Bob Dylan turns 71

As rock legend Bob Dylan turns 70, here's a snapshot of the artist, songwriter and performer who has influenced and inspired millions in a profound way.

Dylan, whose real name is Robert Zimmerman, started his singing career in the early 1960s when he moved to New York to meet his hero, folk musician Woody Guthrie who was hospitalized. Dylan hoped to be Guthrie's greatest disciple.

Dylan started singing in clubs around Greenwich Village from 1961.

Dylan was noticed early in his club career and signed by producer John Hammond of Columbia Records. This lead to Dylan's first album titled Bob Dylan in 1962.

Only 5000 copies of the album were sold in the first year, just enough to break even.

In the 1960s, Dylan became a youth icon. He conceived and wrote The Times They Are A Changin as an anthem for the era of change he saw occurring. The early 60s had already seen the Cuban missile crisis, and almost a decade of the civil rights movement. The recording of the album was completed only days before the assassination of President John F Kennedy. The Vietnam War was soon to follow.

Dylan had a number of influences in his career. Apart from mentors like Woody Guthrie and Jack Elliott, Dylan was pushed to success by fellow singer Joan Baez, who invited him to sing on her shows. The two were romantically involved and did many protest songs together. Baez, who is more of an interpretative singer, has done extremely popular versions of Dylan's songs like Farewell, Angelina and It Ain't Me Babe.

In the latter half of 1964 and 1965 Bob Dylan made rapid changes in his musical style and his appearance. He was now a folk-rock pop-music star. The scruffy jeans and work shirts were replaced by a formal wardrobe and sunglasses, day and night.

In 1965, the song Like A Rolling Stone from the album Highway 61 Revisited became a phenomenal hit. Recently, in 2004, it was labelled the Greatest Song of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine.

Dylan met with a motorbike accident in 1966 and broke several vertebrae in his neck. Post the accident Dylan could not tour for many years. He however returned to his recording studios after 19 months.

Dylan returned to live touring after a break of seven years in 1974. He and his wife Sara Dylan separated after the tour and Dylan wrote songs on relationships for his next album Blood on the Tracks. In 1979, Dylan converted to Christianity.

The eighties were considered to be the lowest point of his career. He co-founded the band The Travelling Wilburys, with George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne in 1988.

In 1997 he released the album Time Out Of Mind, his collection of original songs. It won him his first solo "Album of the Year" Grammy Award.

In 2001, he received an Oscar for Best Original Song for the track Things Have Changed. He was also the subject of the documentary No Direction Home directed by Martin Scorsese.

His albums Love and Theft, Modern Times and Together Through Life did relatively well too.

He recently did a concert in China, which was mired in controversy. There were reports that that Dylan had allowed the Chinese government to censor his set list, but Dylan denied such allegations.

His official site explains his point of view to his fans.

An iconic singer, songwriter, poet and painter and at 70, Bob Dylan remains inscrutable and forever young.