Bob Dylan

At 82 years old, Bob Dylan has this physical status:

Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman; May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, author, and visual artist who has been a major figure in popular culture for more than fifty years.

Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" (1963) and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" (1964) became anthems for the civil rights movement and anti-war movement.

His lyrics during this period incorporated a wide range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences, defied pop-music conventions and appealed to the burgeoning counterculture. Following his self-titled debut album in 1962, which mainly comprised traditional folk songs, Dylan made his breakthrough as a songwriter with the release of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan the following year.

The album featured "Blowin' in the Wind" and the thematically complex "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall." For many of these songs, he adapted the tunes and phraseology of older folk songs.

He went on to release the politically charged The Times They Are a-Changin' and the more lyrically abstract and introspective Another Side of Bob Dylan in 1964.

In 1965 and 1966, Dylan encountered controversy when he adopted electrically amplified rock instrumentation, and in the space of 15 months recorded three of the most important and influential rock albums of the 1960s: Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Highway 61 Revisited (1965) and Blonde on Blonde (1966).

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Life and career

Bob Dylan was born in Duluth, Minnesota, and was raised in Hibbing, Minnesota, west of Lake Superior, and named as Robert Allen Zimmerman (Hebrew). Following the pogroms against Jews of 1905, Dylan's paternal grandparents, Anna Kirghiz and Zigman Zimmerman, immigrated from Odesa (now Ukraine) to the United States. Florence and Ben Stone, both Lithuanian Jews who arrived in the United States in 1902, were among the nation's first Jews. Dylan wrote that his paternal grandmother's family was from Kars Province, northeastern Turkey, in his autobiography, Volume 1.

Dylan's father, Abram Zimmerman, and his mother Beatrice "Beatty" Stone were members of a small, close-knit Jewish synagogue. They lived in Duluth until Dylan was six years old, when his father contracted polio and the family returned to Hibbing, where they lived for the remainder of Dylan's life, and his father and paternal uncles ran a furniture and appliance store. He listened to the radio in his early years, first to blues and country radio stations from Shreveport, Louisiana, then to rock and roll as a youth.

While attending Hibbing High School, Dylan formed several bands. He performed covers of songs by Little Richard and Elvis Presley in the Golden Chords. The kids' "Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay" was so loud that the principal had to cut the mic. "Robert Zimmerman: to join 'Little Richard'" in Dylan's high school yearbook in 1959. He appeared on two dates with Bobby Vee, playing piano and clapping this year. Dylan moved to Minneapolis in September 1959 and enrolled at the University of Minnesota. In a 1985 interview, he explains that his obsession with rock and roll gave way to American folk music: he said in a 1985 interview:

Dylan, who lived at the Sigma Alpha Mu house, began to perform at the Ten O'Clock Scholar, a coffeehouse a few blocks from campus, and became active in the Dinkytown folk music scene. He began to introduce himself as "Bob Dylan" during this period. He wrote in his memoir that he considered adopting the surname Dillon but then discovered poems by Dylan Thomas and settled on the less popular variant. "You're born, you know, the wrong names, wrong parents," he said in a 2004 interview. That's what I mean. You choose what you want to call yourself. This is the land of the free.

Dylan dropped out of college at the end of his first year in May 1960. In January 1961, he travelled to New York City to see his musical idol Woody Guthrie, who was critically ill with Huntington's disease in Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital. Guthrie was a revelation to Dylan and influenced his early performances. Guthrie's writing portrayed his influence: "The songs themselves had the infinite sweep of humanity in them." "The American spirit was the true voice of the American spirit," he said. I told myself I was going to be Guthrie's greatest disciple." Dylan met Guthrie's protégé, Ramblin's Jack Elliott, while visiting Guthrie in hospital. In Chronicles: Volume One, Elliott channeled a substantial portion of Guthrie's repertoire, and Dylan paid tribute to Elliott. Dylan later said he was inspired by African-American poets he encountered on New York streets, particularly Big Brown.

Dylan played in clubs around Greenwich Village, England, including Dave Van Ronk, Fred Neil, Odetta, Odetta, Odetta, and the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, all played in clubs around Greenwich Village, collecting and learning from folk singers, including Dave Van Ronk, Fred Neil, Odetta, Odetta. On Harry Belafonte's 1962 album Midnight Special, he often joined other musicians on harmonica, resulting in Dylan filling in for the ailing Sonny Terry. "This was my first professional recording debut," Dylan later referred to this session. "Bob Dylan: A Distinctive Folk-Song Stylist" by Robert Shelton in September, "Bob Dylan: A Struggle Stylist," The New York Times reporter boosted Dylan's career with a glowing review of his career at Gerde's Folk City. Dylan performed harmonica on folk singer Carolyn Hester's third album, bringing him to the attention of the album's engineer, John Hammond, who signed Dylan to Columbia Records. Bob Dylan's first album, which was released on March 19, 1962, featured familiar folk, blues, and gospel with just two original compositions. In its first year, the album sold 5,000 copies, but not enough to break even.

He legally changed his name to Robert Dylan in August 1962 and signed a management agreement with Albert Grossman. Grossman was Dylan's boss until 1970, and he was known for his often combative demeanor and devoted allegiance. "He was just like a Colonel Tom Parker figure... you could smell him coming," Dylan said. Grossman's tension with John Hammond led to the latter's suggestion that Dylan collaborated with young African-American jazz musician Tom Wilson, who produced several tracks for the second album without acknowledging anyone. Wilson released the next three albums Dylan released.

Dylan traveled from December 1962 to January 1963 on his first return to the United Kingdom. He had been invited by television director Philip Saville to appear in a drama called Madhouse on Castle Street, which Saville was directing for BBC Television. Dylan performed "Blowin' in the Wind," one of the company's first public performances. Dylan spent time in London at Troubadour, Les Cousins, and Bunjies. He also obtained information from UK performers, including Martin Carthy.

Dylan's second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, was out in May 1963, and he'd started to make his name as a singer-songwriter. Many songs on the album were characterized as protest songs, partly inspired by Guthrie's passion for topical songs. "Oxford Town" was a chronicle of James Meredith's demise as the first black student to risk enrollment at the University of Mississippi. "Blowin' in the Wind," the album's first song, partially borrowed its melody from "No More Auction Block," although its lyrics challenged the current social and political status. Other musicians had widely distributed the song and it became a hit for Peter, Paul, and Mary. "A Hard Rain's a Gonna Fall" was based on the folk ballad "Lord Randall." It became a familiar story when the Cuban Missile Crisis emerged a few weeks after Dylan began performing it. "A Hard Rain's a Gogo Fall", a stream-of-consciousness, a lyrical assault with traditional folk form, "Blowin' in the Wind" was a new step in songwriting, mixing a stream-of-consciousness and a lyrical assault with a slew of irony.

