Bob Dylan Research Paper

Folk rock in the sixties inherited the tradition of country and western. In the 1960s, the main representatives of folk rock were Joan Baez, The Byrds, Bob Dylan, and so on. However, the most important folk rock singer is Bob Dylan, who was the first and the most important folk rock music creator. Known as the “protest song singer”, for the entire 1960s, Bob Dylan 's music strongly affected young people that were in the wandering and confusion. It was like a banner, a totem, and a pioneer, helped the the youth from the 1960s generation of found the sustenance of their ideals.

With every aspect of our lives we are making a point, arguing a belief, or refuting some other aspect of our existence. Aesthetic pieces, most avidly poems and songs, argue a message both in the lyrics and in the meaning posed between the lines. “American Pie,” in a multitude of ways, argues that American lives and memories are closely intertwined with the music of the time period. Not only does “American Pie” argue a message it also pulls many generations together. Today, thirty years after the initial release, “American Pie” still has an effect in our music and continues to be popular with all age groups. Don McLean accomplishes this task through using the context of the time period, placement of words, the words

Written in “Is This Song Your Song Anymore”, the relief problem in America had largely disappeared due to the advent of World War II and the jobs it created. Therefore, Guthrie may have dropped the verse referring to relief because it no longer had as much relevance to the current situation in America as when he first wrote it. Second, Guthrie often forgot or changed words, depending on his mood and memory.” (Jackson 260.) The song was a happy and cheerful version that put melody to the poem. Leaving out the last part in mainstream recordings and song singing in classrooms is now understandable because the reality is that America and social issues keep changing, so it is fitting for the song to change as well.

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.

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

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).

In a 1979 interview for Frets magazine Pete Seeger expressed the driving force of his music in one word--responsibility (Hood 30). In his view there are no causeless songs; each one has a message. Seeger dedicated his life to challenging the status quo and combating the establishment with his favorite weapon, the banjo. Inscribed on his banjo were the words “This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender”.  Pete Seeger became one of the leaders of the folk revival, rousing his audience with his mastery of the banjo (Rosenberg 75). However, his influence extended past the musical scene. He gave a voice to the overlooked, working class and he created a model of musical activism that other groups could emulate.

Woody Guthrie was an American singer-songwriter and musician who is today known as a huge part of traditional Americana music. Huge musicians in their own right, such as Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellenkamp, Pete Seeger, and many more have acknowledged Guthrie as a major influence in their creative song writing process. Many of his songs are based on his experience during the Great Depression as Guthrie travelled with displaced farmers from the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma searching for a better life in California.

Woody Guthrie was the most famous folk singer in the 1930’s. Guthrie was born in Oklahoma and moved to Texas when he was 18. Guthrie was in the hardest hit area when Black Sunday came around. His songs written near or during the Great Depression were supposed to put a hand on the country’s shoulder and say that we can get through this. The Story of Oklahoma states that “much of Woody Guthrie’s life was tragic, but he managed to make it into a joyful song” (Baird 340).

Bob Dylan still tours to this day for his spectacular songs he has written. Many modern singers still look up to Bob Dylan today. As a result, he may be the best songwriter of the 1900’s. On the other hand, he may not be a good singer. In conclusion, Bob Dylan is an amazing lyricist at the current age of 74, but may not might have the best voice. All in all, he is a great

During this period, Pete Seeger began writing books. His greatest publications include The Bells of Rhymney and Other Songs and Stories and American Favorite Ballads, Tunes and Folksongs as Sung by Pete Seeger. In the book “Carry it on! A History in Song and Picture of America’s Working Men and Women, Seeger and Reiser tell a story with songs describing every little aspect to the struggle of workers, specifically what they did in order to make things right. “Farm workers have been treated like livestock, herded into overcrowded dormitories or housed in shacks. In the prosperous 1960’s, the average farm worker made less than $2000 a year” . This example is followed by a song called “Deportee” which is written from the perspective of a farmer. Another book “The Incompleat Folksinger”, explores the many aspects of folklore music and what impacts it has had on Pete. He describes his songs to “tell of

While “I Hear America Singing” champions the work of the people, the words of “I, Too, Sing America” are lined with a deep sense of pride in individual identity. Whitman’s poem includes a number of vocalists with varying professions, such as a carpenter, a hatter, and even a young wife. The words of the piece show that these laborers complete each day’s tasks with pride and singing. Their jubilee is even described as continuing into the night with “strong melodious songs” after the work was done (Whitman 11). They rejoice in their work because their positions represent much more than jobs, but have, in fact, become the people’s resounding contributions to the great machine that is the United States. It is what they are able to offer their country to keep it moving ever forward. Similarly, the narrator in Hughes’s work takes pride in his identity, but in a much different way. It is uncertain whether he is living in a period of widespread slavery or afterwards, but his words clearly convey an environment of inequality. He is, for instance, ordered to “eat in the kitchen” when company comes (Hughes 3). However, the narrator boasts both in what he is and what he will be; he has faith that in the future, he will not be huddled away from the others, but sitting at the table, a citizen. He will be his own man, and the

While being drastically different in content and musical aspects, Peter Paul and Mary’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” and Bob Dylan’s “Positively 4th Street” hold surprising similarities. Of course some stem from the fact that both songs were written by Dylan himself, but others come simply as a result of production, composition, and overall performance.

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]

Dylan’s early music, written as part of this folk revival, reflects this individualist style of political folk songs, but the degree and subject of political conviction seems to be less important to him than the expression of emotion, and a certain identification of himself as being political. This is readily apparent in his work from the 1963 album “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”. Two of his great early political forays, “Blowin in the Wind” and “Masters of War”, play in quite nicely with the notion that this generation of folk artists were more abstract, asking less rational, or rhetorical, questions, and expressing an anger with the world, but not offering much in the way of action. The second verse of “Blowin in the Wind” expresses an anger with society’s willingness to sit idly by in the face of injustices, but due to its vague language, this anger is not directed at any particular instance of injustice: “How many years can some people exist/Before they're allowed to be free/Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head/And pretend that he just doesn't see/The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind/The answer is blowin' in the wind.” Moreover, the refrain is also incredibly ambiguous, and like much of the ephemeral political music of the time, doesn’t offer a concrete solution to the problem. “Masters of War” offers a scathing indictment of the arms build-up of the Cold War. Much of the song calls for the death of the war profiteers, and offers a grim image in