He's been named the 2nd greatest artist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine, behind the Beatles (whom he influenced greatly, and introduced to marijuana). In my opinion, "Blonde on Blonde" is arguably one of the greatest rock and roll albums ever made. With great songs like "Maggie's Farm", "Subterranean Homesick Blues", "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall", "The Times They Are A-Changin", "Like A Rolling Stone", "All Along The Watchtower", "Knockin' On Heaven's Door", "Simple Twist of Fate", and many, many others, it's hard to argue with Dylan's success over some 40 odd years. He's one of the most covered artists ever, behind only, again, the Beatles. Often imitated, but never duplicated. With each album, Dylan seemed to change his style. For his first four albums, he was the folk hero/god, playing with just his acoustic guitar and harmonica, singing political protest and old slave songs. 1965, the Newport Folk Festival and "Bringing It All Back Home" changed everything. Gone was the folk hero, and in his place was an artist who didn't want to be known as what he came to be identified as. Dylan plugged in an electric guitar for the first time, and history was made. "Bringing It All Back Home", "Highway 61 Revisted" and "Blonde on Blonde" were this version of Dylan's debut, follow-up and swansong. In '66, he had a motorcycle crash that set him back to his grass roots acoustic guitar & harmonica days. These 3 albums are the only glimpse into Bob Dylan, the rock star. Personally, I wonder what his body of work and the music scene as a whole would be like if that crash didn't happen. After his motorcycle crash, he wouldn't have a return to form until "Blood on the Tracks", and then went through another disappointing phase in his career. Dylan was born Jewish, but repented and found Christianity and released some critically panned (but i, personally, think they're not that bad) gospel albums, and some other albums. He didn't really find his place back in music until the late 90s with "Time Out of Mind". His next two albums, "Love & Theft" and "Modern Times", both released in the 00s, have been widely accepted by critics and fans alike. Anyway, enough of my little biography of Bob Dylan. If you're interested in Dylan, points of interest are: Bringing It All Back Home Highway 61 Revisted Blonde on Blonde Nashville Skyline Blood on the Tracks The Basement Tapes Time Out of Mind Love & Theft DYLAN: Retrospective (3CD) Alternatively, the soundtrack to the movie I'm Not There is a GREAT compilation of covers by many well known artists, like members of Sonic Youth, Jim James from My Morning Jacket, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Iron and Wine, Willie Nelson, Mark Lanegan (ex-Screaming Trees), Sufjan Stevens, the Black Keys and Jack Johnson. Also, the film is pretty decent too.
He's in town tonight. Did his second of back-to-back concerts in St. John's. I've got a couple of friends who are seeing him. Pretty intense to have a legend like him in our city.
My friend's dad Loves him. We had to listen to him all the way to Projekt Revolution (A 3 and some hour drive) And I fell asleep when we entered our Traffic jam, Kept waking up in it and after it and the SAME song was playing still. I dont know what its called but man it was weird haha its REAAAAALLY long.
Respect, yes. Enjoy.... Well, not so much. Knockin' On Heavens Door is amazing though, and Hurricane.
I really like Blonde On Blonde and Blood On The Tracks. Generally though he's one of a few artists that I haven't really listened to in depth, past compilations and the like, because of the sheer wealth of his back-catalogue.