Bob Dylan Biography

American songwriter and singer, born in Duluth, Minnesota, educated at the University of Minnesota. Originally named Robert Zimmerman, he became known as Bob Dylan in 1962. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963) and The Times They Are A'Changin' (1964) made him internationally famous as the leading ‘protest singer’ of the day. Much of his most impressive work was recorded on Highway 61 Revisited (1965) and Blonde on Blonde (1966), personal and socio-political themes combining in lyrics of considerable imaginative scope and incisiveness. Among his subsequent recordings are Planet Waves (1974), Desire (1975), Street Legal (1978), and Saved (1980), the last-named affirming the Christian beliefs he adopted in the late 1970s. Many of Dylan's songs exhibit great facility in rhyming and the ability to organize complex patterns of imagery into compelling lyrical structures. The poetic concentration of much of his writing has attracted the attention of several eminent literary critics, notably Christopher Ricks. His disjunctively experimental novel Tarantula appeared in 1971; Lyrics, 1962–1985 (1985) contains the words of his songs along with his drawings and other writings.