Hull-Rust-Mahoning open-pit iron mine, Hibbing, August 1941 · John Vachon · Public domain

1941–1960

Duluth and Hibbing

Robert Allen Zimmerman was born in Duluth and grew up in the iron-mining town of Hibbing, Minnesota, where he played rock and roll in high-school bands. At the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis he found folk music and Woody Guthrie and began calling himself Bob Dylan.

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The story

What happened

He was born in Duluth in 1941, the elder son of Abram and Beatty Zimmerman. When he was six the family moved inland to Hibbing, a mining town on the Mesabi Iron Range, where his father worked in the family's furniture and appliance store. He grew up in a close Jewish household, formed teenage bands, and in 1959 left for the University of Minnesota. In the Dinkytown student neighborhood he spent more time in coffeehouses than in class, and there he took a new name.

The music

No records survive from these years, but the listening that shaped everything later began here. Late at night he tuned in distant radio stations playing country, blues and early rock and roll, and he idolized Little Richard, pounding the piano with his high-school bands. In Minneapolis he swapped the piano for an acoustic guitar and harmonica, learning old ballads and blues from records and from other players, and above all absorbing the songs and the plain-spoken manner of Woody Guthrie.

What it led to

Guthrie became a fixation. Dylan learned his songs, imitated his voice and read his life story, and when he heard that his hero was seriously ill in a hospital near New York, the Midwest stopped being big enough. He left the university without finishing, played his way east, and reached New York in the winter of 1961. He arrived with a guitar, a borrowed manner and a head full of old songs, and the city's folk scene was ready for someone like him.

3 photographs by John Vachon, Unknown (Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest), Lorie Shaull · open one for its credit and licence

The moments

Read onWikipedia: Bob Dylan, early life ↗Hibbing, Minnesota ↗

Studio portrait by Don Hunstein for The Times They Are a-Changin', c. 1963 · Don Hunstein · Public domain

1961–1964

Greenwich Village

Arriving in New York in the winter of 1961, Dylan worked the coffeehouses of Greenwich Village and within a year was signed to Columbia Records. His topical songs made him the voice of the folk revival and the civil-rights movement, until he began turning inward on Another Side.

Bob Dylan

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

The Times They Are a-Changin'

Another Side of Bob Dylan

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The story

What happened

He made his first visits to Woody Guthrie in a New Jersey hospital and played wherever he could in the Village, from basket houses to Gerde's Folk City. A warm review by Robert Shelton in the New York Times helped bring a contract with Columbia, signed by the producer John Hammond. Over the next two years his songs were taken up by others and by the civil-rights movement; he sang at the Newport Folk Festival with Joan Baez and at the March on Washington in 1963.

The music

The debut album was mostly traditional blues and folk songs with just two originals, sung with young bravado. The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, built around songs like "Blowin' in the Wind" and "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall," showed a writer of startling reach. The Times They Are a-Changin' was starker and more topical. Another Side of Bob Dylan, cut in a single night in 1964, set the protest aside for personal songs, jokes and love. Throughout, it was only his voice, guitar and harmonica.

What it led to

By 1964 he was uncomfortable being treated as a spokesman, and his writing was moving toward longer, stranger songs built on images rather than headlines. He was also listening closely to the Beatles and the new British bands and seeing what a group could do. The next step was to plug in. His following album put a rock band behind half of its songs, and within months the acoustic folk singer of the Village was gone for good.

4 photographs by Don Hunstein, Unknown, Ajay Suresh from New York, NY, USA, Jack Mancini · open one for its credit and licence

The records

Bob Dylan1962

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan1963 · a landmark

The Times They Are a-Changin'1964 · a landmark

Another Side of Bob Dylan1964

The moments

Songs to start with

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan · 1963Blowin' in the WindA string of unanswerable questions about war, freedom and indifference, with the answers left drifting in the air.The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan · 1963Girl from the North CountryA traveler asks for news of a lost love living far north and hopes she is well cared for.The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan · 1963Masters of WarA bitter denunciation of the people who build weapons and profit from wars they never fight.The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan · 1963A Hard Rain's a-Gonna FallA young traveler returns with a torrent of nightmarish images and vows to keep telling what he saw.The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan · 1963Don't Think Twice, It's All RightA man leaving a failed love tells her, with a mix of hurt and shrugging pride, not to dwell on it.The Times They Are a-Changin' · 1964The Times They Are a-Changin'A warning to politicians, critics and parents that a new generation is coming and the old order is giving way.

