Anniversary of Dylan's First Professional Performance

     This morning on the radio, the broadcaster said that today was the 65th Anniversary of Bob Dylan’s first professional performance, which occurred at Gerde’s Folk City in New York City.  Nineteen year old Dylan was the opening act for bluesman, John Lee Hooker.

    Dylan became very important to me, before he really became known generally to the public.  When I was in high school, I became very interested in folk music.  I read a lot of the folk music magazines that were available at the time.  I was blown away when in 1963, I heard Peter, Paul, and Mary sing Blowin’ in the Wind, and was very interested to know who could write such a profound song.  I read it was some guy named Bob Dylan and I was anxious to learn more about him.  I had never heard him sing, but he was creating quite a buzz with his songwriting.

    My close friend Greg, was also very interested in Dylan, and Greg was in a record club, and one month, “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” album, was one of the choices for the month, so Greg bought the album.  We were both curious to hear him sing.  When Greg’s record arrived, he called me to tell me it was awful, it sounded terrible.  Later he said I could have the album.

    I took it and listened, I too was initially taken aback by his singing, which at the time, was way beyond what was normal.  However, after listening to the album, I soon became accustom to his nasal-raw sounding voice, and fell in love with his songs and guitar playing.   Greg too, eventually got accustom with Dylan’s voice, and became a super fan.

    Dylan’s music has had a lifelong effect on me.  I followed Dylan’s music through his folk beginnings and protest songs, which I loved.  Then when he caused mayhem in the purist folk community by playing rock and roll, I stayed with him and loved his rock and roll.  I did kind of lose interest when he started doing country music, and totally quit following him when got religious.

    Many of Dylan’s songs are still on my radar.  Our jam plays a handful of them.  We started playing his “Chimes of Freedom” in our protest to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and vowed to keep on playing weekly until Russia quit, so after several years of playing it, we are getting pretty good at the song.

    I love remembering those early years when I was so intensely following Dylan’s songs, and trying to figure out how to play them on my guitar (this was way before you could just learn from a video on the internet).   I learned a lot from listening to Dylan’s music, both when done by him, but also by groups like The Byrds and the Band.  

    Dylan’s rise, totally changed the direction of music, and ushered in the whole genre of singer-songwriters, which led to more poetic, intelligent, and poignant lyrics in music.

  

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