Bob Dylan was born as Robert Allen Zimmerman in 1941 in Duluth, MN. When he was six years old, his father came down with polio, and the family moved to Hibbing where Bob grew up in a small Jewish community.
He taught himself how to play piano and guitar in his early teens and formed a couple of bands, Golden Chords and Elston Gunn and His Rock Boppers. He loved the early rock of Elvis Presley, Little Richard as well as the country and folk singers Hank Williams and Woody Guthrie.
He changed his name to Bob Dylan. Dylan later admitted that it was because of the influence of the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.
Dylan spent the summer of 1960 in Denver, CO, where he met bluesman Jesse Fuller. It seemed to have an effect on him, as he would change his style a bit, at least as far as playing live went. He now played with a harmonica rack, like Fuller did. He also decided at that time that he wanted to become a professional musician. In January 1961 he dropped out of school and headed for New York City to do just that, plus he also wanted to meet his idol Woody Guthrie. He started out playing in small clubs and coffeehouses in Greenwich Village, where he would soon make a name for himself.
Initially Bob Dylan would play at every available gig. He soon built a formidable reputation as a fine song writer. But Dylan as a singer was not considered as a viable proposition. As a result most of his songs were sung by other artists. They included his lover Joan Baez, Sonny and Cher, The Hollies and The Byrds. But it was not long before Dylan began singing his own songs.
The Dylan sound reached a crescendo when he played for the first time with an electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival. There were still peaks to climb and barriers to break through. Dylan??s 1965 hit "Like a Rolling Stone" was the first song to break the constraint of the three minute single. In fact it lasted for six minutes.
Although Dylan was an influential pop figure during the youth movement of the 1960s, his first number one hit, "Knocking on Heaven's Door," didn't come until 1973. During the '80s he toured extensively, and in the '90s his songs found a new audience and more acclaim from the music industry: in 1991 he was given a Lifetime Achievement Grammy.
Bono married Alison Stewart in 1982. They have two daughters, Jordan and Memphis Eve, and a son, Elijah. A second son, John Abraham was born during U2's 2001 Elevation tour. ~ Jonathan Miller, All Music Guide
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