Threads through it

Read onWikipedia: Bob Dylan, 1960–1962 ↗Greenwich Village ↗

1965 publicity photo by Daniel Kramer · Daniel Kramer · Public domain

1965–1966

Going Electric

In 1965 Dylan traded solo acoustic folk for a rock band, recording three albums in about fifteen months and scoring hit singles with songs of a new, surreal kind. Folk purists booed him at Newport and on his 1966 world tour with the Hawks, but the music reshaped what rock lyrics could be.

Bringing It All Back Home

Highway 61 Revisited

Blonde on Blonde

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The story

What happened

Bringing It All Back Home came out in the spring of 1965, just before a solo acoustic tour of England that D. A. Pennebaker filmed for Dont Look Back. That July at Newport he played a short, loud set backed by members of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and part of the crowd booed. Late in the year he married Sara Lownds. He then toured the world with the Hawks, meeting hostile audiences night after night; in Manchester in 1966 one listener shouted Judas at him.

The music

The sound changed faster than at any other point in his career. Bringing It All Back Home split its time between a rough electric band and solo acoustic songs. "Like a Rolling Stone," six minutes long and built on Al Kooper's organ, became a hit single, and Highway 61 Revisited, with Mike Bloomfield's guitar, carried the same wild energy across a whole album. Blonde on Blonde, a double album made mostly in Nashville, was looser and more shimmering, full of long, dreamlike songs.

What it led to

The pace was impossible to keep up. The 1966 tour, with its booing crowds and punishing schedule, left him exhausted, and more concerts were planned. Then, in the summer of 1966, he crashed his motorcycle near his home in Woodstock, New York. The accident gave him a reason to stop. He cancelled the road, withdrew from public view and stayed home with his young family, and for more than a year almost nothing new was heard from him.

5 photographs by Daniel Kramer, Unknown, Robert N. Zagone, Columbia Records · open one for its credit and licence

The records

Bringing It All Back Home1965 · a landmark

Highway 61 Revisited1965 · a landmark

Blonde on Blonde1966 · a landmark

The moments

Songs to start with

Highway 61 Revisited · 1965Like a Rolling StoneA sneering address to a once-privileged woman who has fallen and must now fend for herself.Bringing It All Back Home · 1965It's All Over Now, Baby BlueA farewell telling someone to leave the old life behind and start again.Blonde on Blonde · 1966Sad-Eyed Lady of the LowlandsA slow, hymn-like tribute to a mysterious woman, piling up images of her before asking whether he may wait for her.Bringing It All Back Home · 1965Maggie's FarmA worker announces he is done laboring for a bossy family that treats him as property.Bringing It All Back Home · 1965Mr. Tambourine ManA sleepless singer asks a street musician to carry him off into music and forgetting.Bringing It All Back Home · 1965Gates of EdenA dreamlike set of scenes contrasting the false promises of the world with a paradise where those things vanish.

Threads through it

Read onWikipedia: Bob Dylan, 1965–1969 ↗Electric Dylan controversy ↗

Campsite at the Isle of Wight Festival, August 1969 · TimBrighton · CC BY 2.0

1967–1970

Basement and Country

After his 1966 motorcycle accident Dylan stopped touring, settled with his family near Woodstock and recorded informally with the Band in a basement. He re-emerged with quiet, country-tinged records made in Nashville, trading the electric storm of the mid-sixties for plain songs about love, home and old America.

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The story

What happened

He spent his recovery out of sight in Woodstock, raising a growing family and turning down the role of rock star. In 1967 the Hawks moved nearby, and in the basement of a pink house in West Saugerties they recorded dozens of songs for fun. His only major concert of these years was at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1969, with the Band. In 1970 Princeton gave him an honorary doctorate, a ceremony he found uncomfortable and later turned into a song.

