Music
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
A legend of the American music scene, Robert Allen Zimmerman is better known to the world as Bob Dylan. Dylan’s place in the annals of modern music history has long been secured with recordings such as Blood On The Tracks, Highway 61 Revisited and the 1966 classic Blonde on Blonde.
Despite his unconventional vocal style, Dylan garnered a significant following after years as a coffee house troubadour in the cafés of Minneapolis and New York. After a favourable concert review in the New York Times, Dylan was sought out by, and eventually signed a contract with John Hammond of Columbia Records. In 1962, Dylan’s self-titled debut was released. From that point, there have been over 45 Dylan records released – to varying degrees of commercial and critical success.
Dylan’s longevity could be attributed to his willingness to experiment and expand beyond the labels applied to him. He’s been a folk singer, a protest singer, a rocker, a country crooner, a blues man, and more. Dylan has also been an inspiration, both to his contemporaries and to subsequent generations of musicians. His songs have been recorded by artists like The Byrds (Mr. Tambourine Man), Peter, Paul and Mary (Blowin’ In The Wind), Joan Baez, The Band, Hoyt Axton (Lay Lady Lay), The Beach Boys (The Times They Are A-Changin’), Jimi Hendrix (All Along The Watchtower), David Bowie (Maggie’s Farm), Jeff Buckley (Just Like a Woman), Eric Clapton (Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door) and countless others.
Dylan’s association with Mark Knopfler dates back to 1979, when Knopfler played guitar on the album Slow Train Coming. Since then, Mark has appeared on 1983’s Infidels (which Mark also co-produced), Down In The Groove (1988), and various tracks on the Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 (1991).