Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan arrived in New York City in 1961 and within three years had transformed popular songwriting from craft into art. His acoustic protest songs — 'Blowin' in the Wind,' 'The Times They Are a-Changin'' — gave the civil rights and antiwar movements their anthems. His 1965 shift to electric rock, marked by Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited, scandalized folk purists but produced some of the greatest rock recordings ever made. 'Like a Rolling Stone' alone redefined what a pop single could be. Dylan's lyrics brought literary ambition to rock — surrealist imagery, biblical allusion, and narrative complexity that earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016. His voice, always an acquired taste, became an instrument of raw emotional communication. Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the Tracks, and Time Out of Mind represent creative peaks spanning three decades. His Never Ending Tour, running since 1988, embodies a restless artistic spirit that refuses to settle.