Bob Dylan, whose real name is Robert Allen Zimmerman, the singer and the songwriter has been awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature and this has stunned the contemporary literary world as Dylan’s work is not in the traditional forms of novels, stories, and poetry, though he is a true music icon and a gifted writer and his writings have influenced entire generations of listeners and readers who connect with the emotion in each of his works. Dylan’s commercial success is due to his ability to connect with and voice angst of generations, growing up in the shadow of the atom bomb, that Dylan referenced with “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”, or great shifts in America and the postcolonial world, in “The Times They Are A-Changin”. And so it goes, to today’s nightmares about terrorism and the consequent state-sanctioned horrors on individual liberty and freedom of expression. According to the Swedish Academy, Dylan has been chosen, “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”. He has been writing and singing about the downfallen, marginalised and, well, nobodies. Dylan is a true music icon and gifted writer; he is the first American to win the prize since Toni Morrison in 1993.
| Bob Dylan : Personal Life
Birth Date : May 24, 1941 Birth Place : Duluth, Minnesota Birth Name : Robert Allen Zimmerman Father : Abraham Zimmerman, a furniture and appliance salesman Mother : Beatty (Stone) Zimmerman, a former model and housewife Marriages : Carol Dennis (1986-1992, divorced); Sara Lowndes (1965-1977, divorced) Children : With Carol Dennis: Desiree; with Sara Lowndes: Jesse, Jakob, Samuel, and Anna Education : Attended University of Minnesota, 1959-1960 |
| Bob Dylan: Interesting Facts About the Nobel Literature Laureate 2016
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Dylan, the 75-year-old song writing legend began his music career in 1961, when he left his small town in Minnesota for the club and cafe scene of New York’s famed Greenwich Village. There he met John Hammond, the record producer who gave him a contract, in 1962, for his debut eponymous album, “Bob Dylan”. His album was a reflection of the contemporary society that he lived in and commented on to, never shying away from the important issues like religion, politics, and social conditions. Dylan began his career as an acoustic singer-songwriter specialising in protest songs such as “Blowin’ In The Wind”. Dylan created controversy at the Newport, Rhode Island, folk festival in 1965 when he set aside his acoustic guitar and played an electric guitar, which made his hard-core music fans feel betrayed. He was dubbed “Judas” by traditionalist. In 1975, Dylan recorded “Blood On The Tracks”, probably his greatest studio album, “Little red bike/ I ain’t no monkey but I know what I like / I like the way you love me strong and slow,/ I’m takin’ you with me, honey baby,/ When I go.” His other famous songs include “Subterranean Homesick Blues”, “Mr Tambourine Man”, “Just Like A Woman”, “Lay, Lady Lay”, “Tangled Up in Blue” and “Maggie’s Farm”. Recognising the range of the state’s power, he said, “No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky”. He once told the Rolling Stone magazine, “I live in my dreams. I don’t really live in the actual world.”
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