Book Bob Dylan

The 1963 release of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan marked Dylan's emergence as one of the most original and poetic voices in the history of American popular music. The album included two of the most memorable 1960s folk songs, 'Blowin' in the Wind' and 'A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall.' His next album, The Times They Are A-Changin', firmly established Dylan as the definitive songwriter of the '60s protest movement. By 1964, Dylan was playing 200 concerts annually, but had become tired of his role as 'the' folk singer-songwriter of the protest movement. Another Side of Bob Dylan, recorded in 1964, was a much more personal, introspective collection of songs.

In 1965, Dylan scandalized many of his folkie fans by recording the half-acoustic, half-electric album Bringing It All Back Home, backed by a nine-piece band. On July 25, 1965, he was famously booed at the Newport Folk Festival when he performed electrically for the first time. The albums that followed, Highway 61 Revisited (1965) including the seminal rock song 'Like a Rolling Stone' and the two-record set Blonde on Blonde (1966) represented Dylan at his most innovative. With his unmistakable voice and unforgettable lyrics, Dylan brought the worlds of music and literature together as no one else had.

Over the course of the next three decades, Dylan continued to reinvent himself. Following a near-fatal motorcycle accident in July 1966, Dylan spent almost a year recovering in seclusion. His next two albums, John Wesley Harding (1968) including 'All Along the Watchtower,' later recorded by guitar great Jimi Hendrix and the unabashedly countryish Nashville Skyline (1969) were far more mellow than his earlier works. In 1973, Dylan appeared in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, a feature film directed by Sam Peckinpah. He also wrote the film's soundtrack, which became a hit and included the now-classic song, 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door.'

In 1974, Dylan began his first full-scale tour since his accident, embarking on a sold-out nationwide tour with his longtime backup band, the Band. An album he recorded with the Band, Planet Waves, became his first No. 1 album ever. He followed these successes with the celebrated 1975 album Blood on the Tracks and Desire (1976), each of which hit No. 1 as well. Dylan declared in 1979 that he was now a born-again Christian. The evangelical Slow Train Coming was a commercial hit and won Dylan his first Grammy Award, for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male.

Beginning in the 1980s, Dylan began touring full time, sometimes with fellow legends Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and the Grateful Dead. Notable albums during this period included Infidels (1983); the five-disc retrospective Biograph (1985); Knocked Out Loaded (1986); and Oh Mercy (1989), which became his best-received album in years. He recorded two albums with the all-star band the Traveling Wilburys, also featuring George Harrison, the late Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne. In 1994, Dylan returned to his folk roots, winning the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album for World Gone Wrong.

In 1989, when Dylan was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Bruce Springsteen spoke at the ceremony, declaring that 'Bob freed the mind the way Elvis freed the body. ... He invented a new way a pop singer could sound, broke through the limitations of what a recording artist, could achieve, and changed the face of rock and roll forever.' In 1997, Dylan became the first rock star ever to receive Kennedy Center Honors, considered the nation's highest award for artist,ic excellence. Dylan's 1997 album Time Out of Mind reestablished this one-time folk icon as one of the preeminent of rock's wise men, winning three Grammy Awards including Album of the Year. In 2000, he recorded the single 'Things Have Changed' for the soundtrack of the film Wonder Boys, starring Michael Douglas. The song won Dylan a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Dylan has taken some time out from his music to tell the story of his life. The singer released Chronicles: Volume One, the first in a three-book memoir series, in fall 2004. Dylan gave his first full interview in 20 years for a documentary released in 2005. Entitled No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, the film was directed by Martin Scorsese. In 2006, Dylan released his latest studio album Modern Times. After hitting stores in late August, it reached the top of the album charts the next month.

Showing no signs of slowing down, Dylan has continued to tour in recent years and released his lastest studio album, Together Through Life, in April 2009.