Bob Dylan at 80. An eloquent tribute to the iceberg genius

 

Today, as we have relentlessly and quite rightly been reminded, is Bob Dylan's 80th birthday.

A woman he once loved, Joan Baez, passed the same milestone in January and a British singer and musician from whom he learned a little, Martin Carthy, was 80 on Friday. Other notables born in 1941 range from the US politician Bernie Sanders and Swedish actress Ann-Margret and music industry figures including Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel and Neil Diamond.

A good case can be made that the life and work of Dylan have had a greater impact on the world than any of the others I mention.

In a fitting climax to our Dylan at 80 series, Salut! Live wishes the rock'n roll beatnik bard a happy birthday and presents this compelling appreciation by my friend, Bill Taylor, a fine writer, photographer, supporter of Sunderland AFC and, like a former SAFC manager, Roy Keane, a lifelong Dylan fan ...

         Looking more like Vincent Price than Vincent Price, the iceberg that is Bob Dylan turns 80 on Monday.

         Cool, hard, diamond-bright and, just as 90 per cent of an iceberg is underwater, what you see with Dylan has always been a good deal less than what you get.

         Plus, just as an iceberg’s lifespan is as much as 3,000 years, Dylan seems to go on forever.

         His so-called Never-Ending Tour, an ongoing series of concert dates, began on June 7 1988. Even allowing for an inevitable pandemic hiatus, that’s monumental.

 

                                                            Bob Dylan's oil painting, Midnight Caller

. Image by Rowland Scherman