BOB DYLAN BIOGRAPHY
Folk rock singer-songwriter Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota, to parents Abram and Beatrice Zimmerman. While attending the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, he began performing folk and country songs at local cafés.
In 1960, Bob dropped out of college and moved to New York, where he became a regular in the folk clubs and coffeehouses of Greenwich Village. In the fall of 1961, after one of his performances received a rave review in The New York Times, he signed a recording contract with Columbia Records. Released early in 1962, his first album, Bob Dylan contained only two original songs, but showcased Dylan's gravel-voiced singing style in a number of traditional folk songs and covers of blues songs.
The 1963 release of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan marked Dylan's emergence as one of the most original and poetic voices in the history of American popular music. The album included one of the most memorable 1960s folk songs, "Blowin' in the Wind." His next album, The Times They Are A-Changin', firmly established Dylan as the definitive songwriter of the '60s protest movement.
In 1965, Dylan angered many of his folkie fans by recording the half-acoustic, half-electric album Bringing It All Back Home. On July 25, 1965, he was famously booed at the Newport Folk Festival when he performed electrically for the first time. The albums that followed, Highway 61 Revisited (1965) and Blonde on Blonde (1966) represented Dylan at his most innovative. With his unmistakable voice and unforgettable lyrics, Dylan brought the worlds of music and literature together as no one else had.
Following a near-fatal motorcycle accident in July 1966, Dylan spent almost a year recovering in seclusion. In 1973, Dylan appeared in the movie Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. He also wrote the film's soundtrack, which became a hit and included the now-classic song, "Knockin' on Heaven's Door."
In 1974, Dylan began his first full-scale tour since his accident, embarking on a sold-out nationwide tour with his longtime backup band, the Band. An album he recorded with the Band, Planet Waves, became his first No. 1 album ever. He followed these successes with the celebrated 1975 album Blood on the Tracks and Desire (1976), each of which hit No. 1 as well.
In 1979, Dylan recorded an album of Christian music, Slow Train Coming, which won Dylan his first Grammy Award. In 1982, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Beginning in the 1980s, Dylan began touring full time. In 1989, when Dylan was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Bruce Springsteen spoke at the ceremony, declaring that "Bob freed the mind the way Elvis freed the body. ... He invented a new way a pop singer could sound, broke through the limitations of what a recording artist could achieve and changed the face of rock and roll forever." In 1997, Dylan became the first rock star ever to receive Kennedy Center Honors, considered the nation's highest award for artistic excellence.
Showing no signs of slowing down, Dylan continued to tour throughout the first decades of the 21st century. In addition to winning Grammy, Academy and Golden Globe awards, Dylan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2012. On October 13, 2016, the legendary singer-songwriter also received the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first time the honor was bestowed on a musician.