A Short History of Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan could be called the original alternative musician. Big name, influential artists like Bob Marley, James Brown, Beach Boys, Rolling Stones and The Beatles all bucked trends later in their careers, maybe when it was the fashionable thing to do. Bob Dylan bucked the trends right from the start.

Dylan showed that an artist could start outside the mainstream, be successful, and never move into the mainstream. In fact, the mainstream came to him. He has never pandered to the music industry and has never lost his original voice throughout his career. At times he was seemed to vandalize his own career by releasing what the public seemed to want the least. The only other artist who matches him in terms of all this is Neil Young.

Dylan grew up listening to Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker in the fifties in Minnesota. He learnt guitar via Hank Williams records. After seeing Richie Valens and Buddy Holly on their final tour, he formed some high-school bands. They played a little rock'n'roll and a little R&B and at one point the young Dylan even got a spot playing in Bobby Vee's backing band. Then he heard Woody Guthrie and headed for Highway 61 to visit the folk singer. He played Guthrie some of his songs and was nicknamed 'The Kid'.

By 1961 Dylan was singing his own songs to folk traditionalists. They were talkin' blues songs and set him apart from others on the New York folk club scene. A few years later he would offend the same traditional folkies by his performance at the Newport Folk and Blues Festival when he plugged in his electric guitar.

In the time leading up to the Newport show he released five albums. With each new release there was more of a blend of folk and rock. His self-title debut was mainly folk. The next three albums contain some of the sixties most famous protest songs. 'Blowin In The Wind', 'A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall' and 'The Times They Are A Changin' amongst many more. The songs on these albums weren't all protest based though. Many of them were stories of love, relationships and life in general.

In 1965 he released 'Bringin It All Back Home'. By this time he was being name checked by the Beatles. His releases were topping pop charts and other bands were covering his songs and having hits with them too, like The Byrds' version of 'Mr Tamborine Man'. One side of 'Bringin It All Back Home' is electric. It features members of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band as backing musicians. They would back him at the Newport Festival too.

His album 'Highway 61' captures the revolutionary mood of the times perfectly. It was recorded in seven days and recorded straight after the Newport Festival show. The sound is rough and most songs are recorded with a minimum of fuss and takes. 'Like A Rolling Stone' was recorded in just one take.

Six months later Bob Dylan began recording 'Blonde On Blonde'. It was the beginning of 1966. The double album was recorded in two sessions with Al Kooper, Robbie Robertson from the Band, and many of the best musicians in Nashville at the time. The album starts with 'Rainy Day Women' and ends with a whole side of 'Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands'. Between these two tracks are many Dylan originals which back away from preaching and protest and move towards a more mature rock-based vocal delivery. His unique voice had become a signifier of cool by this time and was borrowed from time to time by the like of Lydon and Lennon. Another change on the album is the use of hooks in songs and the slower songs have a lightness of touch which subtly shifts the mood of the album from song to song.

'Blonde On Blonde' was released the same month as the Beatles' 'Revolver' album. It paved the way for what was about to happen in psychedelia and Woodstock and hippy kids. It was a precursor of rock. It influenced just about every band that came after it and showed that singing wasn't all about being in tune and in full control of the voice. By the end of 1966 the Four Tops and Levi Stubbs was doing a Dylan delivery on the track 'Reach Out (I'll Be There)'. His voice goes up at the end of each line and in the process it all becomes more heartfelt. Mainstream music had come round to Dylan's way of doing things.

Bob Dylan went on to make many, many more albums. Some good, some not so good. Each one being delivered in a different style of sound. His name is synonymous with the sixties and the cultural protest of the times. Yet it is the way he has approached his music which may be his biggest influence. Be honest with what you sing and be yourself with how you sing it. Bob Dylan has always been himself.