Dylan's subjectal songs made him appear as more than just a songwriter. "These were the songs that established [Dylan] as the voice of his generation," Janet Maslin wrote about Freewheelin": "Manyone who implicitly understood how worried young Americans were about nuclear disarmament and the increasing Civil Rights Movement was perhaps the most pertinent of his attributes." Love songs and surreal talking blues were also included in Freewheelin's collection. Humor was a central part of Dylan's persona, and the album's range of songs impressed listeners, including the Beatles. "We just played it, just wore it out," George Harrison said of the album: The song lyrics and just the attitude were both inspiring and wonderful.

For some, Dylan's singing was unsettling, but for others, it was an attraction. "The effect was dramatic and electrifying" when we first heard this raw, very young, and obviously untrained voice, frankly nasal." Many early songs were released in more palatable versions by other artists, such as Joan Baez, who became Dylan's advocate and lover. Baez was instrumental in bringing Dylan to fame by recording several of his early songs and bringing him on stage during her performances. The Byrds, Sonny & Cher, the Hollies, Peter, Paul and Mary, the Association, Manfred Mann, and the Turtles were among Dylan's hits with Dylan's songs in the early 1960s.

In December 1962, Dylan's first single, "Mixed-Up Confusion," was recorded during a back-and-forth session with a backing band, but then quickly pulled it out. The single displayed a willingness to experiment with a rockabilly sound, in contrast to the album's mainly solo acoustic performances. Cameron Crowe called it "a fascinating glimpse at a folk artist with his mind wandering toward Elvis Presley and Sun Records."

Dylan's political profile soared after he stepped out of The Ed Sullivan Exhibition in May 1963. Dylan had been warned by CBS television's head of show operations that "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues" was potentially offensive to the John Birch Society. Dylan declined to appear rather than comply with censorship.

Dylan and Baez were active in the civil rights movement by this time, performing together at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. Dylan's third album, They Are a Changin, reflected a more politicized Dylan. The songs were often referred to contemporary life, with "Only a Pawn in Their Game" addressing the murder of civil rights worker Medgar Evers; and the Brechtian "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" addressing the death of black hotel barmaid Hattie Carroll in the custody of young white socialite William Zantzinger. "Ballad of Hollis Brown" and "North Country Blues" explored poverty engendered by the breakdown of farming and mining communities, which was on a more general topic. "Boots of Spanish Leather" and "One Too Many Mornings" were two of my political songs.

Dylan was both manipulated and constricted by the folk and resistance movements by the end of 1963. Soon after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, an intoxicated Dylan, described the members as old and bald, Lee Harvey Oswald's assassination, the members were described as old and bald, with a look at himself and every man in Kennedy's assassination.

Bob Dylan on Sunday, 1964, had a brighter mood. On "I Shall Be Free No. No. No. 71," Dylan resurfaced. "Motorpsycho Nightmare" and "Motorpsycho Nightmare" are two of the 10" and "Motorpsycho Nightmare." "Spanish Harlem Incident" and "To Ramona" are two passionate love songs, while "Black Crow Blues" and "She Acts Like We Never Have Met" predict that the rock and roll will take over Dylan's music shortly. On the surface, a song about spurned passion has been described as a denial of the position of political spokesman thrust on him. Two lengthy songs, "Chimes of Freedom," which provides social commentary against a metaphorical landscape in a style that Allen Ginsberg has described as "chains of flashing images," and "My Back Pages," which criticizes the straightforward and arch seriousness of his own earlier topical songs and anticipates the backlash he is set to face from his former rivals as he begins anew direction.

Dylan transformed from folk singer to folk rock pop-music star in the second half of 1964 and 1965. His jeans and work shirts were replaced by a Carnaby Street wardrobe, sunglasses day or night, and pointed to "Beatle boots." "Hair that will set the teeth of a comb on edge" is a London reporter wrote. A tumultuous jacket that would fade Leicester Square's neon lights. He's like an undernourished cockatoo." Dylan began to spar with interviewers. It would be a cowboy horror film, according to Crane, who appeared on the Les Crane television show and inquired about a film he wanted. Dylan replied, "I don't play my mother." When asked if he played the cowboy, Dylan answered, "No, I play my mother."

Dylan's late March 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home was another leap, with his first recordings using electric guitars under producer Tom Wilson's guidance. "Subterranean Homesick Blues," Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business" was a key component of beat poetry's revival and as a harbinger of hip-hop and a precursor of rap and hip-hop. Dont Look Back, a 1966 tour of Great Britain, was released in a first music video by D. A. Pennebaker, opening D. A. Pennebaker's cinéma vérité presentation of Dylan's 1965 tour of Great Britain. Dylan demonstrated the lyrics by throwing cue cards with key words from the song on the ground rather than miming. Dylan's idea was imitated in music videos and advertisements, according to Pennebaker, and it has been imitated in music videos and advertisements.

Dylan performed four long songs on which Dylan accompanied himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica on the second half of Bringing It All Back Home. When the Byrds released an electric version that reached number one in the United States and United Kingdom, "Mr. Tambourine Man" became one of his best-known songs. Dylan's most popular compositions, "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," and "I'm Only Bleeding" were two of Dylan's most popular songs.

Dylan performed his first electric set since high school in 1965 with a pickup band featuring Mike Bloomfield on guitar and Al Kooper on organ. Dylan appeared at Newport in 1963 and 1964, but after three songs, the audience erupted in 1965. According to one of them, the boos were from folk followers who Dylan had alienated by appearing with an electric guitar. "I absolutely agree that they were booing Dylan going electric," Murray Lerner, who filmed the performance, said. Audience members were upstaged by poor sound and a short set, according to an alternate account.

Nevertheless, Dylan's appearance sparked a hostile reaction from the folk music establishment. "Our traditional songs and ballads are the works of extraordinarily talented artists whose disciplines have evolved over time," Ewan MacColl wrote in the September issue of Sing Out! "Outraged teenagers screamed outraged... Only a completely non-critical audience, nourished on pop music's spongy pap, may have fallen for such tenth-rate drivel." Dylan was back in the studio in New York on July 29, four days after Newport, Dylan's album "Positively 4th Street" was released. The lyrics contained images of vengeance and indignation, and they have been interpreted as Dylan's punishment of former members of the folk group, which he had encountered in clubs along West 4th Street.

