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Bob Dylan music biography continued...

up listening to blues, country and later rock and roll on the radio. In 1961 he moved to New York City to visit his ailing idol, Woody Guthrie, and to play in New York City clubs, where he was discovered and signed to Columbia Records. By the time Dylan's second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, was released in 1963, he had begun making his name as both a singer and a songwriter. Many of the Bob Dylan songs on this album were labeled protest songs, inspired partly by Guthrie and influenced by Pete Seeger's passion for topical tunes. They included such landmark songs as "The Times They Are a Changin" and "Blowin in the Wind" and they would set Dylan on the path to superstardom.
Over five decades, Dylan has been recognized and honored for his songwriting, performing, and recording. His records have earned Grammy, Golden Globe, and Academy Awards, and he has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 1999, Dylan was included in TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people of the 20th century, and 2004, he was ranked number 2 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of "Greatest Artists of All Time", second only to The Beatles. In January 1990, Dylan was made a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres by French Minister of Culture Jack Lang; in 2000, he was awarded the Polar Music Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music; and in 2007, Dylan was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award in Arts. He has been nominated several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Dylan continues to record and tour with a revolving group of musicians and has collaborated with dozens of music greats ranging from The Grateful Dead to Johnny Cash to Paul Simon, just to name a few. In August 2006 his album, Modern Times, entered the U.S. album charts at number 1, making him, at age 65, the oldest living person to top those charts. It was later named Album of the Year by Rolling Stone magazine. If anyone has earned the title of music icon, it must be Bob Dylan.