On This Day, May 24, 1941…
Robert Allen Zimmerman, who later changed his name to Bob Dylan, was born in Duluth, Minnesota.
Considered one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan’s 60-year career is known for such classic songs as “Blowing in the Wind,” “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” “Like a Rolling Stone” and many, many others.
He got his start singing folk songs, but shocked fans at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival when he went electric, forgoing his acoustic guitars. This electric sound can be heard on such classic rock albums as 1965’s Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited, as well as 1966’s Blonde on Blonde.
Dylan is the winner of 10 Grammys and eight of his songs have been inducted into the Grammy Hall Fame. He’s also an Academy Award and a Golden Globe winner for “Things Have Changed” from the movie Wonder Boys. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016 and the Kennedy Center Honors in 1997.
Dylan is still making music and touring today. His most recent release is 2020’s Rough and Rowdy Ways. On June 2, the soundtrack to Dylan’s 2021 concert film Shadow Kingdom will be released, with the film itself following on June 6. October 24 brings Bob Dylan: Mixing Up the Medicine, a 608-page book giving fans a look at the Bob Dylan Archive, which is housed in Tulsa, OK.
In addition, a Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet is expected to begin filming this summer and Dylan kicks off a European tour on June 3.
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