Dylan's six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" reached number two in the United States chart in 1965. Rolling Stone named it as one of the "Top Songs of All Time" in 2004 and 2011. Bruce Springsteen said on first hearing the single, "that snare shot sounded like somebody's kicked open the door to your mind." The song appeared on Dylan's new album, Highway 61 Revisited, named after the road that took from Dylan's Minnesota to New Orleans' musical hotbed. The songs were in the same vein as the hit single, with Mike Bloomfield's blues guitar and Al Kooper's organ riffs infused. Dylan is the only exception in a song described by Andy Gill as "an 11-minute epic of entropy" featuring a large cast of memorable characters, some historical (Einstein, Nero), some religious (Noah, Cain and Abel), some fictional (T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound), and others that fall into none of the above categories, including Dr. Filth and his infamous nurse).

Dylan was booked for two U.S. concerts with Al Kooper and Harvey Brooks from his studio crew, and Levon Helm, former members of Ronnie Hawkins' backing band the Hawks. The audience was still disgusted by Dylan's electric sound at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium on August 28. The band's reception at the Hollywood Bowl on September 3 was more enthralling.

Dylan toured the United States and Canada for six months from September 24, 1965, in Austin, Texas, backed by the five members of the Hawks who became known as The Band. Although Dylan and the Hawks attracted increasingly affluent audiences, their studio efforts flourished. In February 1966, producer Bob Johnston convinced Dylan to record in Nashville, and he was surrounded by top-notch session boys. Robertson and Kooper, two New York City students, arrived at Dylan's insistence to attend the sessions. The Blonde on Blonde (1966), which Dylan referred to as "that thin wild mercury sound," was included in Dylan's double album Blonde on Blonde (1966). It's "taking two cultures and smashing them together in a big explosion," Kooper said. Nashville and the world of Bob Dylan's "quintessible New York hipster" Bob Dylan were among the musical worlds.

Dylan eschew Patrick Lownds, a 25-year-old former actress, on November 22, 1965. Dylan denied being married right after the fact, according to several of Dylan's friends, including Ramblin's Jack Elliott. In February 1966, journalist Nora Ephron wrote the headline "Hush!!" in the New York Post. Bob Dylan is wed."

Dylan toured Australia and Europe in April and May 1966. Each show was divided in two halves. During the first half, Dylan performed solo, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica. He amplified music in the second, aided by the Hawks. Several followers erupted and staggered as a result of the comparison. Dylan and his followers met in a raucous confrontation at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in England on May 17, 1966. In 1998, the Bootleg Collection Vol. 2 was released. 4: Bob Dylan Lives 1966. "Judas!" a member of the audience yelled at Dylan's electrical support yelled at the end of the evening. "I don't believe you, you're a liar," Dylan responded, "I don't believe you." Dylan reacted angrily to his band, adding, "Play it loud." "Like a Rolling Stone" was their first song of the night, as they began their set: "Like a Rolling Stone."

Dylan was described as drained and inactive on his 1966 tour, "as if on a death trip." Dylan's tour guide, D. A. Pennebaker, referred to him as "taking a lot of amphetamine and who knows what else exists." "I was on the road for nearly five years," Dylan said in a 1969 interview with Jann Wenner. It wore me down. A lot of things were on drugs, but I wanted to keep going, you know?"

Dylan, a Triumph Tiger 100, died in Woodstock, New York, on July 29, 1966. Dylan said he fractured multiple vertebrae in his neck. Since no ambulance was dispatched and Dylan was not hospitalized, mystery still surrounds the crash. Dylan's biographers have stated that the accident gave him the opportunity to escape the pressures surrounding him. "I had been in a motorcycle crash and I'd been wounded," Dylan shared in his autobiography Chronicles, but I recovered." I wanted to get out of the rat race, which was the truth. He made few public appearances and did not tour again for nearly eight years.

Dylan began to edit D. A. Pennebaker's film from his 1966 tour once he was fit to resume creative work. To ABC television, a rough cut was shown but mainstream audiences were unable to comprehend it. The film, Eat the Document, has since been shown at a handful of film festivals. Dylan performed over 100 songs at his Woodstock home and in the basement of the Hawks' nearby "Big Pink" house in 1967, excluding public view. These songs were first released as demos for other musicians to record, and Julie Driscoll, the Byrds, and Manfred Mann were among the first hits on Julie Driscoll's debut. Columbia released a select from The Basement Tapes double album in 1975. Dylan and his band's songs on bootleg records appeared piecemeal on bootleg albums, but they weren't released in complete until 2014 as The Basement Tapes Complete.

Dylan returned to studio recording in Nashville in the fall of 1967, accompanied by Charlie McCoy on bass, Kenny Buttrey on drums, and Pete Drake on steel guitar. The result was John Wesley Harding, a series of short songs thematically based on the American West and the Bible. The sparse structure and instrumentation, as well as lyrics that took the Judeo-Christian faith seriously, was a departure from Dylan's previous work. "All Along the Watchtower" was included in the program. Woody Guthrie died in October 1967, and Dylan made his first live appearance in 20 months at Carnegie Hall on January 20, 1968, where he was backed by the Band.

Nashville Skyline (1969) was Dylan's next film release, as well as Johnny Cash's duet and single "Lay Lady Lay." "Dylan is clearly doing something that can be described as singing," Variety wrote. Somehow, he has managed to add an octave to his arsenal. Dylan and Cash recorded a series of duets during one recording session, but only their version of Dylan's "Girl from the North Country" was released on the album.

Dylan appeared on the first episode of Johnny Cash's television show in May 1969 and performed a duet with Cash of "Girl from the North Country" with solos of "Life the Blues" and "I Threw It All Away." After rejecting overtures to appear at the Woodstock Festival closer to his house, Dylan returned to England to top the bill at the Isle of Wight Festival on August 31, 1969.

Critics argued that Dylan's output was sporadic and unpredictable in the early 1970s. Greil Marcus, a Rolling Stone writer, wondered, "What is this shit?" The first time I heard Self Portrait was published in June 1970, I was on the first listening to this site. It was a double LP with no original songs on it, and it was poorly received. Dylan's New Morning, which was released in October 1970, was viewed as a return to form. On June 9, 1970, Dylan sang of "Day of the Locusts," a song in which Dylan related to being granted an honorary degree from Princeton University. Dylan co-written "I Have Anytime" with George Harrison in November 1968; Harrison sang "I'd Have You Anytime" and Dylan's "If Not For You" on his 1970 solo triple album All Things Must Pass. Dylan's surprise appearance at Harrison's 1971 Concert for Bangladesh attracted media coverage, reflecting that Dylan's live appearances had become rare.

