Irish Examiner view: 'Living legend' Bob Dylan  celebrates big birthday on Monday

Iconic rock star Bob Dylan turns 80 on Monday.

Bob Dylan will turn 80 on Monday, a milestone birthday that offers us an opportunity to reflect on the American singer-songwriter whose influence continues to resonate.

He has earned many titles during a career spanning six decades – ‘living legend’, ‘voice of a generation’, ‘Nobel Prize for Literature winner, 2016’ – but, as he said himself, accolades get in the way for someone who just wants to keep it simple, write songs and play them.

Perhaps it is his insistence on eschewing pigeonholes and moving with an ever-evolving world, from the anti-war and civil rights movements right up to today’s pandemic, that explains why Bob Dylan remains such a potent and relevant force.

NPR music critic Ann Powers put it very eloquently when she said Dylan’s work takes from culture and reinterprets it. “Young people who don’t even know who Bob Dylan is, as a person, know his songs – even if they don’t know the reference they are hearing is from one of his songs. To me, that is how a culturally relevant writer is defined. His work has permeated our world.”

And it continues to do so. Try as we might to garland him with laurels and labels when he turns 80 on Monday, the man himself will be having none of it. He is impossible to pin down because, as Rolling Stone says, “he just keeps on pushing into the future.”