Title	Rolling Stone
Image file	Rolling Stone January 22 1981 cover.png
Editor	Jann WennerWill Dana (managing editor)
Frequency	Bi-weekly
Circulation	1.4 million
Company	Wenner Media LLC
Publisher	Jann Wenner
Firstdate
Country	United States
Based	New York City
Language	English
Website	rollingstone.com
Issn	}}

''Rolling Stone'' is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. ''Rolling Stone'' was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner (who is still editor and publisher) and music critic Ralph J. Gleason.

The magazine was known for its political coverage beginning in the 1970s, with the enigmatic and controversial gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. ''Rolling Stone'' magazine changed its format in the 1990s to appeal to younger readers, often focusing on young television or film actors and pop music. This led to criticism that the magazine was emphasizing style over substance. In recent years, the magazine has resumed its traditional mix of content, including in-depth political stories, and has seen its circulation increase.

Beginnings

To get the magazine off the ground, Wenner borrowed $7,500 from his family members and from the family of his soon-to-be wife, Jane Schindelheim. The first issue carried a cover date of November 9, 1967. ''Rolling Stone'' magazine was initially identified with and reported on the hippie counterculture of the era. However, the magazine distanced itself from the underground newspapers of the time, such as ''Berkeley Barb'', embracing more traditional journalistic standards and avoiding the radical politics of the underground press. In the very first edition of the magazine, Wenner wrote that ''Rolling Stone'' "is not just about the music, but about the things and attitudes that music embraces." This has become the de facto motto of the magazine.

In the 1970s, ''Rolling Stone'' began to make a mark for its political coverage, with the likes of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson writing for the magazine's political section. Thompson would first publish his most famous work ''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'' within the pages of ''Rolling Stone'', where he remained a contributing editor until his death in 2005. In the 1970s, the magazine also helped launch the careers of many prominent authors, including Cameron Crowe, Lester Bangs, Joe Klein, Joe Eszterhas, Patti Smith and P. J. O'Rourke. It was at this point that the magazine ran some of its most famous stories, including that of the Patty Hearst abduction odyssey. One interviewer, speaking for large numbers of his peers, said that he bought his first copy of the magazine upon initial arrival on his college campus, which he described as a "rite of passage".

During the 1980s the magazine began to shift focus towards being a general "entertainment" magazine. Music was still a dominant topic but there was increasing coverage of celebrities in television, movies and the pop culture of the day. The magazine also initiated its annual "Hot Issue" during this time.

The printed format has gone through several changes. The first publications 1967-72, were folded tabloid newspaper format, no staples with black ink text, and a single color highlight that changed each edition. From 1973 on, editions were done on a 4 color press with a different newsprint paper size. In 1979 the bar code appeared. In 1980 it became a gloss paper large format 10 x 12 magazine. As of the October 30th, 2008 edition, Rolling Stone is a smaller, standard-format magazine size. (''USA Today'', Associated Press Anick Jesdanun)

Criticism

One major criticism of ''Rolling Stone Magazine'' involves its generational bias toward the 1960s and 1970s. One critic referred to the ''Rolling Stone'' list of the "99 Greatest Songs" as an example of "unrepentant rockist fogeyism". In further response to this issue, rock critic Jim DeRogatis, a former ''Rolling Stone'' editor, published a thorough critique of the magazine's lists in a book called ''Kill Your Idols: A New Generation of Rock Writers Reconsiders the Classics'' (ISBN 1-56980-276-9), which featured differing opinions from many younger critics. Conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg criticised the magazine writing that "Rolling Stone has essentially become the house organ of the Democratic National Committee." ''Rolling Stone'' editor Jann Wenner has made all of his political donations to Democrats.

Hunter S. Thompson, in an article that can be found in his book ''Generation of Swine'', criticized the magazine for turning on marijuana even though the magazine embraced it in the 60s and 70s when Thompson was a frequent contributor.

''Rolling Stone'' magazine has been criticized for reconsidering many classic albums that it had previously dismissed. Examples of artists for whom this is the case include, among others, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, The Beach Boys, Nirvana, Weezer, Radiohead, Outkast and also Queen. For example, Led Zeppelin was largely written off by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine critics during the band's most active years in the 1970s. However by 2006, a cover story on Led Zeppelin honored them as "the Heaviest Band of All Time". A critic for ''Slate'' magazine described a conference at which 1984's ''The Rolling Stone Record Guide'' was scrutinized. As he described it, "The guide virtually ignored hip-hop and ruthlessly panned heavy metal, the two genres that within a few years would dominate the pop charts. In an auditorium packed with music journalists, you could detect more than a few anxious titters: How many of us will want our record reviews read back to us 20 years hence?" Another example of this bias was that the album ''Nevermind'', by grunge band Nirvana, was given three stars in its original review, despite being placed at #17 in "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list in 2003. Also, when The Beatles' ''Let It Be'' was released in 1970, the magazine originally gave the album a poor review, yet in 2003, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked it number 86 in the magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

At the end of June 2010 ''Rolling Stone'' caused a controversy in the White House by publishing in the July issue an article by journalist Michael Hastings, titled "The Runaway General", quoting criticism of General Stanley A. McChrystal, commander of the International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan commander, about Vice President Joe Biden and other Administration members of the White House. McChrystal resigned from his position shortly after his statements went public.

The hire of former ''FHM'' editor Ed Needham further enraged critics who alleged that ''Rolling Stone'' had lost its credibility.

The 2003 ''Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists of all Time'' article's inclusion of only two female musicians resulted in ''Venus Zine'' answering with their own list titled "The Greatest Female Guitarists of All Time".

Website

''Rolling Stone'' has maintained a website for many years, with selected current articles, reviews, blogs, MP3s, and other features such as searchable and free encyclopedic articles about artists, with images and sometimes sound clips of their work. There are also selected archival political and cultural articles and entries. The site also at one time had an extensive message board forum. By the late 1990s, the message board forum at the site had developed into a thriving community with a large number of regular members and contributors worldwide. The site was also plagued with numerous Internet trolls and malicious code-hackers who vandalized the forum substantially. ''Rolling Stone'' abruptly deleted the forum in May 2004. ''Rolling Stone'' began a new, much more limited message board community at their site in late 2005, only to remove it again in 2006. ''Rolling Stone'' also has a page at MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter. In March 2008, the ''Rolling Stone'' website started a new message board section once again, then deleted it in April 2010. The magazine devotes one of its Table of Contents pages to promoting material currently appearing at its website, listing detailed links to the items. As of April 19, 2010, the website has been updated drastically and features the complete archives of ''Rolling Stone''. Around the same time it was announced that the ''Rolling Stone'' website would adopt the view by subscription model, charging for content. The subscription model is now in place.

Restaurant

In December 2009, the ''Los Angeles Times'' reported that the owners of ''Rolling Stone'' magazine planned to open a Rolling Stone restaurant in the Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, California in the spring of 2010. The expectation was that the restaurant could become the first of a national chain if it was successful. As of November 2010, the "soft opening" of the restaurant was planned for December 2010. According to its website, the restaurant is now open for lunch and dinner.

Notable staff

Robert Altman

Michael Azerrad

Lester Bangs

Robert Christgau

Brian Cookman

Timothy Crouse

Cameron Crowe

Anthony DeCurtis

Jancee Dunn

Joe Eszterhas

Owen Fegan

Timothy Ferris

Ben Fong-Torres

David Fricke

William Greider

Jerry Hopkins

Caroline Kennedy

Joe Klein

David LaChapelle

Jon Landau

Annie Leibovitz

Steven Levy

Kurt Loder

Greil Marcus

Paul Nelson

P. J. O'Rourke

Rob Sheffield

Ralph Steadman

Neil Strauss

Matt Taibbi

Hunter S. Thompson

Touré

Peter Travers

Jann Wenner

Baron Wolman

Evan Wright

In popular culture

On the debut album by Evelyn Evelyn (produced by and featuring Amanda Palmer of The Dresden Dolls and Seattle folk-hero, Jason Webley), the second track - "A Campaign of Shock and Awe" - references ''Rolling Stone''. In a case of life imitating art, the fictional twin sisters (truly Palmer and Webley) sing "As featured in ''Rolling Stone'', ''Spin'', ''The New Yorker'' and ''Pitchfork''...". Evelyn Evelyn has been featured in three of the four publications (''Rolling Stone'' being the exception).

"The Cover of the Rolling Stone" is a song satirizing success in the music business. It was first recorded by Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show, who subsequently did get on the cover of the magazine, albeit in caricature rather than a photograph.

In Stephen King's 1980 novel ''Firestarter'', the protagonist chooses ''Rolling Stone'' as an unbiased independent media source, through which she can expose the government agency hunting her. However, in the movie the protagonist chooses ''The New York Times''.

The 1985 film'' Perfect'' depicts John Travolta as a reporter for ''Rolling Stone'', covering the health club fad of the time. Jann Wenner plays editor-in-chief "Mark Roth".

''Almost Famous'' portrayed a fictional 15-year-old aspiring rock journalist writing for ''Rolling Stone''. The semi-autobiographical film was written and directed by former ''Rolling Stone'' columnist Cameron Crowe and featured portrayals of publisher Jann Wenner (Eion Bailey), editor Ben Fong-Torres (Terry Chen), David Felton (Rainn Wilson) and others in Rolling Stone's 1970s San Francisco offices. Wenner also had a cameo in the film as a man reading a newspaper in a taxi.

Covers

Some artists have graced the cover many times, some of these pictures going on to become iconic. The Beatles, for example, have appeared on the cover over thirty times, either individually or as a band. The first ten issues featured the following:

Issue #1 – John Lennon

Issue #2 – Tina Turner

Issue #3 – The Beatles

Issue #4 – Jimi Hendrix, Donovan & Otis Redding

Issue #5 – Jim Morrison

Issue #6 – Janis Joplin

Issue #7 – Jimi Hendrix

Issue #8 – Monterey Pop Festival

Issue #9 – John Lennon & Paul McCartney

Issue #10 – Eric Clapton

Reference works

International editions

Argentina – Published by Publirevistas S.A. since April 1998. This edition also circulates in Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Australia – ''Rolling Stone Australia'' began as a supplement in 1969 in ''Go-Set'' magazine. It became a full title in 1972 and was published by Nextmedia Pty Ltd, Sydney until 2008. It is now published by ACP Magazines and is the longest running international edition. Its last issue viewed Australian band Short Stack as the 'cover girls'.

Brazil – Published in Brazil since October 2006 by Spring Comunicações.

Bulgaria – Published in Bulgaria since November 2009 by Sivir Publications.Ceasing operations as of the August/September 2011 issue.

Chile – Published by Edu Comunicaciones until May 2003. Published by El Mercurio since January 2006.

China – ''Rolling Stone'' in mainland China is licensed to One Media Group of Hong Kong and published in partnership with China Record Corporation. The magazine is in Chinese with translated articles and local content.

Colombia - Edited in Bogotá for Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, Panama and Venezuela.

France - Launched 2002. This edition temporarily ceased in 2007 and was relaunched in May 2008 under license with 1633SA publishing group.

Germany - Published in Germany since 1994 by Axel Springer AG.

India - Launched in March 2008 by MW Com, publishers of ''Man's World'' magazine.

Indonesia - Published in Indonesia since June 2005 by a&e; Media.

Italy - Published in Italy since November 2003, first by IXO Publishing and now by Editrice Quadratum.

Japan - Launched in March 2007.

Mexico - Published by Prisa Internacional from 2002 until May 2009; from June 2009 it is published by Editorial Televisa under license.

Middle East - Published in Dubai by HGW Media since November 2010.

Poland - First magazine is going to be released in the first half of 2011.

Russia - Published by Izdatelskiy Dom SPN since 2004.

Spain - Published by PROGRESA in Madrid, since 1999.

Turkey - Published since June 2006 by GD Gazete Dergi.

See also

The Rolling Stone Interview

Jim Walrod

NME, A British music magazine which is as influential as Rolling Stone, first published in 1952.

Notes

External links

Official Rolling Stone merchandise

The Official Jann S. Wenner Website

''Rolling Stone'' The 100 Best Songs of 2006

The Voice of America (Observer article, April 30, 2006)

''Rolling Stone'' cover gallery

''Rolling Stone'' 2003 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

List at RollingStone.com 2004 500 Greatest Songs of All Time

Guitarists of All Time

Rolling Stone Turkey

Will You Still Need Me, Will You Still Read Me? Article from ''The New York Times'', December 25, 2005

The Origins of Rolling Stone Article from The Daily Californian August 20, 2007

How Does It Feel Article from The Washington Post May 4, 2006

Revolutionary, wild, unpredictable- and that was just the writers Article from The Independent (London) May 10, 2006

Baron Wolman, ''Rolling Stone'''s first Chief Photographer

''Rolling Stone'', 2008, The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time

Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Artists

Category:American monthly magazines Category:American music magazines Category:Indian magazines Category:Italian magazines Category:PRISA Category:Publications established in 1967 Category:Russian magazines Category:Turkish magazines Category:Monthly magazines Category:American political magazines

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name	The Weeknd
birth name	Abel Tesfaye
birth date	February 16, 1990
birth place	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
background	solo_singer
education	Birchmount Park C.I.
genre	Contemporary R&B;, post-dubstep, downtempo
instruments	Vocals, keyboards
years active	2010–present
label	XO
associated acts	Drake, Doc McKinney, Illangelo and Florence and the machine
website
current members	}}

Abel Tesfaye (born February 16, 1990), better known by his stage name The Weeknd, is an R&B; Canadian recording artist and record producer from Toronto ; he is of Ethiopian descent. He began recording songs under ''The Weeknd'' and uploading them to YouTube in late 2010, though the identity of the individual behind the project was initially unknown. In March 2011, The Weeknd released a nine-song free album, ''House of Balloons'' which was critically acclaimed. The title track is based on a sample of Siouxsie and the Banshees' hit single "Happy House. The first album is a part of a trilogy which includes ''Thursday'' released in August of the same year and ''Echoes of Silence'' issued in December. In June, ''House of Balloons'' was named as one of ten shortlisted nominees of 2011 Polaris Music Prize but eventually lost to Arcade Fire's ''The Suburbs''. On December 21, 2011 at 11:07 p.m. EST Tesfaye released his highly anticipated third mixtape ''Echoes of Silence''. The Weeknd's site crashed shortly after due to the large number of downloads. The Weeknd quickly provided a Hulkshare link to keep the album available while the official site was down.

