History Trivia / BobDylan

** Dylan has apologized for "Ballad in Plain D", a one-sided document of the disintegration of his relationship with Suze Rotolo. He was quoted in 1985 as saying " I look back at that particular one and say, of all the songs I've written, maybe I could have left that alone." Rotolo claimed she never felt hurt by the song, and said that she understood that Dylan was channeling his emotions into his music. Her sister Carla, on the other hand, quite understandably never forgave Dylan for calling her a "parasite" in the lyrics which also accused her of sabotaging the relationship. One critic compared listening to the song to reading someone else's private mail.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: To the extent where the 1969 release ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_White_Wonder Great White Wonder]]'' is considered the TropeCodifier for unauthorized bootleg albums. Dylan was also (along with Music/FrankZappa) among the first artists to acknowledge the demand for unreleased music by releasing official versions of songs that hade been bootlegged for years. Still, even with eleven (and counting) volumes of the official ''Bootleg Series'', there are still scores of unreleased songs, one out-of-print album (''Dylan'') and literally [[ArchivePanic thousands of live recordings]].
* MeaningfulReleaseDate: ''Tempest'' hitting the streets on September 11, 2012 was seemingly a nod to ''"Love and Theft"'' having infamously been released on 9/11/01. Coincidentally, ''Under The Red Sky'' was also issued on September 11 (way back in 1990, though).

* ChartDisplacement: On one hand, his biggest hit is also his possible signature, as "Like a Rolling Stone" reached #2. On the other, this means the songs released prior to it barely charted, including "The Times They Are A-Changin'" and "Blowin' in the Wind", which missed the US charts altogether, and "Subterranean Homesick Blues", a mere #39.

* NamesTheSame: There was a Green Bay Packers defensive back named Bobby Dillon in the 1950s. There was also silent-era film director Robert Dillon, and a different Robert Dillon who was a screenwriter (''Prime Cut'', ''French Connection II''). When a mutual acquantaince introduced Dylan to Creator/RobertAltman, Atlman wasn't familiar with Dylan or his work and mistook him for the screenwriter.

* CreatorBacklash: Dylan has apologized for "Ballad in Plain D", a one-sided document of the disintegration of his relationship with Suze Rotolo. He was quoted in 1985 as saying " I look back at that particular one and say, of all the songs I've written, maybe I could have left that alone." Rotolo claimed she never felt hurt by the song, and said that she understood that Dylan was channeling his emotions into his music. Her sister Carla, on the other hand, quite understandably never forgave Dylan for calling her a "parasite" in the lyrics which also accused her of sabotaging the relationship. One critic compared listening to the song to reading someone else's private mail.

* OldShame: The panned movie ''Hearts of Fire'', which he starred in. He's done everything possible to keep it unmentioned in his official biographies. Even his official song database omits one of the songs he did for the film and the other two are listed without mentioning the soundtrack.

** In March 1984, Dylan appeared on ''Series/LateNight with Creator/DavidLetterman'' backed by the L.A. post-punk band the Plugz for a three-song set considered one of Dylan's best-ever television performances and a highlight of a decade where Dylan was largely written off as being in a DorkAge. The performance was so popular with his fans that it even circulated as a bootleg recording for years. However, Dylan never followed up on either his chemistry with the Plugz nor the acclaim his stylistic shift received. The Letterman set is often thought of as a great "what-if" moment in rock history, to the point where the Canadian indie band Daniel Romano's Outfit released full-length cover of Dylan's 1983 album ''Infedels'' in 2020 done in the post-punk style of the Plugz and titled it ''Daniel Romano's Outfit Do (What Could Have Been) Infidels By Bob Dylan & the Plugz''.

* FanNickname:
** Not universal, but His Bobness is thrown around by fans a bit.
** Attempts to divine meaning from Dylan's WordSaladLyrics are sometimes referred to as [[UsefulNotes/{{Kabbalah}} "the Bobbalah."]]
** Some of his past tours have acquired unoffical fan nicknames, like the Alimony Tour[[note]]After he was forced to pay a big settlement to Sara Lowndes Dylan following their divorce, he went on a lengthy tour where he seemed to be trying to [[MoneyDearBoy increase his commercial appeal]] by playing mainly his Greatest Hits and adopting a Music/BruceSpringsteen-style band and stage demeanor[[/note]] in 1978 and the Musical Retrospective Tour[[note]]After refusing to play any of his older songs in his first two tours after becoming a Christian, he decided to sprinkle a few of them back into his set list. Naturally, this became a huge selling point, with radio ads promising the shows would be "a musical retrospective", when really they were still largely songs from his gospel albums[[/note]] in 1980.
** Fans regularly refer to his regular touring since 1988 as the Never Ending Tour, which was originally something Dylan said in an interview but later lampshaded:
-->'''Bob Dylan:''' Don't be bewildered by the Never Ending Tour chatter. There was a Never Ending Tour but it ended in 1991 with the departure of guitarist G. E. Smith. That one's long gone but there have been many others since then: "The Money Never Runs Out Tour" (Fall of 1991) "Southern Sympathizer Tour" (Early 1992) "Why Do You Look At Me So Strangely Tour" (European Tour 1992) "The One Sad Cry Of Pity Tour" (Australia & West Coast American Tour 1992) "Outburst Of Consciousness Tour" (1992) "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down Tour" (1993) and others, too many to mention each with their own character & design.

