Best 62 Bob Dylan Facts
“In college, Dylan was known for scamming his friends out of cigarettes and articles of clothing.”
” After he left his initial base in the American folk music revival, his six-minute single “Like a Rolling Stone” altered the range of popular music in 1965.”
“In 1960, Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers tried to get the manager of a Denver club to kick Dylan off the bill, complaining that his voice was awful.”
“n the Summer of 1959, and using the name “Elston Gunnn”, Dylan performed on two dates with Bobby Vee’s band – The Shadows. Dylan played piano and provided Gene Vincent styled handclaps.”
“His 1975 protest song “”Hurricane,”” telling the story of the wrongfully imprisoned African-American boxer Rubin “”Hurricane”” Carter, is one of the most well known examples of activism through music.”
“Dylan toured with the Grateful Dead for six shows in 1987”
“In May 2012, Dylan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama”
“When Dylan met girlfriend Suze Rotolo’s mother, Mary, he lied and told her that he had a degenerative eye disease that would eventually lead him to go blind, earning him Mary’s eternal distrust.”
“Before he flunked out of the University of Minnesota, Dylan pledged to the fraternity Sigma Alpha Mu.”
“Bruce Springsteen inducted Bob Dylan into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988”
“While in the 10th grade, Bob Dylan was rejected from a high school talent show because the student council thought his performance at the audition was too shocking.”
“Dylan was born in May of 1941 as Robert Allen Zimmerman, though he didn’t change his name to Bob Dylan legally until 1962”
“Dylan has starred in a few movies, none of which have done well with critics. They include Hearts Of Fire, Pat Garrett And Billy The kid and Renaldo And Clara.”
” Aside from song-writing, Dylan is also a prolific painter. The cover of his 1970 Self Portrait is his own painting.”
“Dylan appeared under the pseudonyms Tedham Porterhouse, Roosevelt G, Robert Milkwood Thomas, and Blind Boy Grunt on others’ albums
“Dylan published a novel, Tarantula, in 1971.”
“Dylan’s father, Abe, was a semi-professional baseball player before he contracted polio in his early twenties.”
“During his satellite radio hour, Bob Dylan covered a verse of LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out”
“Bob Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” was recorded in just one take.”
“In 10th grade, Dylan and his back-up band were rejected from a high school talent show because the student council judged his performance at the audition too shocking”
“Bob Dylan (Robert Allen Zimmerman) is a singer-songwriter, musician, painter, poet and one of the most influential pop and folk musicians of all time.”
“Dylan is also a prolific painter aside from song-writing. The 1970 album cover of “Self Portrait” was painted by him.”
“Before he renamed himself Bob Dylan, Robert Allen Zimmerman briefly went by Elston Gunn.”
“Kris Kristofferson was the custodian at the studio where Dylan recorded Nashville Skyline.”
“After Dylan’s 1966 motorcycle accident, Allen Ginsberg brought him a box full of books to aid his recovery.”
“When Martin Luther King Jr gave his iconic “I Have A Dream” speech, Bob Dylan had just performed and was still on stage, standing a few feet away from King ”
“Dylan’s experimental novel, Tarantula, was published in 1971.”
“Michael Jackson and Dylan performed together at Elizabeth Taylor’s 55th birthday party in 1987.”
“At John Prine’s second gig outside of Chicago ever, Dylan showed up to play backup harmonica.”
“Dylan’s first album, self-titled “Bob Dylan”, was recorded in just a few hours. It initially sold 5,000 copies. In the time since then, over 35 million Dylan records have been sold”
“After seeing Rebel Without a Cause, Dylan became obsessed with James Dean.”
“In college, Dylan was known for scamming his friends out of cigarettes and articles of clothing.”
“Paired with his senior portrait in his high school yearbook , Dylan was quoted saying he wanted “to join Little Richard”
“While enrolled in the University of Minnesota Dylan received a D+ in a music appreciation class”
“He also appeared in a 2004 Victoria’s Secret commercial”
“In 1978, Dylan took a three-month course at the Vineyard School of Discipleship as part of his conversion to born-again Christianity.”
“He broke several vertebrae in his neck when he crashed his motorcycle in 1966. It kept him from recording for a while and prompted rumors that he was brain damaged or dead.”
“During Dylan’s 1965 tour of England, reporters swarmed the singer at Heathrow. They were so entranced by Dylan that Lena Horne, then an enormous British celebrity, passed by the gaggle of photographers unnoticed.”
“The title track of Bob Dylan’s 35th album “Tempest” included references to James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster, Titanic.”
“Dylan is a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.”
“He has a cheese allergy but loves wotsits crisps”
“Dylan played six shows with The Grateful Dead in 1987. They released a live album called Dylan And The Dead.”
“Seinfeld veteran Larry Charles directed Dylan’s 2003 film Masked and Anonymous”
” He appeared in the 1973 Sam Peckinpah film Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid as a drifter named Alias.”
“Bob Dylan was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature. The committee noted he was honored, “”for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”” Dylan was the first American to win the award since Toni Morrison in 1993.”
“During his days in Greenwich Village in the 1960s, Dylan became a chess fiend.”
“Dylan is a well-known boxing fan, and used to spar for exercise”
“Dylan (then Zimmerman) was born in Duluth, Minnesota on May 24, 1941. His family moved to Hibbing, Minnesota about six years later. Hibbing is 75 miles northwest of Duluth.”
“The original title of Planet Waves was Ceremonies of the Horsemen”
“One of Bob Dylan’s biggest influences is Charlie Chaplin. He would use his hat as a prop earlier in his performing career, quintessential to Charlie Chaplin films. ”
“After the Elvis, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, died Dylan didn’t speak to anyone for an entire week.”
“Dylan has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Songwriters Hall of Fame.”
“Bob received a D-plus in a music-appreciation class at the University of Minnesota.”
“Dylan’s first professional recording was as a harmonica player at a Harry Belafonte session.”
“In 1999, Dylan appeared on an episode of Dharma and Greg”
“The Pulitzer Prize committee gave Dylan a special citation in 2008 for “lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.”
“His great-grandfather and uncles owned the biggest movie theaters in Hibbing, Minnesota, allowing a young Dylan to watch films for free.”
“The first draft of Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” was six pages long”
“In 2004, Dylan earned an honorary doctorate in music from the University of St. Andrews.”
“Patti Smith and Dylan toured together briefly in 1995.”
“As a 17 year-old, Dylan saw Buddy Holly in concert from the front row at the Duluth Armory in Duluth, MN on January 31, 1959 – an event that Dylan has mentioned many times throughout his career. Three days later (Feb 3rd, 1959) Buddy Holly died in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, a date now known as “The Day the Music Died”.”
“In October of 1963 Dylan flew his parents, Abe and Beatty Zimmerman, to see him perform at Carnegie Hall.”