English through music · Bob Dylan · B2. Guarda il video, leggi l’analisi della canzone, poi rifletti sulle domande. Gli esempi e gli spezzoni citati sono in inglese, con traduzione.
Bob Dylan is one of the most important songwriters in the history of popular music. For more than sixty years he has written songs that mix poetry, storytelling and social comment, and in 2016 he became the first songwriter to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. To understand his songs, it helps to know the story of his life.
Bob Dylan è uno dei cantautori più importanti della storia della musica popolare. Per oltre sessant’anni ha scritto canzoni che uniscono poesia, narrazione e commento sociale, e nel 2016 è diventato il primo cantautore a vincere il Premio Nobel per la Letteratura. Per capire le sue canzoni, aiuta conoscere la storia della sua vita.
Bob Dylan es uno de los compositores más importantes de la historia de la música popular. Durante más de sesenta años ha escrito canciones que mezclan poesía, narración y crítica social, y en 2016 se convirtió en el primer compositor en ganar el Premio Nobel de Literatura. Para entender sus canciones, ayuda conocer la historia de su vida.
Bob Dylan est l’un des auteurs-compositeurs les plus importants de l’histoire de la musique populaire. Pendant plus de soixante ans, il a écrit des chansons qui mêlent poésie, récit et critique sociale, et en 2016 il est devenu le premier auteur-compositeur à recevoir le prix Nobel de littérature. Pour comprendre ses chansons, il est utile de connaître l’histoire de sa vie.
Bob Dylan ist einer der wichtigsten Songwriter in der Geschichte der Popmusik. Über mehr als sechzig Jahre hat er Lieder geschrieben, die Poesie, Erzählung und Gesellschaftskritik verbinden, und 2016 wurde er als erster Songwriter mit dem Nobelpreis für Literatur ausgezeichnet. Um seine Lieder zu verstehen, hilft es, die Geschichte seines Lebens zu kennen.
Боб Дилан — один из самых значимых авторов песен в истории популярной музыки. Более шестидесяти лет он пишет песни, в которых сочетаются поэзия, повествование и социальный комментарий, а в 2016 году он стал первым автором песен, получившим Нобелевскую премию по литературе. Чтобы понять его песни, полезно знать историю его жизни.
بوب ديلان واحد من أهم كتّاب الأغاني في تاريخ الموسيقى الشعبية. فلأكثر من ستّين عامًا كتب أغاني تمزج بين الشعر والسرد والنقد الاجتماعي، وفي عام 2016 أصبح أول كاتب أغانٍ يفوز بجائزة نوبل للأدب. ولكي نفهم أغانيه، من المفيد أن نعرف قصة حياته.
鲍勃·迪伦是流行音乐史上最重要的词曲作者之一。六十多年来，他创作的歌曲融合了诗歌、叙事和社会评论，并于2016年成为第一位获得诺贝尔文学奖的词曲作者。要理解他的歌曲，了解他的人生故事会很有帮助。
ボブ・ディランはポピュラー音楽の歴史のなかで最も重要なソングライターの一人です。六十年以上にわたり、詩と物語と社会批評を融合させた歌を書き続け、2016年にはソングライターとして初めてノーベル文学賞を受賞しました。彼の歌を理解するには、その人生の物語を知ることが役立ちます。
He was born Robert Allen Zimmerman on the 24th of May 1941 in Duluth, a cold industrial town in the American state of Minnesota, and he grew up in the nearby mining town of Hibbing. As a teenager he loved rock and roll and the blues, and he taught himself the guitar, the piano and the harmonica.
He also loved reading and poetry, and he began to dream of a life in music far from his quiet home town.
In 1961, still only nineteen, he moved to New York City and took the name Bob Dylan. He started to perform in the small folk clubs of Greenwich Village, a neighbourhood full of young artists and musicians.
Audiences were struck by his rough, honest voice and by the intelligence of his words. Within a couple of years he had signed a record contract and released his first albums.
In the early 1960s Dylan became famous for his protest songs. These were folk songs that spoke about injustice, war and the struggle for civil rights, and they gave a voice to a whole generation of young people who wanted to change the world.
Songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’” turned him into a symbol of hope and protest, although he never liked being called the “leader” of any movement.
Dylan refused to stand still. In 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, he shocked many of his fans by playing an electric guitar with a rock band instead of a simple acoustic guitar. Some people felt betrayed, and there were boos in the crowd.
But this bold change opened a new path for popular music and showed that folk and rock could be combined. Dylan had refused to be trapped by other people’s expectations.
Over the following decades Dylan continued to reinvent himself many times, exploring rock, country, gospel and blues. In 1966 a serious motorcycle accident forced him to rest, and he later returned with a quieter, more reflective style.
Since the late 1980s he has toured almost every year in what fans call the Never Ending Tour, playing hundreds of concerts around the world.
In 2016 the Swedish Academy awarded Bob Dylan the Nobel Prize in Literature, for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition. It was the first time the prize had gone to a songwriter.
It confirmed what many had believed for years: that his lyrics are a form of modern poetry. Today Bob Dylan is admired all over the world, and his songs continue to inspire new generations of listeners and musicians.
Because a biography tells us about finished events in the past, it uses the past simple tense again and again. We use the past simple for actions that started and finished in the past.
For regular verbs we usually add “-ed”: move → moved, start → started, want → wanted. Many common verbs are irregular and must be learned one by one: be → was/were, become → became, write → wrote, take → took, grow → grew.
To make a negative we use did not (didn’t) + the base verb: “He did not stop.” To make a question we begin with did: “Did he win the Nobel Prize?” As you read the text again, find every past simple verb and decide whether it is regular or irregular.
A songwriter is a person who writes the words and music of songs. A generation is all the people who were born and live at about the same time. Injustice is unfair treatment or a lack of fairness.
To reinvent yourself means to change your style or image completely. A movement is a group of people working together to change society. A legacy is what a person leaves behind and is remembered for.
- Why do you think young people in the 1960s felt that Bob Dylan spoke for them?
- Dylan surprised his fans by “going electric”; why can it be brave for an artist to change?
- He won the Nobel Prize in Literature for songs; do you think song lyrics can be poetry?
- Which part of his life story do you find most interesting, and why?
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