Bob Dylan

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Bob Dylan

American musician

Also known as: Robert Allen Zimmerman

Written by Al Kooper

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Jan 4, 2025 • Article History

Quick Facts

Original name:: Robert Allen Zimmerman

Born:: May 24, 1941, Duluth, Minnesota, U.S. (age 83)

Awards And Honors:: Pulitzer Prize; Nobel Prize (2016); Presidential Medal of Freedom (2012); Grammy Award (2006); Academy Award (2001); Grammy Award (2001); Grammy Award (1997); Kennedy Center Honors (1997); Grammy Award (1994); Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum (1988); Grammy Award (1979); Grammy Award (1972)

Notable Works:: “Another Side of Bob Dylan”; “Before the Flood”; “Blonde On Blonde”; “Blood on the Tracks”; “Bringing It All Back Home”; “Desire”; “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”; “John Wesley Harding”; “Nashville Skyline”; “Street-Legal”; “The Basement Tapes”; “The Times They Are A-Changin’ ”; “Time Out of Mind”

Subjects Of Study:: “Don’t Look Back”; “No Direction Home: Bob Dylan”; “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese”

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Bob Dylan (born May 24, 1941, Duluth, Minnesota, U.S.) is an American folksinger and songwriter who moved from folk to rock music in the 1960s, infusing the lyrics of rock and roll, theretofore concerned mostly with boy-girl romantic innuendo, with the intellectualism of classic literature and poetry. Hailed as the Shakespeare of his generation, Dylan sold tens of millions of albums, wrote more than 500 songs recorded by more than 2,000 artists, performed all over the world, and set the standard for lyric writing. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. (See Editor’s Note: About the author.) ...(100 of 2653 words)

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