Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan Headshot

Musician • Singer • Songwriter • Writer • Artist • Poet

Birth Date: May 24, 1941

Age: 82 years old

Birth Place: Duluth, Minnesota

Partners: Joan Baez

Children: Jakob Dylan

Bob Dylan is easily one of the most important figures in contemporary music, and one of the most perversely fascinating as well. Born Robert Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota, he was raised on rock & roll but discovered folk music as a student at the University of Minnesota. By 1959 he was playing coffeehouses, taking Woody Guthrie as a role model and taking his name from Dylan Thomas. At first he was simply a folksinger; his 1962 debut album had only two original songs. But a quantum leap occurred between this and the next year's followup, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Now Dylan was writing songs ("A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," "Blowin' in the Wind," "Masters of War") that dealt with social/political unrest in terms that were both hard-hitting and poetic. The same album introduced "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," one of his most enduring failed-love songs. Over the next four years, virtually every move Dylan made was a cultural event. Pegged with the "protest songwriter" tag, he quickly grew beyond it and wrote more impressionistic songs on 1964's The Other Side of Bob Dylan. His influence went as far as the Beatles, who he famously introduced to marijuana in August 1964. By the next year Dylan was playing rock music with an electric band; legend has it that he was booed offstage at the Newport Folk Festival for the new sound (though some reports say that he was simply booed for wrapping up too early, or for poor sound mixing that made the songs difficult to hear). That year brought the rock-tinged album Highway 61 Revisited, with its landmark single "Like a Rolling Stone." But he was definitely booed the following year in England, when an audience member shouted "Judas!" during the electric set. This now-iconic moment, at the Manchester Free Trade Hall, spurred a furious Dylan to deliver his arguably greatest live performance, backed by the group that became known as The Band. The classic era abruptly ended in July 1966 with a serious motorcycle crash whose full story remains mysterious. Dylan spent a full three years out of the spotlight, recording a wealth of unreleased material (known as the Basement Tapes) with the Band. When he did emerge, it was with a string of albums (including Nashville Skyline and the double Self Portrait that were shockingly casual in sound and ambition. He remained secluded in the early '70s, scoring and acting in what was considered a minor Sam Peckinpah movie, "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid"(1973), which ironically produced "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," a contender as Dylan's single best-loved song. The rest of the decade-in fact, the rest of his career-was characterized by drastic ups and downs. He made a creative comeback with 1975's Blood on the Tracks, a personal outpouring inspired by his divorce, and the following year took a busload of musical friends around the country in the shambling Rolling Thunder Revue tour. He documented this in a movie, "Renaldo & Clara" (1978) that probably told fans more about his love life than they wanted to know. Still more surprising was Dylan's declaring himself a born-again Christian in 1979 and embracing fundamentalist themes on Slow Train Coming. This too proved temporary; by 1983's Infidels it had been folded into an overall sense of spirituality. During the '80s Dylan suddenly became a ubiquitous live performer, touring collaboratively with Tom Petty and later the Grateful Dead; and in 1988 began the series of loose-knit, small-combo one-nighters known as the Never Ending Tour. There were more creative triumphs (1997's blues-tinged Time Out of Mind, written after he survived a life-threatening heart ailment) and more baffling moves: in 2015 he became enraptured with the Frank Sinatra song catalogue and devoted three consecutive albums to it, including his only triple album, Triplicate. In 2017 Dylan became the first songwriter ever awarded the Nobel Prize for literature; characteristically he skipped the ceremony. Meanwhile new generations discovered key moments in Dylan's career through the archival releases in his Bootleg Series.

Credits

Bob Dylan: Shadow Kingdom - The Early Songs

Music Performer
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2023

Isle Of Wight Festival 2022

Music Performer
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2022

Ugliest House in AmericaStream

Executive Producer
Reality
2022

Bob Dylan: Subterranean Homesick Blues (2022 Remake)

Music Performer
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2022

Patti Smith, la poésie du punk

Self
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2021

Shadow Kingdom: The Early Songs of Bob Dylan

Music Performer
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2021

Bob Dylan: Odds and Ends

Self
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2021

It Ain't Me You're Looking For: Bob Dylan at 80

Self
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2021

NOW 70s presents NOW 60s!

Actor
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2020

Bob Dylan: Murder Most Foul

Music Performer
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2020

Rock Hall's All-Time Greats

Music Performer
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2020

Home For the Holidays

Music Performer
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2020

Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll PresidentStream

Actor
Himself
Movie
2020
95%

Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll PresidentStream

Self
Movie
2020
95%

Zé Ramalho: Knockin' on Heaven's Door

Composer
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2019

Bob Dylan: The Times They Are A-Changin'

