life:
Born Robert Zimmermann, Bob Dylan borrowed his name from Welsh poet Dylan Thomas — an apt homage, given Dylan’s status as the bard of the ’60s protest movement. Both politically and artistically courageous, Dylan first took on the establishment with folk-inflected — yet razor-sharp — songs like “Blowing in the Wind” and “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” but throughout a career marked by regular reinvention, he has steadfastly refused to subjugate his own muse to anyone else’s cause or expectations.
(read more — Heroes of the 1960s)
Actually, most biographers cite the Gunsmoke character Matt Dillon as the original inspiration. He later changed the spelling to match the poet.