Since hitting the scene, The Weeknd has received praise from a number of musical publications, including those of ''Pitchfork'', ''MTV'', ''BET'', ''Rolling Stone'', ''XXL'', ''The Source'' and ''2DopeBoyz'', who have all dubbed him the "Songbird of his Generation", as well as the "best musical talent since Michael Jackson" (John Norris, MTV).

History

''House of Balloons''

In late 2010, Abel Tesfaye uploaded three songs: "What You Need," "Loft Music," and "The Morning" to YouTube. A nine-track free album titled ''House of Balloons'' was digitally released on 21 March 2011 through the artist's official website. The title track is based on the sample of Siouxsie and the Banshees' 1980 hit single "Happy House" with Tesfaye covering the chorus. Tesfaye’s eclectic music also blends other samples ranging from Beach House to Aaliyah. Hip-hop artist Drake has been partly credited for generating public awareness for The Weeknd, after he quoted a line from the track "Wicked Games" via Twitter and linked to the singer's music on his website.

''House of Balloons'' was met with universal critical acclaim. ''Pitchfork'''s Joe Colly wrote that "all the thematic and sonic pieces fit together - these weird, morning-after tales of lust, hurt, and over-indulgence ... are matched by this incredibly lush, downcast music. It's hard to think of a record since probably The xx's debut ... that so fully embodies such a specific nocturnal quality." Frontier Psychiatrist's L.V. Lopez claimed the album was "brilliant, disturbing, and not safe for work," calling the song "Loft Music" a song that is "so unsafe it should come with a child-proof cap, so dirty that you’ll feel guilty the next time you see your wife." Tom Ewing of ''The Guardian'' said that although the singing and songwriting on ''House of Balloons'' "aren't especially strong by R&B; standards," the Weeknd is receiving "so much attention" as a result of its "command of mood." Sean Fennessey of ''The Village Voice'' called the album "impressive" and added, "It's patient, often gorgeous, and consistently louche ... with the sort of blown-out underbelly and echo-laden crooning that has already made Drake's less-than-a-year-old ''Thank Me Later'' such an influential guidepost." Maegan McGregor of ''Exclaim!'' also praised the album: "Packed full of sex, drugs and some downright killer production, this easily stands as one of the year's best debuts so far, hipster, Top 40 or otherwise." Sputnik Music's Tyler Fisher said that "despite being a free album, ''House of Balloons'' feels like a true album, a true labor of love."

In July, The Weeknd then went on tour and gave his first performance at the Mod Club on College Street in Toronto. The hour-and-a-half long performance created a lot of buzz about the young R&B; singer. Tesfaye’s next performance took place at Toronto’s Molson Canadian Amphitheatre. He collaborated with rapper Drake and appeared as one of the special guests to Drake’s 2nd Annual OVO Fest on July 31, 2011 That same month, the song "High for This" was featured in the promo for the final season of the HBO show ''Entourage''.

During the summer, the press noted that Tesfaye refused to give interviews and choose to only communicate via Twitter.

When ''House of Balloons'' was named #1 album of 2011 by ''Complex magazine'', it beat both Drake's Take Care and Watch the Throne by Jay-Z and Kanye West for the number 1 spot.

''Thursday''

''Thursday'' is the second mixtape released by The Weeknd . The mixtape was released shortly after ''House of Balloons'' on August 18, 2011. ''Thursday'' was released on XO's label along with his other two mixtapes. Although the mixtape was released for free on his website as a digital download, the feedback it received was enormously positive. ''Thursday'' was produced in Toronto, Ontario with the help of Doc McKinney and Illangelo.

''Echoes of Silence''

The Weeknd's third mixtape, entitled ''Echoes of Silence'', was released in December 21, 2011. ''Echoes of Silence'' has been described as his most lyrically powerful and emotional mixtape to date.

In April 2012, The Weeknd debuted his US tour by performing at the Coachella Festival. Tesfaye and his band will be only visiting the Union’s coasts, with a dozen of gigs in various major cities. They will be also performing in European major festivals, including the Primavera Sound Festivals in Spain and Portugal, and Wireless Festival in London.

Discography

Albums

{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;" border="1" ! scope="col" style="width:10em;"| Title ! scope="col" style="width:20em;"| Album details |- ! scope="row" |''House of Balloons'' |

Released: March 21, 2011

Label: XO

Format: Digital download

|- ! scope="row" |''Thursday'' |

Released: August 18, 2011

Label: XO

Format: Digital download

|- ! scope="row" |''Echoes of Silence'' |

Released: December 21, 2011

Label: XO

Format: Digital download

|}

Guest Appearances and Production

+ List of songs with guest appearances by The Weeknd

Take Care Take Care Take Care

		Song !! Album !! Year !! Artist
"Drugs In My Body (Remix)"	Play Music
"Crew Love"	|	2011	Drake (entertainer)>Drake
"The Ride"	|	2011	Drake
"Cameras / Good Ones Go Interlude"	|	2011	Drake

+ List of songs with production by The Weeknd

Born This Way: The Remix

		Song !! Album !! Year !! Artist
"Shake It Out (The Weeknd Remix)"	Ceremonials	2011
"Marry The Night (The Weeknd & Illangelo Remix)"	|	2011	Lady Gaga

Awards

|- |rowspan="1"|2011 Polaris Music Prize |"House of Balloons" |Canadian Polaris Music Prize | |- |rowspan="2"|MTV O Music Awards |Wicked Games |Too Much Ass for TV | |- |Himself |Best Web-born Artist | |- |rowspan="1"|2012 mtvU Music Awards |Himself |Breaking Woodie | |- |rowspan="2"|2012 Sirius XM Indie Awards |Himself |Solo Artist of the Year | |- |Himself |Urban Artist/Group or Duo of the Year | |- |rowspan="1"|2011 Stereogum Awards |Himself |Top 10 New Acts of 2011 | |-

References

External links

Category:1990 births Category:Living people Category:Canadian male singers Category:Canadian rhythm and blues singers Category:Musicians from Toronto

da:The Weeknd es:The Weeknd fr:The Weeknd ru:The Weeknd

name	Muddy Waters| image Muddy_Waters_(blues_musician).jpg
landscape	yes
background	solo_singer
birth name	McKinley Morganfield
born	April 04, 1913Issaquena County, Mississippi, United States
died	April 30, 1983Westmont, Illinois, United States
instrument	Vocals, guitar, harmonica.
genre	Blues, Chicago blues, country blues, electric blues
occupation	Singer, songwriter, guitarist, bandleader
years active	1941 – 1982
label	Aristocrat, Chess, Testament
website	www.muddywaters.com
notable instruments	Gibson Les PaulFender Telecaster }}

McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913April 30, 1983), known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues". He was a major inspiration for the British blues explosion in the 1960s, Muddy was ranked #17 in ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Early life

Although in his later years Muddy usually said that he was born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi in 1915, he was actually born at Jug's Corner in neighboring Issaquena County, Mississippi in 1913. Recent research has uncovered documentation showing that in the 1930s and 1940s he reported his birth year as 1913 on both his marriage license and musicians' union card. A 1955 interview in the ''Chicago Defender'' is the earliest claim of 1915 as his year of birth, which he continued to use in interviews from that point onward. The 1920 census lists him as five years old as of March 6, 1920, suggesting that his birth year may have been 1914. The Social Security Death Index, relying on the Social Security card application submitted after his move to Chicago in the mid 1940s, lists him as being born April 4, 1915. Muddy's gravestone lists his birth year as 1915.

His grandmother Della Grant raised him after his mother died shortly after his birth. His fondness for playing in mud earned him the nickname "Muddy" at an early age. He then changed it to "Muddy Water" and finally "Muddy Waters". The actual shack where Muddy Waters lived in his youth on Stovall Plantation is now located at the Delta Blues Museum at 1 Blues Alley in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He started out on harmonica but by age seventeen he was playing the guitar at parties emulating two blues artists who were extremely popular in the south, Son House and Robert Johnson. "His thick heavy voice, the dark coloration of his tone and his firm, almost solid, personality were all clearly derived from House," wrote music critic Peter Guralnick in ''Feel Like Going Home'', "but the embellishments which he added, the imaginative slide technique and more agile rhythms, were closer to Johnson."

On November 20, 1932 Muddy married Mabel Berry; Robert Nighthawk played guitar at the wedding, and the party reportedly got so wild the floor fell in. Mabel left Muddy three years later when Muddy's first child was born; the child's mother was Leola Spain, sixteen years old, (Leola later used her maiden name Brown), "married to a man named Steven" and "going with a guy named Tucker". Leola was the only one of his girlfriends with whom Muddy would stay in touch throughout his life; they never married. By the time he finally cut out for Chicago in 1943, there was another Mrs. Morganfield left behind, a girl called Sallie Ann.

Early career

In 1940, Muddy moved to Chicago for the first time. He played with Silas Green a year later, and then returned to Mississippi. In the early part of the decade he ran a juke joint, complete with gambling, moonshine and a jukebox; he also performed music there himself. In the summer of 1941 Alan Lomax went to Stovall, Mississippi, on behalf of the Library of Congress to record various country blues musicians. "He brought his stuff down and recorded me right in my house," Muddy recalled in ''Rolling Stone'', "and when he played back the first song I sounded just like anybody's records. Man, you don't know how I felt that Saturday afternoon when I heard that voice and it was my own voice. Later on he sent me two copies of the pressing and a check for twenty bucks, and I carried that record up to the corner and put it on the jukebox. Just played it and played it and said, 'I can do it, I can do it.'" Lomax came back in July 1942 to record Muddy again. Both sessions were eventually released as ''Down On Stovall's Plantation'' on the Testament label.

In 1943, Muddy headed back to Chicago with the hope of becoming a full-time professional musician. He lived with a relative for a short period while driving a truck and working in a factory by day and performing at night. Big Bill Broonzy, one of the leading bluesmen in Chicago at the time, helped Muddy break into the very competitive market by allowing him to open for his shows in the rowdy clubs. In 1945, Muddy's uncle Joe Grant gave him his first electric guitar which enabled him to be heard above the noisy crowds.

In 1946, he recorded some tunes for Mayo Williams at Columbia but they were not released at the time. Later that year he began recording for Aristocrat Records, a newly-formed label run by two brothers, Leonard and Phil Chess. In 1947, he played guitar with Sunnyland Slim on piano on the cuts "Gypsy Woman" and "Little Anna Mae." These were also shelved, but in 1948 "I Can't Be Satisfied" and "I Feel Like Going Home" became big hits and his popularity in clubs began to take off. Soon after, Aristocrat changed their label name to Chess Records and Muddy's signature tune "Rollin' Stone" also became a smash hit.

Commercial success

Initially, the Chess brothers would not allow Muddy to use his own musicians in the recording studio; instead he was provided with a backing bass by Ernest "Big" Crawford, or by musicians assembled specifically for the recording session, including "Baby Face" Leroy Foster and Johnny Jones. Gradually Chess relented, and by September 1953 he was recording with one of the most acclaimed blues groups in history: Little Walter Jacobs on harmonica; Jimmy Rogers on guitar; Elga Edmonds (a.k.a. Elgin Evans) on drums; Otis Spann on piano. The band recorded a series of blues classics during the early 1950s, some with the help of bassist/songwriter Willie Dixon, including "Hoochie Coochie Man" (Number 8 on the R&B; charts), "I Just Want to Make Love to You" (Number 4), and "I'm Ready". These three were "the most macho songs in his repertoire," wrote Robert Palmer in ''Rolling Stone''. "Muddy would never have composed anything so unsubtle. But they gave him a succession of showstoppers and an image, which were important for a bluesman trying to break out of the grind of local gigs into national prominence."

Muddy, along with his former harmonica player Little Walter Jacobs and recent southern transplant Howlin' Wolf, reigned over the early 1950s Chicago blues scene, his band becoming a proving ground for some of the city's best blues talent. While Little Walter continued a collaborative relationship long after he left Muddy's band in 1952, appearing on most of Muddy's classic recordings throughout the 1950s, Muddy developed a long-running, generally good-natured rivalry with Wolf. The success of Muddy's ensemble paved the way for others in his group to break away and enjoy their own solo careers. In 1952 Little Walter left when his single "Juke" became a hit, and in 1955 Rogers quit to work exclusively with his own band, which had been a sideline until that time. Although he continued working with Muddy's band, Otis Spann enjoyed a solo career and many releases under his own name beginning in the mid-1950s.

England and low profile

Muddy headed to England in 1958 and shocked audiences (whose only previous exposure to blues had come via the acoustic folk/blues sounds of acts such as Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee and Big Bill Broonzy) with his loud, amplified electric guitar and thunderous beat. His performance at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival, recorded and released as his first live album, ''At Newport 1960'', helped turn on a whole new generation to Muddy's sound. He expressed dismay when he realized that members of his own race were turning their backs on the genre while a white audience had shown increasing respect for the blues.

However, for the better part of twenty years (since his last big hit in 1956, "I'm Ready") Muddy was put on the back shelf by the Chess label and recorded albums with various "popular" themes: ''Brass And The Blues'', ''Electric Mud'', etc. In 1967, he joined forces with Bo Diddley, Little Walter and Howlin' Wolf to record the ''Super Blues'' and ''The Super Super Blues Band'' pair of albums of Chess blues standards. In 1972 he went back to England to record ''The London Muddy Waters Sessions'' with Rory Gallagher, Steve Winwood, Rick Grech and Mitch Mitchell — but their playing was not up to his standards. "These boys are top musicians, they can play with me, put the book before 'em and play it, you know," he told Guralnick. "But that ain't what I need to sell my people, it ain't the Muddy Waters sound. An' if you change my sound, then you gonna change the whole man."

