Bob Dylan Popular Books
Bob Dylan Biography & Facts
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often considered to be one of the greatest songwriters in history, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his 60-year career. He rose to prominence in the 1960s, when his songs "Blowin' in the Wind" (1963) and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" (1964) became anthems for the civil rights and antiwar movements. Initially modeling his style on Woody Guthrie's folk songs, Robert Johnson's blues, and what he called the "architectural forms" of Hank Williams's country songs, Dylan added increasingly sophisticated lyrical techniques to the folk music of the early 1960s, infusing it "with the intellectualism of classic literature and poetry". His lyrics incorporated political, social, and philosophical influences, defying pop music conventions and appealing to the decade's burgeoning counterculture. Dylan was born and raised in St. Louis County, Minnesota. Following his self-titled debut album of traditional folk songs in 1962, he made his breakthrough with The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan the next year. The album featured "Blowin' in the Wind" and "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" which, like many of his early songs, adapted the tunes and phrasing of older folk songs. He released the politically charged The Times They Are a-Changin' and the more lyrically abstract and introspective Another Side of Bob Dylan in 1964. In 1965 and 1966, Dylan drew controversy among folk purists when he adopted electrically amplified rock instrumentation, and in the space of 15 months recorded three of the most influential rock albums of the 1960s: Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited (both 1965) and Blonde on Blonde (1966). When Dylan made his move from acoustic folk and blues music to rock, the mix became more complex. His six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" (1965) expanded commercial and creative boundaries in popular music. In July 1966, a motorcycle accident led to Dylan's withdrawal from touring. During this period, he recorded a large body of songs with members of the Band, who had previously backed him on tour. These recordings were later released as The Basement Tapes in 1975. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Dylan explored country music and rural themes on John Wesley Harding (1967), Nashville Skyline (1969) and New Morning (1970). In 1975, he released Blood on the Tracks, which many saw as a return to form. In the late 1970s, he became a born-again Christian and released three albums of contemporary gospel music before returning to his more familiar rock-based idiom in the early 1980s. Dylan's Time Out of Mind (1997) marked the beginning of a career renaissance. He has released five critically acclaimed albums of original material since, most recently Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020). He also recorded a trilogy of albums covering the Great American Songbook, especially songs sung by Frank Sinatra, and an album smoothing his early rock material into a mellower Americana sensibility, Shadow Kingdom (2023). Dylan has toured continuously since the late 1980s on what has become known as the Never Ending Tour. Since 1994, Dylan has published nine books of paintings and drawings, and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries. He has sold more than 145 million records, making him one of the best-selling musicians ever. He has received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, ten Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award. Dylan has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2008, the Pulitzer Prize Board awarded him a special citation for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power." In 2016, Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition." Life and career 1941–1959: Origins and musical beginnings Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman (Hebrew: שבתאי זיסל בן אברהם Shabtai Zisl ben Avraham) in St. Mary's Hospital on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota, and raised in Hibbing, Minnesota, on the Mesabi Range west of Lake Superior. Dylan's paternal grandparents, Anna Kirghiz and Zigman Zimmerman, emigrated from Odessa in the Russian Empire (now Odesa, Ukraine) to the United States, following the pogroms against Jews of 1905. His maternal grandparents, Florence and Ben Stone, were Lithuanian Jews who had arrived in the United States in 1902. Dylan wrote that his paternal grandmother's family was originally from the Kağızman district of Kars Province in northeastern Turkey. Dylan's father Abram Zimmerman and his mother Beatrice "Beatty" Stone were part of a small, close-knit Jewish community. They lived in Duluth until Dylan was six, when his father contracted polio and the family returned to his mother's hometown of Hibbing, where they lived for the rest of Dylan's childhood, and his father and paternal uncles ran a furniture and appliance store. In his early years he listened to the radio—first to blues and country stations from Shreveport, Louisiana, and later, when he was a teenager, to rock and roll. Dylan formed several bands while attending Hibbing High School. In the Golden Chords, he performed covers of songs by Little Richard and Elvis Presley. Their performance of Danny & the Juniors' "Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay" at their high school talent show was so loud that the principal cut the microphone. In 1959, Dylan's high school yearbook carried the caption "Robert Zimmerman: to join 'Little Richard'". That year, as Elston Gunnn, he performed two dates with Bobby Vee, playing piano and clapping. In September 1959, Dylan moved to Minneapolis to enroll at the University of Minnesota. Living at the Jewish-centric fraternity Sigma Alpha Mu house, Dylan began to perform at the Ten O'Clock Scholar, a coffeehouse a few blocks from campus, and became involved in the Dinkytown folk music circuit. His focus on rock and roll gave way to American folk music, as he explained in a 1985 interview: The thing about rock'n'roll is that for me anyway it wasn't enough ... There were great catch-phrases and driving pulse rhythms ... but the songs weren't serious or didn't reflect life in a realistic way. I knew that when I got into folk music, it was more of a serious type of thing. The songs are filled with more despair, more sadness, more triumph, more faith in the supernatural, much deeper feelings. During this period, he began to introduce himself as "Bob Dylan". In his memoir, he wrote that he considered adopting the surname Dillon before unexpectedly seeing poems by Dylan Thomas, and deciding upon the given name spelling. Explaining his change of name in a 2004 interview, he said, "You're born, you know, the wrong names, wrong parents. I mean, that happens. You call yourself what you wa.... Discover the Bob Dylan popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Bob Dylan books.
