Life and times of a troubadour

May 24, 1941: Robert Allen Zimmerman born in iron-ore city of Duluth, Minnesota. Family moves to Hibbing in 1947

1950s: Takes up guitar and harmonica, forms four bands while at high school

1959: Enrols at University of Minnesota. Soaks up Beat generation writers: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti; and genres of blues, jazz and folk. Woody Guthrie’s autobiography Bound for Glory changes his life, he begins performing Guthrie’s dust bowl ballads as Bob Dylan

Jan 1961: Dylan moves to New York’s Greenwich Village in footsteps of his new mentor. Dylan visits Guthrie numerous times as he lies dying from Huntington’s chorea

Apr: Dylan’s first major gig – opening for bluesman John Lee Hooker at Gerde’s Folk City – leads to contract with Columbia Records

1962: Debut album Bob Dylan contains Song to Woody. Has brief love affair with Suze Rotolo
who is credited as inspiration behind several of his finest love songs, including Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right

1963: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan captures zeitgeist of Cold War – Cuban missile crisis and escalation of Vietnam War. Album includes classic protest songs Blowin’ in the Wind, A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall and Masters of War. Joan Baez and Dylan become lovers

Dec: Dylan meets Allen Ginsberg. Friendship leads to numerous collaborations

1965: Marries ex-model Sara Lownds. Reinvents himself with release of Bringing It All Back Home. Album features both acoustic guitar and nine-piece electric band

Jul: Dylan is booed and jeered at Newport Folk Festival when he launches into Maggie’s Farm, backed by five-piece band

May 1966: British tour sees audiences jeer and catcall electric Dylan. One folk purist lets fly with yell of “Judas!” as Dylan crashes into Like a Rolling Stone

1965-66: Intensity of his performances revolutionises rock. His live-in-the-studio albums – Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde – push his global record sales past 10 million

Jul 1966: After near fatal motorcycle accident, Dylan takes nearly a year off to recover

1969: Dylan finds a new voice with country-style Nashville Skyline, featuring Lay Lady Lay and Girl from the North Country, with guest vocal by Johnny Cash

1973: Ventures into acting in Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid.
Movie soundtrack includes Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door

1974: Makes two albums with Asylum before returning to Columbia

1975: Blood on the Tracks – considered his finest album – is followed by Rolling Thunder Revue tour with Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Richie Havens, Arlo Guthrie – Woody’s son – and Allen Ginsberg. Makes four-hour film, Renaldo and Clara

1976: Desire follows Blood on the Tracks to top of charts

1977: Sara Dylan files for divorce 

1978: Dylan embarks on world tour, recording Live at Budokan in Japan 

1979: Announces that he is a born-again Christian. Slow Train Coming wins Dylan his first Grammy

1983: Makes Infidels with Mark Knopfler and Alan Clark of Dire Straits and ex-Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor – considered best album since Blood

1986: Secretly marries singer Carolyn Dennis while on tour with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

1987: Tour with Grateful Dead yields album, Dylan & the Dead

1988: Starts his world-wide Never Ending Tour

1989: Inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Releases Oh Mercy

1990s: Decade of awards includes France’s highest cultural honour and Kennedy Center Award from President Bill Clinton

2001: Things Have Changed, from soundtrack of movie, Wonder Boys wins best song Oscar

2002: Performs at Newport Folk Festival – first time since 1965

2006: Modern Times becomes Dylan’s first album to top charts since Desire, 30 years earlier

2009: Together Through Life tops charts, while Christmas In The Heart polarises fans and critics alike

2012: Receives Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama, America’s highest civilian honour

2015: Shadows in the Night covers ballads of Frank Sinatra

2016: Wins Nobel Prize for Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within
the great American song tradition”

2020: Cancels U.S. leg of Never Ending Tour, due to pandemic. Releases Rough and Rowdy Ways, first new album in eight years.
Sells publishing rights to his catalogue to Universal Music Group for $300 million-plus

2021: Makes Shadow Kingdom film during lockdown. Launch of Rough and Rowdy Ways worldwide tour

May 2022: Bob Dylan Center opens in Tulsa, Oklahoma


Sources: Bloomberg, Bob Dylan by Chris Rushby, The Bob Dylan Scrapbook by Robert Santelli, DW, Reuters
Pictures: Getty Images
© GRAPHIC NEWS