Bob Dylan

1. Bob Dylan By: Aubrie Flynn

2. Bob Dylan was born on May 24, 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota. Originally born Robert Allen Zimmerman, later to change his name to Bob Dylan. During high school Dylan was in several different bands associating themselves with mainly rock music. Influenced by Hank Williams Bob Dylan bought his first guitar by age 10 and was teaching himself to play guitar and piano.

3. In 1959 Dylan moved to Minneapolis where he started school at the University of Minnesota. He flunked out a short semester later. Shortly after college Dylan got a hold of a book written by Woody Guthrie who quickly became his idol. Dylan set off to the streets of New York City in hopes of finding Woody. When he arrived there he met Guthrie who was ill with a terminal disease. He spent a lot of his time next to the hospital bed of the deathly ill Woody Guthrie. This is when his early career took a turn, he realized that rock music just wasn’t enough for him.

4. In 1962, Dylan was living with his girlfriend, SuzeRotolo, she was extremely involved and interested in politics which sparked a new writing aspect for him. She opened his eyes to many of the social injustices and the fight for civil rights and equality. He started to incorporate philosophy, social issues, and political commentary. Bob became a prominent person in the Civil Rights Movement and in 1963, Dylan and his friend, Joan Baez, were singing together at rallies including the March on Washington. Bob Dylan was even on the stage when Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his I Have a Dream speech.

5. Bob Dylan was married twice and had a handful of children. Dylan married Sara Lowndson November 22, 1965. Their first child, Jesse Byron Dylan, was born in 1966, and they had three more children: Anna Lea, Samuel Isaac Abraham and Jakob Lukehe also adopted Sara's daughter from a prior marriage, Maria Lownds. They divorced in 1977. Later in 1986, Dylan remarried his longtime backup singer Carolyn Dennis which was hidden for years,they had a daughter, Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan in1986. The couple divorced by1992.

6. Bob Dylan had a lot of influence on music, writing and culture throughout his time. His discography includes 35 studio albums, 58 singles, 13 live albums,9 albums comprising The Bootleg Series, and 15 compilation albums. Dylan has won many awards throughout his career including eleven Grammy Awards, an Academy Award and one Golden Globe Award. He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Songwriters Hall of Fame. He was also included in the Time 100- The Most Important People of the Century where he was named as a master poet along with other things.

7. Hurricane The song Hurricane was released in November of 1975 on his album Desire. It was first recorded in July of 1975 but was pulled from the public view and forced to be re-recorded due to controversy. Dylan re-recorded the song and released it again that November. This eight minute, thirty three second song was written in defense of a charged murder convict and pro fighter Rubin “hurricane” Carter.

8. Here’s How The Story Goes • On June, 17 1966 two males entered the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey and opened fire two males were killed instantly including the bartender another women Hazel Tanis died a month later due to gun shot wounds and another was injured but survived to tell authorities that two black males were the shooters. They told him they left in a white car. Carters car matched the description while he drove with a friend John Artis, the two were brought to the scene by authorities. Carter and Artis were given three life sentences for each murder victim. When Dylan heard this story and received a biography written by Carter he went to visit him in jail where they visited for hours. Dylan then wrote and composed a song “Hurricane” based on his innocents. After two trials and several appeals he was released in 1985 after serving ten years in prison for a wrongful conviction.

9. Like a Rolling Stone The Song Like a Rolling Stone was released on July 20, 1965 as a hit single and was apart of the Highway 61 album. This song was recorded on June 15 and 16in his recording studio Columbia Studio in New York. It was produced by Tom Wilson. Bob Dylan wrote this song himself and was inspired to write it by one of his idols Hank Williams. The song that inspired him by Hank Williams was Lost Highway.

10. Behind The Music • In this song Bob Dylan sort of took his life and how he was feeling at the time and explained it through the life of a woman. The songs is about a woman who was once apart of a high society and decided to give up everything in hopes to start a new life. She pawns her expensive items and gives up her high society life to live life on the streets. He explains her wanting to be free with no explanations and nothing holding her back. He mentions that a rolling stone gathers no moss saying that this woman calls no place home, he explains that through the looks of his own life because he really doesn’t have one place he calls home. Also, that a “rolling stone” can avoid a lot of the responsibilities that life may have in store. It is about letting go of the past, leaving the past behind and moving on to your next adventure and page of life. He has lived many places and doesn’t settle to live in only one place. He moves throughout the world as if everywhere is his home. In a way he is explaining his belief that a person can not reach their full potential if they settle down in one place.

