Why is Bob Dylan such a significant figure in rock history and what is his connection to the folk revival movement the 1950s beat culture and the Newport Folk Festival of 1965?

Answer 1

Dylan's contribution to rock history is one of talent, lots of talent. His talent is literary. Dylan began writing after he found that he could not make it singing Woody Guthrie songs. He arrived at NYC at just the right time. He had definite mentors: Pete Seeger is given a lot of credit but I think Rambling Jack Elliot gave him more. He copied Elliot's tics and singing style, a style Elliot stole from Guthrie.

Dylan did not know what potential he had until he was forced to either write or become just another hippie with a guitar. Growing up in the 50s, he must have known about Kerouac; later he was to be influenced by Ginsberg. Dylan entered the folk scene as a way of making it. (He has acknowledged the influence of the Irish folk group The Clancy Brothers.) He was was not interested so much in folk as he was in finding a path to rock. Bringing it all back home, Dylan's album says it all. Rock started in America, went to England, with The Beatles, and Dylan brought it back home. "Another side of Dylan" says it all.

To understand Dylan you need to see all his sides, he's not just one person. To grow he needed to leave his folks/folkies behind and enter into Rock. He did it in a big way. he forced the NEWport folk festival audience to boo him (by turning the music so loud that there was an uproar). Dylan wanted to be booed. "You must leave now, take what you think will last / Leave the dead behind, they will not follow you."

To understand Dylan is not to understand a personality. Dylan the person is not Dylan the song writer. What he himself thinks and feels is separate from what his songs say. When asked, he says that the songs just came to him. It is a good question to ask if Dylan constructs his songs like a carpenter or if he lets the muses speak through him. The answer is difficult, as "poets tell many a lie." Who is Bob Dylan? Perhaps a very politically conservative intelligent business man who sells himself.

There were no hippies in the 50s; they came in the 70s. He sang "It's all over now" at Forest Hills and Newport as an encore. He would open acoustically and at the half turn the amps up, then come out with a guitar and sing "Baby Blue" telling the Folk people to take what they think will keep them happy for a while but he was moving on.

Dylan is a significant personality in the history of music because he was constantly reinventing himself as the fan base he originally sang for would change and he was always one step ahead of them. Look at a lot of Dylan outdoor concerts - the fan base has gray hair to no hair from retirees to high school and younger. Parents and grandparents take their heirs and say to them, "Listen to the words he says; you'll never see his kind again." Much as parents took children to see Joe di Maggio and Babe Ruth, for their kind come this way but once.