Muddy's sound was basically Delta blues electrified, but his use of microtones, in both his vocals and slide playing, made it extremely difficult to duplicate and follow correctly. "When I play on the stage with my band, I have to get in there with my guitar and try to bring the sound down to me. But no sooner than I quit playing, it goes back to another, different sound. My blues look so simple, so easy to do, but it's not. They say my blues is the hardest blues in the world to play."

Comeback

Muddy's long-time wife Geneva died of cancer on March 15, 1973. A devastated Muddy was taken to a doctor and told to quit smoking, which he did. Gaining custody of some of his "outside kids", he moved them into his home, eventually buying a new house in Westmont, Illinois. Another teenage daughter turned up while on tour in New Orleans; Big Bill Morganfield was introduced to his Dad after a gig in Florida. Florida was also where Muddy met his future wife, the 19-year-old Marva Jean Brooks whom he nicknamed "Sunshine".

On November 25, 1976, Muddy Waters performed at The Band's farewell concert at Winterland in San Francisco. The concert was released as both a record and a film, ''The Last Waltz'', featuring a performance of "Mannish Boy" with Paul Butterfield on harmonica.

In 1977 Johnny Winter convinced his label, Blue Sky, to sign Muddy, the beginning of a fruitful partnership. His "comeback" LP, ''Hard Again'', was recorded in just two days and was a return to the original Chicago sound he had created 25 years earlier, thanks to Winter's production. Former sideman James Cotton contributed harmonica on the Grammy Award-winning album and a brief but well-received tour followed.

The Muddy Waters Blues Band at the time included guitarists Sammy Lawhorn, Bob Margolin and Luther Johnson, pianist Pinetop Perkins, harmonica player Jerry Portnoy, bassist Calvin "Fuzz" Jones and drummer Willie "Big Eyes" Smith. On "Hard Again", Winter played guitar in addition to producing; Muddy asked James Cotton to play harp on the session, and Cotton brought his own bassist Charles Calmese. According to Margolin's liner notes, Muddy did not play guitar during these sessions. The album covers a broad spectrum of styles, from the opening of "Mannish Boy", with shouts and hollers throughout, to the old-style Delta blues of "I Can't Be Satisfied", with a National Steel solo by Winter, to Cotton's screeching intro to "The Blues Had a Baby", to the moaning closer "Little Girl". Its live feel harks back to the Chess Records days, and it evokes a feeling of intimacy and cooperative musicianship. The expanded reissue includes one bonus track, a remake of the 1950s single "Walking Through the Park". The other outtakes from the album sessions appear on ''King Bee''. Margolin's notes state that the reissued album was remastered but that remixing was not considered to be necessary. ''Hard Again'' was the first studio collaboration between Muddy and Winter, who produced his final four albums, the others being ''I'm Ready'', ''King Bee'', and ''Muddy "Mississippi" Waters - Live'', for Blue Sky, a Columbia Records subsidiary.

In 1978 Winter recruited two of Muddy's cohorts from the early '50s, Big Walter Horton and Jimmy Rogers, and brought in the rest of his touring band at the time (harmonica player Jerry Portnoy, guitarist Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson, and bassist Calvin Jones) to record ''I'm Ready'' which came close to the critical and commercial success of ''Hard Again''.

The comeback continued in 1979 with the lauded LP ''Muddy "Mississippi" Waters Live''. "Muddy was loose for this one," wrote Jas Obrecht in ''Guitar Player'', "and the result is the next best thing to being ringside at one of his foot-thumping, head-nodding, downhome blues shows." On the album, Muddy is accompanied by his touring band, augmented by Johnny Winter on guitar. The set list contains most of his biggest hits, and the album has an energetic feel. ''King Bee'' the following year concluded Waters' reign at Blue Sky, and these last four LPs turned out to be his biggest-selling albums ever. ''King Bee'' was the last album Muddy Waters recorded. Coming last in a trio of studio outings produced by Johnny Winter, it is also a mixed bag. During the sessions for ''King Bee'', Muddy, his manager and his band were involved in a dispute over money. According to the liner notes by Bob Margolin, the conflict arose from Muddy's health being on the wane and consequently playing fewer engagements. The bandmembers wanted more money for each of the fewer gigs they did play in order to make ends meet. Ultimately a split occurred and the entire band quit. Because of the tensions in the studio preceding the split, Winter felt the sessions had not produced enough solid material to yield an entire album. He subsequently filled out ''King Bee'' with outtakes from earlier Blue Sky sessions and the cover photograph was by David Michael Kennedy. For the listener, ''King Bee'' is a leaner and meaner record. Less of the good-time exuberance present on the previous two outings is present here. The title track, "Mean Old Frisco", "Sad Sad Day", and "I Feel Like Going Home", are all blues with ensemble work. The Sony Legacy issue features completely remastered sound and Margolin's notes, and also hosts two bonus tracks from the ''King Bee'' sessions that Winter did not see fit to release the first time.

In 1981, Muddy Waters was invited to perform at ChicagoFest, the city's top outdoor music festival. He was joined onstage by Johnny Winter — who had successfully produced his most recent albums — and played classics like “Mannish Boy,” “Trouble No More” and “Mojo Working” to a new generation of fans. This historic performance was made available on DVD in 2009 by Shout! Factory.

In 1982, declining health dramatically curtailed Muddy's performance schedule. Muddy Waters' last public performance took place when he sat in with Eric Clapton's band at a Clapton concert in Florida in autumn of 1982.

Death

On April 30, 1983 Muddy Waters died in his sleep from heart failure, at his home in Westmont, Illinois. At his funeral at Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois, throngs of blues musicians and fans showed up to pay tribute to one of the true originals of the art form. "Muddy was a master of just the right notes," John P. Hammond, told ''Guitar World'' magazine. "It was profound guitar playing, deep and simple... more country blues transposed to the electric guitar, the kind of playing that enhanced the lyrics, gave profundity to the words themselves." Two years after his death, Chicago honored him by designating the one-block section between 900 and 1000 E. 43rd Street near his former home on the south side "Honorary Muddy Waters Drive" The Chicago suburb of Westmont, where Waters lived the last decade of his life, named a section of Cass Avenue near his home "Honorary Muddy Waters Way". Following Waters' death, fellow blues musician B.B. King (who was hugely influenced by Waters) told ''Guitar World'', "It's going to be years and years before most people realize how greatly he contributed to American music". Attesting to the historic place of Muddy Waters in the development of the blues in Mississippi, a Mississippi Blues Trail marker has been placed in Clarksdale, Mississippi by the Mississippi Blues Commission designating the site of Muddy Waters' cabin to commemorate his importance.

Influence

His influence is tremendous, over a variety of music genres: blues, rhythm and blues, rock 'n' roll, hard rock, folk, jazz, and country. He also helped Chuck Berry get his first record contract.

His 1958 tour of England marked possibly the first time amplified, modern urban blues was heard there, although on his first tour he was the only one amplified. His backing was provided by Englishman Chris Barber's trad jazz group. (One critic retreated to the toilets to write his review because he found the band so loud).

The Rolling Stones named themselves after his 1950 song "Rollin' Stone", (also known as "Catfish Blues", which Jimi Hendrix covered as well). Hendrix recalled "the first guitar player I was aware of was Muddy Waters. I first heard him as a little boy and it scared me to death". Cream covered "Rollin' and Tumblin'" on their 1966 debut album ''Fresh Cream'', as Eric Clapton was a big fan of Muddy Waters when he was growing up, and his music influenced Clapton's music career. The song was also covered by Canned Heat at the legendary Monterey Pop Festival and later adapted by Bob Dylan on the album ''Modern Times''. One of Led Zeppelin's biggest hits, "Whole Lotta Love", is lyrically based upon the Muddy Waters hit "You Need Love", written by Willie Dixon. Dixon wrote some of Muddy Waters' most famous songs, including "I Just Want to Make Love to You" (a big radio hit for Etta James, as well as the 1970s rock band Foghat), "Hoochie Coochie Man", which The Allman Brothers Band famously covered, and "I'm Ready", which was covered by Humble Pie. In 1993, Paul Rodgers released the album ''Muddy Water Blues: A Tribute to Muddy Waters'', on which he covered a number of Muddy Waters songs, including "Louisiana Blues", "Rollin' Stone", "Hoochie Coochie Man" and "I'm Ready" (among others) in collaboration with a number of famous guitarists such as Brian May and Jeff Beck.

Angus Young of the rock group AC/DC has cited Muddy Waters as one of his influences. The song title "You Shook Me All Night Long" came from lyrics of the Muddy Waters song "You Shook Me", written by Willie Dixon and J. B. Lenoir. Earl Hooker first recorded it as an instrumental which was then overdubbed with vocals by Muddy Waters in 1962. Led Zeppelin also covered this song on their debut album ''Led Zeppelin''.

Muddy Waters' songs have been featured in long-time fan's Martin Scorsese's movies, including ''The Color of Money'', '' Goodfellas'' and ''Casino''. Muddy Waters' 1970s recording of his mid-'50s hit "Mannish Boy" (a.k.a. "I'm A Man") was used in ''Goodfellas'' and the hit film ''Risky Business'', and also features in the rockumentary The Last Waltz.

The song Come Together by The Beatles references Muddy Waters. "He roller coaster/he got Muddy Waters."

Screenwriter David Simon has written an unproduced teleplay about Muddy Waters' life.

The 2006 Family Guy episode "Saving Private Brian" includes a parody of Muddy Waters trying to pass a kidney stone; his screams of pain form a call and response with the Chicago blues band in his bathroom.

In 2008, Jeffrey Wright portrayed Muddy in the biopic ''Cadillac Records'', a film about the rise and fall of Chess Records and the lives of its recording artists. A second 2008 film about Leonard Chess and Chess Records, ''Who Do You Love'', also covers Muddy's time at Chess Records.

In the 2009 film The Boat that Rocked about pirate radio in the UK, the cryptic message that late night DJ Bob gives to Carl to give to Carl's mother is "Muddy Waters Rocks."

In 1990, the television show Doogie Howser, M.D. showed an episode called "Doogie Sings the Blues" with the main character, Blind Otis Lemon based on Muddy Waters, with references of his influence on the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, along with the performance of "Got My Mojo Working" by Blind Otis Lemon. He is also referred to as the original "Hoochie Coochie Man".

Awards and recognitions

Grammy Awards

! Year	! Category	! Title	! Genre	! Label	! Result
		''They Call Me Muddy Waters''		MCA Records	winner
	Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording	''The London Muddy Waters Session''	folk	MCA/Chess	winner
	Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording	''The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album''	folk	MCA/Chess	winner
	Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording	''[[Hard Again''	folk	Blue Sky	winner
	Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording	''I'm Ready''	folk	Blue Sky	winner
	Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording	''Muddy "Mississippi" Waters Live''	folk	Blue Sky	winner

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame listed four songs of Muddy Waters of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.

! Year Recorded	! Title
1950	Rollin' Stone
1954	Hoochie Coochie Man
1955	Mannish Boy
1957	Got My Mojo Working

The Blues Foundation Awards

! Year	! Category	! Title	! Result
1994	Reissue Album of the Year	''The Complete Plantation Recordings''	Winner
1995	Reissue Album of the Year	''One More Mile ''	Winner
2000	Traditional Blues Album of the Year	''The Lost Tapes of Muddy Waters''	Winner
2002	Historical Blues Album of the Year	''Fathers and Sons''	Winner
2006	Historical Album of the Year	''Hoochie Coochie Man: Complete Chess Recordings, Volume 2, 1952–1958''	Winner

Inductions

! Year Inducted	! Title
1980
1987	Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
1992	Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award

U.S. Postage Stamp

! Year	! Stamp	! USA	! Note
1994	29 cents Commemorative stamp		Photo

Partial discography

Charting and notable singles

Muddy Waters released approximately sixty singles (120 "sides") during his career, sixteen of which made the charts. These were issued on Chess Records, except for his 1941 recordings for the Library of Congress and his 1947 – early 1950 singles, which were issued on Aristocrat Records. The chart information is the peak position the single reached on the Billboard R&B; chart. {|class="wikitable" |- ! style="width:40px;"| Year ! style="width:470px;"| Title ! Chart no. |- | rowspan="2" | 1941 | "Country Blues" | — |- | "I Be's Troubled" | — |- | rowspan="2" | 1948 | "(I Feel Like) Going Home" | 11 |- | "I Can't Be Satisfied" | — |- | rowspan="4" | 1950 | "Rollin' and Tumblin'" | — |- | "Rollin' Stone" | — |- | "Walkin' Blues" | — |- | "Louisiana Blues" | 10 |- | rowspan="3" | 1951 | "Long Distance Call" | 8 |- | "Honey Bee" | 10 |- | "Still a Fool" | 9 |- | rowspan="2" | 1952 | "She Moves Me" | 10 |- | "Standing Around Crying" | — |- | rowspan="3" | 1953 | "Turn the Lamp Down Low (Baby Please Don't Go)" | — |- | "Blow Wind Blow" | — |- | "Mad Love (I Want You to Love Me)" | 6 |- | rowspan="3" | 1954 | "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man" | 3 |- | "Just Make Love to Me (I Just Want to Make Love to You)" | 4 |- | "I'm Ready" | 4 |- | rowspan="3" | 1955 | "I Want to Be Loved" | — |- | "Manish Boy" aka "Mannish Boy" | 5 |- | "Sugar Sweet" | 11 |- | rowspan="6" | 1956 | "Trouble No More" | 7 |- | "Forty Days and Forty Nights" | 7 |- | "Don't Go No Farther" | 9 |- | "Just to Be with You" | — |- | "Rock Me" | — |- | "Got My Mojo Working" | — |- | 1957 | "I Live the Life I Love (I Love the Life I Live)" | — |- | rowspan="2" | 1958 | "She's Nineteen Years Old" | — |- | "Close to You" | 9 |- | 1959 | "I Feel So Good" | — |- | rowspan="2" | 1962 | "You Shook Me" | — |- | "You Need Love" | — |- | rowspan="2" | 1964 | "The Same Thing" | — |- | "You Can't Lose What You Ain't Never Had" | — |} Muddy Waters also recorded several singles as a sideman with Jimmy Rogers, Little Walter, Junior Wells, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Otis Spann, and others.