11. “Hurricane” Element Breakdown Introduction: 0-30 seconds: In the introduction there is a slow steady beat with just the guitar. At about ten seconds you can hear tambourine kick in as well as a violin. The music is still at a slow steady beat and all three pieces create a harmony. Around 20 seconds the harmony is broken up by the vocals when he starts the lyrics. His voice tone and beat comes in at a more upbeat and faster pace than the opening music tones. 1:00 Seconds: In this section the chorus already picks up. You notice in the back ground that a bongo drums kicks into the melody, the violin drops off and the guitar picks up speed along with the vocals making it sound a little like a reggae tune. The bongo drum drops out as the chorus end the beat of the vocals slows back down to meet the harmony of the violin. Vocals also drop out for about ten seconds while the violinist has a solo part emphasizing the timbre of the instrument. 1:30: In this section again it is the guitar, violin and tambourine that create the harmony. Around a minute and fifteen seconds there are two separate 5 second incraments when all other instruments besides the bongo drum drop out and it is only vocals and the bongo then the guitar picks back up on its own beat and tune at a faster timing hitting two notes then dropping back off. 2:00: from 1:35-1:40 the guitar and the violin have a harmonious duo creating a slower beat. It goes back into the same beat it was in the beginning and throughout the rest of the song when the guitar, tambourine and violin are creating the melody together at a slower pace than the vocals. At the end of the verse it goes back to the vocal and bongo combination with the guitar coming in at a fast two beat line. 2:30: The violin is the most prominent timbre in this section. It is really playing a strong beat that drowns out the other instruments while it matches the tone of the vocals. At about 2:15 the vocals drop out again giving the guitar and violin a harmonious due.

12. *Continued* 3:00: In this verse the bongo drums comes back in creating its prominent timbre while the violin is no longer in combination with the harmony. You can hear the texture of the bongo drum and in harmony with that is the guitar. Again at about 2:50 the vocals drop out again and the violin picks up and speeds up the beat of the tone. 3:30: Half way through this verse the chorus picks in again. The vocals, bongo and guitar create the harmony and the consistent medium speed of this verse. 4:00: The tempo to me sounds like that of a classical song. I connect the timbre of a violin with classical music but the pitch of his voice matches the folk rock genre of this song. The guitar also makes the tempo to be a folk rock. 4:30: At the end of this verse again the violin and the guitar are the only two things that make up the harmony and pitch in this section. There are no vocals for about 7 seconds while the melody remains at a faster paced classical sounding tone. 5:00: If you listen carefully in this section you hear a very low pitched voice repeating the lines after the sings them. He hits a higher note in his vocals and because of the lyrics at this section I feel he used to tone and length of this note to make the message stand out more. 5:30: There are no vocals in the first ten seconds of this section you can only hear the slower paced guitar and the higher pitched violin. The violin in this song gives it the feeling of a serious setting, something back in the old westerner days. 6:00: In this section the lyrics are referring to the fact that the man is getting convicted for the shooting and the pitch of his voice turns sarcastic, it goes into a bit of a higher tone that you can tell someone would use this tone if they did not believe something you were saying, or they were trying to be sarcastic. The pitch in his voice remains higher and the pace of his words are spread out more so than the verse before.

13. *Continued* 6:30: This verse all the notes seem to be held out longer. The strum of the guitar will hold a pitch for a few seconds before it is strummed again, the vocals are longer and held out notes at a higher pitch. The only one that you can tell stands out among the harmony is the violin as it continues at a steady pace. 7:00: The beginning of this verse is only the instruments creating the harmony. You can hear the timbre of the violin, and the tone and beat of the guitar. The chorus picks up again in the middle of this section and all of the instruments pick up tone and speed to match the vocals for the chorus all coming together. 7:30: He holds out the last note of the chorus for a few seconds longer than he had been to bring the vocals to a close. The remainder of the 8:30 second song is only instruments. The violin picks up the pace and intensity so it is a little more prominent than the other noises. The guitar, bongo drums and tambourine are all playing at the same pace and creating the harmony for the ending of the song.

14. Like a Rolling Stone Element Breakdown . Introduction 0-30: The first ten seconds are instrumental. It starts with one drum beat then the others kick in you can hear the timbre and higher pitch of the keyboard and the lower bass sound of the guitar. The speed is more upbeat and consistent in timing you can also hear the tambourine every few beats. The rhythm is upbeat and all of the instruments create a combined texture. 1:00: The beats remain consistent through the chorus; the lyrics seem to be a little slower pace than the instruments. Near the end of this verse a high pitched timbre comes in and it is the harmonica. You can tell the sound of the harmonica by its higher pitched notes that it puts out. 1:30: The instruments have a consistent beat and rhythm to them while the vocals are more scattered and off beat. They each have a distinct and separate tone that don’t really create a harmony together but alone the instruments do. His lyrics are creating a separate melody in the song. 2:00: In this section his voice becomes louder and joins in with the beats of the instruments it actually sounds like they were made to go together to create a harmony. Throughout the rest of the song his vocals and the instruments do not match but in this section he hits a higher pitch at the same pace as the instruments. 2:30: In this section the chorus picks back in his voice pitch remains higher and matches the timbre and texture of the other notes. The timbre of a harmonica comes in at the end of the chorus and adds a higher pitch tone to the chorus. 3:00: His voice goes into a more gruff and low texture in this verse. The guitar and keyboard remain on the same beats and tone as they were before. 3:00: The harmonica kicks back in at the end of this section. The timbre of the harmonica raises the whole dynamics of the song. It puts a louder melody into the music to match the intensity of the lyrics.

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