Robert Alan Zimmerman (1941–), a.k.a. music icon Bob Dylan, was born on this day in Hibbing, Minnesota. With instinct and genius, the singer-songwriter altered the course of popular music from the moment he began strumming his guitar in Greenwich Village in the 1960s.

"Just because you like my stuff doesn't mean I owe you anything," he once said. He understood early that creation resists pleasing and follows what feels true.

Dylan brought intellectual credibility to rock and roll, transforming lyrics into passionate self-expression. For him, language was never ornamental. “A poem is a naked person,” he said.

At a moment when popular music avoided hard questions, Dylan stepped directly into them. Songs like Blowin’ in the Wind and The Times They Are a-Changin’ brought poetry into public conscience, giving voice to uncertainty and moral reckoning.

Dylan has continually renewed music by remaining faithful to his own heart. In the Martin Scorsese film No Direction Home, he described himself simply as “a musical expeditionary.”

In later years, Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, formally recognizing the poetry he had been singing all along.

“The highest purpose of art is to inspire,” Dylan said. “What else can you do? What else can you do for anyone but inspire them?”

His influence can be heard in the work of John Lennon, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Kurt Cobain, Alanis Morissette, and countless others — each finding their own truth in the echo of his songs.

With his unmistakable voice and poetic resolve, Dylan didn’t ask permission. He showed what was possible — and left the rest to us. To find our voice. And sing.