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1960 (Part III: Folk and Bob Dylan)

© Robert Whillans

This week, we take a look at one of the behind-the-scenes trends of the early 60's: folk. Specifically, we look at Bob Dylan, who's major folk work was done between 1960-1964.

The story of Bob Dylan's life is even more astounding than the usual rise-to-fame stories. It's the story of a small town, son of immigrants who overcame more than anyone's share of adversities, including everything from racial discrimination to the alcohol addiction that wasted his late teens and, later, almost took his life. He changed the way people looked at music, making it more than a source of entertainment, but also a way to deliver a message. Always one to lead by example, he was an instrumental part of the Civil Rights marches of the sixties, participating in several himself, and held many benefit concerts for such worthy causes as Women's Rights and peace in Vietnam.

Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman May the 24th, 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota, and was raised in a small town called Hibbings about 40 miles away. He was always shy during his early years, and found his only release in music; even his closest friends couldn't recognize him when he got up stage. He started writing poems at the age of 10, and taught himself how to play guitar and piano two years later. Ever since he first saw Elvis Presley, he knew he wanted to be a musician, and began drawing inspiration from as many different styles as existed at the time. Joan Baez, another noted protest singer of his era, saw him as a "musical sponge, picking up the basic ideas from whatever music he was listening to at the time immediately." It was this combination of musical approaches that would soon gain him recognition. Although he formed many bands in his high school years, most under a different name, none of them ever reached any success, and he was booed out of a local talent competition in his graduating year.

In 1959, he left for the University of Minnesota, where his musical career really started. He began performing at campus clubs such as the Ten O'Clock Scholar and the Purple Onion, where he officially changed his name to Bob Dylan. His devotion to his music, however, soon cost him academically, and he found himself kicked out of almost all of his classes, and with no place to live. He started drinking more and more often, and soon wasted the rest of his money. His girlfriend had to steal from her sorority house just to be able to feed him as he slept in her parent's basement. He dropped out of university the next year, and moved to New York to meet his childhood hero, country singer Woody Guthrie, who was in the hospital for a nervous system disease. To support himself, he sang at the famous Greenwich Village's coffee houses for no salary, only what the patrons donated when the hat was passed. Two months after his arrival, he got to meet Guthrie, and soon split his time between singing in cafés and performing at Guthrie's bedside.

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