Dylan spent three days at Blue Rock, a small studio in Greenwich Village, to record with Leon Russell between March 16 and 19. These sessions culminated in the release of "Watching the River Flow" and a new video of "When I Paint My Masterpiece." Dylan released "George Jackson" on November 4, 1971, a week later. For those, the single was a strange return to protest material, with Black Panther George Jackson killed in San Quentin State Prison last year. Under the pseudonym Robert Milkwood Thomas, Dylan Thomas' album titled Under Milk Wood and his own name) in September 1972, Dylan Thomas contributed piano and harmony to Steve Goodman's album, Somebody Else's Troubles.

Dylan joined Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid in 1972, providing songs and backing music for the film, as well as appearing in "Alias," a member of Billy's gang with some historical context. Despite the film's loss at the box office, the song "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" became one of Dylan's most popular songs.

In 1972, Dylan protested the decision to deport John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who had been found guilty of smoking marijuana, by writing a letter to the US Immigration Service, part "Hurray for John and Yoko." Let them live and breathe here. The country has a lot of space and open space.

Let John and Yoko stay!"

Dylan began 1973 by signing with Asylum Records, David Geffen's Asylum Records, before his Columbia Records contract came to an end. Planet Waves, his next album, was released in the fall of 1973, and the Band served as his backing band as they rehearsed for a big tour. Two different versions of "Forever Young," which became one of his most famous songs, were included on the album. The song portrayed "something hymnal and heartfelt that spoke about the father in Dylan," according to Dylan himself: "I wrote it thinking about one of my boys and not trying to be too sentimental." Dylan, a series of studio outtakes, was also released by Columbia Records, which was widely interpreted as a churlish reaction to Dylan's signing with a rival record label.

Dylan, backed by the Band, embarked on a North American tour of 40 concerts in January 1974, his first tour in seven years. On Asylum Records, a live double album was released before the Flood. Columbia Records founder Clive Davis told CBS that they "will spare nothing to bring Dylan back to the fold." Dylan had second thoughts about Asylum, who was dissatisfied that Geffen had only sold 600,000 copies of Planet Waves, despite millions of unfull ticket requests for the 1974 tour; he returned to Columbia Records, which reissued his two Asylum albums.

Dylan and his wife were apprehension after the tour. He filled three small notebooks with songs about marriages and breakups, as well as recording the album Blood on the Tracks in September 1974. Dylan postponed the album's release and re-recorded half of the songs at Sound 80 Studios in Minneapolis with production assistance from his brother, David Zimmerman.

Blood on the Tracks, which was launched in early 1975, received mixed feedback. Nick Kent described the "companiments" as "often so rubbish they sound like simple exercise takes" in the NME. "The record has been made with typical shoddiness," Jon Landau wrote in Rolling Stone. Critics used to see it as one of Dylan's finest achievements over the years. "Blood on the Tracks is his only flawless album and his best-produced," journalist Bill Wyman wrote on the Salon website; each of them are made in a disciplined manner. It's his kindest album and most dissatisfied, and it seems he has a perfect balance between his mid-1960s-era logorrhea oversight excesses and his post-accident years's self-consciously simple compositions.

Dylan champion boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, who was arrested for a triple murder in Paterson, New Jersey, was arrested for three months in the middle of the year, with his ballad "Hurricane" arguing for Carter's innocence. Despite its length—more than eight minutes—the album was released as a single, peaking at 33 on the United States, peaking at 33. The Rolling Thunder Revue, Dylan's latest tour, is based on a billboard chart and appeared on every 1975 date. The tour included over one hundred performers and supporters from the Greenwich Village folk scene, including T-Bone Burnett, Ramblin's Jack Elliott, Joni Mitchell, David Mansfield, Roger McGuinn, Mick Ronson, Joan Baez, and Scarlet Rivera, who Dylan found walking down the street with her violin case on her back.

The tour spanned late 1975 to early 1976, with some of Dylan's new songs featuring a travelogue-like narrative style, showing the influence of his new collaborator, playwright Jacques Levy. A TV concert special, Ashes, and the LP Hard Rain captured the 1976 tour.

Dylan's nearly four-hour film Renaldo and Clara was shot on the back of a sprawling story woven with concert footage and reminisces from the 1975 trip. The film, which was released in 1978, received mixed, albeit often scathing, critiques. A two-hour edit, dominated by the concert performances, was more widely distributed later this year. Rolling Thunder Revue, 1975: Martin Scorsese's A Bob Dylan Story was published by Netflix on June 12, 2019.

Dylan appeared at the Band's "farewell" concert in November 1976, with Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, and Neil Young. The Last Waltz, Martin Scorsese's 1978 cinematic chronicle of the performance, included the majority of Dylan's set.

Dylan embarked on a year-long world tour in 1978, staging 114 shows in Japan, Europe, and North America, drawing a total audience of two million. Dylan formed an eight-piece band and three backing singers. As the live double album Bob Dylan at Budokan, concerts were held in Tokyo in February and March. Reviews were mixed. "British Music Award the album a C+ rating, giving the album a derisory review," Janet Maslin wrote in Rolling Stone: "These latest live versions of his old songs have the effect of liberating Bob Dylan from the originals." The appearance and sound were described as a "Las Vegas Tour" by the press when Dylan first brought the tour to the United States in September 1978. Dylan said he owed debts because "I had a few bad years" during the 1978 tour, which was released in Los Angeles. "I poured a lot of money into the movie and built a big house, but divorce in California is expensive."

Dylan formed Rundown Studios in Santa Monica, California, in April and May 1978, recording an album of new material called Street-Legal. "After Blood On The Tracks, perhaps Dylan's best record of the 1970s, a pivotal moment in Dylan's own biography," Michael Gray said. However, it had bad sound and mixing (owing to Dylan's recording practices), muddying the musical character until a remastered CD release in 1999 revived some of the songs' strengths.

Dylan converted to Evangelical Christianity in the late 1970s, attending the Association of Vineyard Churches' three-month discipleship course. He has released three albums of contemporary gospel music. Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler appeared on The Slow Train Coming (1979), and veteran R&B engineer Jerry Wexler produced him. During the recording, Wexler said that Dylan had attempted to evangelize him. "Bob, you're dealing with a 62-year-old Jewish atheist," he replied. "Let's just make an album." Dylan received the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for his album "Gotta Serve Somebody." Saved (1980), Michael Gray's second Christian album, received mixed reviews, including "the nearest thing to a follow-up album Dylan has ever made," Slow Train Coming II and inferior." Shot of Love, his third Christian album, came in 1981. Dylan did not perform his older, secular works when touring in late 1979 and 1980, and he made public statements of his faith from the stage, such as: 'I am a teacher's old, secular works.'

