Literature heavily influenced Bob Dylan

Sometimes it’s interesting to see who literature influences, and Bob Dylan is no exception. I ran across this article while reading through my Google Alerts email, which is tagged "literary news". The article gives a fascinating insight into how literature shaped Bob Dylan as a man, and his music:

Early work such as A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall drew on ancient balladry, Walt Whitman, the French symbolists and more. When Dylan went electric in 1965, fusing rock with what Christopher Ricks has called "the force of poetry" empowered him.

And that’s just getting started! The article gives more famous literary figures as influences on Dylan:

He has namechecked Keats and Shelley as favourites; all through his work the language of the King James Bible echoes and his albums show the influence of everyone from Scott Fitzgerald to François Villon, Auden to the American Civil War poet Henry Timrod. He hears the music of Robert Browning and Robert Johnson both.

One doesn’t even need to read a book or article to realize that Dylan has always been very inclined towards all kinds of literature, spanning many movements. Just listen to his lyrics!

Read the entire article about Dylan and literature:
Michael Gray on the literary Bob Dylan

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Read More: Classic Literature, Literary News