Iconic American Singer Marks 50th Anniversary

Bob Dylan credited with creating some of the greatest music of all time

May 23, 2011

Music pioneer Bob Dylan celebrates his 70th birthday this year.

Perhaps no living American has had a deeper impact on American popular culture than Bob Dylan: singer, songwriter, icon and iconoclast. At various times during his half-century career, Dylan has been a folk singer, rock superstar, poet, author, “born again” bard and, always, an enigma

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Dylan may be most famous for his 1961 anti-war anthem “Blowin’ in the Wind,” but he has produced more than 50 live and studio albums since that time, many of them iconic in their own right.

Folk Icon

The man the world knows simply as Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman to middle class Jewish parents in Hibbing, Minnesota, on May 24, 1941.

As a teen, Dylan was an ardent fan of the blues, country music and early rock and roll, which he played in his high school band “The Shadow Blasters.” He especially idolized folk legend Woody Guthrie of “This Land is Your Land” fame, whom he later characterized as “embodying the American spirit.”

Bob Dylan was one the first songwriters to mix poetry with the power of rock and roll.

Dylan dropped out of college and moved to New York City in 1959, hoping to make his mark on Greenwich Village’s burgeoning folk music scene.