Any followers and musicians were offended by Dylan's faith. In reaction to Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody," John Lennon, shortly before being assassinated, sang "Serve Yourself." Stephen Holden wrote in The New York Times that "neither age (he's now 40) nor his much-publicized conversion to born-again Christianity has changed his fundamentally iconoclastic temperament."

Dylan performed "A Musical Retrospective" for a brief period of time in late 1980, bringing popular 1960s songs back to the repertoire. Shot of Love, the artist's first secular composition in more than two years, was mixed with Christian songs on April 1. The lyrics of "Every Grain of Sand" mimic William Blake's verse.

Dylan's reception in the 1980s varied, from the well-regarded Infidels in 1983 to the panned Down in the Groove in 1988. Michael Gray sluggishly in the studio and for failing to publish his best songs. The Infidels recording session, which also served as the album's producer and lead guitar, resulted in several songs that Dylan skipped off the record, as an example. "Blind Willie McTell," a tribute to the deceased blues musician and an evocation of African American history, as well as "Foot of Pride" and "Lord Protect My Child" were two of the best known of these. These three songs were released on The Bootleg Series Volume 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) from 1961 to 19991.

Dylan made Empire Burlesque from July 1984 to March 1985. Arthur Baker, who had remixed hits for Bruce Springsteen and Cyndi Lauper, was asked to engineer and mix the album. Baker said he was hired to make Dylan's album sound "a little bit more modern."

Dylan performed on "We Are the World" in 1985, Africa's famine relief song. He also appeared on Artists United Against Apartheid, providing vocals for their single "Sun City." He appeared at the climax at the Live Aid concert at JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, on July 13, 1985. "I hope that some of the money," Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood's ballad of rural poverty, performed before a worldwide audience of over one billion viewers, and later said, "I hope that they can take a little bit of it," his ballad of rural poverty, and, yes, the farmers here owe to the banks." His remarks were widely criticized as ineffective, but Willie Nelson's Farm Aid campaign helped young debt-ridden Americans.

Dylan broke into hip-style in April 1986 when he added vocals to the first verse of "Street Rock," Kurtis Blow's album Kingdom Blow. Dylan's next studio album, Knocked Out Loaded, released in July 1986 with three covers (by Little Junior Parker, Kris Kristofferson, and the gospel song "Precious Memories"), as well as three collaborations (with Tom Petty, Sam Shepard and Carole Bayer Sager), as well as two solo compositions by Dylan. "The record follows too many detours to be persuasive," one reviewer wrote, and some of those detours wind down highways that are indisputably dead ends. While Dylan's findings were not particularly surprising, they didn't mean they were any less troubling." It was the first Dylan album since his 1962 debut to fail to make it to the Top 50. Some commentators have referred to Dylan's "Brownsville Girl," a work of genius, since then.

Dylan performed with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in 1986 and 1987, sharing vocals with Petty on several songs per night. Dylan performed with the Grateful Dead in 1987, resulting in the release of Dylan & The Dead, a live album. This album received critical feedback; AllMusic said it was "quite possibly the worst album by either Bob Dylan or the Grateful Dead." On June 7, 1988, Dylan began the Never Ending Tour, which featured guitarist G. E. Smith in a back-up band. Dylan will tour for the next 30 years with a small, shifting band.

Dylan appeared in Richard Marquand's film Hearts of Fire, in which he played Billy Parker, a homeless rock star turned chicken farmer whose teenage lover (Fiona) abandons him for a jaded English synth-pop sensation portrayed by Rupert Everett. Dylan also contributed two original songs to the soundtrack: "Night After Night" and "Had a Dream About You, Baby," as well as a a review of John Hiatt's "The Usual." The film was a critical and commercial flop.

In January 1988, Dylan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with Bruce Springsteen's remarks, "Bob liberated your mind the way Elvis freed your body." Just because music was physiologically sound did not mean that it was anti-intellectual," he said.

Down in the Groove, a May 1988 album, did much worse than his previous studio album. "Any belief that sparked any belief that sparked any belief in the work may lie within," Michael Gray wrote. The idea of a new Bob Dylan album being something important was devalued even more here. The critical and commercial disappointment of that album was quickly followed by the triumph of the Traveling Wilburys. Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty co-founded the band, which also includes George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty, and the company's multi-platinum Traveling Wilburys Vol. in late 1988. On the US albums chart, one of Dylan's most popular songs in years debuted as number one. Despite Orbison's death in December 1988, the remaining four members of the Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3.

Dylan ended the decade on a high note with the release of Oh Mercy by Daniel Lanois. "This cohesive unit, written, vocally distinct, musically warm, and uncompromisingly professional, is the nearest thing to a great Bob Dylan album in the 1980s," Michael Gray wrote. "Most of the Time," a lost love piece, was later included in the film High Fidelity, while "What Was It You Wanted?" Both as a catechism and a wry comment on critics and followers' aspirations have been interpreted. Some commentators criticized "Ring Them Bells" as a reaffirmation of faith.

Dylan's 1990s appeared under the Red Sky (1990), an about-face on the serious Oh Mercy. Several seemingly simple songs such as "Under the Red Sky" and "Wiggle Wiggle" were included in the collection. Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan, a four-year-old girl, was a nickname for Dylan and Carolyn Dennis' daughter, "Gabby Goo Goo," on the album. George Harrison, Slash From Guns N' Roses, David Crosby, Bruce Hornsby, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Elton John were among the musicians on the album. The album received poor feedback and was sold poorly.

Dylan's biographers characterized him as heavily drinker in 1990 and 1991, undermining his onstage appearances. Dylan denied reports that his music was interfering with his music in a Rolling Stone interview: "That's entirely inaccurate." I drink or not drink. I'm not sure why people would associate alcohol with anything I do.

When Dylan received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award from American actor Jack Nicholson in February 1991, he spoke about defilement and remorse. The festival took place at the start of the Gulf War against Saddam Hussein and Dylan performed "Masters of War" at the same time. "You may be defiled in this world," he said to me." If that's true, God will believe in your ability to mend your own ways.' The remark was later revealed to be a quote from 19th-century German Jewish intellectual Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch.