Best Seller Bob Dylan Books of 2024
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Bound for Glory
Woody GuthrieFirst published in 1943, this autobiography is also a superb portrait of America's Depression years, by the folk singer, activist, and man who saw it all.Woody Guthrie was born in ...
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Bob Dylan
Jonathan Cott“A historical compilation to savor” (Los Angeles Times) that is “invaluable…irresistible” (The New York Times)the ultimate collection of interviews and encounters with Nobel Laurea...
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The Rolling Stone Interviews
Jann S. WennerThe greatest interviews with the greatest rock stars, movie stars, and cultural icons uncensored and unfiltered are published together in one remarkable volume in celebration of ...
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As Bob Dylan Said
Thomas M. McDadeThis short story deals with metal, legal and illegal, light and heavy, as well as two men who collect it. Shuffles gathers the former, Jake deals the latter. A Bob Dylan lyric show...
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The Birth of Loud
Ian S. Port“A hotrod joy ride through mid20thcentury American history” (The New York Times Book Review), this oneofakind narrative masterfully recreates the rivalry between the two men who in...
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The Soundtrack of My Life
Clive DavisMusic legend Clive Davis recounts an extraordinary fivedecade career in the music business, while also telling a remarkable personal story of encounters with some of the greatest m...
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Why Bob Dylan Matters
Richard F. Thomas“The coolest class on campus” – The New York TimesWhen the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Bob Dylan in 2016, a debate raged. Some celebrated, while many others questione...
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Dream Boogie
Peter GuralnickFrom the acclaimed author of Last Train to Memphis, this is the definitive biography of Sam Cooke, one of most influential singers and songwriters of all time. Sam Cooke was a...
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Bob Dylan
Seth RogovoyBob Dylan and his artistic accomplishments have been explored, examined, and dissected year in and year out for decades, and through almost every lens. Yet rarely has anyone delved...
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Bob Dylan
Dennis McDougalThe ultimate biography of the musical icon. Bob Dylan is a music hero to generations. He’s also an international bestselling artist, a Pulitzer Prize–winning author, a...
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The People We Keep
Allison LarkinBOOK RIOT’S BEST BOOKS OF 2021 “This is a novel of great empathy, about connections and comingofage, built families and selfacceptance. It contains heartbreak and redemption, and a...
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Bob Dylan All the Songs
Philippe Margotin & Jean-Michel GuesdonThe most comprehensive account of Bob Dylan's Nobel Prizewinning work yet published, with the full story of every recording session, every album, and every single released during h...
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Talking to Girls About Duran Duran
Rob SheffieldFrom the bestselling author of Love Is a Mix Tape and Turn Around Bright Eyes, "a funny, insightful look at the sublime torture of adolescence".Entertainment WeeklyThe 1980s meant ...
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Captain Fantastic
Tom DoyleThe true story of Elton John’s meteoric rise from obscurity to worldwide celebrity in the weird, wild 1970s, based on rare oneonone interviews with the Rocket Man himself...
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On the Road with Bob Dylan
Larry Sloman & Kinky FriedmanHailed as “the War and Peace of rock and roll” by Bob Dylan himself, this is the ultimate backstage pass to Dylan’s legendary 1975 tour across Americaby a former Rolling Stone repo...