The music

The basement recordings were loose, funny and haunted, mixing old folk songs with new ones, and they spread on bootlegs long before any official release. John Wesley Harding, cut in Nashville with just bass and drums, was spare and parable-like. Nashville Skyline went further into country, with a smooth new voice and a duet with Johnny Cash. Self Portrait, a puzzling double album of covers and odds and ends, was widely panned, and New Morning followed within months, warmer and more confident.

What it led to

The early seventies were quiet. He released little new music, moved his family back to New York for a time and seemed content to stay out of the spotlight. Gradually he edged back: a role and a soundtrack in a Sam Peckinpah western, a brief move away from Columbia, and plans to go back on the road with the Band, the same musicians who had stood beside him through the booing of 1966. A new, more open chapter was about to begin.

3 photographs by TimBrighton, Capitol Records · open one for its credit and licence

The records

John Wesley Harding1967 · a landmark

Nashville Skyline1969 · a landmark

Self Portrait1970

New Morning1970

The moments

Songs to start with

John Wesley Harding · 1967All Along the WatchtowerTwo outsiders talk on the road while, from a high lookout, the powerful watch riders approaching through the wind.John Wesley Harding · 1967I’ll Be Your Baby TonightA relaxed invitation to drop all worries and spend the night together.Nashville Skyline · 1969Lay Lady LayA soft, crooned plea for a lover to stay the night.New Morning · 1970If Not for YouA grateful love song saying the world would be gray and empty without the beloved.John Wesley Harding · 1967Dear LandlordA man asks the landlord who holds power over him not to judge him too harshly or reduce him to what he owes.John Wesley Harding · 1967I Pity the Poor ImmigrantA grave lament for a newcomer whose greed and selfishness leave him empty even in a land of plenty.

Threads through it

Read onWikipedia: Bob Dylan, 1965–1969 ↗The Basement Tapes ↗

With The Band on the 1974 tour, 2 February 1974 · Hugh Shirley Candyside · CC BY-SA 2.0

1973–1978

Blood on the Tracks

After scoring a western and touring arenas again with the Band, Dylan made Blood on the Tracks in 1974 as his marriage was coming apart, and it became one of his most admired records. He then took a loose troupe of musicians on the road as the Rolling Thunder Revue and closed the decade with a big-band world tour.

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid

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The story

What happened

In Mexico in 1972 and 1973 he acted in Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and wrote its score. In 1974 he returned to the road with the Band for an arena tour that drew enormous demand. His marriage, meanwhile, was falling apart, and he and Sara divorced in 1977. In between came the Rolling Thunder Revue of 1975 and 1976, a roving caravan of friends playing smaller halls, and in 1978 a long tour of Japan, Australia, Europe and America.

The music

The soundtrack gave him "Knockin' on Heaven's Door". Planet Waves was made quickly with the Band, and Columbia released the outtakes album Dylan without his blessing. Blood on the Tracks, recorded in New York and partly redone in Minneapolis, was intimate and mostly acoustic. The Basement Tapes finally appeared officially in 1975. Desire, much of it written with Jacques Levy, was coloured by Scarlet Rivera's violin and Emmylou Harris's harmonies. Street-Legal brought horns and a chorus of backing singers.

What it led to

By the end of the 1978 tour he had been through a divorce, a sprawling film of his own, Renaldo and Clara, that few liked, and years of nearly nonstop movement. Late that year, by his own account, he had a religious experience and became a born-again Christian, joining Bible classes in California. The songs he began writing came out of that faith, and his next album, recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, would surprise almost everyone who had followed him.

3 photographs by Hugh Shirley Candyside, NBC Television, Jim Summaria · open one for its credit and licence

The records

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid1973

Dylan1973

Planet Waves1974

Blood on the Tracks1975 · a landmark

The Basement Tapes1975

Desire1976 · a landmark

Street-Legal1978

The moments

Songs to start with

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid · 1973Knockin’ on Heaven’s DoorA dying lawman asks to lay down his badge and guns as the end closes in.Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid · 1973Billy 1A ballad that follows the outlaw Billy as the law hunts him across the border country.Blood on the Tracks · 1975Simple Twist of FateA brief encounter with a woman ends when she leaves, and he is left blaming chance.Blood on the Tracks · 1975Idiot WindA bitter, furious outpouring at a former lover and the gossip around them, which finally turns back on himself.The Basement Tapes · 1975This Wheel’s on FireAn ominous warning that a reckoning is coming and cannot be escaped.Desire · 1975HurricaneA narrative of how a boxer was framed for murder by police and a prejudiced justice system.