Selected albums

Muddy Waters released about thirty albums during his career, including compilation albums. After his death in 1983, numerous compilation and live albums have been released by a number of record companies (allmusic lists over 200 compilations). The following lists most of the albums released during his career and the more recent and available compilations released after his death. {|class="wikitable" |- ! style="width:40px;"| Year ! style="width:470px;"| Title ! Label |- | 1958 | ''The Best of Muddy Waters'' | Chess |- | rowspan="2" | 1960 | ''Muddy Waters sings Big Bill Broonzy'' | Chess |- | ''At Newport 1960'' | Chess |- | 1964 | ''Folk Singer'' | Chess |- | rowspan="2" | 1966 | ''The Real Folk Blues'' | Chess |- | ''Down on Stovall's Plantation: His First Recordings'' | Testament |- | rowspan="2" | 1967 | ''Muddy, Brass and the Blues'' | Chess |- | ''More Real Folk Blues'' | Chess |- | 1968 | ''Electric Mud'' | Cadet Concept |- | rowspan="3" | 1969 | ''After the Rain'' | Cadet Concept |- | ''Fathers and Sons'' | Chess |- | ''Sail On'' | Chess |- | rowspan="2" | 1971 | ''They Call Me Muddy Waters'' | Chess |- | ''Live (at Mr. Kelley's)'' | Chess |- | 1972 | ''The London Muddy Waters Sessions'' | Chess |- | rowspan="2" | 1973 | ''Can't Get No Grindin''' | Chess |- | ''"Unk" in Funk'' | Chess |- | 1975 | ''The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album'' | Chess |- | 1977 | ''Hard Again'' | Blue Sky |- | 1978 | ''I'm Ready'' | Blue Sky |- | 1979 | ''Muddy "Mississippi" Waters - Live'' | Blue Sky |- | 1981 | ''King Bee'' | Blue Sky |- | 1989 | ''The Chess Box'' | MCA/Chess |- | 1993 | ''The Complete Plantation Recordings'' | MCA/Chess |- | 1994 | ''One More Mile'' | MCA/Chess |- | rowspan="3" | 2000 | ''Rollin' Stone: The Golden Anniversary Collection'' (Chess Masters 1947–1952) | MCA/Chess |- | ''The Lost Tapes'' | Blind Pig |- | ''The Essential Collection'' | Universal/Spectrum |- | rowspan="2" | 2001 | ''Muddy Waters 1941–1946'' | Document |- | ''The Anthology (1947–1972)'' | MCA/Chess |- | 2004 | ''Hoochie Coochie Man: Complete Chess Masters, Vol. 2: 1952–1958'' | Hip-O Select/Chess |- | 2006 | ''The Definitive Collection'' | Geffen/Chess |- | 2007 | ''Breakin' It Up, Breakin' It Down'' (Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter, & James Cotton) | Epic/Legacy |- | 2009 | ''Authorized Bootleg: Live at the Fillmore Auditorium November 4–6, 1966'' | Geffen/Chess |}

Notes

References

''Can't Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters'' by Robert Gordon, 2002, 432 pp. ISBN 0-316-32849-9

''Muddy Waters: The Mojo Man'' by Sandra B. Tooze, 1997, 383 pp. ISBN 1-55022-296-1

''Muddy Waters: Deep Blues'' by Muddy Waters, 1995, 183 pp. ISBN 0-7935-0955-6

''Muddy Waters: Deep Blues and Good News'' by Dave Rubin, Muddy Waters ISBN 0-7935-6501-4

''Bossmen: Bill Monroe and Muddy Waters'' by James R. Rooney, 1991, 163 pp. ISBN 0-306-80427-1

External links

Official website

"Muddy Waters." '' Mississippi Writers and Musicians.''

Muddy Waters entry at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

PBS ''American Masters'' documentary

Muddy Waters Biography – Center Stage Chicago

Muddy Waters article from ''Mudcat Café''

1980 Induction into Blues Foundation Hall of Fame

Review of ''Breakin' It Up Breakin' It Down'' CD

The Complete Muddy Waters Discography

Category:1913 births Category:1983 deaths Category:Chicago blues musicians Category:Electric blues musicians Category:Delta blues musicians Category:Blues revival musicians Category:African American guitarists Category:African American singer-songwriters Category:American blues musicians Category:American blues singer-songwriters Category:American blues guitarists Category:American male singers Category:Blues Hall of Fame inductees Category:Blues musicians from Mississippi Category:American buskers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:People from Clarksdale, Mississippi Category:People from Issaquena County, Mississippi Category:People from St. Louis, Missouri Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Slide guitarists Category:Lead guitarists Category:Sun Records artists Category:Chess Records artists Category:Mississippi Blues Trail Category:Blues rock musicians

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Name	Bob Dylan
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Robert Allen Zimmerman
Alias	Elston Gunnn, Blind Boy Grunt, Bob Landy, Robert Milkwood Thomas, Tedham Porterhouse, Lucky/Boo Wilbury, Jack Frost, Sergei Petrov
Origin	Hibbing, Minnesota, U.S.
Birth date	May 24, 1941
Birth place	Duluth, Minnesota, U.S.
Instrument	Vocals, guitar, harmonica, piano, keyboard, bass
Genre	Rock, folk rock, folk, blues, country, gospel, alternative country, country rock
Occupation	Musician, songwriter, producer, visual artist, poet, writer, director, screenwriter
Years active	1959–present
Label	Columbia, Asylum
Associated acts	Traveling Wilburys, The Band, Joan Baez, Grateful Dead, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Website	}}

Bob Dylan (), born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet and painter. He has been a major figure in music for five decades and has had immense influence on popular music. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly reluctant figurehead of social unrest. A number of his early songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" became anthems for the US civil rights and anti-war movements. Leaving his initial base in the culture of folk music behind, Dylan proceeded to revolutionize perceptions of the limits of popular music in 1965 with the six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone".

His lyrics incorporated a variety of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed hugely to the then burgeoning counterculture. Initially inspired by the songs of Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, Hank Williams, and the performance styles of Buddy Holly and Little Richard, Dylan has both amplified and personalized musical genres. His recording career, spanning fifty years, has explored numerous distinct traditions in American song—from folk, blues and country to gospel, rock and roll, and rockabilly, to English, Scottish, and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and swing.

Dylan performs with guitar, keyboards, and harmonica. Backed by a changing line-up of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the ''Never Ending Tour''. His accomplishments as a recording artist and performer have been central to his career, but his greatest contribution is generally considered to be his songwriting.

Since 1994, Dylan has published three books of drawings and paintings, and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries. As a songwriter and musician, Dylan has received numerous awards over the years including Grammy, Golden Globe, and Academy Awards; he has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2008, a road called the ''Bob Dylan Pathway'' was opened in the singer's honor in his birthplace of Duluth, Minnesota. The Pulitzer Prize jury in 2008 awarded him a special citation for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power."

Life and career

Origins and musical beginnings

Robert Allen Zimmerman (Hebrew name Shabtai Zisel ben Avraham) was born in St. Mary's Hospital on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota, and raised in Hibbing, Minnesota, on the Mesabi Iron Range west of Lake Superior. His paternal grandparents, Zigman and Anna Zimmerman, emigrated from Odessa in the Russian Empire (now Ukraine) to the United States following the anti-Semitic pogroms of 1905. His maternal grandparents, Benjamin and Lybba Edelstein, were Lithuanian Jews who arrived in the United States in 1902. In his autobiography ''Chronicles: Volume One'', Dylan writes that his paternal grandmother's maiden name was Kyrgyz and her family originated from Kars, Turkey.

Dylan's parents, Abram Zimmerman and Beatrice "Beatty" Stone, were part of the area's small but close-knit Jewish community. Robert Zimmerman lived in Duluth until age six, when his father was stricken with polio and the family returned to his mother's home town, Hibbing, where Zimmerman spent the rest of his childhood. Robert Zimmerman spent much of his youth listening to the radio—first to blues and country stations broadcasting from Shreveport, Louisiana and, later, to early rock and roll. He formed several bands while he attended Hibbing High School. The Shadow Blasters was short-lived, but his next, The Golden Chords, lasted longer and played covers of popular songs. Their performance of Danny and the Juniors' "Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay" at their high school talent show was so loud that the principal cut the microphone off. In his 1959 school yearbook, Robert Zimmerman listed as his ambition "To follow Little Richard." The same year, using the name Elston Gunnn (sic), he performed two dates with Bobby Vee, playing piano and providing handclaps.

Zimmerman moved to Minneapolis in September 1959 and enrolled at the University of Minnesota, where his early focus on rock and roll gave way to an interest in American folk music. In 1985, Dylan explained the attraction that folk music had exerted on him:

He soon began to perform at the 10 O'clock Scholar, a coffee house a few blocks from campus, and became actively involved in the local Dinkytown folk music circuit.

During his Dinkytown days, Zimmerman began introducing himself as "Bob Dylan". In his autobiography, Dylan acknowledged that he had been influenced by the poetry of Dylan Thomas. Explaining his change of name in a 2004 interview, Dylan remarked: "You're born, you know, the wrong names, wrong parents. I mean, that happens. You call yourself what you want to call yourself. This is the land of the free."

1960s

Relocation to New York and record deal

Dylan dropped out of college at the end of his freshman year. In January 1961, he travelled to New York City, hoping to perform there and visit his musical idol Woody Guthrie, who was seriously ill with Huntington's Disease in Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital. Guthrie had been a revelation to Dylan and was the biggest influence on his early performances. Describing Guthrie's impact on him, Dylan later wrote: "The songs themselves had the infinite sweep of humanity in them ... [He] was the true voice of the American spirit. I said to myself I was going to be Guthrie's greatest disciple." As well as visiting Guthrie in the hospital, Dylan befriended Guthrie's acolyte Ramblin' Jack Elliott. Much of Guthrie's repertoire was actually channeled through Elliott, and Dylan paid tribute to Elliott in ''Chronicles'' (2004).

From February 1961, Dylan played at various clubs around Greenwich Village. In September, he gained some public recognition when Robert Shelton wrote a positive review in ''The New York Times'' of a show at Gerde's Folk City. The same month Dylan played harmonica on folk singer Carolyn Hester's eponymous third album, which brought his talents to the attention of the album's producer John Hammond. Hammond signed Dylan to Columbia Records in October. The performances on his first Columbia album, ''Bob Dylan'' (1962), consisted of familiar folk, blues and gospel material combined with two original compositions. The album made little impact, selling only 5,000 copies in its first year, just enough to break even. Within Columbia Records, some referred to the singer as "Hammond's Folly" and suggested dropping his contract. Hammond defended Dylan vigorously. In March 1962, Dylan contributed harmonica and back-up vocals to the album ''Three Kings and the Queen'', accompanying Victoria Spivey and Big Joe Williams on a recording for Spivey Records. While working for Columbia, Dylan also recorded several songs under the pseudonym Blind Boy Grunt, for ''Broadside Magazine'', a folk music magazine and record label. Dylan used the pseudonym Bob Landy to record as a piano player on the 1964 anthology album, ''The Blues Project'', issued by Elektra Records. Under the pseudonym Tedham Porterhouse, Dylan contributed harmonica to Ramblin' Jack Elliott's 1964 album ''Jack Elliott''.

Dylan made two important career moves in August 1962. He legally changed his name to Bob Dylan, and signed a management contract with Albert Grossman. Grossman remained Dylan's manager until 1970, and was notable both for his sometimes confrontational personality, and for the fiercely protective loyalty he displayed towards his principal client. Dylan subsequently said of Grossman, "He was kind of like a Colonel Tom Parker figure ... you could smell him coming." Tensions between Grossman and John Hammond led to Hammond being replaced as the producer of Dylan's second album by the young African American jazz producer Tom Wilson.

From December 1962 to January 1963, Dylan made his first trip to the United Kingdom. He had been invited by TV director Philip Saville to appear in a drama, ''The Madhouse on Castle Street'', which Saville was directing for BBC Television. At the end of the play, Dylan performed "Blowin' in the Wind", one of the first major public performances of the song. The recording of ''The Madhouse on Castle Street'' was wiped by the BBC in 1968. While in London, Dylan performed at several London folk clubs, including Les Cousins, The Pinder of Wakefield, and Bunjies. He also learned new songs from several UK performers, including Martin Carthy.

By the time Dylan's second album, ''The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'', was released in May 1963, he had begun to make his name as both a singer and a songwriter. Many of the songs on this album were labeled protest songs, inspired partly by Guthrie and influenced by Pete Seeger's passion for topical songs. "Oxford Town", for example, was a sardonic account of James Meredith's ordeal as the first black student to risk enrollment at the University of Mississippi. His most famous song at this time, "Blowin' in the Wind", partially derived its melody from the traditional slave song "No More Auction Block", while its lyrics questioned the social and political status quo. The song was widely recorded and became an international hit for Peter, Paul and Mary, setting a precedent for many other artists who had hits with Dylan's songs. "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" was based on the tune of the folk ballad "Lord Randall". With its veiled references to nuclear apocalypse, it gained even more resonance when the Cuban missile crisis developed only a few weeks after Dylan began performing it. Like "Blowin' in the Wind", "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" marked an important new direction in modern songwriting, blending a stream-of-consciousness, imagist lyrical attack with a traditional folk form.

