In this episode we discuss three songs from the Bob Dylan canon with guest presenter Pete 'blood on the tracks Robinson. The podcast looks at the transition periods from acoustic folk to electric and then the 70s revival.
Dylan was born in St. Louis County, Minnesota. He moved to New York City in 1961 to pursue a career in music. Following his 1962 debut album, Bob Dylan, featuring traditional folk and blues material, he released his breakthrough album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963), which included "Girl from the North Country" and "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall", adapting older folk songs. His songs "Blowin' in the Wind" (1963) and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" (1964) became anthems for the civil rights and antiwar movements. In 1965 and 1966, Dylan created controversy when he used electrically amplified rock instrumentation for his albums Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited (both 1965), and Blonde on Blonde (1966). His six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" (1965) expanded commercial and creative boundaries in popular music.[9][10]
Following a motorcycle crash in 1966, Dylan ceased touring for seven years. During this period, he recorded a large body of songs with members of the Band, which produced the album The Basement Tapes (1975). Dylan explored country music and rural themes on the albums John Wesley Harding (1967), Nashville Skyline (1969) and New Morning (1970). He gained acclaim for Blood on the Tracks (1975) and Time Out of Mind (1997), the latter of which earned him the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Dylan still releases music and has toured continually since the late 1980s on what has become known as the Never Ending Tour.[11]