The majority of music I listened to as a child was courtesy of my father. He filled our early morning drives to school with Cliff Richards, Pink Floyd, and Coldplay, pointing out the different instruments in each song, singing along to “Wish You Were Here” and “Fix You.” My dad has introduced me to so many different genres of music, from old Hindi tunes to Green Day’s newest albums, but one artist has always stuck out to him: Bob Dylan, the only singer to have ever won a Nobel Peace Prize in Literature, an inspiration to people everywhere.
Bob Dylan, a Minnesota native, is a self-taught musician, playing in several different bands throughout his childhood and he eventually moved to New York to pursue music in 1961, dominating Greenwich Village folk festivals and music clubs. His self-titled debut album, “Bob Dylan,” released in 1962, and he has created over 50 albums since then.
With over 600 songs in his repertoire, Bob Dylan has inspired generations of artists, from Stevie Wonder to Adele, some of his most famous songs being “Make You Feel My
Love” and “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.” His lyrics tell stories of the beauties within nature, of challenges and overcoming them with bravery. Perhaps his most known song, “Like A Rolling Stone,” released in 1965, pulled him out of an identity crisis and out of the consideration of retiring from music as a whole. The lyrics:
“You used to laugh about/Everybody that was hanging out/Now you don’t talk so loud/Now you don’t seem so proud/About having to be scrounging your next meal/How does it feel, how does it feel?/To be without a home/Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone,”
show how much life can change in an instant, how laughing with your friends about how good you have it can turn into not knowing what the future holds for you the next day. This song embraces the levels of uncertainty we, as human beings, feel on a daily basis, and what can come out of them when we aren’t careful, as is shown in the lyrics:
“But you better take your diamond ring, you better pawn it babe/You used to be so amused/At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used/Go to him he calls you, you can’t refuse/When you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose.”
Dylan calls upon historical references and characterizes types of people as different things, such as animals, in his music. In his song “Desolation Row,” he uses characters such as Cinderella and Romeo (from Romeo and Juliet), displaying how he has showcased so many different stories and eras of pop culture and worldly events through his music.
In “Not Dark Yet,” Dylan travels through themes of mortality, singing that,
“[I feel] like my soul has turned into steel/I’ve still got the scars that the sun didn’t heal,”
showing how he doesn’t feel much closure when he thinks about death, and referencing the metaphor of a steel soul to show how hardened and concrete life becomes once it begins to face death.
Dylan’s music is simple and familiar, yet complex. There is a story in every beat , and every lyric has been penned by an artist who wanted to share his stories in hope that people could relate, which they have. As Anne Margaret Daniel, a professor at The New School in New York City, states, “I think Dylan just hears music. He doesn
’t hear genres . . . [everything] he touches, hears, or reads, whether it’s poetry, fiction, classical music, or jazz, he turns it into his own music” (History). Bob Dylan is the definition of marching to the beat of his own drum. He made music a space where artists didn’t have to be trapped into a specific genre or persona. He paved paths and inspired new ideas for generations to come. He is freedom, liberation, and someone who is truly defined by their art.
“A Complete Unknown,” a movie that tells the story of one of the world’s greatest artists, comes out on December 25th, starring Timothée Chalamet. I’ll be watching it with my dad in a dark movie theater, buttery popcorn in our laps, two people inspired by one man and his dream to make music for all.
Works Cited
https://www.history.com/news/bob-dylan-changed-music
https://newrepublic.com/article/137811/bob-dylans-songs-literature
https://americansongwriter.com/meaning-like-a-rolling-stone-bob-dylan/