Dylan returned to his roots in the next few years with two albums focusing on traditional folk and blues songs: Good as I Been to You (1992) and World Gone Wrong (1993), backed solely by his acoustic guitar. Many commentators and fans expressed their dissatisfaction with the song "Lone Pilgrim," written by a 19th-century scholar. Dylan appeared on MTV Unplugged two live shows in November 1994. He said that Sony executives, who refused to perform classical songs, had discouraged him from performing traditional songs. "John Brown," an unreleased 1962 film about how excitement for war has resulted in mutilation and disillusion, was included on MTV Unplugged.

Dylan booked recording time with Daniel Lanois at Miami's Criteria Studios in January 1997, with a series of songs written while snowed in on his Minnesota farm. The following recording sessions were, on some accounts, fraught with musical trepidation. Dylan was hospitalized with a life-threatening heart disease called pericarditis caused by histoplasmosis before the album's release. Dylan's planned European tour was postponed, but he recovered quickly and left the hospital, saying, "I really felt I'd be seeing Elvis soon." By mid-year, he was back on the road and performed at the World Eucharistic Conference in Bologna, Italy, before Pope John Paul II. The Pope treated the audience of 200,000 people to a homily based on Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind."

Time Out of Mind, Dylan's latest Lanois-produced album, was released in September. Dylan's first collection of original songs in seven years was well-received, with its bitter review of love and morbid rumors. "The songs themselves are remarkably popular, contributing to Dylan's best overall collection in years." He received his first solo "Album of the Year" Grammy Award for this collection of difficult songs.

In December 1997, US President Bill Clinton awarded Dylan with a Kennedy Center Honor in the East Room of the White House, owing to his contribution to people of my generation's earliest memories: "He certainly had more impact on people of my generation than on any other creative artist." Bob Dylan hasn't always been keen on the ear, but he hasn't stopped trying to please throughout his career. He has disturbed the peace and enraged the mighty.

Dylan began the 2000s by winning the Polar Music Prize in May 2000 and his first Academy Award; his song "Things Have Changed," written for the film Wonder Boys, received an Academy Award for Best Song in 2001.

On September 11, 2001, "Love and Theft" was released. Dylan, a member of his touring band, created the album under the pseudonym Jack Frost. The album was critically acclaimed and received multiple Grammy awards. Dylan's musical palette had been expanded to include rockabilly, Western swing, jazz, and even lounge ballads, according to critics. When The Wall Street Journal highlighted similarities between the album's lyrics and Japanese author Junichi Saga's book Confessions of a Yakuza, "Love and Theft" caused controversies.

Dylan revisited the evangelical songs from his Christian period and appeared in the Bob Dylan compilation Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan. Masked & Anonymous, Dylan's co-wrote with director Larry Charles under the alias Sergei Petrov, was also released this year. Dylan played Jack Fate, the central character in the film, as well as a cast that included Jeff Bridges, Penélope Cruz, and John Goodman. Many called it a "incoherent mess," but a few saw it as a mature work of art.

Dylan's autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One, was published in October 2004. Dylan devoted three chapters to his first year in New York City in 1961–1962, hardly ignoring the mid-1960s when his fame was at its peak. He also dedicated chapters to New Morning (1970) and Oh Mercy (1989). In December 2004, the book debuted at number two on The New York Times' Best Seller List and was shortlisted for a National Book Award.

On BBC Two in the United Kingdom and PBS in the United States, No Direction Home, Martin Scorsese's acclaimed film biography of Dylan, was first broadcast on September 26-27, 2005. The documentary examines Dylan's arrival in New York in 1961 to his motorcycle crash in 1966, starring Suze Rotolo, Liam Clancy, Joan Baez, Allen Ginsberg, Pete Seeger, Mavis Staples, and Dylan himself. In April 2006, the film received a Peabody Award and a Columbia-duPont Award in January 2007. Dylan's early career was represented by the accompanying soundtrack.

Dylan's career as a radio presenter began on May 3, 2006 with his weekly radio show Theme Time Radio Hour for XM Satellite Radio, with song selections on selected topics. Dylan performed classic and obscure recordings from the 1920s to the present day, including contemporary artists such as Blur, Prince, and L.L. Cool J and the Streets. Fans and commentators praised the performance as Dylan told tales and made eclectic claims, expressing their opinions about his musical choices. Dylan performed the 100th show in his radio show "Goodbye" in April 2009; the theme was "Goodbye"; Woody Guthrie's "So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh" was the final track performed. When he broadcast a two-hour special on Sirius Radio Hours on September 21, 2020, Dylan revived his Theme Time Radio Hour format.

In August 2006, Dylan's Modern Times album was released. Despite some coarsening of Dylan's voice (a critic for The Guardian characterized his singing on the album as "a catarrhal death rattle"), most reviewers applauded the album as the last installment of a lucrative trilogy, adopting Time Out of Mind and "Love and Theft." Modern Times debuted at number one in the United States, making it Dylan's first album to debut after 1976's Desire. In Modern Times, the New York Times published an article comparing Dylan's songs to those of Dylan's songs and the Civil War poet Henry Timrod's writings.

Modern Times received Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album, and Bob Dylan received Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance for "Someday Baby" in addition to three Grammy Awards. By Rolling Stone magazine, Modern Times was named Album of the Year in 2006, and Uncut in the United Kingdom was named Album of the Year. Bob Dylan: The Collection, a digital box set containing all of his tracks (773 tracks in total), as well as 42 rare and unreleased tracks, was released on the same day that Modern Times was announced.

Dylan I'm Not There, Todd Haynes' award-winning film biography, was released in August 2007, introducing the tagline "inspired by Bob Dylan's music and many lives." Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw appeared in six different actors to represent different aspects of Dylan's life. Dylan's previously unveiled 1967 album, from which the film's name is taken, was released for the first time on the film's original soundtrack; the film's other tracks are reviews of Dylan songs by a diverse range of musicians, including Sonic Youth, Eddie Vedder, Mason Jennings, Jeffrey Tweedy, Kevin Tweedy, Karen O'stiff, Willie Nelson, Richie Havens, and Tom Verlaine.

Dylan, a 2006 Columbia Records tribute album, was released on October 1, 2007, anthologising his entire career under the Dylan 07 logo. Dylan's commercial profile had risen dramatically since the 1990s, according to the sophistication of the Dylan 07 marketing campaign. This became apparent in 2004, when Dylan was featured in a television commercial for Victoria's Secret lingerie. He appeared in a multi-media campaign for the 2008 Cadillac Escalade three years ago, in October 2007. In 2009, then gave the biggest endorsement of his career, appearing in a Pepsi commercial that debuted during the telecast of Super Bowl XLIII. Dylan performed the first verse of "Forever Young" on the air, then Will.i.am performed a hip hop version of the song's third and final verse.

