Talk:Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan's high school yearbook "caption"

Was this meant to say that Dylan's stated ambition was to join Little Richard? Or that the yearbook editors guessed that that was his ambition? The way it's written is unclear. YamSuf (talk) 18:25, 23 May 2025 (UTC)

All we know is that Hibbing High School Yearbook carried the caption "To join Little Richard." To the best of my knowledge, no major Dylan biography has discussed whether this was written by young Dylan or the Yearbook editors. You can see it here: [1] The curator of this website, Jeff Gold (an acknowledged Dylan expert), interprets it thus: he lists his ambition as "To join Little Richard". Should this be added to the WP article? Mick gold (talk) 13:14, 25 May 2025 (UTC)

I mean, yearbook captions are generally (almost always?) written by the yearbook staff and are jocular in a hopefully harmless way. You know -- "Most likely to be a movie star", "Most likely to become a comedian", like that. Some times it's "most likely to", sometimes it's "secret ambition:", what have you. Here they didn't prepend anything, but I figure it's given once as a header: "Most likely..." Avoids repetition. "...to join Little Richard" is a presumably jocular reference to his messing around with and playing rock 'n' roll music.

Anyway, here is a scan which proves it. These captions were not written by the subjects, period. Gold may be a Dylan expert but not an expert on yearbooks it seems. Here is the master image. IMO this is so incontrovertibly sky-is-blue proof that the staff wrote the captionsthat we can use it as a ref. Herostratus (talk) 00:30, 5 September 2025 (UTC)

Thanks, Herostratus

This article currently contains the sentence:

In 1959, Dylan's high school yearbook carried the caption "Robert Zimmerman: to join 'Little Richard'".

Which part of this sentence do you disagree with? Best, Mick gold (talk) 05:42, 5 September 2025 (UTC)

It's probably OK now IMO, User:Mick gold. It's just that User:YamSuf had said the authorship of the caption should be clarified, and the source has "...he lists his ambition as 'To join Little Richard'..." according to Jeff Gold, whom you say is a Dylan expert. Apparently no biographer has addressed the authorship of the caption, so the putative expert Gold is our only source, so we could and possibly should change it to "In Dylan's 1959 high school yearbook, he captioned his photo with 'Robert Zimmerman: to join 'Little Richard'". You seem to lean in that direction. If we want to clarify authorship. But if we do, it should instead be something like "In 1959, the editors of Dylan's high school yearbook gave his photo the jocular caption "Robert Zimmerman: to join 'Little Richard'" or something ("jocular" because readers outside the United States might think these things are serious predictions). Maybe we should, since User:YamSuf was confused and so probably were others. I dunno. Herostratus (talk)

Thanks Herostratus,

I'm inclined to leave the sentence as it is. It's concise and factually correct.

In this 2011 article on Dylan [2], Michael Gray who is a Dylan authority (author of The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia) wrote:

He hammered out Little Richard numbers on a 1922 Steinway Grand. And when he was leaving school in 1959, he wrote in his high school yearbook under "Ambition": "To join Little Richard."

We simply don’t know whether Zimmerman/Dylan wrote his high school yearbook entry, or whether Hibbing High School editors were being "jocular", as you suggest. So I favor the WP:NPOV version.

Best, Mick gold (talk) 13:17, 5 September 2025 (UTC)

"Legally Robert Dylan"

Could someone please explain why the lead says "Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan)...". Shouldn't it just say "Robert Dylan..."? Sorry if this question has already been asked and there is a good reason for it, but i've never seen a single other wiki page that does this. It just seems a bit weird is all. Cherryblossomgirly (talk) 02:08, 12 June 2025 (UTC)

Check the archived discussions, such as this. Thanks. Ghmyrtle (talk) 08:54, 12 June 2025 (UTC)

Edit request

Please add a confusion hatnote for Bob Vylan.

Please add:

{{distinguish|Bob Vylan}}

Not to be confused with Bob Vylan.

-- 65.93.183.181 (talk) 14:41, 10 July 2025 (UTC)

Is there any evidence that people are confused here? meamemg (talk) 17:23, 10 July 2025 (UTC)

People confusing the two: [3][4][5][6][7]... etc -- 65.93.183.181 (talk) 18:21, 10 July 2025 (UTC)

Although we usually don't talk forums as a source, I guess this IS evidence? AlphaBetaGamma (Talk/report any mistakes here) 22:26, 10 July 2025 (UTC)

If it was a vote I would probably go with weak oppose. I am sure you can find a few people confused about whatever topic Dahawk04 (talk) 23:41, 10 July 2025 (UTC)

It is evidence that people are confusing them. Why would RSes confuse them? Presumably RSes have factcheckers, while normal people do not. The confusion hantnote would be worthless if it requires RSes be confused -- 65.93.183.181 (talk) 02:52, 11 July 2025 (UTC)

 Done there's also a similar hatnote on Bob Vylan Thepharoah17 (talk) 00:19, 12 July 2025 (UTC)

I would guess that in, say, six months the hatnote could be removed. Unless Bob Vylan continues to be a big thing. Brianyoumans (talk) 21:35, 26 July 2025 (UTC)

It doesn't seem ideal to operate on the principle that topics are only going to be confused by readers for less than a year at a time. Remsense 🌈 论 21:40, 26 July 2025 (UTC)

Well, practically speaking, there are such things as 7 day wonders. Up until late June, the band's claims to fame were an album that charted at #18 on the UK Album chart and a couple of UK music awards. Once the controversy dies down, they may return to relative obscurity. Maybe six months is a little short, but at some point most likely the hatnote won't really be necessary and will in fact be more of a distraction than a good idea. Brianyoumans (talk) 23:33, 26 July 2025 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• Bob Dylan 1978 Japan Tour Promotional Poster.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 23:53, 6 October 2025 (UTC)

name

Zimmermann is a german name, so can be jewish but he has german ancestors too. 2A00:1E:D906:3601:91B7:2730:4336:F417 (talk) 08:45, 27 October 2025 (UTC)

Too long

Nikkimaria has posted a tag saying “This article may be too long to read and navigate comfortably. Consider splitting content into sub-articles, condensing it, or adding subheadings. Please discuss this issue on the article's talk page.”

As an initial response, I’ve trimmed some material that seems extraneous to the main narrative of Dylan’s career. I would be interested in Nikkimaria’s opinion about the best way to reduce article length, and other editors’ opinions. It’s 64 years since BD signed with Columbia Records and he’s still operating artistically on many levels. Mick gold (talk) 14:58, 31 October 2025 (UTC)

• Some of the material could be broken out into additional sub-articles, with a summary in the main article. I agree with you that we don't need extensive coverage of Dylan as a sculptor or artist or writer (although the writing part is already pretty short). Dylan is not known for these things, they are sidelines to his music career. That could be broken out into another article. The Legacy section might also be a good target to summarize and then break out into another article; that might even give some room to expand on the subject further. Brianyoumans (talk) 17:15, 31 October 2025 (UTC)

  Both of those are good thoughts. I think there is also opportunity to streamline the main text. To give a quick example: Dylan@80. Do we really need to specify the number of sessions and days in addition to speakers? Nikkimaria (talk) 01:00, 1 November 2025 (UTC)