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Bob Dylan
(1941- )
By David Krusch
Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman May 24, 1941)
is widely regarded as one of America's greatest and most popular songwriters.
Though much of his most important work is based in the 1960s, Dylan
continues to tour and release albums today. He is best known for his
status as a musical icon in the American civil rights movement, with
his most popular songs "Blowin' In The Wind" and "The
Times They Are A-Changin."
Dylan was born and spent his early childhood in Duluth,
Minnesota to parents Abe and Beatty
Zimmerman. After Abe was stricken with polio, the family moved to Hibbing,
Minnesota close to Bob's sixth
birthday. Abe's parents, Zigman and Anna Zimmerman, were Jewish immigrants
from Odessa, Ukraine.
In the 1950s, Hibbing had a stable Jewish community of about 300 people,
and his parents took active community roles. His father was president
of B'nai Brith, and his mother was
president of the local Hadassah
chapter.
Dylan attended religious school at the community's
only synagogue, Agudas Achim.
He attended a Zionist camp in Wisconsin,
Herzl Camp, where he played guitar, piano, and harmonica with his fellow
campers. At 13, he had a Bar
Mitzvah in Hibbing with a guest list of around 400, which according
to Moment magazine is rumored to be the largest ever in the town's
history.
Much of his youth was spent listening to the radio,
where he discovered blues, country music, and rock and roll. He was
heavily influenced by Little Richard and Carl Perkins, and began performing
in high school garage rock bands called The Shadow Blasters and The
Golden Chords. In 1959, he went off to college at the University of
Minnesota. began introducing himself as Bob Dylan (or Dillon). He has
never fully explained why he adopted this pseudonym, although there
are many rumors regarding its origin. He quit school after one year,
and found his way to Greenwich Village, New
York City. After gaining some crucial exposure in 1961 in The
New York Times, Dylan was signed to a record deal with Columbia
Records. His first album for Columbia was Bob Dylan, recorded
in 1962. It was in his first few albums where he developed his own genre
of protest songs, where he observed and criticized what he perceived
as injustices in American society.
In 1963, he released The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan,
which included the civil rights anthem "Blowin' In The Wind."
The 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary adopted the song and turned
it into an international hit single. By the end of the 1960s, Dylan
was already considered a musicial "prophet" by his contemporaries
for his genre-defining lyrics. Many of his songs also had recurring
Jewish themes. The title song from Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
alludes to the Binding of Isaac:
"Oh G-d said to Abraham,
'Kill me a son'/ Abe says, 'Man, you must be puttin' me on'/ G-d say
'No.' Abe say, 'What?'/ G-d say, 'You can do what you want Abe, but/
The next time you see me comin' you better run'/ 'Well,' Abe says, 'Where
do you want this killin' done?'/ G-d says, 'Out on Highway 61.'"
In his song "Not Dark Yet" from the 1990s era album Time
Out of Mind, he sings, "I was born here and I'll die here against
my will. Against your will you were born, against your will you will
die." This is a paraphrased passage from Pirke
Avot, or the "Sayings
of Our Fathers" from the Mishnah
("Talkin' Hava Nagilah Blues," by Seth Rogovoy, www.jewsrock.org).
Despite the Jewish and other
religious allusions in his work, Dylan said
in a 1966 interview with Playboy that
he never really felt Jewish. "I don't
really consider myself Jewish or non-Jewish…I'm
not a patriot to any creed. I believe in
all of them and none of them ("The
Unauthorized Spirtual Biography,"
by Nadine Epstein and Rebecca Frankel, Moment,
Aug. 2005). Dylan aroused controversy when
he converted to Christianity
and became an evangelical in the late 1970s.
In 1983, around the release of his album Infidels,
Dylan began to distance himself from Christianity
and the church. He traveled to Israel
for his son Jesse's Bar
Mitzvah
and was photographed at the Kotel
wearing tefillin and
praying. His song “Neighborhood Bully” from Infidels is
an ode to Israel and its policies. Israel
is never named directly in the song, but
Dylan illustrates how Israel is outnumbered
in the Middle
East and surrounded by hostile nations,
and how Israel is constantly labeled by
its enemies as a bully simply because it
is struggling for survival.
Always on the road, Dylan continues to perform on his
"Never Ending Tour," playing as many as 100 shows per year.
His current religious label is always in question, but whether he is
Jewish or Christian, Bob Dylan remains the single most influential songwriter
of popular music.
Articles and books on Bob Dylan and Judaism:
"Dylan: Tangled Up in Jews," by Larry Yudelson,
first published in the Washington Jewish Week, 1991
"Has Born-again Bob Dylan Returned to Judaism?"
from Jan. 13, 1984 issue of Christianity Today
Restless Pilgrim: The Spiritual Journey of Bob Dylan,
by Scott Marshall and Marcia Ford, Relevant Books, 2002
Stars of David: Rock n' Roll's Jewish Stories, by Scott
R. Benarde, Brandeis University Press, 2003
Sources: Wikipedia
Moment Magazine, “The Unauthorized
Spiritual Biography,” by Nadine Epstein and Rebecca Frankel, (August
2005)
“Talkin'
Hava Nagilah Blues,” by Seth Rogovoy
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