Threads through it

Read onWikipedia: Bob Dylan, 1970–1979 ↗Rolling Thunder Revue ↗

1979–1981

Gospel

After a born-again Christian conversion in the late 1970s, Dylan made three albums of faith-centred songs and for a time played only that new material in concert. The period won him a Grammy and also alienated many fans who wanted the old songs.

Slow Train Coming

Saved

Shot of Love

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The story

What happened

His conversion became public in 1979. That autumn he appeared on Saturday Night Live and played three songs from his new album, and in November he opened a run of shows at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco that included none of his older songs, with sermons between numbers. Many listeners walked out or stayed away. In 1980 he won a Grammy for "Gotta Serve Somebody," and by the end of that year the old songs had begun to return to his concerts.

The music

Slow Train Coming, produced by Jerry Wexler and Barry Beckett in Muscle Shoals with Mark Knopfler on guitar, was the best-sounding record he had made in years, tight and soulful. Saved went deeper into gospel, with a band and a chorus of backing singers in full voice. Shot of Love, in 1981, was rougher and more varied, mixing faith songs with earthier rock and roll, and it ended with "Every Grain of Sand," often counted among the finest songs he has written.

What it led to

By 1981 his shows mixed the gospel songs with old favourites, and the preaching had faded from the stage. He never publicly renounced his faith, but his songs stopped announcing it so directly. When he returned to the studio in 1983 it was with Mark Knopfler as producer, and the album that resulted, Infidels, was full of worldly, political and personal songs. The gospel period closed, leaving three records that are still argued over and, more lately, increasingly admired.

3 photographs by Jean-Luc Ourlin, Jean-Luc, Dailynetworks · open one for its credit and licence

The records

Slow Train Coming1979 · a landmark

Saved1980

Shot of Love1981

The moments

Songs to start with

Slow Train Coming · 1979Gotta Serve SomebodyWhoever you are and however high you rise, you will end up answering to one master or another.Slow Train Coming · 1979Slow TrainA survey of greed, false leaders and moral drift, with a reckoning steadily drawing closer.Slow Train Coming · 1979When He ReturnsA quiet hymn of surrender, waiting for a promised return that will set things right.Shot of Love · 1981Every Grain of SandA humble meditation on finding a guiding design in every small detail of an imperfect life.Saved · 1980Covenant WomanThe singer thanks a woman who has shared his faith and stands beside him in a covenant with God.Saved · 1980In the GardenRetelling moments from the life of Jesus, the song asks whether the people around him truly saw who he was.

Threads through it

Read onWikipedia: Bob Dylan, 1970–1979 ↗

On stage at the Mini Estadi, Barcelona, 1984 · Xavier Badosa · CC BY 2.0

1983–1990

The '80s

After the gospel albums Dylan returned to secular songs with Infidels, then spent the middle of the decade chasing contemporary production with mixed results. A late-decade turn, from the Traveling Wilburys and the start of constant touring to Daniel Lanois's Oh Mercy, restored his footing.

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The story

What happened

These were restless years. In 1985 he closed the Live Aid concert in Philadelphia with Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, and a passing remark about American farmers helped spark Farm Aid. He toured with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and then with the Grateful Dead. In 1988 Bruce Springsteen inducted him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he formed the Traveling Wilburys with George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty, and he began the long road he never really left.

The music

Infidels, with Knopfler and the rhythm section of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, was polished and strong. After it he chased the sound of the radio: Empire Burlesque was dressed in glossy mid-eighties production, Knocked Out Loaded was patchy but included the long "Brownsville Girl," written with Sam Shepard, and Down in the Groove was mostly covers. Oh Mercy, made in New Orleans with Daniel Lanois, was dark and atmospheric and widely hailed. Under the Red Sky, produced by Don and David Was, was lighter.

