Robinson

Bob Dylan’s impact on popular music has been incalculable. Having transformed staid folk music into a vehicle for coruscating social commentary, he then swept away the romantic platitudes of rock ‘n’ roll with his searing intellect. From the zeitgeist-encapsulating protest of “Blowin’ in the Wind” to the streetwise venom of “Like a Rolling Stone”, and from the stunning mid-sixties trilogy of albums – “Bringing It All Back Home”, “Highway 61 Revisited” and “Blonde on Blonde” – “to Time Out of Mind”, his stunning if world-weary comeback at the age of 56, Dylan’s genius has endured, underpinned by the dazzling turn of phrase that has made him the pre-eminent poet of popular music. Because Dylan’s achievements have no equal, his career is the most chronicled in rock history. Here, Sean Egan presents a selection of the best writing on Dylan, both praise and criticism.