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One of the world’s most influential singer/songwriters American Bob Dylan celebrates a milestone today, his 80th birthday.
Robert Zimmerman, legally changed his to Dylan in the early Sixties.
The most commonly accepted version has long been that it was a tribute to Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. Later, another theory posited that his pseudonym grew out of an early appreciation for the Matt Dillon character in the TV series Gunsmoke.
The ever-enigmatic Dylan – who told Playboy in 1978 that "I just chose the name and it stuck" – was typically of no help. Long after signing the first management contracts that finalized his new identity, he claimed that Dylan was his mother's maiden name (when it was actually Stone), that there was a Dillon Road in his hometown of Hibbing, Minn., that he took it from the name of a town in Oklahoma and that he had an uncle on his mom's side of the family with a similar name.
He even took shots at Thomas along the way. "Dylan Thomas' poetry is for people that aren't really satisfied in their bed – for people who dig masculine romance," Dylan told The New York Times in 1961. "I didn't change my name in honor of Dylan Thomas: That's just a story," he told Jules Siegel during a 1966 interview quoted in Bob Dylan: The Never Ending Star. "I've done more for Dylan Thomas than he's ever done for me."
Dylan’s been a regular visitor over the years since he first strolled onto the stage in Cardiff in 1966 and left many speechless with an electric set that tested the loyalty of his diehard folk living followers.
The set for his first visit included-
Tell Me,
MommaI Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)Baby,
Let Me Follow You Down
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
One Too Many Mornings
Ballard of a Thin Man
Like a Rolling Stone
It was March 1995 when Dylan next appeared in Cardiff playing the Cardiff International Arena, nearly 30 years later and the following setlist
Setlist
Down in the Flood
Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)
All Along the Watchtower
Play Video
Just Like a Woman
Tangled Up in Blue
Born in Time
Mr. Tambourine Man
(Acoustic)
Boots of Spanish Leather
(Acoustic)
Desolation Row
(Acoustic)
Dignity
She Belongs to Me
Maggie's Farm
Encore:
Like a Rolling Stone
It Ain't Me, Babe
(Acoustic)
Highway 61 Revisited
He returned again in 1997 to the same venue.
The 2000s saw Cardiff becoming a regular on Dylan’s tour schedule with an number of visits with the last being 3 May 2017, with the following setlist
Things Have Changed
To Ramona
Highway 61 Revisited
Beyond Here Lies Nothin'
I Could Have Told You
(Frank Sinatra cover)
Pay in Blood
Melancholy Mood
(Frank Sinatra cover)
Duquesne Whistle
Stormy Weather
(Harold Arlen cover)
Tangled Up in Blue
Early Roman Kings
Spirit on the Water
Love Sick
All or Nothing at All
(Jimmy Dorsey & His Orchestra cover)
Desolation Row
Soon After Midnight
That Old Black Magic
(Johnny Mercer cover)
Long and Wasted Years
Autumn Leaves
(Yves Montand cover)
Encore:
Blowin' in the Wind
Ballad of a Thin Man