** In March 1984, Dylan appeared on ''Series/LateNight with Creator/DavidLetterman'' backed by the L.A. post-punk band the Plugz for a three-song set considered on of Dylan's best-ever television performances and a highlight of a decade where Dylan was largely written off as being in a DorkAge. The performance was so popular with his fans that it even circulated as a bootleg recording for years. However, Dylan never followed up on either his chemistry with the Plugz nor the acclaim his stylistic shift received. The Letterman set is often thought of as a great "what-if" moment in rock history, to the point where the Canadian indie band Daniel Romano's Outfit released full-length cover of Dylan's 1983 album ''Infedels'' in 2020 done in the post-punk style of the Plugz and titled it ''Daniel Romano's Outfit Do (What Could Have Been) Infidels By Bob Dylan & the Plugz''.

* EverybodyMustGetStoned: TropeNamer.

* HitlessHitAlbum: ''Music/JohnWesleyHarding'', ''Music/SelfPortrait'', ''New Morning'', ''Music/PlanetWaves'', ''Music/TimeOutOfMind'', ''"Love and Theft"'', ''Modern Times'', ''Together Through Life'', ''Tempest'' and ''Rough and Rowdy Ways'' all made the Top Ten in the US without a Top 40 hit single.

* CreatorsFavoriteEpisode: He's cited ''Music/BlondeOnBlonde'' as the album he's most proud of.

* BigNameFan: His entire generation of musicians was basically this, first folkies and then pop and rock musicians. Music/TheBeatles were crazy about his stuff and sought him out as soon as they got to New York; his influence is all over their 1964-65 material. Music/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.'
** In the case of Music/JohnnyCash, it was reciprocal - Dylan and Cash were huge fans of each other's music, and the two sang together on Dylan's ''Nashville Skyline'' album, which Cash wrote the liner notes for.

* HitlessHitAlbum: ''Music/JohnWesleyHarding'', ''Music/SelfPortrait'', ''New Morning'', ''Music/PlanetWaves'', ''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.

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

* CreatorBacklash: Dylan has apologized for "Ballad in Plain D", a one-sided document of the disintegration of his relationship with Suze Rotolo. He was quoted in 1985 as saying " I look back at that particular one and say, of all the songs I've written, maybe I could have left that alone."
** Rotolo claimed she never felt hurt by the song, and said that she understood that Dylan was channeling his emotions into his music. Her sister Carla, on the other hand, quite understandably never forgave Dylan for calling her a "parasite" in the lyrics which also accused her of sabotaging the relationship. One critic compared listening to the song to reading someone else's private mail.

** In the case of Music/JohnnyCash, it was reciprocal - Dylan and Cash were huge fans of each other's music, and the two sang together on Dylan's "Nashville Skyline" album, which Cash wrote the liner notes for.

** Attempts to divine meaning from Dylan's WordSaladLyrics are sometimes referred to as [[UsefulNotes/Kabbalah "the Bobbalah."]]

** Attempts to divine meaning from Dylan's WordSaladLyrics are sometimes referred to as [[Kabbalah "the Bobbalah."]]

** Rotolo claimed she never felt hurt by the song, and said that she understood that Dylan was channeling his emotions into his music. Her sister Carla, on the other hand, quite understandably never forgave Dylan for calling her a "parasite" in the lyrics which also accused her of sabotaging the relationship.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: There was talk of Dylan recording an album backed by Music/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.

** He was reportedly Warren Beatty's first choice to play Clyde Barrow in ''Film/BonnieAndClyde'' before Beatty decided to star as well as produce. Dylan recently confirmed this but suggested that Albert Grossman didn't pass along the offer to him because they were on poor terms at the time. There's still a Dylan presence in the final film: Michael J. Pollard based C.W. Moss' voice on Dylan's.

* BigNameFan: His entire generation of musicians was basically this, first folkies and then pop and rock musicians. TheBeatles were crazy about his stuff and sought him out as soon as they got to New York; his influence is all over their 1964-65 material. FrankZappa said Dylan almost made him want to give up music: