Bob Dylan Bio

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Robert Allen Zimmerman

Born: May 24, 1941
City and Country of Origin: Duluth, Minnesota
Music Background: learned guitar and harmonica as a child
Awards: 2001 Grammy Best Contemporary Folk Album, "Love and Theft;" 1997 Grammy Album Of The Year, "Time Out of Mind;" Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, "Cold Irons Bound;" Best Contemporary Folk Album, "Time Out of Mind;" 1994 Grammy Best Traditional Folk Album, "World Gone Wrong;" 1989 Grammy Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal, "Traveling Wilburys Volume One;" 1979 Grammy Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, "Gotta Serve Somebody; 1972 Grammy Album Of The Year, "The Concert For Bangla Desh" | Artistic Excellence with the Kennedy Center Honors | Academy Award for Best Song, "Things Have Changed"
Top Recordings: "Blowin' in the Wind," "The Times They Are A-Changin'," "Mr. Tambourine Man," "Like a Rolling Stone," "Positively 4th Street," "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35," "Lay Lady Lay," "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"
Dylan Biography: Although he was born in Duluth, he was raised in Hibbing, MN. He formed a band called the Golden Chords while in high school. While attending the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis he performed in local coffee houses as Bob Dylan. In January 1961 he migrated to New York, becoming an integral part of the Greenwich Village folk scene. While living in New York he visited his idol Woody Guthrie who was dying in a New York hospital. A positive review of a performance at Gerde's Folk City piqued the interest of famed Columbia recording head John Hammond who signed the folk singer to a recording contract. Dylan's debut album was released in March of 1962, a collection of classic folk and blues offerings. It wasn't till his second album Freewheelin' that Dylan began to showcase his own material. It was from this album that Peter, Paul and Mary covered "Blowin' in the Wind." This success led to his appearing as the opening act for then popular folksinger Joan Baez which soon became a romantic relationship. Dylan continued writing and rapidly became a hot concert item. With the release of, "The Times They Are A-Changin'" in 1964, it was clear that Dylan's song writing had eclipsed everyone else in the folk community. He began to blend more R&B and rock elements into his music. After splitting with Baez he began dating former model Sara Lowndes whom he would eventually marry. He gave the Byrds "Mr. Tambourine Man" to include in their debut album and it became a number 1 hit. By the time of the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, Dylan had already abandoned his folk roots, but it was there that his most ardent supporters would learn about it for the first time. When he appeared supported by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band he was greeted with derisive howls by a disenchanted audience. It was in the summer of 1965 that he released his first vocal hit "Like a Rolling Stone" which climbed the charts all the way to number 2. "Positively 4th Street" and "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" both became top ten hits in the fall of '65 and the spring of'66. In 1966 he released the double album Blonde on Blonde. He hired Ronnie Hawkins' backup group known as the Hawks in 1965 to back him up and they became known as The Band in 1968. After a tumultuous British tour in 1966, he returned to the states where he was injured in a motorcycle accident near his home in Woodstock, NY. After the accident Dylan's attitude changed dramatically. He was no longer the brash young outspoken poet seeking the spotlight. He became far more introverted and reclusive, retreating to his Woodstock home along with his wife to raise his family. During this time he recorded a group of songs along with The Band in a rented house in Saugerties, NY. (the venue of Woodstock II) None of these songs were officially released, but bootleg copies began appearing by the late '60s.

In 1967 Dylan returned to the charts with the album John Wesley Harding which went to number 2 on the American charts and topped the charts in the U.K. It introduced a new music form country-rock. He followed it up in '69 with the country hit "Lay Lady Lay" from the album Nashville Skyline which he recorded in Nashville. June, 1970 marked the release of the fiasco double-album Self Portrait which was a hodgepodge of remixes and live tracks and received negative reviews across the board. Dylan got the message and followed it immediately with New Morning which received far better press. By 1970 Dylan had relocated to New York's Greenwich Village. He performed in the Bangledesh concert and began his acting career in Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid which was released in 1973 and featured the song "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." 1973 also marked a temporary change in recording venues from Columbia to David Geffen's fledgling Asylum Records. He recorded 2 albums during his hiatus including his first album to reach the top of the charts, Planet Waves. The double set live album Before the Flood recapped his successful 40 show tour with The Band. Dylan broke up with his wife Sara just before the tour. The effects of the split was evident in his next album Blood on the Tracks which also reached the top of the charts. After the Rolling Thunder Revue tour he hit the top of the charts for the third straight time with his album Desire. The album featured the song about the fate of boxer Rubin Carter entitled "Hurricane." In '79 he announced that he had become a born again Christian and released a series of Christian albums which received mostly poor reviews. His 1983 offering Infidels once again made his fans happy. He followed this with the self produced Empire Burlesque in '85. After a tour with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers the album Knocked Out Loaded was released to unfavorable reviews. The following year he toured being backed up by the Grateful Dead. Then in '88 he began his "Never Ending Tour" which ran on into the '90s.

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