While Dylan's topical songs solidified his early reputation, ''Freewheelin''' also included a mixture of love songs and jokey, surreal talking blues. Humor was a large part of Dylan's persona, and the range of material on the album impressed many listeners, including The Beatles. George Harrison said, "We just played it, just wore it out. The content of the song lyrics and just the attitude—it was incredibly original and wonderful."

The rough edge of Dylan's singing was unsettling to some early listeners but an attraction to others. Describing the impact that Dylan had on her and her husband, Joyce Carol Oates wrote: "When we first heard this raw, very young, and seemingly untrained voice, frankly nasal, as if sandpaper could sing, the effect was dramatic and electrifying." Many of his most famous early songs first reached the public through more immediately palatable versions by other performers, such as Joan Baez, who became Dylan's advocate, as well as his lover. Baez was influential in bringing Dylan to national and international prominence by recording several of his early songs and inviting him onstage during her own concerts.

Others who recorded and had hits with Dylan's songs in the early and mid-1960s included The Byrds; Sonny and Cher; The Hollies; Peter, Paul and Mary; The Association; Manfred Mann; and The Turtles. Most attempted to impart a pop feel and rhythm to the songs, while Dylan and Baez performed them mostly as sparse folk pieces. The cover versions became so ubiquitous that CBS started to promote him with the tag "Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan."

"Mixed Up Confusion", recorded during the ''Freewheelin''' sessions with a backing band, was released as a single and then quickly withdrawn. In contrast to the mostly solo acoustic performances on the album, the single showed a willingness to experiment with a rockabilly sound. Cameron Crowe described it as "a fascinating look at a folk artist with his mind wandering towards Elvis Presley and Sun Records."

Protest and ''Another Side''

In May 1963, Dylan's political profile was raised when he walked out of ''The Ed Sullivan Show''. During rehearsals, Dylan had been informed by CBS Television's "head of program practices" that the song he was planning to perform, "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues", was potentially libelous to the John Birch Society. Rather than comply with the censorship, Dylan refused to appear on the program.

By this time, Dylan and Baez were both prominent in the civil rights movement, singing together at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. Dylan's third album, ''The Times They Are a-Changin''', reflected a more politicized and cynical Dylan. The songs often took as their subject matter contemporary, real life stories, with "Only A Pawn In Their Game" addressing the murder of civil rights worker Medgar Evers; and the Brechtian "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" the death of black hotel barmaid Hattie Carroll, at the hands of young white socialite William Zantzinger. On a more general theme, "Ballad of Hollis Brown" and "North Country Blues" address the despair engendered by the breakdown of farming and mining communities. This political material was accompanied by two personal love songs, "Boots of Spanish Leather" and "One Too Many Mornings".

By the end of 1963, Dylan felt both manipulated and constrained by the folk and protest movements. These tensions were publicly displayed when, accepting the "Tom Paine Award" from the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee shortly after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, an intoxicated Dylan brashly questioned the role of the committee, characterized the members as old and balding, and claimed to see something of himself (and of every man) in Kennedy's alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.

''Another Side of Bob Dylan'', recorded on a single June evening in 1964, had a lighter mood than its predecessor. The surreal, humorous Dylan reemerged on "I Shall Be Free #10" and "Motorpsycho Nightmare". "Spanish Harlem Incident" and "To Ramona" are romantic and passionate love songs, while "Black Crow Blues" and "I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)" suggest the rock and roll soon to dominate Dylan's music. "It Ain't Me Babe", on the surface a song about spurned love, has been described as a rejection of the role his reputation had thrust at him. His newest direction was signaled by two lengthy songs: the impressionistic "Chimes of Freedom," which sets elements of social commentary against a denser metaphorical landscape in a style later characterized by Allen Ginsberg as "chains of flashing images," and "My Back Pages," which attacks the simplistic and arch seriousness of his own earlier topical songs and seems to predict the backlash he was about to encounter from his former champions as he took a new direction.

In the latter half of 1964 and 1965, Dylan's appearance and musical style changed rapidly, as he made his move from leading contemporary songwriter of the folk scene to folk-rock pop-music star. His scruffy jeans and work shirts were replaced by a Carnaby Street wardrobe, sunglasses day or night, and pointy "Beatle boots". A London reporter wrote: "Hair that would set the teeth of a comb on edge. A loud shirt that would dim the neon lights of Leicester Square. He looks like an undernourished cockatoo." Dylan also began to spar in increasingly surreal ways with his interviewers. Appearing on the Les Crane TV show and asked about a movie he was planning to make, he told Crane it would be a cowboy horror movie. Asked if he played the cowboy, Dylan replied, "No, I play my mother."

Going electric

Dylan's April 1965 album ''Bringing It All Back Home'' was yet another stylistic leap, featuring his first recordings made with electric instruments. The first single, "Subterranean Homesick Blues", owed much to Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business"; its free association lyrics have been described as both harkening back to the manic energy of Beat poetry and as a forerunner of rap and hip-hop. The song was provided with an early music video which opened D. A. Pennebaker's cinéma vérité presentation of Dylan's 1965 tour of England, ''Dont Look Back''. Instead of miming to the recording, Dylan illustrated the lyrics by throwing cue cards containing key words from the song on the ground. Pennebaker has said the sequence was Dylan's idea, and it has been widely imitated in both music videos and advertisements.

The B side of ''Bringing It All Back Home'' consisted of four long songs on which Dylan accompanied himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica. "Mr. Tambourine Man" quickly became one of Dylan's best known songs when The Byrds recorded an electric version that reached number one in both the U.S. and the U.K. charts. "It's All Over Now Baby Blue" and "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" were acclaimed as two of Dylan's most important compositions.

In the summer of 1965, as the headliner at the Newport Folk Festival, Dylan performed his first electric set since his high school days with a pickup group drawn mostly from the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, featuring Mike Bloomfield (guitar), Sam Lay (drums) and Jerome Arnold (bass), plus Al Kooper (organ) and Barry Goldberg (piano). Dylan had appeared at Newport in 1963 and 1964, but in 1965 Dylan, met with a mix of cheering and booing, left the stage after only three songs. One version of the legend has it that the boos were from the outraged folk fans whom Dylan had alienated by appearing, unexpectedly, with an electric guitar. Murray Lerner, who filmed the performance, said: "I absolutely think that they were booing Dylan going electric." An alternative account claims audience members were merely upset by poor sound quality and a surprisingly short set. This account is supported by Kooper and one of the directors of the festival, who reports his audio recording of the concert proves that the only boos were in reaction to the emcee's announcement that there was only enough time for a short set.

Nevertheless, Dylan's 1965 Newport performance provoked a hostile response from the folk music establishment. In the September issue of ''Sing Out!'', singer Ewan MacColl wrote: "Our traditional songs and ballads are the creations of extraordinarily talented artists working inside disciplines formulated over time... 'But what of Bobby Dylan?' scream the outraged teenagers... Only a completely non-critical audience, nourished on the watery pap of pop music, could have fallen for such tenth-rate drivel." On July 29, just four days after his controversial performance at Newport, Dylan was back in the studio in New York, recording "Positively 4th Street". The lyrics teemed with images of vengeance and paranoia, and it was widely interpreted as Dylan's put-down of former friends from the folk community—friends he had known in the clubs along West 4th Street.

''Highway 61 Revisited'' and ''Blonde on Blonde''

In July 1965, Dylan released the single "Like a Rolling Stone", which peaked at No.2 in the U.S. and at No.4 in the UK charts. At over six minutes, the song has been widely credited with altering attitudes about what a pop single could convey. Bruce Springsteen, in his speech during Dylan's inauguration into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame said that on first hearing the single, "that snare shot sounded like somebody'd kicked open the door to your mind". In 2004, and again in 2011, ''Rolling Stone Magazine'' listed it as number one on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". The song also opened Dylan's next album, ''Highway 61 Revisited,'' titled after the road that led from Dylan's Minnesota to the musical hotbed of New Orleans. The songs were in the same vein as the hit single, flavored by Mike Bloomfield's blues guitar and Al Kooper's organ riffs. "Desolation Row" offers the sole acoustic exception, with Dylan making surreal allusions to a variety of figures in Western culture during this epic song, which was described by Andy Gill as "an 11-minute epic of entropy, which takes the form of a Fellini-esque parade of grotesques and oddities featuring a huge cast of celebrated characters, some historical (Einstein, Nero), some biblical (Noah, Cain and Abel), some fictional (Ophelia, Romeo, Cinderella), some literary (T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound), and some who fit into none of the above categories, notably Dr. Filth and his dubious nurse."

In support of the record, Dylan was booked for two U.S. concerts and set about assembling a band. Mike Bloomfield was unwilling to leave the Butterfield Band, so Dylan mixed Al Kooper and Harvey Brooks from his studio crew with bar-band stalwarts Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm, best known at the time for being part of Ronnie Hawkins's backing band The Hawks (later to become The Band). On August 28 at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, the group was heckled by an audience still annoyed by Dylan's electric sound. The band's reception on September 3 at the Hollywood Bowl was more favorable.

While Dylan and the Hawks met increasingly receptive audiences on tour, their studio efforts floundered. Producer Bob Johnston persuaded Dylan to record in Nashville in February 1966, and surrounded him with a cadre of top-notch session men. At Dylan's insistence, Robertson and Kooper came down from New York City to play on the sessions. The Nashville sessions produced the double-album ''Blonde on Blonde'' (1966), featuring what Dylan later called "that thin wild mercury sound". Al Kooper described the album as "taking two cultures and smashing them together with a huge explosion": the musical world of Nashville and the world of the "quintessential New York hipster" Bob Dylan.

On November 22, 1965, Dylan secretly married 25-year-old former model Sara Lownds. Some of Dylan's friends (including Ramblin' Jack Elliott) claim that, in conversation immediately after the event, Dylan denied that he was married. Journalist Nora Ephron first made the news public in the ''New York Post'' in February 1966 with the headline "Hush! Bob Dylan is wed."

Dylan undertook a world tour of Australia and Europe in the spring of 1966. Each show was split into two parts. Dylan performed solo during the first half, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica. In the second half, backed by the Hawks, he played high voltage electric music. This contrast provoked many fans, who jeered and slow handclapped. The tour culminated in a famously raucous confrontation between Dylan and his audience at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in England on May 17, 1966. An official recording of this concert was finally released in 1998: ''The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966''. At the climax of the evening, a member of the audience, angered by Dylan's electric backing, shouted: "Judas!" to which Dylan responded, "I don't believe you ... You're a liar!" Dylan turned to his band and said, "Play it fucking loud!" as they launched into the final song of the night—"Like a Rolling Stone."

During his 1966 tour, Dylan was frequently described as exhausted and acting "as if on a death trip". D. A. Pennebaker, the film maker accompanying the tour, described Dylan as "taking a lot of amphetamine and who-knows-what-else." In a 1969 interview with Jann Wenner, Dylan said, "I was on the road for almost five years. It wore me down. I was on drugs, a lot of things... just to keep going, you know?" In 2011, BBC Radio 4 reported that, in an interview which Robert Shelton had taped in 1966, Dylan claimed that he had kicked a heroin habit in New York City: "I got very, very strung out for a while... I had about a $25-a-day habit and I kicked it." Some journalists questioned the validity of this confession, pointing out that Dylan had "been telling journalists wild lies about his past since the earliest days of his career."

Motorcycle accident and reclusion

After his European tour, Dylan returned to New York, but the pressures on him increased. ABC Television had paid an advance for a TV show they could screen. His publisher, Macmillan, was demanding a finished manuscript of the poem/novel ''Tarantula.'' Manager Albert Grossman had already scheduled an extensive concert tour for that summer and fall.

On July 29, 1966, Dylan crashed his 500cc Triumph Tiger 100 motorcycle on a road near his home in Woodstock, New York, throwing him to the ground. Though the extent of his injuries were never fully disclosed, Dylan said that he broke several vertebrae in his neck. Mystery still surrounds the circumstances of the accident since no ambulance was called to the scene and Dylan was not hospitalized. Dylan's biographers have written that the crash offered Dylan the much-needed chance to escape from the pressures that had built up around him. Dylan confirmed this interpretation of the crash when he stated in his autobiography, "I had been in a motorcycle accident and I'd been hurt, but I recovered. Truth was that I wanted to get out of the rat race." In the wake of his accident, Dylan withdrew from the public and, apart from a few select appearances, did not tour again for eight years.

Once Dylan was well enough to resume creative work, he began editing film footage of his 1966 tour for ''Eat the Document'', a rarely exhibited follow-up to ''Dont Look Back''. A rough-cut was shown to ABC Television and was promptly rejected as incomprehensible to a mainstream audience. In 1967 he began recording music with the Hawks at his home and in the basement of the Hawks' nearby house, called "Big Pink". These songs, initially compiled as demos for other artists to record, provided hit singles for Julie Driscoll ("This Wheel's on Fire"), The Byrds ("You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", "Nothing Was Delivered"), and Manfred Mann ("Mighty Quinn"). Columbia belatedly released selections from them in 1975 as ''The Basement Tapes''. Over the years, more and more of the songs recorded by Dylan and his band in 1967 appeared on various bootleg recordings, culminating in a five-CD bootleg set titled ''The Genuine Basement Tapes'', containing 107 songs and alternate takes. In the coming months, the Hawks recorded the album ''Music from Big Pink'' using songs they first worked on in their basement in Woodstock, and renamed themselves The Band, thus beginning a long and successful recording and performing career of their own.

