The president honored Dylan with the nations highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom on May 29, 2012. I am pleased. He had a tremendous influence on my life.
His debut album was
released on March 19, 1962 by Columbia Records. Produced by Columbia's legendary talent scout John H. Hammond, who signed Dylan to the label, the album features folk standards, plus two original compositions, "Talkin' New York" and "Song to Woody".
. That was 4 days before my 26th birthday and during my last year of graduate school at the University of Chicago.
His next album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan was a mind blower for me. It contained Blowin' in the Wind, Masters of War, and A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall. Read on below and I'll tell you what happened to me back then.
I was a grad student getting my PhD in Physiology from 1960, after I finished my 3 year stint as a USMC officer, until 1963 when I went to the Weizmann Institute in Israel for my postdoctoral work in Membrane Biophysics and Non-equilibrium thermodynamics. I dropped into the the Fret Shop in Hyde Park and heard an old Wobbly singing Union songs. I was already in love with folk music but this stuff had a real message. I bought a guitar and used it to relax during the rigors of graduate school. Dylan hit me just at the right time.
While in Israel from 1963-1965 we listened to radio from around the world. There was no TV at that time and it was just as well. My conservative upbringing wore off quickly through all this and when first JFK was assassinated then the Gulf of Tonkin fiasco happened I was already a budding radical.
I had a nice three year USPHS post doc but cut it short to return home and join and quickly become a leader in the anti-war/civil rights movement.
Anyone who has read my diaries here know that it just went on from there. If you want to see the result after all those years, read our book: Global Insanity: How Homo sapiens Lost Touch with Reality while Transforming the World.
So along with our President I say: "Thank you Bob Dylan".