the Watchtower” as he writes a story about two people at the watchtower, where the significance of life is found. Dylan’s spiritual lyrics conceived his work as a an artist through imagination and religion that creates a hallowed dwelling for him to aqurie attainment.

Dylan’s portrayal of desperate and changing times in the 60s was evident through his use of literary devices through the portrayal of metaphor, allusion, and repetition. Using biblical references through the use of allusion, starting with the allusion to the bible by the phrase ‘Come gather ‘round people,’ by claiming he used the inclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, Dylan is no stranger in lack of beautiful, poetic usage in his song. To add on, the allusion goes to exemplify that change is bound to come, knowingly or not, to men and women of all races, status, and gender. Dylan’s usage of metaphors spoke in philosophical manners and as well in general terms, but was easily able to be translated in its appropriate context in its period of time referring to the civil rights struggle and the hippie counter movement. Using metaphorical phrases such as the relation to the individual to the reference of a “stone that is sinking or swimming”(Dylan 8), as well as “the battle that is raging it'll soon shake the windows and rattle the walls”(Dylan 25-26) are all a means of Dylan explaining in simple means that if one wants to make time worthwhile, then one better start living life to the fullest, or otherwise they may drown as time passes by.

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]