History Music / BobDylan

The other major Bob Dylan reference you might encounter is to his "born again phase", which began with his conversion from Judaism to (Evangelical Protestant) Christianity[[note]]Specifically the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Vineyard_Churches Vineyard]] movement[[/note]] in 1979. Attendant to this were [[PanderingToTheBase a few nostalgic, audience-baiting tours]] and some angry, but lyrically intricate, ChristianRock albums. Dylan eventually returned to more secular themes, but has never quite abandoned the doomsaying [[TheEndIsNigh street preacher]] point of view. On the other hand, in his personal life, he's been seen celebrating the [[UsefulNotes/JewishHolidays High Holidays]] at various [[UsefulNotes/{{Judaism}} Chabad Lubavich]] Hasidic congregations; make of that what you will.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ef2dcfb9_9eb1_44da_94d0_884f8bdaf5dd.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:300: Bob Dylan at the start of his career.]]

* WeUsedToBeFriends: He's a notoriously fickle guy, so numerous friendships have waxed and waned over the years, but the major example of this is his manager Albert Grossman. They had a close mentor-protégé relationship up until his 1966 motorcycle crash, when Dylan concluded that Grossman was using him as a [[CashCowFranchise Cash Cow]] and letting him almost kill himself in the process. Within a couple years they weren't even speaking to each other.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Judas Priest from "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest" from ''Music/JohnWesleyHarding''. So awesome that [[Music/JudasPriest this one heavy metal band]] took the name for itself.

* ''Film/DontLookBack'' (1967) (documentary of Dylan's 1965 British tour)

* AmbiguouslyChristian: While his "born-again" phase is considered a thing of the past, he has dropped some vague hints in interviews that he is still a practicing Christian. The 2012 album ''Tempest'' notably contains the most references to Christianity since ''Shot of Love'', the album that concluded his born-again trilogy, with many of them surpisingly [[ChristianityIsCatholic Catholic]] in tone ("I can hear a sweet voice gently calling. Must be the Mother of Our Lord"). For the 2018 Christmas season, he briefly displayed [[https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/a3m8qj/a-critical-analysis-of-bob-dylans-2018-xmas-lights a Nativity scene]] (an inflatable one) in front of his house.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: "Shot Of Love" from ''Music/ShotOfLove''.

* AsTheGoodBookSays: There have been ''books'' written about the use of Biblical allusions in his songs. Suffice it to say, between studying with a rabbi for his bar mitzvah when he was 13, to converting to Christianity in his 30s, Dylan knows his Hebrew and Christian bibles well.

* BalladOfX: "Ballad Of A Thin Man", "Ballad Of Hollis Brown", "Ballad Of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest".

* BSide: Generally his singles just had album tracks on the flip side, sometimes even tracks from previous albums. But once in a while he'd slip in a rare song on a B-side that wouldn't get released anywhere else, like a version of "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" recorded live in England (on the flip of "I Want You" in 1966), and a version of the cowboy song "Spanish is the Loving Tongue", where he accompanied himself on piano (on the flip of "Watching the River Flow" in 1971). "George Jackson" was unique because both sides of the single had the same song, but in different arrangements. There was the "acoustic version" (Dylan with just acoustic guitar and harmonica), and the "big band version" (Dylan again on acoustic guitar and harmonica, along with a bass, a piano, a steel guitar, drums, and backing vocalists).

** "Stayin' up for days in the Chelsea Hotel/Writing 'Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands' for you" ("Sara")
** The first track on ''Street Legal'' (1978), "Changing Of The Guards", opens with the lines "Sixteen years/Sixteen banners united over the field". The album was his sixteenth studio album[[note]]excepting the outtakes collection ''Dylan'' and the archive release ''Music/TheBasementTapes''[[/note]], released sixteen years after his 1962 debut.

--> ''I told you "The Times They Are A-Changin' " and they did! I said the answer was "Blowin’ In The Wind" and it was! And I'm saying to you now, Jesus is coming back.''

