Legendary singer Bob Dylan turns 80 today

The epitome of Rock n Roll and one of the most prolific songwriters of all time, Bob Dylan has turned 80 today. 

The Grammy-winning singer has written more than 600 songs and sold more than 100 million records to his name. The veteran singer has won numerous accolades and has tons of awards attached to his name starting 10 Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and the Academy Award in 2000 for Best Original Song "Things Have Changed" from the movie Wonder Boys, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Bob Dylan remains the only rock 'n' roll musician to win The Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016 and his songs are in the Grammy Hall of Fame, reports New Jersey 101.5. 

At 80 years of age, the only thing that has paused Dylan's relentless worldwide tours is the deadly Covid-19. In December of 2020, Bob Dylan sold his catalog of music, all 600 songs, to Universal Music for over 300 Million dollars making it the largest purchase of any single artist's catalog in the history of music. 

The birth of the legend

The famous singer who was formerly known as Robert Allen Zimmerman was born on the evening of May 24, 1941.

By the mid-'40s, he moved with his family to a house in Hibbing, and the "Dylan" bit came along during Zimmerman's brief stint at the University of Minnesota in the late '50s.

Bob Dylan received massive success worldwide when he wrote songs about the North Country and Highway 61. 

What makes Bob Dylan an extraordinary musician  

For an average musician, it is nearly impossible to tour around the world so much as Bob Dylan has done throughout his musical journey. 

From 1990 until 2019, Bob has played an average of more than 100 shows a year – every year – all around the planet, reports The Guardian. 

The master of extraordinary creativity, Bob Dylan plays his songs slightly differently in each of his concerts. Works from decades ago will be reimagined and reshaped to acquire new resonances – not just for the audience, but also for Dylan himself.

Dylan writes songs that are textured and capacious enough to withstand endless reinterpretation.

If you have been lucky enough to attend one of his concerts, you will have witnessed how his songs can transform emotions beautifully. A song that you initially thought was about rage can then immediately turn into something tender.

And then later on when you might hear the song in future concerts, that same song you thought of as a tender rendition might sound to be a wry throwaway burlesque. The burlesque later becomes an elegy. And on it goes.

Dylan writes songs that feel iconic and yet intimate. Songs that seem to stand for decades, movements, issues, moments in history, yet also say something acute about how you feel today.

Dylan's music is borne out of him but he never claimed it was his sole property. Bob Dylan's songs exist for the world today and they will continue to exist for the world tomorrow. 

They will always be there for me. They will always be there for you.