In October and November 1967, Dylan returned to Nashville. Back in the recording studio after a 19-month break, he was accompanied only by Charlie McCoy on bass, Kenny Buttrey on drums, and Pete Drake on steel guitar. The result was ''John Wesley Harding'', a quiet, contemplative record of shorter songs, set in a landscape that drew on both the American West and the Bible. The sparse structure and instrumentation, coupled with lyrics that took the Judeo-Christian tradition seriously, marked a departure not only from Dylan's own work but from the escalating psychedelic fervor of the 1960s musical culture. It included "All Along the Watchtower", with lyrics derived from the Book of Isaiah (21:5–9). The song was later recorded by Jimi Hendrix, whose version Dylan later acknowledged as definitive. Woody Guthrie died on October 3, 1967, and Dylan made his first live appearance in twenty months at a Guthrie memorial concert held at Carnegie Hall on January 20, 1968, where he was backed by The Band.

Dylan's next release, ''Nashville Skyline'' (1969), was virtually a mainstream country record featuring instrumental backing by Nashville musicians, a mellow-voiced Dylan, a duet with Johnny Cash, and the hit single "Lay Lady Lay." Dylan and Cash also recorded a series of duets, including Dylan's "One Too Many Mornings," but they were not used on the album.

In May 1969, Dylan appeared on the first episode of Johnny Cash's new television show, duetting with Cash on "Girl from the North Country", "I Threw It All Away" and "Living the Blues". Dylan next travelled to England to top the bill at the Isle of Wight rock festival on August 31, 1969, after rejecting overtures to appear at the Woodstock Festival far closer to his home.

1970s

In the early 1970s, critics charged that Dylan's output was of varied and unpredictable quality. ''Rolling Stone'' magazine writer and Dylan loyalist Greil Marcus notoriously asked "What is this shit?" upon first listening to 1970's ''Self Portrait''. In general, ''Self Portrait'', a double LP including few original songs, was poorly received. Later that year, Dylan released ''New Morning'', which some considered a return to form. In November 1968, Dylan had co-written "I'd Have You Anytime" with George Harrison; Harrison recorded both "I'd Have You Anytime" and Dylan's "If Not For You" for his 1970 solo triple album ''All Things Must Pass''. Dylan's surprise appearance at Harrison's 1971 ''Concert for Bangladesh'' attracted much media coverage, reflecting that Dylan's live appearances had become rare.

Between March 16 and 19, 1971, Dylan reserved three days at Blue Rock Studios, a small studio in New York's Greenwich Village. These sessions resulted in one single, "Watching The River Flow", and a new recording of "When I Paint My Masterpiece". On November 4, 1971 Dylan recorded "George Jackson," which he released a week later. For many, the single was a surprising return to protest material, mourning the killing of Black Panther George Jackson in San Quentin Prison that summer. Dylan contributed piano and hamony vocals to Steve Goodman's album, ''Somebody Else's Troubles'', under the pseudonym Robert Milkwood Thomas in September 1972.

In 1972, Dylan signed onto Sam Peckinpah's film ''Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid'', providing songs and backing music for the movie, and playing the role of "Alias," a member of Billy's gang with some historical basis. Despite the film's failure at the box office, the song "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" has proven its durability as one of Dylan's most extensively covered songs.

Return to touring

Dylan began 1973 by signing with a new record label, David Geffen's Asylum Records, when his contract with Columbia Records expired. On his next album, ''Planet Waves'', he used The Band as backing group, while rehearsing for a major tour. The album included two versions of "Forever Young," which became one of his most popular songs. As one critic described it, the song projected "something hymnal and heartfelt that spoke of the father in Dylan", and Dylan himself commented: "I wrote it thinking about one of my boys and not wanting to be too sentimental." Biographer Howard Sounes noted that Jakob Dylan believed the song was about him.

Columbia Records simultaneously released ''Dylan'', a haphazard collection of studio outtakes (almost exclusively cover songs), which was widely interpreted as a churlish response to Dylan's signing with a rival record label. In January 1974, Dylan returned to live touring after a break of seven years; backed by The Band, he embarked on a high-profile, coast-to-coast North American tour, playing 40 concerts. A live double album of the tour, ''Before the Flood'', was released on Asylum Records. Soon, Columbia Records sent word that they "will spare nothing to bring Dylan back into the fold". Dylan had second thoughts about Asylum, apparently miffed that while there had been millions of unfulfilled ticket requests for the 1974 tour, Geffen had managed to sell only 700,000 copies of ''Planet Waves''. Dylan returned to Columbia Records, which subsequently reissued his two Asylum albums on their imprint.

After the tour, Dylan and his wife became publicly estranged. He filled a small red notebook with songs about relationships and ruptures, and quickly recorded a new album entitled ''Blood on the Tracks'' in September 1974. Dylan delayed the album's release, however, and re-recorded half of the songs at Sound 80 Studios in Minneapolis with production assistance from his brother David Zimmerman.

Released in early 1975, ''Blood on the Tracks'' received mixed reviews. In the ''NME'', Nick Kent described "the accompaniments [as] often so trashy they sound like mere practice takes." In ''Rolling Stone'', reviewer Jon Landau wrote that "the record has been made with typical shoddiness." However, over the years critics have come to see it as one of Dylan's greatest achievements, perhaps the only serious rival to his mid-60s trilogy of albums. In Salon.com, Bill Wyman wrote: "''Blood on the Tracks'' is his only flawless album and his best produced; the songs, each of them, are constructed in disciplined fashion. It is his kindest album and most dismayed, and seems in hindsight to have achieved a sublime balance between the logorrhea-plagued excesses of his mid-'60s output and the self-consciously simple compositions of his post-accident years." Novelist Rick Moody called it "the truest, most honest account of a love affair from tip to stern ever put down on magnetic tape."

That summer Dylan wrote a lengthy ballad championing the cause of boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, who had been imprisoned for a triple murder committed in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1966. After visiting Carter in jail, Dylan wrote "Hurricane", presenting the case for Carter's innocence. Despite its 8:32 minute length, the song was released as a single, peaking at No.33 on the U.S. Billboard Chart, and performed at every 1975 date of Dylan's next tour, the Rolling Thunder Revue, named after the Shoshone medicine man, shaman, teacher, and activist Rolling Thunder. The tour was a varied evening of entertainment featuring about one hundred performers and supporters drawn from the resurgent Greenwich Village folk scene, including T-Bone Burnett, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Joni Mitchell, David Mansfield, Roger McGuinn, Mick Ronson, Joan Baez, and violinist Scarlet Rivera, whom Dylan discovered while she was walking down the street, her violin case hanging on her back. Allen Ginsberg accompanied the troupe, staging scenes for the film Dylan was simultaneously shooting. Sam Shepard was initially hired to write the film's screenplay, but ended up accompanying the tour as informal chronicler.

Running through late 1975 and again through early 1976, the tour encompassed the release of the album ''Desire'', with many of Dylan's new songs featuring an almost travelogue-like narrative style, showing the influence of his new collaborator, playwright Jacques Levy. The spring 1976 half of the tour was documented by a TV concert special, ''Hard Rain'', and the LP ''Hard Rain''; no concert album from the better-received and better-known opening half of the tour was released until 2002's ''Live 1975''.

The fall 1975 tour with the Revue also provided the backdrop to Dylan's nearly four-hour film ''Renaldo and Clara'', a sprawling and improvised narrative, mixed with concert footage and reminiscences. Released in 1978, the movie received generally poor, sometimes scathing, reviews and had a very brief theatrical run. Later in that year, Dylan allowed a two-hour edit, dominated by the concert performances, to be more widely released.

In November 1976, Dylan appeared at The Band's "farewell" concert, along with other guests including Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison and Neil Young. Martin Scorsese's acclaimed cinematic chronicle of this show, ''The Last Waltz,'' was released in 1978 and included about half of Dylan's set. In 1976, Dylan also wrote and duetted on the song "Sign Language" for Eric Clapton's ''No Reason To Cry''.

In 1978, Dylan embarked on a year-long world tour, performing 114 shows in Japan, the Far East, Europe and the US, to a total audience of two million people. For the tour, Dylan assembled an eight piece band, and was also accompanied by three backing singers. Concerts in Tokyo in February and March were recorded and released as the live double album, ''Bob Dylan At Budokan''. Reviews were mixed. Robert Christgau awarded the album a C+ rating, giving the album a derisory review, while Janet Maslin defended it in ''Rolling Stone'', writing: "These latest live versions of his old songs have the effect of liberating Bob Dylan from the originals." When Dylan brought the tour to the US in September 1978, he was dismayed the press described the look and sound of the show as a 'Las Vegas Tour'. The 1978 tour grossed more than $20 million, and Dylan acknowledged to the ''Los Angeles Times'' that he had some debts to pay off because "I had a couple of bad years. I put a lot of money into the movie, built a big house ... and it costs a lot to get divorced in California."

In April and May 1978, Dylan went into the studio in Santa Monica, California, to record an album of new material with the same large band and backing vocalists: ''Street-Legal''. It was described by Michael Gray as, "after ''Blood On The Tracks'', arguably Dylan's best record of the 1970s: a crucial album documenting a crucial period in Dylan's own life". However, it suffered from poor sound recording and mixing (attributed to Dylan's studio practices), muddying the instrumental detail until a remastered CD release in 1999 restored some of the songs' strengths.

Born-again period

In the late 1970s, Dylan became a born-again Christian and released two albums of Christian gospel music. ''Slow Train Coming'' (1979) featured the guitar accompaniment of Mark Knopfler (of Dire Straits) and was produced by veteran R&B; producer, Jerry Wexler. Wexler recalled that when Dylan had tried to evangelize him during the recording, he replied: "Bob, you're dealing with a sixty-two-year old Jewish atheist. Let's just make an album." The album won Dylan a Grammy Award as "Best Male Vocalist" for the song "Gotta Serve Somebody". The second evangelical album, ''Saved'' (1980), received mixed reviews, and was described by Dylan critic Michael Gray as "the nearest thing to a follow-up album Dylan has ever made, ''Slow Train Coming II'' and inferior." When touring from the fall of 1979 through the spring of 1980, Dylan would not play any of his older, secular works, and he delivered declarations of his faith from the stage, such as:

Dylan's embrace of Christianity was unpopular with some of his fans and fellow musicians. Shortly before his murder, John Lennon recorded "Serve Yourself" in response to Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody". By 1981, while Dylan's Christian faith was obvious, Stephen Holden wrote in the ''New York Times'' that "neither age (he's now 40) nor his much-publicized conversion to born-again Christianity has altered his essentially iconoclastic temperament."

1980s

In the fall of 1980 Dylan briefly resumed touring for a series of concerts billed as "A Musical Retrospective", where he restored several of his popular 1960s songs to the repertoire. ''Shot of Love'', recorded the next spring, featured Dylan's first secular compositions in more than two years, mixed with explicitly Christian songs; the song "Every Grain of Sand" reminded some critics of William Blake's verses.

In the 1980s the quality of Dylan's recorded work varied, from the well-regarded ''Infidels'' in 1983 to the panned ''Down in the Groove'' in 1988. Critics such as Michael Gray condemned Dylan's 1980s albums both for showing an extraordinary carelessness in the studio and for failing to release his best songs. The ''Infidels'' recording sessions, for example, produced several notable songs that Dylan left off the album. Most well regarded of these were "Blind Willie McTell", a tribute to the dead blues musician and an evocation of African American history, "Foot of Pride" and "Lord Protect My Child". These three songs were later released on ''The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991''.

Between July 1984 and March 1985, Dylan recorded his next studio album, ''Empire Burlesque''. Arthur Baker, who had remixed hits for Bruce Springsteen and Cyndi Lauper, was asked to engineer and mix the album. Baker has said he felt he was hired to make Dylan's album sound "a little bit more contemporary".

Dylan sang on USA for Africa's famine relief fundraising single "We Are the World". On July 13, 1985, he appeared at the climax at the Live Aid concert at JFK Stadium, Philadelphia. Backed by Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, Dylan performed a ragged version of "Hollis Brown", his ballad of rural poverty, and then said to the worldwide audience exceeding one billion people: "I hope that some of the money ... maybe they can just take a little bit of it, maybe ... one or two million, maybe ... and use it to pay the mortgages on some of the farms and, the farmers here, owe to the banks." His remarks were widely criticized as inappropriate, but they did inspire Willie Nelson to organize a series of events, Farm Aid, to benefit debt-ridden American farmers.

In April 1986, Dylan made a brief foray into the world of rap music when he added vocals to the opening verse of "Street Rock", a song featured on Kurtis Blow's album ''Kingdom Blow''. Dylan's next studio album, ''Knocked Out Loaded'', was released in July 1986 and contained three cover songs (by Little Junior Parker, Kris Kristofferson and the traditional gospel hymn "Precious Memories"), plus three collaborations with other writers (Tom Petty, Sam Shepard and Carole Bayer Sager), and two solo compositions by Dylan. One reviewer commented that "the record follows too many detours to be consistently compelling, and some of those detours wind down roads that are indisputably dead ends. By 1986, such uneven records weren't entirely unexpected by Dylan, but that didn't make them any less frustrating." It was the first Dylan album since ''Freewheelin''' (1963) to fail to make the Top 50. Since then, some critics have called the 11-minute epic that Dylan co-wrote with Sam Shepard, 'Brownsville Girl', a work of genius.

In 1986 and 1987, Dylan toured extensively with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, sharing vocals with Petty on several songs each night. Dylan also toured with The Grateful Dead in 1987, resulting in a live album ''Dylan & The Dead''. This album received some very negative reviews: ''Allmusic'' said, "Quite possibly the worst album by either Bob Dylan or the Grateful Dead." After performing with these musical permutations, Dylan initiated what came to be called The Never Ending Tour on June 7, 1988, performing with a tight back-up band featuring guitarist G. E. Smith. Dylan continued to tour with this small but constantly evolving band for the next 20 years.

In 1987, Dylan starred in Richard Marquand's movie ''Hearts of Fire'', in which he played Billy Parker, a washed-up-rock-star-turned-chicken farmer whose teenage lover (Fiona) leaves him for a jaded English synth-pop sensation (played by Rupert Everett). Dylan also contributed two original songs to the soundtrack—"Night After Night", and "I Had a Dream About You, Baby", as well as a cover of John Hiatt's "The Usual". The film was a critical and commercial flop. Dylan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in January 1988, with Bruce Springsteen's introductory speech declaring, "Bob freed your mind the way Elvis freed your body. He showed us that just because music was innately physical did not mean that it was anti-intellectual.

