History Trivia / BobDylan

* BigNameFan: He was this for own generation, first of folk musicians and then of pop and rock musicians. TheBeatles were crazy about his stuff and sought him out as soon as they got to New York. FrankZappa said Dylan almost made him want to give up music:

-->'''Zappa''': When I heard "Like a Rolling Stone", I wanted to quit the music business because I felt: 'If this wins and it does what it's supposed to do, I don't need to do anything else.'"

** Dylan and Music/TheBand spent much of the summer of 1967 in the basement of their house, fooling around with covers and original songs, and recording snippets of it on an old tape machine. ''Music/TheBasementTapes'', as released 8 years later, contains only a handful of the songs recorded, often with obvious overdubs, and padded with TheBand originals recorded years later. A lot of fans agree that some of the songs left off are among his best ever - or at least would have been if they'd been finished. It took until 2014 and the release of vol 11 of the Bootleg Series for most of the songs to see daylight.

* WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants: He's gone both ways with this when it comes to songwriting. For many of his albums he arrived at the studio with the songs already written in advance. For ''Music/BlondeOnBlonde'' he wrote a good deal of it in the studio, leaving the musicians to jam or play cards while they waited ("Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" was recorded with the ink still drying on the lyrics).

* BreakawayPopHit: "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" from [[Creator/SamPeckinpah ''Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid'']]

** Could Dylan have played {{Movie/Woodstock}} in 1969? The organizers asked him, expecting he'd say no, and while he seemed negative about the idea (mainly fearing for his safety) he didn't formally say no. A few days before the festival he told an associate that he was still considering it. He was ultimately a no-show, but two weeks later appeared at Woodstock's TransAtlanticEquivalent on The Isle of Wight, suggesting that money may have been the issue all along. He ''did'' play Woodstock '94 and the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts on the original site in 2000s (with jokey stage banter implying that he'd played there in '69 after all).

** Dylan and Music/TheBand spent much of the summer of 1967 in the basement of their house, fooling around with covers and original songs, and recording snippets of it on an old tape machine. ''The Basement Tapes'', as released 8 years later, contains only a handful of the songs recorded, often with obvious overdubs, and padded with TheBand originals recorded years later. A lot of fans agree that some of the songs left off are among his best ever - or at least would have been if they'd been finished. It took until 2014 and the release of vol 11 of the Bootleg Series for most of the songs to see daylight.

* HitlessHitAlbum: ''Music/JohnWesleyHarding'', ''Self Portrait'', ''New Morning'', ''Planet Waves'', ''Music/TimeOutOfMind'', ''"Love and Theft"'', ''Modern Times'', ''Together Through Life'' and ''Tempest'' all made the Top Ten in the US without a Top 40 hit single.

** ''Planet Waves'' was originally going to be called ''Love Songs'', then ''Ceremonies of The Horseman'' (a CallBack to "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" from ''Bringing It All Back Home'').

* HitlessHitAlbum: ''John Wesley Harding'', ''Self Portrait'', ''New Morning'', ''Planet Waves'', ''Time Out of Mind'', ''"Love and Theft"'', ''Modern Times'', ''Together Through Life'' and ''Tempest'' all made the Top Ten in the US without a Top 40 hit single.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: There was talk of Dylan recording an album backed by TheByrds in 1969, which made sense since they shared a label (Creator/ColumbiaRecords) and a producer (Bob Johnston). But Dylan seemed to lose interest in the idea quickly, and The Byrds fired Johnston after just one album.
** Dylan and TheBand spent much of the summer of 1967 in the basement of their house, fooling around with covers and original songs, and recording snippets of it on an old tape machine. ''The Basement Tapes'', as released 8 years later, contains only a handful of the songs recorded, often with obvious overdubs, and padded with TheBand originals recorded years later. A lot of fans agree that some of the songs left off are among his best ever - or at least would have been if they'd been finished. It took until 2014 and the release of vol 11 of the Bootleg Series for most of the songs to see daylight.
** Similarly, from 1974 (''Blood On The Tracks'') onward, Dylan has frequently second-guessed his studio performances, leaving off songs or performances from his studio albums that fans, critics, producers and backup musicians consider far better than what ended up on the album. Some of the more obvious examples include "Blind Willie [=McTell=]", "Mississippi", "Caribbean Wind", "Abandoned Love" and "Series of Dreams". A lot of these have since ended up on the various ''Bootleg Series'' releases.
* WorkingTitle: ''Blonde on Blonde'' boasts such classic tunes as "A Long-Haired Mule and a Porcupine Here", "What You Can Do For Your Wigwam" and "Seems Like a Freeze-Out"...or, as they ended up becoming, "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35", "Pledging My Time" and "Visions of Johanna".
** ''Planet Waves'' was originally going to be called ''Love Songs'', then ''Ceremonies of The Horseman'' (a CallBack to "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" from ''Bringing It All Back Home'').

** After his 1966 motorcycle accident he settled into married life and fatherhood, and his next few albums reflected a less [[WordSaladLyrics Word Salad-ish]] lyrical style, musical RevisitingTheRoots (back to folk and country), and quite a few SillyLoveSongs.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Even with eleven (and counting) volumes of the ''Bootleg Series'', there are still scores of unreleased songs, one out-of-print album (''Dylan'') and literally [[ArchivePanic thousands of live recordings]].

** Dylan and TheBand spent much of the summer of 1967 in the basement of their house, fooling around with covers and original songs, and recording snippets of it on an old tape machine. ''The Basement Tapes'', as released 8 years later, contains only a handful of the songs recorded, often with obvious overdubs, and padded with TheBand originals recorded years later. A lot of fans agree that some of the songs left off are among his best ever - or at least would have been if they'd been finished.

** Similarly, from 1974 (''Blood On The Tracks'') onward, Dylan has frequently second-guessed his studio performances, leaving off songs or performances from his studio albums that fans, critics, producers and backup musicians consider far better than what ended up on the album. Some of the more obvious examples include "Blind Willie McTell", "Mississippi", "Caribbean Wind", "Abandoned Love" and "Series of Dreams". A lot of these have since ended up on the various ''Bootleg Series'' releases.

* WorkingTitle: ''Blonde on Blonde'' boasts such classic tunes as "A Long-Haired Mule and a Porcupine", "What You Can Do For Your Wigwam" and "Seems Like a Freeze-Out"...or, as they ended up becoming, "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35", "Pledging My Time" and "Visions of Johanna".