Richard Hogan: Happy 80th birthday, Bob Dylan - keep raging into the night

Columnist Richard Hogan casts his mind's eye back to his own childhood, when a freewheelin' album cover captured his imagination

Richard Hogan: "Art should never be what you expect, the artist should always keep his audience guessing and stretching their imagination. When an artist becomes the thing the audience craves they transmute into a parody of themselves. Bob was never going to allow that to happen."

My eldest brother had great taste in music. I was the youngest of three boys and shared a room with the middle brother. An aspiring lawyer, even at 8. It was incredible to be around him because we were such worlds apart in so many ways. And yet, so close. 

He brought a lot of sense to my sensibility. But lawyers aren’t generally known for their musical integrity, the ‘INXS’ sleeve blue tacked above his bed informed the entire house his career as a lawyer was assured. I’m being unfair to him, because we had incredible moments of staying up all night listening to Otis Redding, the Violent Femmes, The Cure, to mention a few. He first introduced me to Shakespeare.