Know My Song Well: Bob Dylan, 1961-1966
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Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Posvar Hall, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan, now 75, was 19 when he arrived in Greenwich Village in the bitter cold winter of 1961. Although Dylan creates fascinating music to this day, he made his boldest mark in the early to mid-sixties, when he transformed the pop soundscape with his matchless topical songs, signature symbolist imagery and leap from acoustic music to raw rock ‘n’ roll. In Dylan’s early career, a smart, confident, determined musician/myth-maker emerges. So does a charged era, from the Folk Revival to the Freedom Rides. Vivid characters – from Joan Baez to Allen Ginsberg to the brash, funny, enigmatic Dylan himself – parade by. And the great songs ring out: “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,” “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “Like a Rolling Stone” and more. Peter King, a well-known Pittsburgh guitar teacher, performer and journalist, will supplement lecture, recordings and videos with his own guitar playing to tell the story of this true American iconoclast.