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2019

Bob Dylan: Knockin' On Heaven's Door

Music Performer
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2019

Bob Dylan: Hurricane

Music Performer
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2019

Bob Dylan: Don't Think Twice, It's All Right

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2019

Bob Dylan: Shelter from the Storm

Music Performer
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2019

Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin ScorseseStream

Self
Movie
2019
92%

Renegade Dreamers

Self
Movie
2019

Once Were BrothersStream

Self
Movie
2019
84%

Bob Dylan: Like a Rolling Stone

Music Performer
Show
2017

Eric Clapton: Life in 12 BarsStream

Self
Movie
2017
69%

Trouble No More

Self
Movie
2017

Tony Bennett Celebrates 90: The Best Is Yet to Come

Music Performer
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2016

Bob Dylan: A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

Music Performer
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2016

Born In Chicago

Self
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2016

Bob Dylan: Knockin' On Heaven's Door (Unplugged)

Music Performer
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2016

Legend of Lead Belly

Self
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2015

Bob Dylan: Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues

Music Performer
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2015

Bob Dylan: Most Of The Time (Long Version)

Music Performer
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2015

Bob Dylan: My Back Pages (From The 30th Anniversary Concert)

Music Performer
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2015

Bob Dylan: Visions Of Johanna

Music Performer
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2015

Mavis!

Self
Movie
2015

The Family Farm

Cinematography
Movie
2014

Bob Dylan: Pretty Saro

Music Performer
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2013

Bob Dylan and The Band: Down in the Flood

Actor
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2012

Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound

Actor
Show
2012

Willie Nelson and Friends: Angels and Outlaws

Self
Show
2012

Bob Dylan: Duquesne Whistle

Music Performer
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2012

Omnibus

Guest
Show
2011

The 53rd Annual Grammy Awards

Music Performer
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2011

Bob Dylan - Revealed

Actor
Movie
2011

Archive on 4

Self
Show
2010

Bob Dylan: Guess I'm Doing Fine

Music Performer
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2010

Ze Ramalho Part. Roberto Frejat: Tá Tudo Mudando

Composer
Show
2009

Bob Dylan: Little Drummer Boy

Music Performer
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2009

Bob Dylan: It Must Be Santa

Music Performer
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2009

The Bob Dylan Phenomenon

Self
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2008

Bob Dylan: Dreamin' of You

Music Performer
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2008

Inside Bob Dylan's Jesus Years: Busy Being Born... Again!

Self
Movie
2008

Bob Dylan - The Other Side of the Mirror

Actor
Show
2007

Bob Dylan: Blood In My Eyes

Music Performer
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2007

Bob Dylan: Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine) (Mark Ronson Remix)

Music Performer
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2007

Bob Dylan: Things Have Changed

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2007

Bob Dylan: Thunder On The Mountain

Music Performer
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2007

Bob Dylan, No Direction Home

Self
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2006

Bob Dylan: Jokerman

Music Performer
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2006

George Harrison Feat. Bob Dylan: Just Like A Woman (Live)

Music Performer
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2005

The March

Actor
Movie
2005

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan

Actor
Movie
2005

Bob Dylan: 'Cross the Green Mountain

Music Performer
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2004

Bob Dylan: Emotionally Yours

Music Performer
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2004

Bob Dylan: Love Sick (Live)

Music Performer
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2004

Bob Dylan: Not Dark Yet

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2004

Bob Dylan: Series Of Dreams

Music Performer
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2004

Bob Dylan: Sweetheart Like You

Music Performer
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2004

Bob Dylan: Unbelievable

Music Performer
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2004

Bob Dylan: When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky

Music Performer
Show
2004

Real Time With Bill MaherStream

Guest
Talk
2003

Masked and Anonymous

Actor
Jack Fate
Movie
2003

Dharma & Greg

Guest Star
Series
1997

Late Show With David Letterman

Music Performer
Talk
1993

The Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary Celebration

Music Performer
Show
1993

Backtrack

Actor
Artist
Movie
1989

Five Corners

Original Music
Movie
1987

Hearts of Fire

Actor
Billy Parker
Movie
1987

Bob Dylan: Tight Connection To My Heart (Has Anyone Seen My Love)

Music Performer
Show
1985

The Last WaltzStream

Actor
Himself
Movie
1978
98%

The Last WaltzStream

Self
Movie
1978
98%

Renaldo and Clara

Actor
Renaldo
Movie
1978

Renaldo and Clara

Director
Movie
1978

Renaldo and Clara

Film Editing
Movie
1978

Renaldo and Clara

Screenwriter
Movie
1978

Saturday Night LiveStream

Music Performer
Series
1975

Bob Dylan: Tangled Up In Blue

Music Performer
Show
1975

Pat Garrett and Billy the KidStream

Actor
Alias
Movie
1973
57%

Pat Garrett and Billy the KidStream

Original Music
Movie
1973
57%

Jimi Hendrix

Original Music
Movie
1973

Eat the Document

Actor
Movie
1972

Eat the Document

Director
Movie
1972

Eat the Document

Film Editor
Movie
1972

Johnny Cash: The Man, His World, His Music

Actor
Movie
1969

Dont Look BackStream

Self
Movie
1967
91%

Bob Dylan: Subterranean Homesick Blues (Alternate Video)

Music Performer
Show
1964

Bob Dylan: Subterranean Homesick Blues

Music Performer
Show
1964

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