Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman) is an American singer-songwriter, author, and artist. Born in Duluth, Minnesota, he grew up in the city of Hibbing. As a teenager, he developed his interest in music by playing with various local bands. He became profoundly influenced by American folk music and blues, as well as the early authors and poets of the Beat Generation. In 1961, he moved to New York City and performed in cafes and clubs across Greenwich Village. The following year, he signed a contract for his debut album Bob Dylan and his music career took off.
Dylan’s albums throughout the 1960s and 1970s include Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited in 1965, Blonde On Blonde in 1966, and Blood On The Tracks in 1975. He also toured extensively and was often accompanied by filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker, who documented life around the stage and developed it into the movie Don’t Look Back (1967). Over the following decades, Dylan continued to make music and produce albums, including Oh Mercy (1989), Time Out of Mind (1997) and Modern Times (2006).
Dylan’s music has been used as the basis for two Broadway shows: Twyla Tharp’s dance musical The Times They Are a-Changin’ (2006) and Girl From the North Country (2017). Aside from music, Dylan is a prolific artist and poet, producing experimental poetry collections such as Tarantula (1971). In 2016, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming the first musician to win the award. Over the course of his career, he has also won ten Grammy Awards, one Academy Award and one Golden Globe Award. He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Songwriters Hall of Fame. He published his autobiography Chronicles in 2004. Dylan has been married twice and has 6 children.
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