鲍勃·迪伦是世界著名摇滚、民谣艺术家，同时也是美国艺术文学院荣誉成员。他既是一个伟大的诗人，也是一个伟大的曲作者。2016年，鲍勃·迪伦获得诺贝尔文学奖，成为第一位获得该奖项的作曲家。

Bob Dylan is a folk-rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist who is known as one of America’s greatest living legends.

Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota, and raised in Hibbing, Minnesota. He has a younger brother, David.

His family lived in Duluth until Robert was six, when his father fell ill and the family returned to his mother’s hometown, Hibbing, where they lived for the rest of Robert’s childhood.

In his early years he listened to the radio—first to blues and country stations from Shreveport, Louisiana, and later, when he was a teenager, to rock and roll.

He formed several bands while attending Hibbing High School. In the Golden Chords, he performed covers of songs by Little Richard and Elvis Presley. Their performance of Danny & the Juniors’ “Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay” at their high school talent show was so loud that the principal cut the microphone.

In September 1959, Zimmerman moved to Minneapolis and enrolled at the University  of Minnesota. His focus on rock and roll gave way to American folk music. In 1985, he said:

“The thing about rock’n’roll is that for me anyway it wasn’t enough... the songs weren’t serious or didn’t reflect life in a realistic way. I knew that when I got into folk music, it was more of a serious type of thing. The songs are filled with more despair, more sadness, more triumph, much deeper feelings.”

Later Zimmerman began to perform at the Ten O’Clock Scholar, a coffeehouse a few blocks from campus, and became involved in the Dinkytown folk music circuit.

During his Dinkytown days, Zimmerman began introducing himself as “Bob Dylan”. He said he hit upon（偶然想出） using this name when he saw some poems by Dylan Thomas. Dylan explained his change of name in a 2004 interview: “You’re born, you know, the wrong names. I mean, that happens. You call yourself what you want to call yourself. This is the land of the free.”

His fame grew after Columbia Records gave him a contract. Dylan’s rise as a songwriter and performer coincided with（与……不谋而合） the Civil Rights movement and “the torch being passed to a new generation”. Dylan wrote two songs that came to define the spirit of that era: Blowin’ in the Wind and The Times They are a-Changin’. He wrote songs protesting abuse of black people in the south, performed at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Bob Dylan quickly became an icon of political and social protest. He brought an intellectual as well as emotional dimension to his songs. The college students loved it. Dylan was a rather unique musician. He sang with a raspy（嘶哑的） voice and had a harmonica（口琴） wired around his neck. Other 1960s performers picked up Dylan’s songs and gave them more soothing treatment. However, the music was his.

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