His official name is Robert Allen Zimmerman, or under his stage name Bob Dylan, he was born on May 24, 1941 in Minnesota. Dylan, the son of Abram Zimmerman and Beatrice “Beatty” Stone, grew up in Hibbing, the same state.
This is how encyclopedias begin to tell about his life, but for the rest we can refer to the book he wrote himself. Dylan’s grandfather Zigman Zimmerman and grandmother Anna Zimmerman are originally from Kağızman.
In the first volume of his three-series book about his life and 40-year career, Dylan states that his grandmother was from Trabzon and had the surname Kyrgyz.
In his 304-page book Chronicles, which describes important periods in Bob Dylan’s life and is described as “extraordinary and surprising” by his publisher David Rosenthal, it is stated that the grandmother came from Turkey. While describing his grandmother in his book, Dylan includes the following words:
“There was always a look of despair on my grandmother’s face. My grandmother has a difficult life adventure. They came to America from Odessa, a port city in Southern Russia. They already migrated there from Trabzon, another Black Sea port city in Turkey. My grandmother’s family is originally from Kağızmanlı (Kars), a small town on the Armenian border. Their surname is ‘Kyrgyz’. Your grandfather’s family also comes from the same area. They were engaged in the leather and shoe business. “My grandmother’s ancestors came to this region from Istanbul.”
What a life…
Let’s continue: Bob Dylan, who wrote that he always sang Ritchie Valens’ song “In a Turkish Town” during his adolescence, said: “My mother had a friend named Nellie Turk. He wouldn’t leave our house. “In those years, I used to sing the song ‘In a Turkish Town’ by Ritchie Valens, whose song ‘La Bamba’ was known by everyone, about the mysterious Turks and the distant stars in the sky,” he says.
Little Robert, who started playing guitar at the age of 10, entered the University of Minnesota after graduating from Hibbing High School in 1959. However, he left the university in 1960 and went to New York by hitchhiking.
The artist, who started performing in folk clubs in Greenwich Village, decided to change his name here. He achieved an interesting style by playing the mouth harmonica at the same time as the guitar, and in 1961, the name Bob Dylan moved beyond folk music circles. Critic Robert Shelton, who heard him play at the club Gerde’s Folk City, spoke highly of this young talent in the New York Times, and now everyone knows him.
Jimi Hendrix, who is considered the greatest guitarist of all time, describes his encounter with Bob Dylan in the book titled ‘Starting from Scratch / My Story’ with the following words: “When I first listened to Dylan, I thought we should admire the man for having the courage to sing so out of tune. But then I started paying attention to the lyrics. “I was struck.”
He was also very impressed by Dylan’s habit of writing down everything he saw. Just him? The living legend, who is 81 years old today, has influenced not only music lovers, but also hundreds of artists with his songs, poems, life and stance. Dozens of biographies have been written about him. He is one of the rare musicians whose life was the subject of a movie while he was alive. I think if we collected everything written about their songs and albums, we would create a small library.
The legendary musician gives an interesting response to criticism about his voice at the gala night held for the 50th anniversary of his career: “Critics say about me, ‘He can’t sing anymore.’ Some people compare my voice to a frog. Some people think I should keep quiet now. Why aren’t similar comments made about Leonard Cohen or Tom Waits? I’ve never heard anything like that said about Lou Reed either. “What did I do to deserve these words?”
While the fact that an 81-year-old musician could still stay on stage and sing for two hours should be celebrated, and when the subject was Dylan, there was no need to be so cruel. At least for the sake of his songs and the days gone by, each of which is almost a legend.
Dylan, who was 18 years old when he left the university, which he described as “a place where more people died than a nursing home”, has since then devoted himself only to writing and singing. Although his self-titled album, released in 1962, did not receive the expected attention, he took the first step towards becoming a legend with ‘The Freewheelin”, released the following year.
Because there is a song in this album that is among the unforgettable ones in music history. This track is, of course, Blowin’ in the Wind. The song, performed by legendary names such as Duke Ellington, Bobby Darin, Elvis Presley and Stevie Wonder, has been interpreted in dozens of languages and still continues to be interpreted. Afterwards, the albums came one after another and Bob Dylan’s fame went beyond America and he became an artist known and followed all over the world.
The underlying reason why he was such a productive musician was that he constantly wrote, as we mentioned in the introduction of the article. Especially his curiosity about poetry and his constant thinking about something inspired him. He often wrote the lyrics of his unforgettable songs on thick toilet paper, which he said was ‘the ideal verse width’. Dylan was a figure who witnessed the birth of the beat generation. He was a close friend of Allen Ginsberg, one of the most important poets of the Beat. Ginsberg was singing on stage with Dylan, and thanks to Dylan, he was bringing his poetry to the crowd. So he was always involved with poetry and literature.
Dylan was a Rock ‘n Roll legend in the beginning. However, he would move away from this style for a while and focus on folk music. One reason he chose folk music was that he wouldn’t need anything other than his guitar and harmonica. Another reason was that he believed that this type of music limited him. Because he was making music primarily for himself, not for others. In an interview with him, he said, “The Rock ‘n Roll thing wasn’t enough for me. When I got into folk music I knew it was something more serious for me. “The songs were mostly about many deep emotions such as unhappiness, despair, victory, faith,” he explained the reason for this choice.
In his songs, he talked not only about love and affection, but also about universal issues. From the meaninglessness of wars, from faith, from injustice… During the US occupation of Vietnam, Dylan was writing the most beautiful songs of his career. Due to the protest elements in the lyrics of these songs, their songs became symbols of anti-war sentiment.
Even though each of his songs received reactions from different segments of society, he continued to write and sing regardless of anyone. Although he constantly made political references in his songs, he was not actively interested in politics…
Dylan, who was influenced by many people, was of course also influenced by many people. Apart from the poets and many writers whose names we have listed above, one of the names that influenced him the most was Joen Baez. They had a two-year relationship with Joan Baez, who, in addition to being a musician, was also a staunch activist in the civil liberation struggle, and Dylan was very impressed by Baez. Baez is also from Dylan, of course. Baez talked about her love for Dylan in the song Diamonds and Rust. Another woman who influenced Dylan the most was his wife, Sara Lownds. Although their relationship was very painful, Lownds was one of the most important women in Dylan’s life.
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