* TheCoverChangesTheGender: He famously averted this in his take on "The House Of The Rising Sun". He also retained the female perspective of the original when he covered the British folk song "Young But Daily Growing" during ''Music/TheBasementTapes'' sessions.

* CoverVersion: For an artist often praised more for his song-writing than his performances, Dylan loves doing other people's material - ranging from folk and blues songs to Music/FrankSinatra and Music/TheClash. After Music/WarrenZevon announced he had cancer, Dylan started playing 2-3 Warren Zevon covers at every show for an entire tour.

* NotableMusicVideos: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgC77nc22ec video for "Subterranean Homesick Blues"]] from ''Film/DontLookBack'' is often considered to be the UrExample of non-diagetic videos (i.e. music videos that aren't just the [[PerformanceVideo artist playing the song]] or an audience as the artist plays).

** Also from the live version of "Like A Rolling Stone" in Manchester, 1966. Don't call Dylan "Judas".

* PretenderDiss: The {{Rockumentary}} ''Film/DontLookBack'' of Dylan making more-or-less friendly fun of Donovan.

* PrideBeforeAFall: "Foot Of Pride" from "The Bootleg Series".
* PrincessInRags: "Like A Rolling Stone" from ''Music/Highway61Revisited''. The trope could have almost been named "Napoleon In Rags", this song is one of the most iconic portrayals of that trope.

* ProtestSong: Again, too many to list. Though the most famous would have to be "Hurricane," "The Times They Are A-Changin," and "Masters Of War." Many critics believe "Only a Pawn in Their Game" to be this trope's stand-out example. Dylan eventually became disillusioned with protest songs, and distanced himself from them in "My Back Pages":

* {{Rockumentary}}: D A Pennebaker's ''Film/DontLookBack'' [sic] from Dylan's 1965 tour of the UK is one of the [[TropeMakers earliest examples]]. Dylan followed it up with the [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs slightly less coherent]] ''Eat The Document'', filmed during the 1966 tour, which remains unreleased (though bootleg copies circulate). There's also Creator/MartinScorsese's documentaries ''No Direction Home'' (2005) and ''Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story'' (2019--which mixes in some {{Mockumentary}} elements).

* 2018 - ''The Bootleg Series Vol. 14 - [[Music/BloodOnTheTracks More Blood, More Tracks]]''

* {{Rockumentary}}: D A Pennebaker's ''Film/DontLookBack'' [sic] from Dylan's 1965 tour of the UK is one of the [[TropeMakers earliest examples]]. Dylan followed it up with the [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs slightly less coherent]] ''Eat The Document'', filmed during the 1966 tour, which remains unreleased (though bootleg copies circulate). There's also Creator/MartinScorsese's documentaries ''No Direction Home'' (2005) and ''Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story'' (2019).

* PrecisionFStrike: "Hurricane" from ''Music/{{Desire}}''

---> ''"I don't believe you... You're a '''liar!''' PLAY IT FUCKING LOUD!"''

--> ''Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome: [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic the poet laureate of rock 'n' roll]]. The voice of the promise of TheSixties counterculture. [[GenreTurningPoint The guy who forced]] {{folk|Music}} into bed with {{rock|AndRoll}}. Who [[TheRockstar donned make-up]] in TheSeventies and disappeared into [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs a haze of substance abuse]]. Who emerged to [[ChristianRock find Jesus]]. Who was written off as [[OldSoldier a has-been]] by the end of TheEighties, and who [[HesBack suddenly shifted gears]] releasing some of the strongest music of his career [[OldMaster beginning in the late]] [[TheNineties Nineties]]. Ladies and gentlemen - Creator/{{Columbia|Records}} [[AllAPartOfTheJob recording artist]] Bob Dylan!''

* CoverVersion: For an artist often praised more for his song-writing than his performances, Dylan loves doing other people's material - ranging from folk and blues songs to Music/FrankSinatra and Music/TheClash. After Music/WarrenZevon announced he had cancer, Dylan started playing 2-3 Warren Zevon covers [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments at every show]] for an entire tour.

