A Strange Young Man Called Dylan

“ The title track of Dylan's 1964 album The Times they are a-Changin' has become one of the most famous protest songs ever written. Though articulating the hopes of the Sixties folk generation, Dylan's creation has proved to possess an enduring cross-generational appeal.”(Thompson, Jennifer). Not only did Bob Dylan influence the listener, he also influenced many other writers throughout his music. Some people did not feel that they should share their personal opinion with the public, but Bob Dylan thought differently. An example of this is shown in his song “The Times They Are Changing”, Mr. Dylan explains in the song that race is unimportant and humans should not be seen by the color of your skin, we should just see other people. Bob Dylan explains that he wrote this song because "I wanted to write a big song, with short concise verses that piled up on each other in a hypnotic way. The civil rights movement and the folk music movement were pretty close for a while and allied together at that time." (Barnes,

In a 1979 interview for Frets magazine Pete Seeger expressed the driving force of his music in one word--responsibility (Hood 30). In his view there are no causeless songs; each one has a message. Seeger dedicated his life to challenging the status quo and combating the establishment with his favorite weapon, the banjo. Inscribed on his banjo were the words “This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender”.  Pete Seeger became one of the leaders of the folk revival, rousing his audience with his mastery of the banjo (Rosenberg 75). However, his influence extended past the musical scene. He gave a voice to the overlooked, working class and he created a model of musical activism that other groups could emulate.

     Langston Hughes and Bob Dylan are two poets from different eras in modern American poetry. Although Bob Dylan is more characterized as a songwriter, I see much of his work as poetry. In this essay, I will discuss Hughes’ poem “Harlem [1]” and Dylan’s “Times They Are A-Changin”’ as commentaries on are culture, but from different backgrounds.

The 1960’s in America was often referred to as an age of protest because of not only the social protests that have taken place, but also for the upbringing of protest music, which became very popular during that era. The roots of protest music were largely from folk music of American musicians during 1950’. Folk musicians, such as Joe Hill, composed labor union protest songs and distributed song booklets, hoping to “fan the flames of discontent.” (Rodnitzky pg. 6) Symbolically, this meant that the songs, the fan, would reduce the uncontrollable social protests that the United States government caused with the misleading information that they did not keep their word on, or the flames of discontent. Other folk musicians, such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, traveled around the United States spreading their “message music” and becoming involved in political movements. Guthrie and Seeger were the pioneers of protest music, bringing their folk music to New York City and merging it with urban music. Woody’s songs were about the masses, often identifying problems and offering solutions. While Seeger was cautious about referring to his music as folk music, preferring the term “people’s music,” meaning that not everyone may had the same thoughts, but they all expressed it in their own unique musical sense. For both Woody and Seeger, folk music was a necessity in these protests, when the needs

Arguably the most inspirational musician of the twentieth century, Woody Guthrie earned nation-wide success and popularity. His music proved honest and full of hope, which greatly encouraged America as she struggled through war, the Great Depression, and devastating dust bowls. Music transports us to happier places, and Guthrie’s music did just that for everyone across the nation. Writing about anything and everything, Guthrie translated his experiences and encounters into poetry. Reflections of the time period, in the language of his day, give Guthrie’s music an unblemished charm. He wrote music in a time popularity was based off of how many people were whistling your music as they worked, not the number of ITunes downloads you acquired. Woody Guthrie truly embodied the essence of the American poet and used his experiences and personality to deepen the content of his art.

Arguably one of the most powerful of Dylan’s social issue charged song is The Death of Emmet Till, a young black man who was unrightfully killed by the Ku Klux Klan. By 1963, Dylan and his on and off lover Joan Baez were both very well known in the civil rights movement. Baez and Dylan would sing together at rallies including the famous March on Washington. Dylan was on stage with Martin Luther King Jr. when his gave his infamous I Have a Dream speech. Though Dylan sang of American injustices, he was never incredibly interested in politics and he was ultimately frustrated by people defining him solely as a protest singer. Dylan’s frustrations with the unsought political branding are expressed in It Ain’t Me Babe, which “appears to be a song about rejected love, [it] was actually his rejection of the role his reputation and fans had thrown on him” (Carlson).

