Bob Dylan & Folk Music (A Song & Dance Man Excerpt)

This is an excerpt from From Song & Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan - Vol. 1: Language & Tradition. Written by Michael Gray. Reprinted With Permission.

The new movie ‘A Complete Unknown’ puts a spotlight on Dylan and folk music, but doesn’t have time to really explain Dylan’s relationship to folk, what he got from it, or what he did with it. Fortunately Michael Gray wrote the definitive treatment of this subject 50 years ago, and we share some of it below. Michael discusses much more about this topic in a recent interview released today on our podcast.

Vol 1: Chapter One: Dylan & The Folk Tradition

When Dylan first went East and arrived in New York, at the start of the 1960s, the repertoire and styles of delivery he brought with him provided a culture-shock not only to Sinatra-tuned audiences but also to the patrons of the many small “folk clubs” then in bloom around Greenwich Village. As he recalls the latter’s reaction, it ran as follows:

You sound like a hillbilly:
We want folk-singers …