** Also from the live version of "Like A Rolling Stone" in Manchester, 1966. [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Don't call Dylan "Judas".]]

* NeverAcceptedInHisHometown: Hibbing, Minnesota, where he spent most of his youth, has had a complicated relationship with him. Locals barely even acknowledged him during his meteoric rise to fame in TheSixties. The attitude softened considerably once the Baby Boom generation rose to leadership positions in the town. They starting holding a Dylan Days festival around his birthday, and renamed the street he grew up on as Bob Dylan Drive. But as the economy in Hibbing started failing, the much larger city of Duluth, where he was born, [[http://www.startribune.com/duluth-rallies-around-bob-dylan-s-75th-birthday-as-hibbing-struggles/380331691/ has taken on a bigger role in honoring him]]. The Nobel Prize no doubt adds a new twist to the situation.

* {{Rockumentary}}: D A Pennebaker's ''Film/DontLookBack'' [sic] from Dylan's 1965 tour of the UK is one of the [[TropeMakers earliest examples]]. Dylan followed it up with the [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs slightly less coherent]] ''Eat The Document'', filmed during the 1966 tour, which remains unreleased (though bootleg copies circulate). There's also Creator/MartinScorsese's 2005 documentary ''No Direction Home''.

* MagnificentBastard: In the story told in "Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts", the Jack of Hearts comes off as one of these.

* AltumVidetur: In the most bizarre moment on ''Music/ChristmasInTheHeart'' (which is saying a lot), he opens "O Come All Ye Faithful" with the original "Adeste Fideles" verse. His pronunciation isn't bad, but it's still Bob Dylan singing Latin.

* Music/TheGratefulDead: Dylan toured with them in 1987, resulting in the live album ''Dylan And The Dead''...which fans of both acts would just as soon [[FanonDiscontinuity pretend never happened]].

* BSide: Generally his singles just had album tracks on the flip side, sometimes even tracks from previous albums. But once in a while he'd slip in a rare song on a B-side that wouldn't get released anywhere else, like a version of "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" recorded live in England (on the flip of "I Want You" in 1966), and a version of the cowboy song "Spanish is the Loving Tongue", where he accompanied himself on piano (on the flip of "Watching the River Flow" in 1971). "George Jackson" was unique because both sides of the single had the same song, but in different arrangements. There was the "acoustic version" (Dylan with just acoustic guitar and harmonica), and the "big band version" (Dylan again on acoustic guitar and harmonica, along with a bass, a piano, a steel guitar, and backing vocalists).

%%** The 1973 album ''Dylan'' is largely this.

* BlaseBoast: PlayedForLaughs ([[ShrugOfGod probably]]) by the concert introduction he used for years, starting in 2002. It's originally from an article about him in a Buffalo, New York newspaper. Dylan apparently either found flattering or so hilarious he had to turn it into a RunningGag, with his stage manager Al Santos reciting these lines in a flat, rushed manner:

* BlaseBoast: PlayedForLaughs ([[ShrugOfGod probably]]) by the concert introduction he used for years, starting in 2002. It's originally from an article about him in a Buffalo, New York newspaper Dylan apparently either found flattering or so hilarious he had to turn it into a RunningGag, with his stage manager Al Santos reciting these lines in a flat, rushed manner:

* BlaseBoast: PlayedForLaughs ([[ShrugOfGod probably]]) by the introduction he used for years, starting in 2002. It's originally from an article about him, which Dylan apparently either found flattering or so hilarious he had to turn it into a RunningGag.

--> ''I told you "The Times They Are A-Changin'" and they did! I said the answer was "Blowin’ In The Wind" and it was! And I'm saying to you now, Jesus is coming back.''

--> ''I told you "The Times They Are A-Changing" and they did! I said the answer was "Blowin’ In The Wind" and it was! And I'm saying to you now, Jesus is coming back.''