What it led to

Under the Red Sky was coolly received, and after it the new songs dried up. Dylan kept touring year round with a small band, often playing over a hundred shows a year, but for most of the 1990s he released no new songs of his own. Instead he went back to the beginning, to the old folk ballads and country blues he had learned in Minneapolis and the Village, and began recording them on his own at home, just a guitar, a harmonica and his voice.

3 photographs by Xavier Badosa, Chris Hakkens, Heinrich Klaffs · open one for its credit and licence

The records

Infidels1983 · a landmark

Empire Burlesque1985

Knocked Out Loaded1986

Down in the Groove1988

Oh Mercy1989 · a landmark

Under the Red Sky1990

The moments

Songs to start with

Infidels · 1983Union SundownEveryday goods are made abroad while workers at home lose their jobs to corporate greed.Knocked Out Loaded · 1986Brownsville GirlA rambling tale of a road trip, an old movie and a lost woman blurs memory and myth.Down in the Groove · 1988Death Is Not the EndIn the face of grief and fear, the song offers the plain comfort that death is not final.Oh Mercy · 1989Political WorldA world run by politics leaves no room for wisdom, love or peace.Oh Mercy · 1989Everything Is BrokenA rolling list of broken things paints a world falling apart piece by piece.Oh Mercy · 1989Ring Them BellsBells are called to ring out for the lost and the faithful as the world nears its end.

Threads through it

Read onWikipedia: Bob Dylan, 1980–1989 ↗Traveling Wilburys ↗

The Lincoln Memorial stage for the pre-inaugural concert of 17 January 1993, where Dylan sang "Chimes of Freedom" · U.S. Department of Defense (American Forces Information Service) · Public domain

1992–1993

Back to the Roots

With no new songs of his own, Dylan made two solo acoustic albums of old folk and blues material, the first since 1964 with just his guitar and harmonica. The records reconnected him with the songs he had learned as a young man and pointed toward his later work.

Good as I Been to You

World Gone Wrong

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The story

What happened

He kept touring, and the industry began to look back at his career. In 1992 Columbia staged a thirtieth-anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden, where Neil Young, Stevie Wonder, Eddie Vedder, George Harrison and many others played his songs before he took the stage himself. In January 1993 he sang "Chimes of Freedom" at the celebration in Washington for Bill Clinton's inauguration. Through it all he was writing very little and spending much of his time on the road.

The music

Good as I Been to You, recorded in his garage studio in Malibu, was a set of traditional songs and old ballads played solo on acoustic guitar and harmonica, his first album like that since 1964. World Gone Wrong, the next year, was darker and starker still, made up of murder ballads, blues and laments, and came with his own idiosyncratic notes on each song. It won a Grammy for traditional folk. The voice was worn, but the performances were intimate and unhurried.

What it led to

These records sent him back to the deep well of old American song, and that well would feed everything he wrote afterward. In 1994 he played an MTV Unplugged show. Then he began writing again, and early in 1997 he went back into the studio with Daniel Lanois, carrying a new set of songs about age, love and mortality. Those songs became Time Out of Mind, released that autumn after a serious illness had put him in hospital, and the start of a remarkable late flowering.

2 photographs by U.S. Department of Defense (American Forces Information Service), Ilovechoclate · open one for its credit and licence

The records

Good as I Been to You1992

World Gone Wrong1993

The moments

Songs to start with

Good as I Been to You · 1992Frankie & AlbertA woman shoots the man who cheated on her and faces the consequences.Good as I Been to You · 1992Arthur McBrideTwo cousins meet army recruiters on the road and send them packing.World Gone Wrong · 1993DeliaA young woman is shot by her lover, who is left to mourn in prison.World Gone Wrong · 1993Stack a LeeA gambler kills a man over a hat and passes into legend.Good as I Been to You · 1992Blackjack DaveyA married woman leaves her home and husband to ride away with a wandering gypsy.Good as I Been to You · 1992Canadee-i-oA young woman disguises herself as a sailor to cross the sea, and wins a surprising fortune.

