Bob Dylan On Stage And On Screen In 2024

On this date, March 19th, Bob Dylan released his eponymous debut album. That was all the way back in 1962. The iconic singer-songwriter is still sharing his music with the world in 2024. I saw him in concert on Sunday (3/17) at the Belk Theater in uptown Charlotte. He sounds a lot different than he did back in '62, but he is still unmistakably Bob.

Fans will have another chance to see Dylan when he rolls back through Charlotte this summer as part of Willie Nelson's Outlaw Music Festival on June 22nd at PNC Music Pavilion. The challenge for some may be guessing which Bob they'll get. Oftentimes, legends can be a bit of a mystery.

When I saw him on St. Patrick's Day, he performed behind a piano. Dylan also offered up some very different arrangements of a few of his classics, in addition to his newer material from the Rough and Rowdy Ways album of 2020. Not everyone in the audience liked that. A few even walked out.

After performing his songs for over 60 years, Bob Dylan should be allowed to mix things up a bit. I actually liked his Latin-tinged version of "When I Paint My Masterpiece." But I get it. When some people go to a concert, they only like to hear the hits the way they were recorded. Dylan probably isn't for them.

For those of us who will take Bob Dylan any way we can get him, there are a couple of films to check out now and in the hopefully not-too-distant future. First, if you haven't seen The Greatest Night in Pop on Netflix, watch it tonight. The documentary tells the story of how the 1985 charity single, "We Are The World," came into being. It's mind-blowing to see so many A-list music stars, including Dylan, in one room.

Production on the Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, has started. The movie is being directed by James Mangold and stars Timothee Chalamet as Dylan. A Complete Unknown follows Dylan’s rise in New York City's folk music scene in the early-1960s, after he moves to Manhattan from Minnesota.

A few photos from the set have been posted on X, giving us a first look at Chalamet in costume. In the photos, the actor is seen holding on to a large guitar while wearing a rucksack, a big scarf, and lots of layers. There's also some video taken from the set in which Timothee can be seen taking in the city before walking down the street.

Timothee Chalamet certainly looks the part of a young Bob Dylan. I'm curious to see if Chalamet can capture Dylan's voice and mannerisms, too. According to Variety, the cast of A Complete Unknown also includes Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, along with Elle Fanning, Nick Offerman, Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, and Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash. The film's release date has not been announced yet.

Bob Dylan: his voice isn't for everyone, but you can't deny his songwriting ability. In his six decades of making music, he's been covered by a huge range of artists, including Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Vedder, Stevie Wonder, Heart with Layne Staley, U2, Elvis Presley, Tim Armstrong of Rancid, Silversun Pickups, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and many more. There's a reason why he recently sold his music publishing for a rumored nine-figure deal.

With that in mind, we thought we'd celebrate his 80th birthday with a list of the best versions of his 80 best songs. So, it's a mix Dylan's versions, and a few of his live performances as well and lots of covers by the aforementioned artists.

And yes, we know that some Dylanologists will be mad that some of the "classics" are missing (we just don't love "Just Like A Woman" or "Mr. Tamborine Man" as much as everyone else). We love some of the material from the second half of his career as much as the music from his more celebrated first half. We love the covers, and we gave them extra points in some cases for introducing his music to younger generations. And with that, let's start with number eighty.