Vol. 1 of the Bootleg Series. 8 – Tell Tale Signs was released in October 2008 as both a two-CD set and a three-CD set as well as a 150-page hardcover book. The collection includes live performances and outtakes from selected studio albums from Oh Mercy to Modern Times, as well as soundtrack contributions and collaborations with David Bromberg and Ralph Stanley. Some followers and commentators expressed skepticism about the album's "rip-off packaging" after it went on sale for $18.99 and the three-CD version for $29.99. Critics generally applauded the book's arrival. One reviewer said that this volume of old outtakes "feels like a new Bob Dylan record," not only for the impressive freshness of the information, but also for the stunning sound quality and organic feel of everything here.

On April 28, 2009, Bob Dylan's album Together Through Life was released. Dylan explained that the album's origins, not writing a single track, "Life Is Scar," came as a result of French film director Olivier Dahan's request for his latest road film, "My Own Love Song," was released on Dylan's website; "the album sort of took its own course." Bob Dylan and Robert Hunter co-wrote nine of the ten songs on the album. The album received largely positive feedback, but several commentators described it as a minor improvement to Dylan's canon of work. The album debuted at number one in the Billboard 200 chart in the United States, making Bob Dylan (67 years old) the oldest artist to ever debut at number one on the chart.

In October 2009, Dylan's album, Christmas in the Heart, was released, with such Christmas traditions as "Little Drummer Boy," "Winter Wonderland," and "Here Comes Santa Claus." Dylan was "revisiting yuletide styles popularized by Nat King Cole, Mel Tormé, and the Ray Conniff Singers," critics pointed out. Dylan's royalties from the selling of this album were donated to the charities Feeding America in the United States, Crisis in the United Kingdom, and the World Food Programme. The album has received mainly critical feedback. In an interview published in The Big Issue, journalist Bill Flanagan asked Dylan why he had performed the songs in a straightforward manner, and Dylan replied, "There wasn't any other way to enjoy it." These songs are a part of my life, as well as folk songs. You must play them all the time."

In October 18, 2010, Volume 9 of Dylan's Bootleg Series, The Witmark Demos, was released. It consisted of 47 demo recordings of songs taped between 1962 and 1964 for Dylan's first music companies: Leeds Music in 1962, and Witmark Music from 1964 to 1964. One reviewer put the set together as "a hearty glimpse of young Bob Dylan's revolution in the music industry and the world, one note at a time." The album was given a Metascore of 86 by Metacritic, indicating "universal recognition." Bob Dylan: The Original Mono Recordings box set from Sony Legacy unveiled Bob Dylan's eight oldest albums, from Bob Dylan (1962) to John Wesley Harding (1967), in their original mono mix in the CD format for the first time. The CDs were housed in miniature facsimities of the original album covers, replete with original liner notes. A booklet containing an essay by music critic Greil Marcus was included in the set.

Bob Dylan was recorded in Concert by Legacy Recordings on April 12, 1961, two weeks before the introduction of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in Brandeis University. The tape was discovered in Ralph J. Gleason's archives, and Michael Gray, who says it captures Dylan "from way back when Kennedy was President and the Beatles hadn't yet reached America." It shows that he is not at any big moment, but rather giving a show like his folk club sets of the time. This is the last live performance we have of Bob Dylan before he becomes a celebrity.

On Dylan's 70th birthday in 2011, three universities announced a symposia on his work. Literary scholars and cultural historians were invited by the University of Mainz, Vienna, and the University of Bristol to publish papers on certain aspects of Dylan's work. "From Moscow, Norway, to Northampton and Malaysia, to his home state of Minnesota, self-confessed 'Bobcats' honor the 70th anniversary of a giant of popular music," The Guardian reported.

In the White House, US President Barack Obama gave Dylan the Presidential Medal of Freedom on May 29, 2012. Obama praised Dylan's voice at the awards for his "unique gravelly power" that redefined not only what music sounded like but also the message it carried and how it made people feel.

Tempest, Dylan's 35th studio album, was released on September 11, 2012. The album includes a tribute to John Lennon, "Roll On John," as well as a 14-minute track describing the Titanic's sinking. Will Hermes rated Tempest for Rolling Stone: "Obviously, Dylan is at the top of his game, joking around, removing wordplay, and allegories that evade pat readings and quoting other people's names like a freestyle rapper on fire." The album received a score of 83 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim."

Another Self Portrait (1969–1971), Volume 10 of Dylan's Bootleg Collection, was published in August 2013. The album featured 35 previously unreleased tracks from Dylan's 1969-1971 recording sessions during the recording of the Self Portrait and New Morning albums, as well as alternate takes and demos from his 1969–1971 recording sessions. Dylan's appearance with the Band at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1969 contained also a live recording of his performances with the Band. Another Self Portrait received raves, with a score of 81 on Metacritic's critical aggregator, indicating "universal recognition." "For fans, this is more than a curiosity; it's an indispensable addition to the catalog," AllMusic critic Thom Jurek wrote.

Dylan's Complete Album Collection: Vol. 78 released a boxed set containing all 35 Dylan studio albums, six albums of live recordings, and a set titled Sidetracks of non-album stuff. In November 2013, there was one. On Dylan's website, an innovative video of the song "Like a Rolling Stone" was released to promote the 35 album box set. The interactive video, created by director Vania Heymann, allowed viewers to switch between 16 simulated TV channels, all featuring characters lip-synching the lyrics of the 48-year-old song.

Dylan appeared in a commercial for the Chrysler 200 car that was broadcast during the 2014 Super Bowl American football game, which was played on February 2, 2014. "So let Germany brew your beer, let Switzerland make your watch, and let Asia assemble your phone." Dylan says at the end of the commercial: "So let Germany brew your beer, let Switzerland make your watch, let Switzerland make your watch, and let Asia assemble your phone." We'll build your car." Dylan's Super Bowl commercial caused controversy and op-ed pieces on the protectionist implications of his words and whether the singer had "sold out" to corporate interests.

Auction house auction house sales in 2013 and 2014 displayed the high cultural value attached to Dylan's mid-1960s work and the record-breaking fees that collectors were able to pay for antiques from this period. The Fender Stratocaster, a Dylan who had appeared at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, sold for $965,000, the second highest price paid for a guitar. Dylan's hand-written lyrics of "Like a Rolling Stone," his 1965 hit single, sold for $2 million at auction, a record for a famous music manuscript.