When Dylan released the album ''Down in the Groove'' in May 1988, it was even more unsuccessful in its sales than his previous studio album. Michael Gray wrote: "The very title undercuts any idea that inspired work may lie within. Here was a further devaluing of the notion of a new Bob Dylan album as something significant." The critical and commercial disappointment of that album was swiftly followed by the success of the Traveling Wilburys. Dylan co-founded the band with George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty, and in the fall of 1988 their multi-platinum ''Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1'' reached number three on the US album chart, featuring songs that were described as Dylan's most accessible compositions in years. Despite Orbison's death in December 1988, the remaining four recorded a second album in May 1990, which they released with the unexpected title ''Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3''.

Dylan finished the decade on a critical high note with ''Oh Mercy'' produced by Daniel Lanois. Dylan critic Michael Gray wrote that the album was: "Attentively written, vocally distinctive, musically warm, and uncompromisingly professional, this cohesive whole is the nearest thing to a great Bob Dylan album in the 1980s." The track "Most of the Time", a lost love composition, was later prominently featured in the film ''High Fidelity'', while "What Was It You Wanted?" has been interpreted both as a catechism and a wry comment on the expectations of critics and fans. The religious imagery of "Ring Them Bells" struck some critics as a re-affirmation of faith.

1990s

Dylan's 1990s began with ''Under the Red Sky'' (1990), an about-face from the serious ''Oh Mercy''. The album contained several apparently simple songs, including "Under the Red Sky" and "Wiggle Wiggle". The album was dedicated to "Gabby Goo Goo"; this was later explained as a nickname for the daughter of Dylan and Carolyn Dennis, Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan, who was four at that time. Sidemen on the album included George Harrison, Slash from Guns N' Roses, David Crosby, Bruce Hornsby, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Elton John. Despite the stellar line-up, the record received bad reviews and sold poorly.

In 1991, Dylan was honored by the recording industry with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award from American actor Jack Nicholson. The event coincided with the start of the Gulf War against Saddam Hussein, and Dylan performed his song "Masters of War". Dylan then made a short speech that startled some of the audience.

The next few years saw Dylan returning to his roots with two albums covering old folk and blues numbers: ''Good as I Been to You'' (1992) and ''World Gone Wrong'' (1993), featuring interpretations and acoustic guitar work. Many critics and fans commented on the quiet beauty of the song "Lone Pilgrim", penned by a 19th century teacher and sung by Dylan with a haunting reverence. In November 1994 Dylan recorded two live shows for ''MTV Unplugged''. He claimed his wish to perform a set of traditional songs for the show was overruled by Sony executives who insisted on a greatest hits package. The album produced from it, ''MTV Unplugged'', included "John Brown", an unreleased 1963 song detailing the ravages of both war and jingoism.

With a collection of songs reportedly written while snowed-in on his Minnesota ranch, Dylan booked recording time with Daniel Lanois at Miami's Criteria Studios in January 1997. The subsequent recording sessions were, by some accounts, fraught with musical tension. Late that spring, before the album's release, Dylan was hospitalized with a life-threatening heart infection, pericarditis, brought on by histoplasmosis. His scheduled European tour was cancelled, but Dylan made a speedy recovery and left the hospital saying, "I really thought I'd be seeing Elvis soon." He was back on the road by midsummer, and in early fall performed before Pope John Paul II at the World Eucharistic Conference in Bologna, Italy. The Pope treated the audience of 200,000 people to a homily based on Dylan's lyric "Blowin' in the Wind".

September saw the release of the new Lanois-produced album, ''Time Out of Mind''. With its bitter assessment of love and morbid ruminations, Dylan's first collection of original songs in seven years was highly acclaimed. One critic wrote: "the songs themselves are uniformly powerful, adding up to Dylan's best overall collection in years." This collection of complex songs won him his first solo "Album of the Year" Grammy Award.

In December 1997, U.S. President Bill Clinton presented Dylan with a Kennedy Center Honor in the East Room of the White House, paying this tribute: "He probably had more impact on people of my generation than any other creative artist. His voice and lyrics haven't always been easy on the ear, but throughout his career Bob Dylan has never aimed to please. He's disturbed the peace and discomforted the powerful."

2000s

Dylan commenced the new millennium by winning his first Oscar; his song "Things Have Changed", penned for the film ''Wonder Boys'', won an Academy Award in March 2001. The Oscar (by some reports a facsimile) tours with him, presiding over shows perched atop an amplifier.

''"Love and Theft"'' was released on September 11, 2001. Recorded with his touring band, Dylan produced the album himself under the pseudonym Jack Frost. The album was critically well-received and earned nominations for several Grammy awards. Critics noted that Dylan was widening his musical palette to include rockabilly, Western swing, jazz, and even lounge ballads.

In 2003, Dylan revisited the evangelical songs from his "born again" period and participated in the CD project ''Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan''. That year also saw the release of the film ''Masked & Anonymous'', which Dylan co-wrote with director Larry Charles under the alias Sergei Petrov. Dylan played the central character in the film, Jack Fate, alongside a cast which included Jeff Bridges, Penelope Cruz and John Goodman. The film polarised critics: many dismissed it as an "incoherent mess"; a few treated it as a serious work of art.

In October 2004, Dylan published the first part of his autobiography, ''Chronicles: Volume One''. The book confounded expectations. Dylan devoted three chapters to his first year in New York City in 1961–1962, virtually ignoring the mid-'60s when his fame was at its height. He also devoted chapters to the albums ''New Morning'' (1970) and ''Oh Mercy'' (1989). The book reached number two on ''The New York Times''' Hardcover Non-Fiction best seller list in December 2004 and was nominated for a National Book Award.

Martin Scorsese's acclaimed film biography ''No Direction Home'' was broadcast in September 2005. It was shown on September 26–27, 2005, on BBC Two in the UK and PBS in the US. The documentary focuses on the period from Dylan's arrival in New York in 1961 to his motorcycle crash in 1966, featuring interviews with Suze Rotolo, Liam Clancy, Joan Baez, Allen Ginsberg, Pete Seeger, Mavis Staples, and Dylan himself. The film received a Peabody Award in April 2006 and a Columbia-duPont Award in January 2007. The accompanying soundtrack featured unreleased songs from Dylan's early career.

Dylan earned yet another distinction in a 2007 study of US legal opinions and briefs that found his lyrics were quoted by judges and lawyers more than those of any other songwriter, 186 times versus 74 by The Beatles, who were second. Among those quoting Dylan were US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Antonin Scalia, both conservatives. The most widely cited lines included "you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows" from "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and "when you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose" from "Like a Rolling Stone".

''Modern Times'' (2006–08)

May 3, 2006, was the premiere of Dylan's DJ career, hosting a weekly radio program, ''Theme Time Radio Hour'', for XM Satellite Radio, with song selections revolving around a chosen theme. Dylan played classic and obscure records from the 1930s to the present day, including contemporary artists as diverse as Blur, Prince, L.L. Cool J and The Streets. The show was praised by fans and critics as "great radio," as Dylan told stories and made eclectic references with his sardonic humor, while achieving a thematic beauty with his musical choices. In April 2009, Dylan broadcast the 100th show in his radio series; the theme was "Goodbye" and the final record played was Woody Guthrie's "So Long, It's Been Good To Know Yuh". This has led to speculation that Dylan's radio series may have ended.

On August 29, 2006, Dylan released his ''Modern Times'' album. Despite some coarsening of Dylan's voice (a critic for ''The Guardian'' characterised his singing on the album as "a catarrhal death rattle") most reviewers praised the album, and many described it as the final installment of a successful trilogy, embracing ''Time Out of Mind'' and ''"Love and Theft"''. ''Modern Times'' entered the U.S. charts at number one, making it Dylan's first album to reach that position since 1976's ''Desire''.

Nominated for three Grammy Awards, ''Modern Times'' won Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album and Bob Dylan also won Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance for "Someday Baby". ''Modern Times'' was named Album of the Year, 2006, by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine, and by ''Uncut'' in the UK. On the same day that ''Modern Times'' was released the iTunes Music Store released ''Bob Dylan: The Collection'', a digital box set containing all of his albums (773 tracks in total), along with 42 rare and unreleased tracks.

In August 2007, the award-winning film biography of Dylan ''I'm Not There'', written and directed by Todd Haynes, was released—bearing the tagline "inspired by the music and many lives of Bob Dylan". The movie uses six distinct characters to represent different aspects of Dylan's life, played by Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Ben Whishaw. Dylan's previously unreleased 1967 recording from which the film takes its name was released for the first time on the film's original soundtrack; all other tracks are covers of Dylan songs, specially recorded for the movie by a diverse range of artists, including Eddie Vedder, Mason Jennings, Stephen Malkmus, Jeff Tweedy, Karen O, Willie Nelson, Cat Power, Richie Havens, and Tom Verlaine.

On October 1, 2007, Columbia Records released the triple CD retrospective album ''Dylan'', anthologising his entire career under the ''Dylan 07'' logo. As part of this campaign, Mark Ronson produced a re-mix of Dylan's 1966 tune "Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)," which was released as a maxi-single. This was the first time Dylan had sanctioned a re-mix of one of his classic recordings.

The sophistication of the ''Dylan 07'' marketing campaign was a reminder that Dylan's commercial profile had risen considerably since the 1990s. This first became evidenced in 2004, when Dylan appeared in a TV advertisement for Victoria's Secret lingerie. Three years later, in October 2007, he participated in a multi-media campaign for the 2008 Cadillac Escalade. Then, in 2009, he gave the highest profile endorsement of his career, appearing with rapper Will.i.am in a Pepsi ad that debuted during the telecast of Super Bowl XLIII. The ad, broadcast to a record audience of 98 million viewers, opened with Dylan singing the first verse of "Forever Young" followed by Will.i.am doing a hip hop version of the song's third and final verse.

In October 2008, Columbia released Volume 8 of Dylan's ''Bootleg Series'', ''Tell Tale Signs: Rare And Unreleased 1989–2006'' as both a two-CD set and a three-CD version with a 150-page hardcover book. The set contains live performances and outtakes from selected studio albums from ''Oh Mercy'' to ''Modern Times'', as well as soundtrack contributions and collaborations with David Bromberg and Ralph Stanley. The pricing of the album—the two-CD set went on sale for $18.99 and the three-CD version for $129.99—led to complaints about "rip-off packaging" from some fans and commentators. The release was widely acclaimed by critics. The plethora of alternative takes and unreleased material suggested to ''Uncut'''s reviewer: "''Tell Tale Signs'' is awash with evidence of (Dylan's) staggering mercuriality, his evident determination even in the studio to repeat himself as little as possible."

''Together Through Life'', ''Christmas in the Heart'' (2009)

Bob Dylan released his album ''Together Through Life'' on April 28, 2009. In a conversation with music journalist Bill Flanagan, published on Dylan's website, Dylan explained that the genesis of the record was when French film director Olivier Dahan asked him to supply a song for his new road movie, ''My Own Love Song''; initially only intending to record a single track, "Life Is Hard," "the record sort of took its own direction". Nine of the ten songs on the album are credited as co-written by Bob Dylan and Robert Hunter.

The album received largely favorable reviews, although several critics described it as a minor addition to Dylan's canon of work. Andy Gill wrote in ''The Independent'' that the record "features Dylan in fairly relaxed, spontaneous mood, content to grab such grooves and sentiments as flit momentarily across his radar. So while it may not contain too many landmark tracks, it's one of the most naturally enjoyable albums you'll hear all year."

In its first week of release, the album reached number one in the Billboard 200 chart in the U.S., making Bob Dylan (67 years of age) the oldest artist to ever debut at number one on that chart.

On October 13, 2009, Dylan released a Christmas album, ''Christmas in the Heart'', comprising such Christmas standards as "Little Drummer Boy", "Winter Wonderland" and "Here Comes Santa Claus". Dylan's royalties from the sale of this album will benefit the charities Feeding America in the USA, Crisis in the UK, and the World Food Programme.

The album received generally favorable reviews. ''The New Yorker'' commented that Dylan had welded a pre-rock musical sound to "some of his croakiest vocals in a while", and speculated that Dylan's intentions might be ironic: "Dylan has a long and highly publicized history with Christianity; to claim there's not a wink in the childish optimism of 'Here Comes Santa Claus' or 'Winter Wonderland' is to ignore a half-century of biting satire." In ''USA Today'', Edna Gundersen pointed out that Dylan was "revisiting yuletide styles popularized by Nat King Cole, Mel Tormé, and the Ray Conniff Singers." Gundersen concluded that Dylan "couldn't sound more sentimental or sincere".

In an interview published by Street News Service, journalist Bill Flanagan asked Dylan why he had performed the songs in a straightforward style, and Dylan responded: "There wasn't any other way to play it. These songs are part of my life, just like folk songs. You have to play them straight too."

2010s

On October 18, 2010, Dylan released Volume 9 of his Bootleg Series, ''The Witmark Demos''. This comprised 47 demo recordings of songs taped between 1962 and 1964 for Dylan's earliest music publishers: Leeds Music in 1962, and Witmark Music from 1962 to 1964. One reviewer described the set as "a kind of alternate early history of Dylan's songwriting process, 'writing five new songs before breakfast,' as he once famously quipped". The critical aggregator website Metacritic awarded the album a Metascore of 86, indicating "universal acclaim". In the same week, Sony Legacy released ''Bob Dylan: The Original Mono Recordings'', a box set which for the first time presented Dylan's eight earliest albums, from ''Bob Dylan'' (1962) to ''John Wesley Harding'' (1967), in their original mono mix in the CD format, accompanied by new liner notes by Dylan critic Greil Marcus.