Threads through it

Read onWikipedia: Bob Dylan, 1990–1999 ↗

On stage at Opinião, Porto Alegre, April 1998 · Gabriel Pozzobom · Public domain

1997–2012

Late Renaissance

With Time Out of Mind in 1997, Dylan returned to new songwriting and won the Grammy for Album of the Year, starting a long late-career revival. Touring constantly, he made a string of acclaimed records steeped in old American blues and ballads, and added an Oscar and a bestselling memoir.

Time Out of Mind

"Love and Theft"

Modern Times

Together Through Life

Christmas in the Heart

Tempest

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The story

What happened

The years after Time Out of Mind brought honours he had never sought: the Album of the Year Grammy, an Oscar and a Golden Globe for "Things Have Changed" from the film Wonder Boys, a special Pulitzer citation and, in 2012, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Chronicles: Volume One, a vivid, unconventional memoir, appeared in 2004, and Martin Scorsese's No Direction Home followed. He hosted Theme Time Radio Hour on satellite radio, and he never stopped touring the world.

The music

Time Out of Mind, produced by Daniel Lanois, was murky and brooding, full of songs about time running out. "Love and Theft" and Modern Times were made with his road band and produced by Dylan himself, under the name Jack Frost, playing jump blues, swing, rockabilly and old ballads with relish. Together Through Life leaned on David Hidalgo's accordion and Tex-Mex textures, Christmas in the Heart gave its earnings to charity, and Tempest closed the run with long, dark story songs.

What it led to

After Tempest the new songs paused once more. On stage his voice had grown deep and rough, yet he had become fascinated by the craft of singing itself and by the popular songs of his parents' generation. Rather than write, he began recording with his touring band the ballads that Frank Sinatra had once made famous. The result, Shadows in the Night, would open a new and quite unexpected chapter: Bob Dylan as a singer of the Great American Songbook.

5 photographs by Gabriel Pozzobom, Alberto Cabello, Gabriele, The White House from Washington, DC, Francisco Antunes · open one for its credit and licence

The records

Time Out of Mind1997 · a landmark

"Love and Theft"2001 · a landmark

Modern Times2006 · a landmark

Together Through Life2009

Christmas in the Heart2009

Tempest2012

The moments

Songs to start with

Time Out of Mind · 1997Make You Feel My LoveA plain promise that the singer will go to any length to comfort and stand by the person he loves."Love and Theft" · 2001High Water (For Charley Patton)A rising flood sweeps over a Southern landscape, and the people in its path scramble for safety.Modern Times · 2006Workingman’s Blues #2A laborer watches wages fall and the old order crumble, yet keeps faith with his love and his dignity.Modern Times · 2006The Levee’s Gonna BreakA man warns that the floodwaters are rising and the levee is about to give way.Time Out of Mind · 1997Not Dark YetAn aging man takes stock of a life that is fading toward its end, though night has not quite fallen.Time Out of Mind · 1997HighlandsA man rambles through a city day, including a long exchange with a waitress, while his mind is set on a distant, longed-for place.

Threads through it

Read onWikipedia: Bob Dylan, 2000–2009 ↗2016 Nobel Prize in Literature ↗

On stage, 6 July 2015 · Carlos Ramón Bonilla · CC BY-SA 3.0

2015–2017

The Standards

Dylan turned to the Great American Songbook, recording three albums of songs Frank Sinatra had sung, arranged for his touring band. In the middle of it he became the first songwriter awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Shadows in the Night

Fallen Angels

Triplicate

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The story

What happened

In 2015 he was named MusiCares Person of the Year and gave a long, frank speech about his influences and his critics. In October 2016 the Swedish Academy awarded him the Nobel Prize in Literature. He stayed silent for weeks, did not attend the ceremony in Stockholm, where Patti Smith sang one of his songs in his place, and the following year delivered a recorded lecture about the songs and books that had formed him, including Moby-Dick, All Quiet on the Western Front and the Odyssey.

The music

Shadows in the Night, recorded at Capitol Studios in Hollywood, set Sinatra's ballads for his small touring band, with a pedal steel guitar standing in for the orchestra. It was played largely live, with few overdubs, and his voice, gentler than on stage, carried the melodies with real care. Fallen Angels followed in 2016 in the same spirit, a little lighter, and Triplicate in 2017 stretched the project across three discs, thirty songs in all, with more brass and swing.