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Why Bob Dylan Matters
Richard F. ThomasFULLY REVISED AND UPDATED. “The coolest class on campus” – The New York TimesWhen the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Bob Dylan in 2016, a debate raged. Some celebrated, ...
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Wild Tales
Graham NashThis ebook includes 4 videos, 34 audio clips, and 11 additional photos from Graham Nash’s personal collection. Audio and video content does not play on all reading devices. Check y...
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The Philosophy of Modern Song
Bob DylanThe Philosophy of Modern Song is Bob Dylan’s first book of new writing since 2004’s Chronicles: Volume Oneand since winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. Dylan, who began...
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Confessions
Saint Augustine & R. S. Pine-Coffin'Give me chastity and continence, but not yet'The son of a pagan father and a Christian mother, Saint Augustine spent his early years torn between conflicting worldviews. The Confe...
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Songs of America
Jon Meacham & Tim McGrawNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A celebration of American history through the music that helped to shape a nation, by Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Meacham and music superstar Tim McGraw“Jo...
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From a Buick 8
Stephen KingThe #1 New York Times bestseller from Stephen Kinga novel about the fascination deadly things have for us and about our insistence on answers when there are none…Since 1979, the st...
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Positively 4th Street
David HajduThe story of how four young bohemians on the make Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mimi Baez, and Richard Farina converged in Greenwich Village, fell into love, and invented a sound and a s...
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Bob Dylan
Anthony Scaduto"I liked your book. That's the weird thing about it." Bob Dylan "Pioneers are often written out of history but never let it be forgotten that Scaduto was the man. It's scanda...
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Back from the Dead
Bill Walton“An elegiac yet exuberant new memoir” (The New York Times Book Review)Bill Walton’s New York Times bestselling memoir about his recovery from debilitating physical injury and how l...
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The Best of Bob Dylan Chord Songbook
Wise PublicationsFrom the folk troubadour to electric iconoclast, bornagain preacher to elder statesman, Bob Dylan has soundtracked the last 50 years in an unparalleled catalogue of song.This colle...
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The Ballad of Bob Dylan
Daniel Mark EpsteinDrawing on revelatory interviews, a rich analysis oflyrics, and a lifelong study of one of the greatest songwriters of our time,Daniel Mark Epstein delivers a singular, nuanced, an...
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Bob Dylan
Timothy HamptonA careerspanning account of the artistry and politics of Bob Dylan’s songwritingBob Dylan’s reception of the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature has elevated him beyond the world of po...
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Bob Dylan
Donald Brown“The book’s strength is a thorough assessment of Dylan’s career, album by album, song by song. Both longtime fans and newcomers . . . will appreciate.” Library ...
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Bob Dylan All the Songs
Philippe Margotin & Jean-Michel GuesdonAn updated edition of the most comprehensive account of Bob Dylan's Nobel Prizewinning work yet published, with the full story of every recording session, every album, and every si...
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Like a Rolling Stone
Jann S. WennerIn this New York Times bestseller, Rolling Stone founder, coeditor, and publisher Jann Wenner offers a "touchingly honest" and "wonderfully deep" memoir from the beating heart...
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Petty
Warren ZanesThe New York Times BestsellerOne of Rolling Stone's 10 Best Music Books of 2015An exhilarating and intimate account of the life of music legend Tom Petty, by an accomplished write...
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Bob Dylan
David Yaffe & Mark Crispin MillerBob Dylan is an iconic figure in American musical and cultural history, lauded by Time magazine as one of the hundred most important people of the twentieth century. For nearly fif...
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Bob Dylan
Maria Isabel Sánchez VegaraIn this book from the critically acclaimed, multimillioncopy bestselling Little People, BIG DREAMS series, discover the inspiring story of this iconic singersongwriter, poet, and a...
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Bob Dylan In America
Sean WilentzOne of America’s finest historians shows us how Bob Dylan, one of the country’s greatest and most enduring artists, still surprises and moves us after all these years. Growing up ...
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Bob Dylan by Greil Marcus
Greil MarcusNobel Prize winner Bob Dylan's life in music is revisited by his foremost interpreter weaving individual moods and moments into a brilliant history of their changing times. The bo...
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Chronicles
Bob DylanWINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE The celebrated first memoir from arguably the most influential singersongwriter in the country, Bob Dylan.“I’d come from a long ways off and...