On April 12, 2011, Legacy Recordings released ''Bob Dylan in Concert – Brandeis University 1963'' . The recording was taped at Brandeis University on May 10, 1963, two weeks prior to the release of ''The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan''. The tape had been discovered in the archive of music writer Ralph J. Gleason, and had previously been available as a limited edition supplement to ''The Bootleg Series Vol. 9''. The recording carries liner notes by Dylan scholar Michael Gray. Gray writes, "(The) Dylan performance it captured, from way back when Kennedy was President and the Beatles hadn't yet reached America, wasn't even on fans' radar.... It reveals him not at any Big Moment but giving a performance like his folk club sets of the period... This is the last live performance we have of Bob Dylan before he becomes a star."

The extent to which his work was studied at an academic level was demonstrated on Dylan's 70th birthday on May 24, 2011, when three universities organised symposia on his work. The University of Mainz, the University of Vienna, and the University of Bristol invited literary critics and cultural historians from Europe and the US to give papers on aspects of Dylan's work. Other events, including tribute bands, intellectual debates and simple singalongs, took place around the world, as reported in ''The Guardian'': "From Moscow to Madrid, Norway to Northampton and Malaysia to his home state of Minnesota, self-confessed "Bobcats" will gather today to celebrate the 70th birthday of a giant of popular music."

In August 2011, Dylan's label, Egyptian Records, announced that an album of previously unheard Hank Williams songs, ''The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams'', would be released in October. Dylan had helped to curate this project, in which songs unfinished when Williams died in 1953 were completed and recorded by a variety of artists, including Dylan himself, his son Jakob Dylan, Levon Helm, Norah Jones, Jack White, and others.

Never Ending Tour

The Never Ending Tour commenced on June 7, 1988, and Dylan has played roughly 100 dates a year for the entirety of the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century—a heavier schedule than most performers who started out in the 1960s. By the end of 2010, Dylan and his band had played more than 2300 shows, anchored by long-time bassist Tony Garnier, multi-instrumentalist Donnie Herron and guitarist Charlie Sexton. To the dismay of some of his audience, Dylan's performances remain unpredictable as he alters his arrangements and changes his vocal approach night after night. Critical opinion about Dylan's shows remains divided. Critics such as Richard Williams and Andy Gill have argued that Dylan has found a successful way to present his rich legacy of material. Others have criticised his vocal style as a "one-dimensional growl with which he chews up, mangles and spits out the greatest lyrics ever written so that they are effectively unrecognisable", and his lack of interest in bonding with his audience.

Dylan's performances in China in April 2011 generated controversy. Some criticised him for not making any explicit comment on the political situation in China, and for, allegedly, allowing the Chinese authorities to censor his set-list. Others defended Dylan's performances, arguing that such criticism represented a misunderstanding of Dylan's art, and that no evidence for the censorship of Dylan's set-list existed.

Dylan responded to these allegations of censorship by posting a statement on his website: "As far as censorship goes, the Chinese government had asked for the names of the songs that I would be playing. There's no logical answer to that, so we sent them the set lists from the previous 3 months. If there were any songs, verses or lines censored, nobody ever told me about it and we played all the songs that we intended to play."

In April 2011, Dylan performed concerts in Taiwan, China, Vietnam and Australia. Dylan's website has published details of Dylan's 2011 tour of Europe, Israel and the US from June to August, commencing in Cork, Ireland, and concluding in Bangor, Maine.

Artist

Over a decade after Random House had published ''Drawn Blank'' (1994), a book of Dylan's drawings, an exhibit of his art, ''The Drawn Blank Series'', opened in October 2007 at the Kunstsammlungen in Chemnitz, Germany. This first public exhibition of Dylan's paintings showcased more than 200 watercolors and gouaches made earlier in 2007 from the original drawings. The exhibition coincided with the publication of the book ''Bob Dylan: The Drawn Blank Series'', which includes 170 reproductions from the series.

From September 2010 until April 2011, the National Gallery of Denmark exhibited 40 large-scale acrylic paintings by Dylan, ''The Brazil Series''. In July 2011, a leading contemporary art gallery, Gagosian Gallery, announced their representation of Dylan's paintings. The Gagosian Gallery has announced an exhibition of Dylan's art, ''The Asia Series'', will take place at their Madison Avenue Gallery in September-October 2011.

Discography

Awards

Personal life

Family

Dylan married Sara Lownds on November 22, 1965. Their first child, Jesse Byron Dylan, was born on January 6, 1966, and they had three more children: Anna Lea, Samuel Isaac Abraham, and Jakob Luke (born December 9, 1969). Dylan also adopted Sara's daughter from a prior marriage, Maria Lownds (later Dylan, born October 21, 1961). Maria married musician Peter Himmelman, an Orthodox Jew, in 1988. In the 1990s, Dylan's son Jakob became well known as the lead singer of the band The Wallflowers. Jesse Dylan is a film director and a successful businessman. Bob and Sara Dylan were divorced on June 29, 1977.

In June 1986, Dylan married his longtime backup singer Carolyn Dennis (often professionally known as Carol Dennis). Their daughter, Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan, was born on January 31, 1986. The couple divorced in October 1992. Their marriage and child remained a closely guarded secret until the publication of Howard Sounes' Dylan biography, ''Down the Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan'' in 2001. Dylan now lives in Malibu, California, when not on the road.

Religious beliefs

Growing up in Hibbing, Minnesota, Dylan and his family were part of the area's small but close-knit Jewish community, and in May 1954 Dylan had his Bar Mitzvah. Around the time of his 30th birthday, in 1971, Dylan visited Israel, and also met Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the New York-based Jewish Defense League. Time Magazine quoted Dylan saying about Kahane, "He's a really sincere guy. He's really put it all together." Subsequently, Dylan downplayed the extent of his contact with Kahane.

For a period during the late 1970s and early 1980s, Dylan was a public convert to Christianity. From January to April 1979, he participated in Bible study classes at the Vineyard School of Discipleship in Reseda, California. Pastor Kenn Gulliksen has recalled: "Larry Myers and Paul Emond went over to Bob's house and ministered to him. He responded by saying, 'Yes he did in fact want Christ in his life.' And he prayed that day and received the Lord."

By 1984, Dylan was deliberately distancing himself from the "born-again" label. He told Kurt Loder of ''Rolling Stone'' magazine: "I've never said I'm born again. That's just a media term. I don't think I've been an agnostic. I've always thought there's a superior power, that this is not the real world and that there's a world to come." In response to Loder's asking whether he belonged to any Church or synagogue, Dylan laughingly replied, "Not really. Uh, the Church of the Poison Mind." In 1997 he told David Gates of ''Newsweek'':

In an interview published in ''The New York Times'' on September 28, 1997, journalist Jon Pareles reported that "Dylan says he now subscribes to no organized religion."

Dylan has been described, in the last 20 years, as a supporter of the Chabad Lubavitch movement and has privately participated in Jewish religious events, including the bar mitzvahs of his sons and attending Hadar Hatorah, a Chabad Lubavitch yeshiva. In September 1989 and September 1991, Dylan appeared on the Chabad telethon. Jewish news services have reported that Dylan has visited Chabad synagogues; on September 22, 2007 (Yom Kippur), he attended Congregation Beth Tefillah, in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was called to the Torah for the sixth aliyah.

Dylan has continued to perform songs from his gospel albums in concert, occasionally covering traditional religious songs. He has also made passing references to his religious faith—such as in a 2004 interview with ''60 Minutes'', when he told Ed Bradley that "the only person you have to think twice about lying to is either yourself or to God." He also explained his constant touring schedule as part of a bargain he made a long time ago with the "chief commander—in this earth and in the world we can't see."

In a 2009 interview with Bill Flanagan promoting his Christmas LP, ''Christmas in the Heart'', Flanagan commented on the "heroic performance" Dylan gave of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and that Dylan "delivered the song like a true believer". Dylan replied: "Well, I am a true believer."

Legacy

Bob Dylan is one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, musically and culturally. Dylan was included in the Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century where he was called "master poet, caustic social critic and intrepid, guiding spirit of the counterculture generation". Biographer Howard Sounes placed him among the most exalted company when he said, "There are giant figures in art who are sublimely good—Mozart, Picasso, Frank Lloyd Wright, Shakespeare, Dickens. Dylan ranks alongside these artists."

Initially modeling his writing style on the songs of Woody Guthrie, and lessons learned from the blues of Robert Johnson, Dylan added increasingly sophisticated lyrical techniques to the folk music of the early 60s, infusing it "with the intellectualism of classic literature and poetry". Paul Simon suggested that Dylan's early compositions virtually took over the folk genre: "[Dylan's] early songs were very rich ... with strong melodies. 'Blowin' in the Wind' has a really strong melody. He so enlarged himself through the folk background that he incorporated it for a while. He defined the genre for a while."

When Dylan made his move from acoustic music to a rock backing, the mix became more complex. For many critics, Dylan's greatest achievement was the cultural synthesis exemplified by his mid-'60s trilogy of albums—''Bringing It All Back Home'', ''Highway 61 Revisited'' and ''Blonde on Blonde''. In Mike Marqusee's words: "Between late 1964 and the summer of 1966, Dylan created a body of work that remains unique. Drawing on folk, blues, country, R&B;, rock'n'roll, gospel, British beat, symbolist, modernist and Beat poetry, surrealism and Dada, advertising jargon and social commentary, Fellini and ''Mad'' magazine, he forged a coherent and original artistic voice and vision. The beauty of these albums retains the power to shock and console."

One legacy of Dylan's verbal sophistication was the increasing attention paid by literary critics to his lyrics. Professor Christopher Ricks published a 500-page analysis of Dylan's work, placing him in the context of Eliot, Keats and Tennyson, and claiming that Dylan was a poet worthy of the same close and painstaking analysis. Former British poet laureate, Andrew Motion, argued that Bob Dylan's lyrics should be studied in schools. Since 1996, academics have lobbied the Swedish Academy to award Dylan the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Dylan's voice was, in some ways, as startling as his lyrics. New York Times critic Robert Shelton described Dylan's early vocal style as "a rusty voice suggesting Guthrie's old performances, etched in gravel like Dave Van Ronk's." David Bowie, in his tribute, "Song for Bob Dylan", described Dylan's singing as "a voice like sand and glue". Dylan's voice continued to develop as he began to work with rock'n'roll backing bands; critic Michael Gray described the sound of Dylan's vocal on his hit single, "Like a Rolling Stone", as "at once young and jeeringly cynical". As Dylan's voice aged during the 1980s, for some critics, it became more expressive. Christophe Lebold writes in the journal ''Oral Tradition'', "Dylan's more recent broken voice enables him to present a world view at the sonic surface of the songs—this voice carries us across the landscape of a broken, fallen world. The anatomy of a broken world in "Everything is Broken" (on the album ''Oh Mercy'') is but an example of how the thematic concern with all things broken is grounded in a concrete sonic reality."

Dylan's influence has been felt in several musical genres. As Edna Gundersen stated in ''USA Today'': "Dylan's musical DNA has informed nearly every simple twist of pop since 1962." Many musicians have testified to Dylan's influence, such as Joe Strummer, who praised Dylan as having "laid down the template for lyric, tune, seriousness, spirituality, depth of rock music." Other major musicians to have acknowledged Dylan's importance include John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Nick Cave, Patti Smith, Syd Barrett, Cat Stevens,Joni Mitchell, and Tom Waits. More directly, both The Byrds and The Band, two 1960s contemporary groups with some measure of influence on popular music themselves, largely owed their initial success to Dylan: the Byrds with their hit of "Mr. Tambourine Man" and subsequent album; and the Band for their association with him on tour in 1966, on retreat in Woodstock, and on their debut album featuring three previously unreleased Dylan songs.

There have been dissenters. Because Dylan was widely credited with imbuing pop culture with a new seriousness, the critic Nik Cohn objected: "I can't take the vision of Dylan as seer, as teenage messiah, as everything else he's been worshipped as. The way I see him, he's a minor talent with a major gift for self-hype." Similarly, Australian critic Jack Marx credited Dylan with changing the persona of the rock star: "What cannot be disputed is that Dylan invented the arrogant, faux-cerebral posturing that has been the dominant style in rock since, with everyone from Mick Jagger to Eminem educating themselves from the Dylan handbook." Joni Mitchell described Dylan as a "plagiarist" and his voice as "fake" in a 2010 interview in the ''Los Angeles Times'', in response to a suggestion that she and Dylan were similar since they had both changed their birthnames. Mitchell's comment led to discussions of Dylan's use of other people's material, both supporting and criticizing Dylan.

If Bob Dylan's legacy in the 1960s was seen as bringing intellectual ambition to popular music, now that he has reached the age of 70, he has been described as a figure who has greatly expanded the folk culture from which he initially emerged. As J. Hoberman wrote in ''The Village Voice'', "Elvis might never have been born, but someone else would surely have brought the world rock 'n' roll. No such logic accounts for Bob Dylan. No iron law of history demanded that a would-be Elvis from Hibbing, Minnesota, would swerve through the Greenwich Village folk revival to become the world's first and greatest rock 'n' roll beatnik bard and then—having achieved fame and adoration beyond reckoning—vanish into a folk tradition of his own making."

Footnotes

References

External links

BobDylan.com – Official web site, including lyrics and touring schedule

Expecting Rain – Dylan news and events, updated daily

BobLinks – Comprehensive log of concerts and set lists

Bjorner's Still on the Road – Information on recording sessions and performances

Category:1941 births Category:American blues singers Category:American Christians Category:American country singers Category:American DJs Category:American folk guitarists Category:American folk singers Category:American gospel singers Category:American harmonica players Category:American male singers Category:American memoirists Category:American multi-instrumentalists Category:American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Category:American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Category:American poets Category:American rock guitarists Category:American rock singer-songwriters Category:Best Song Academy Award winning songwriters Category:American people of Jewish descent Category:Columbia Records artists Category:English-language singers Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Harmonica blues musicians

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