Dylan’s most famous protest song is “Blown’ in the Wind”. It became the anthem for the civil rights movement in America during the 1960s, and as result Dylan was viewed as the spiritual leader of the civil rights movement. “Blown’ in the Wind” became very popular among the American people because the lyrics of the song could be applied to any situation as the lyrics were all about humanity learning from its mistakes and a call for freedom. “Only a Pawn in Their Game” was Dylan’s most offensive protest song that he wrote, and it was first performed at a civil rights rally in Greenwood, Mississippi. This song was about a civil rights activist who was murdered by “just a poor dumb

If you were alive in 1960s and a teenager, it would be impossible not to know Bob Dylan because he was a folk singer who was involved with the Civil Rights Movement. He impacted the music world by being one of the first musicians to take an active role on moral issues and he united people through his music. If Bob Dylan had not been around there are many movements that might not have been as successful, had he not been there as an advocate. The teens of the 1960’s were listening to Bob Dylan’s music because he was able to take in political events such as the mistreatment of black Americans, the Civil Rights campaigns, and the anti-war movement and set them to prose and poetry and then set that to music. The contents of his songs enabled teens

The 1960’s was an era of revolution and social change in the United States. Painters, dancers, actors, musicians and many more artists all wanted to portray societies immoral issues through their art. Musicians played a very prominent role in providing society with an outlet on the importance of this change. Within these musicians was a folk rock singer and songwriter by the name of Robert Allen Zimmerman, or as America knows him, Bob Dylan. He is known and honored around the world for his influence on popular music and culture, however, he is much more than that (Wood 313). The beginning of Bob Dylan’s career as a singer and songwriter was marked by his repetitive emphasis on social change throughout his protest songs which include “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,” “Masters of War,” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’”; with each song, Dylan exposes many issues that affected, not one, but many lives as he aimed to spread social and political consciousness to society.

The origin of folk music dates all the way to the expansion of the ballad tradition in America. (Star and Waterman, 17) During the nineteenth century, England dominated America, leading the popularization of folk ballads. These ballads were mainstream songs that were printed as sheet music that people could play at home and sing with. The most important elements of a folk ballad were its strophic form and looping melody, such as what we hear in the song called Barbara Allen. As immigrants began travelling to America to escape famine and oppression, music began growing more diverse. (Star and Waterman, 19) As American music expanded, the identity of folk music also began to slip into a newer, broader form. Alternatively, when asked about the definition of folk music, modern-day composer, Earl Robinson, said that he believes that the “concept of folk music was living tradition.” (Dunaway, 9) In other words, he believes that folk music is about singing of the events happening around you. However, in the book Singing Out: An Oral History of America’s Folk, it states that, there is a debate about what folk music is. As a matter of a fact, many early folk collectors believe that to be a “true folk song,” the song had to be age old and anonymous, while others believe that folk music squeezes its way into modern society. (Dunaway, 9-10) Many who study folk music would agree that there is a correlation

Bob Dylan’s legacy has fought for peace and social justice through this highly written protest song. By incorporating countless real world scenarios into his music, Dylan was able to achieve the Nobel Prize for Literature. For example, his song “A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall” incorporates many different social conflicts into one song because “Every line in it is actually the start of a whole new song” (Doyle). While writing one of his top hits Dylan felt he would not have enough time to write any more songs because of the tragic events tearing the country apart. With that in mind he incorporated a different song and social topic into each line.

To understand the sixties counterculture, we must understand the important role of Bob Dylan. His lyrics fueled the rebellious youth in America. Songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times are A-Changin” made him favorable to anti-war demonstrators and supporters of the Civil Rights movement. He was commonly hailed as the spokesman for his generation. Dylan used lyrics to allow the youth to find their own form of counter-culture. The youth generation began to see the effects racism, war, etc. effect the society in America. To combat this, the youth created their own form of counter-culture to promote a peaceful change within society. Some of their actions include forming anti-war protests that opposed America’s involvement in the Vietnam War, and supporting African Americans/women get the rights they deserve through the Civil Rights Movement. Bob Dylan’s music appealed to the young generation because he openly expresses his disapproval of the establishment in order to influenced his audience to move in a direction for change. Counterculture youth rejected cultural norms of the previous generation and their values and lifestyles opposed the mainstream culture present in the 1950’s. The folk music revival of the early 1960s, as well as the counter-culture movement played an important role in advocating change. Bob Dylan wrote songs that influenced the Civil Rights Movement, New Left Movement, and Anti-War Movement.

Springsteen states, “I haven’t told you ‘all’ about myself. Discretion and the feelings of others don’t allow for it.” But this is a man who, after watching other rock and roll musicians respond to material success by losing touch with reality, became determined to make his own music. “A search for meaning and the future,” as Springsteen

“The thing about rock'n'roll is that for me anyway it wasn't enough ... There were great catch-phrases and driving pulse rhythms ... but 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, more faith in the supernatural, much deeper feelings” (Bob Dylan, 1985)

Robert Allen Zimmerman, commonly referred to as “Bob Dylan” in popular culture, is often decorated as a “spokesman for his generation” due to his songs that documented the residing social unrest throughout his career. Throughout the entirety of Dylan’s work, there is multiple comments on cultural attitudes and values - however, It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) from his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home, Is perhaps one of his most notable pieces regarding the challenging of cultural values and ideas. The lyrics express Dylan's anger at what he sees as the hypocrisy, commercialism, consumerism, and conformity prominent in contemporary American culture, but unlike those in some of his earlier protest songs, do not express optimism in the