The Lyrics, a 960-page, thirteen-pound collection of Dylan's songs, was released by Simon & Schuster in the fall of 2014. Christopher Ricks, Julie Nemrow, and Lisa Nemrow edited the book to feature variant interpretations of Dylan's songs, gathered from out-takes and live performances. Dylan's limited edition of 50 books was priced at $5,000. "It's the most expensive book we've ever published," Jonathan Karp, Simon & Schuster's president and publisher, said.

In November 2014, The Basement Tapes Complete, a complete collection of the Basement Tapes, songs performed by Dylan and the Band in 1967, was released as The Basement Tapes Complete. In Volume 11 of Dylan's Bootleg Collection, there are 138 tracks in a six-CD box set. Dylan and the Band's 1975 album The Basement Tapes had only 24 tracks from the collection, which had been recorded at their Woodstock, New York homes in 1967. Over 100 recordings and alternate takes had been released on bootleg recordings, which has led to a revolving fanbase. Sid Griffin, the band's creator of Million Dollar Bash: Bob Dylan, the Band, and the Basement Tapes are among the sleeve notes for the latest box set. On the prestigious aggregator, Metacritic, the box set received a score of 99.

Dylan released Shadows in the Night, a collection of songs written between 1923 and 1963, which have been included in the Great American Songbook. Both the songs on the album were recorded by Frank Sinatra, but both critics and Dylan himself warned against seeing the album as a collection of "Sinatra covers." "I don't see myself as covering these songs in any way," Dylan said. They've been covered up to here. Buried as a matter of fact. Unraveling them is what me and my band are really doing. "Shadows in the Night" was praised by scholars, who scored 82 on the critical aggregator Metacritic, which means "universal acclaim." Critics applauded Dylan's singing and praised the repressed musical backs and his extraordinary singing ability. In its first week of release, the album debuted at number one in the UK Albums Chart.

Vol. 2 of the Bootleg Series. 66, The Cutting Edge 1965–1966, a collection of previously unreleased material from Dylan's three albums, was released in November 2015. The set was released in three forms: a 2-CD "Best Of" version, a 6-CD "Deluxe Edition," and an 18-CD "Collector's Edition" in a limited edition of 5,000 units. The "Collector's Version" on Dylan's website was described as containing "every single note recorded by Bob Dylan in the studio in 1965-1966." Cutting Edge received a score of 99, indicating "universal acclaim." Based on its first-week sales, the Best of the Cutting Edge made the Billboard Top Rock Albums chart debuting at number one on November 18.

On March 2, 2016, Dylan's extensive archive of approximately 6,000 items of memorabilia to the George Kaiser Family Foundation and the University of Tulsa (TU). The auction price had been estimated at "an estimated $15 million to $20 million," according to the company. The archive contains notebooks, drafts of Dylan songs, recordings, and correspondence. The archive will be housed at the Helmerich Center for American Research, a museum in Gilcrease.

In May, Dylan unveiled Fallen Angels, which he described as "a clear extension of the study of 'uncovering' the Great Songbook, which he began with last year's Shadows In the Night." The album contained twelve songs by classic songwriters such as Harold Arlen, Sammy Cahn, and Johnny Mercer, eleven of which had not been released by Sinatra. "Ellingly, [Dylan] performs these songs of passion, not with a burning passion but with the wistfulness of experience," Jim Farber wrote in Entertainment Weekly. They're now memory songs, with a modern sense of dedication. They couldn't be more age-appropriate" if he were announced just four days before his 75th birthday. On critical aggregator website Metacritic, the album earned a score of 79, denoting "generally favorable reviews."

In November 2016, a huge 36-CD collection, The 1966 Live Recordings, featured every known recording of Bob Dylan's 1966 concert tour. The recordings began with the White Plains New York concert on February 5, 1966, and came to an end with the Royal Albert Hall concert in London on May 27. The New York Times announced that the majority of the concerts had "never been heard in any manner" and that the performance was "a monumental addition to the corpus."

In March 2017, Dylan released Triplicate, a third collection of classic American songs. Dylan's 38th studio album was recorded in Capitol Studios in Hollywood, and the tour band appears on his tour. When asked if this information was an exercise in nostalgia, Dylan did a long interview on his website to promote the album.

"Nostalgic?

No, I wouldn't say that. It's not about going back to memory lane, or longing and yearning for the good old days or nostalgic memories of what's no longer. A song like "Sentimental Journey" isn't a way back in history; it doesn't imitate the past; it's alive and down to earth, it's in the here and now." On critical aggregator website Metacritic, the album was given a score of 84, meaning "universal acclaim." Critics applauded Dylan's discovery of the great American songbook, but Uncut's take on Triplicate labours its point of overkill." This seems to be a long stop on a fascinating chapter after five albums' worth of croon toons.

Dylan's "Born Again" Christian period from 1979 to 1981, which Rolling Stone referred to as "an explosive, tense period that produced three albums and some of his longest concerts," was revisited in this collection. The Bootleg Series Vol. 2 is a box set that includes information about the box. 13: Trouble No More 1979-1981, containing 8 CDs and 1 DVD, was written by Jon Pareles in The New York Times: "These recordings reveal Mr. Dylan's unmistakable fervor, his sense of mission." Even tentatively, the studio albums are subpoenaed relative to what the songs were like on the road. Mr. Dylan's voice is clear, cutting and improvving; on the streets, he was unashamed, committed, and often mockly combative. The band is absorbed in the songs." Trouble No More is a DVD of a Jennifer Lebeau film starring Dylan's gospel appearances interspersed with sermons delivered by actor Michael Shannon. On the critical website Metacritic, the box set album received an aggregate score of 84, indicating "universal acclaim."

In April 2018, Dylan contributed to the compilation EP Universal Love, a collection of reimagined wedding songs for the LGBT community. MGM Resorts International sponsored the album, and the songs are intended to function as "wedding anthems for same-sex couples." Dylan renamed "She's Funny That Way" in 1929, renaming the masculine pronoun to "He's Funny That Way." Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra have performed the song previously.

Dylan introduced Heaven's Door in April 2018, a blond, a straight bourbon, and a "double-barreled" whisky. Dylan has been instrumental in both the design and marketing of the product line. The venture, according to the Times, was "Mr. Dylan's entry into the burgeoning celebrity-branded spirits market, the newest career twist for an artist who has spent five decades confounding hopes."

As Volume 14 of the Bootleg Collection, Dylan Untitled More Blood, More Tracks was released on November 2, 2018. The set includes all Dylan's songs from his 1975 album Blood On the Tracks, as well as a six-CD Deluxe Edition. On the critical website Metacritic, the box set album received a score of 93, meaning "universal recognition."

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