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Bob Dylan's fingers on the throat of his guitar might as well have been his fingers taking the pulse of America during the tumultuous decade of the 1960s. With songs like Blowin' in the Wind, Maggie's Farm, Masters of War and The Times They Are A Changin' Dylan provided the signature voice for his generation.
When Dylan arrived on the scene in the early 1960s, most music was about cruising in cars, surfing and teenage love gone wrong. It was Dylan who used a gruff voice, a cynic's eye and a poet's heart to change the course of music forever. Dylan sang poignantly about war, poverty, racism and the battle of the generations. His songs became the backdrop to history, played at anti-war rallies, at the 1968 Democratic Convention riots and on virtually every college campus in America.
Obviously, Dylan's wasn't the only voice of protest. He had been preceded by the likes of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, and was a contemporary of the likes of Peter, Paul and Mary, Phil Ochs, Joan Baez and Tom Paxton. But it is still Dylan who stands out as the leading voice of the era.
Even today, perhaps especially today, his words and music still resonate.
"Come mothers and fathers throughout the land and don't criticize what you can't understand. Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command. Your old road is rapidly aging, please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand, for the times they are a changin'."
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