What it led to

The standards years changed how people heard him as a singer, and his concerts began to mix these old ballads with his own songs. Then came a long quiet in the studio. Few knew he was writing again until March 2020, when, with much of the world shut in by the pandemic, he released without warning a seventeen-minute song about the Kennedy assassination. It was his first new original song in eight years, and an album soon followed.

3 photographs by Carlos Ramón Bonilla, Raph_PH · open one for its credit and licence

The records

Shadows in the Night2015

Fallen Angels2016

Triplicate2017

The moments

Songs to start with

Shadows in the Night · 2015I’m a Fool to Want YouA singer admits he cannot stop longing for someone he knows is bad for him.Shadows in the Night · 2015That Lucky Old SunA worn-out laborer envies the sun, which rolls across the sky all day with no burden to carry.Fallen Angels · 2016Young at HeartStaying hopeful and playful, the song argues, keeps a person young whatever their age.Triplicate · 2017September of My YearsA man in later life looks back over the seasons of his years.Shadows in the Night · 2015The Night We Called It a DayA lover remembers the night a romance ended and how the whole world seemed to darken with it.Shadows in the Night · 2015Stay With MeA humble prayer asking God for guidance, comfort and companionship through doubt and darkness.

Read onWikipedia: Bob Dylan, 2010–2019 ↗

2020–

Rough and Rowdy

In 2020 he returned with his first original songs in eight years, starting with the Kennedy epic "Murder Most Foul" and the album Rough and Rowdy Ways. He has since sold his song catalog, streamed a reimagined concert film and published a book about other people's songs.

Rough and Rowdy Ways

The end of the line, for now.The end of the line, for now.

The story

What happened

The surprise release of "Murder Most Foul" in March 2020 was followed in June by Rough and Rowdy Ways, which drew some of the best reviews of his career. Late that year he sold his songwriting catalog to Universal Music Publishing Group. In 2021 he streamed Shadow Kingdom, a concert film staged in a smoky, invented club, and in 2022 published The Philosophy of Modern Song. The Bob Dylan Center opened in Tulsa, and he returned to touring, playing mostly the new songs.

The music

Rough and Rowdy Ways is slow, patient and grave. Much of it is low-lit blues and hushed ballads, with his voice close and conversational, and the songs are crowded with references to history, literature and old music. The long Kennedy song fills a disc of its own. Shadow Kingdom took the opposite approach to the past, reimagining older songs, many from the sixties, as quiet, acoustic, almost chamber-like arrangements, and it later came out as an album of its own.

What it led to

The story of this era is still being written. In his eighties he keeps touring, building sets around his newest songs rather than his most famous ones. The center in Tulsa has made his archive available to researchers, and a 2024 biopic about his arrival in New York, A Complete Unknown, brought his early years to a new generation. Whatever comes next, he has spent more than sixty years refusing to stand still, and shows no sign of stopping.

3 photographs by Hwn2013, Raph_PH, CorpPorPearl · open one for its credit and licence

The records

Rough and Rowdy Ways2020 · a landmark

The moments

Songs to start with

Rough and Rowdy Ways · 2020Murder Most FoulThe 1963 killing of John F. Kennedy is retold alongside a vast roll call of the music and films of the era.Rough and Rowdy Ways · 2020Goodbye Jimmy ReedA farewell to a blues hero that mixes religion, rough living and devotion to the music.Rough and Rowdy Ways · 2020False ProphetA defiant speaker insists he is no fake and stares down enemies and mortality alike.Rough and Rowdy Ways · 2020Key West (Philosopher Pirate)The Florida island becomes a dreamlike refuge, a place of healing at the end of the road.Rough and Rowdy Ways · 2020I’ve Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to YouAn older man, having travelled and seen enough, decides calmly to commit himself completely to the one he loves.Rough and Rowdy Ways · 2020Black RiderA man speaks to a dark, shadowy rider who stalks him and tells him to keep his distance.

Threads through it

Songs about death4 of its 13 songs here, from “False Prophet”

Read onWikipedia: Bob Dylan, 2020–present ↗