LIVERPOOL links are entwined around Bob Dylan's career. Mike Chapple talks to two local experts ahead of a groundbreaking and long overdue documentary about his early years.
ROBERT Allen Zimmerman, Bob Dylan for short, is unquestionably, one of the most influential musicians in the history of popular music.
He is widely regarded as the man who brought literacy to rock and drew forth respect for what had previously been considered a trite and primitive genre by the musical establishment.
This week the BBC pays tribute to the man with a week-long series of programmes including a two-part Arena special No Direction Home, directed by Martin Scorsese, which chronicles the singer/ songwriter's revolutionary and controversial early career.
It's a move that has been widely proclaimed as long overdue by his fans on Merseyside, traditionally a hot-bed of support for the now 64-year-old troubadour whose long career in many ways has been linked to the area and its people.
He played the Liverpool Odeon in 1965 and 1966, groundbreaking years when his switch from acoustic to electric outraged folk traditionalists. His introduction to the Beatles in Manhattan on August 30, 1964 is also considered to be one of the pivotal moments in the history of popular culture.
Dr Mike Jones is director of the University of Liverpool's popular MA in Music Industry Studies, over which the legacy of what both Dylan and the Beatles created looms large.
"Personally I'm a huge Dylan fan, I think he is one of the key people in the history of popular music," says Dr Jones.
"But you've also got to remember how important it was when Dylan first met the Beatles. This was an incredibly significant moment in terms of how they influenced each other. Afterwards, the Beatles went away and wrote songs about subjects that groups had never written about before such as Help! and You've Got To Hide Your Love Away. They also became more acoustic while Dylan tried to start sounding more like the Beatles."
The week-long BBC tribute has been much anticipated by Merseyside Dylan, one of the longest established fan clubs devoted to the Bobster. Founded in 1983, its members meet on the first Thursday of every month at the Railway on Tithebarn Street.
They keep up to date with the latest developments in the career of the musician who is still very active, having embarked on what has been dubbed his Never Ending Tour.
