Bob Dylan turns 80 on Monday and what can one write that hasn't already been written? (That's my Dylan library in photo.) At 80 means that Dylan has gone from rebel to icon to joke to respected elder. It probably wasn't until my late 20s that I really started to get into Dylan's music, mostly those classic albums up through Blonde on Blonde and then later some of the latter albums. I've always had a meh relationship with the some 6-7 concerts I attended with Bob putting up ok but not stellar shows (including the concert at Northrop the night Obama was elected.) However, I was literally dragged to a show at the X in 2017 that I had zero expectations for that blew me away.

Also I have few degrees of separation with Bob Dylan. He and my mother lived 3 blocks apart in Duluth from 1943-47. I always wondered if their parents brought them to the same park or saw each other at a local store...

So Dylan is 80. No need to celebrate if you don't care to but I will pull some of the books off the shelf and read passages here and there. I'll put on an album or two, or maybe check out something I haven't heard for a long long time. (Self Portrait?)

Any Dylan memories, thoughts, arrows, on his 80th Birthday?