orig. Robert Allen Zimmerman
born May 24, 1941, Duluth, Minn., U.S.
U.S. singer and songwriter.
He grew up in the iron-range town of Hibbing, Minn., adopted the name of the poet Woody Guthrie . In the early 1960s he performed professionally in Greenwich Village coffeehouses and released albums that made him the darling of critics and folk music devotees. "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" became anthems of the civil rights movement. In 1965 he adopted electrically amplified instruments and the rhythms of rock and roll in a major departure. The landmark albums Highway 61 Revisited (1965) and Blonde on Blonde (1966) established him as a leading figure in rock music, and his lyrics, influenced partly by the {{link=Beat movement">Beat movement , brought poetic complexity to pop music. After a motorcycle accident in 1966, he underwent another musical turnabout and released several albums (notably Nashville Skyline , 1969) characterized by country music elements and a muted, reflective tone. Among the most praised of his many later albums are Blood on the Tracks (1975), Time Out of Mind (1997) and Love and Theft (2001). He is perhaps the most admired and influential American songwriter of his time.