Bob Dylan

Also known as Bob Landy, Robert Milkwood Thomas, Tedham Porterhouse, Robert Zimmerman, Blind Boy Grunt, Jack Frost, Elston Gunn, Lucky Wilbury

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his 69-year career. With an estimated 125 million records sold worldwide, he is one of the best-selling musicians. Dylan added increasingly sophisticated lyrical techniques to the folk music of the early 1960s, infusing it "with the intellectualism of classic literature and poetry". His lyrics incorporated political, social, and philosophical influences, defying pop music conventions and appealing to the burgeoning counterculture.

OverviewAI-generated

Bob Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, is an American songwriter, film actor, poet, and guitarist. He performs using the guitar, harmonica, piano, and voice, and his work spans rock music, blues, country music, and American folk music. Dylan has been associated with Columbia Records and Asylum Records. He is also a member of the group Traveling Wilburys.

His notable works include *Hard Rain*, *Tarantula*, and the *Little Black Songbook*. Dylan has received the National Medal of Arts, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts. He is recognized in the Pulitzer Prize, Nobel Literature, Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and Kennedy Center Honors collections. Dylan was educated at the University of Minnesota system and his archives are held at the University of Tulsa.

Synthesized by Vinony from 39 facts across 5 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Nobel Prize, Vinony collections. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

In the Vinony graph

Vinony catalogs Bob Dylan in its Nobel Prize in Literature collection (121 entries). It also appears in Kennedy Center Honors.

Vinony's link graph records 10,366 inbound references to Bob Dylan, and connects out to Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine and Federico Fellini.

Vinony files it under 1941 births, 20th-century American guitarists and 20th-century American Jews.

Vinony links it to 145 Wikipedia language editions.

Person · Open Library

Born: 24 May 1941
Works: 180

Top works

Oh how glad will you dance with me
Little Black Songbook
Hard Rain
Tarantula
Bob Dylan Banjo Chord Songbook

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Duluth, Minnesota, USA

Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman; May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and painter. He has been a major figure in music for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler, and an apparently reluctant figurehead, of social unrest. Though he is well-known for revolutionizing perceptions of the limits of popular music in…

Known for

No Time to Think: Bob Dylan as Filmmaker — Himself (archival footage)2026
One to One: John & Yoko — Self (archive footage)2025
Newport and the Great Folk Dream — Self (archive footage)2025
John Candy: I Like Me — Self - Singer (archive footage)2025
Highway 99: A Double Album — Self [Archival]2025
The Greatest Night in Pop — Self (archive footage)2024
The Beach Boys — Self (archive footage)2024
Stepping Into the Unknown: Films from the Bob Dylan Center2024
Return of the King: The Fall and Rise of Elvis Presley — Self (archive footage)2024
Song to Woody: Greenwich Village, the Folk Revival, and Bob Dylan — Self (archive footage)2024

via TMDB

Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Gender: Male
Origin: United States

bluesblues rockclassic rockcontemporary folkcountrycountry rock

Official site Discogs Stream

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Wikipedia views (30d)

368,770 total

via Wikimedia Pageviews API

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize in Literature2016
“for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”

NobelPrize.org →

Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Gender: male
Citizenship: United States
Place of birth: Duluth
Spouse: Carolyn Dennis
Occupation: musician
Languages spoken: English language
Native language: English language
Religion: Evangelicalism
Notable work: Subterranean Homesick Blues
Participant in: Live Aid
Field of work: popular music
Genre: jazz
Instrument: nyckelharpa
Record label: Asylum Records
Discography: Bob Dylan discography
Official website: www.bobdylan.com
Image: DylanYoungKilkenny140719v2 (50 of 52) (52246124397) (cropped).jpg
Work location: New York City
Residence: Malibu
Voice type: baritone

Show 24 more facts

Commons category: Bob Dylan
date of birth: 1941-05-24
topic's main category: Category:Bob Dylan
Commons gallery: Bob Dylan
birth name: Robert Allen Zimmerman
name in native language: Robert Dylan
archives at: University of Tulsa
member of: Traveling Wilburys
pseudonym: Sergei Petrov
topic has template: Template:Bob Dylan
described by source: UbuWeb
influenced by: Robert Johnson
start of work period: 1962-00-00
copyright representative: Universal Music Group
has works in the collection: Museum of Modern Art
floruit: 1992-01-01
ethnic group: American Jews
social media followers: 428462
on focus list of Wikimedia project: Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4
official shop URL: bobdylanstore.com
P12674: Julius Anton Glaser
P8168: bridge tender
short name: Dylan
unmarried partner: Joan Baez

Sources (15)

via Wikidata · CC0

~40 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his 69-year career. With an estimated 125 million records sold worldwide, he is one of the best-selling musicians. Dylan added increasingly sophisticated lyrical techniques to the folk music of the early 1960s, infusing it "with the intellectualism of classic literature and poetry". His lyrics incorporated political, social, and philosophical influences, defying pop music conventions and appealing to the burgeoning counterculture.

Dylan was born in St. Louis County, Minnesota. He moved to New York City in 1961 to pursue a music career. His 1962 debut album, Bob Dylan, containing traditional folk and blues material, was followed by his breakthrough album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963), which included "Girl from the North Country" and "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall", adapting older folk songs. His songs "Blowin' in the Wind" (1963) and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" (1964) became anthems for the civil rights and antiwar movements. In 1965 and 1966, Dylan created controversy when he used electrically amplified rock instrumentation for his albums Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited (both 1965), and Blonde on Blonde (1966). His six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" (1965) expanded commercial and creative boundaries in popular music.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Bob Dylan” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.