I never liked Bob Dylan. Now I love him. When Bob Dylan was first introduced to me I was in middle school and very into rock. So in contrast to the raucous and soulful sounds of Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, his nasally and pitchy voice combined with his soft and folky sounds seemed somewhat pathetic to my young ears. I wanted guitar solo's not harmonica solos.

Yet Bob Dylan kept popping up throughout my life. Obviously, as a fan of Jimi Hendrix, I knew that All Along the Watchtower was written by Dylan and I had always loved this song, The Man in Me, but I never knew it was Dylan.

More recently, this video surfaced and once again Bob was on my radar. (And yes that is Johnny Depp in the video.) I didn't understand why I liked some of his songs, so long as other people were doing them. What was I missing?

Eventually, I went from thinking of Dylan as unlistenable folk music to seeing him as a great songwriter who's delivery wasn't for me.

I was talking to my dad about my feelings towards Bob and he told me to go listen to the Day of the Locusts, a song about his receiving an honorary degree from Princeton. The song is so bright, grateful and honest that after listening to it I listened to the whole album, New Morning, despite being at work. Bob Dylan can tell amazing stories in three lines. This isn't to say all his songs are keepers but songs like Dogs Run Free and Sign on the Window are two great examples of songs that create great scenery and stories of the American ideal and the American struggle.

He has many songs that capture an appreciation for the simple things and viewing nature as evidence of some sort of divinity on earth which are both things I find myself thinking about as I get older. He also has some amazing love songs like Man in Me and Listen to Positively 4th street. I feel like I've lived both of those songs which are about two very different ends of relationships.

I found that Dylan can be fun, personal, sad, and sexy. He can chronicle what it's like being fine to be a nobody. He is so exposed and honest that I feel like I know exactly who he is by listening to his songs. There is no pretending, no desire to achieve an image. He is authentic as fuck with a lot of humility but without any fear. And he can play and arrange some great music. So, that is the story of how I came to love Bob Dylan. It is one of persistence and timing.

Now to the part about why he is still relevant. In 1966 Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a world class boxer, was charged and convicted in relation to a triple homicide. Allegations of false evidence and faulty witnesses arose after the trial and it is commonly believed that Carter was a victim of racial profiling and was pursued due to his status as a well-known athlete. A story about a famous boxer who falls from grace is a much better story than some guy who kills three people. And it's much easier to get away with telling that story if you're accusing a black man in 1966. I believe that is because it is what white America wanted to see.

Bob Dylan tells the tale of the night of the crime all the way through the trial in his song Hurricane that includes the line "If you're black you might as well not show up on the street. 'Less you want to draw the heat."

Now this was in 1966 but if you look on the news, you might believe the same thing holds true today. Not only because of the amount of unarmed black men being killed by police, but in 1993 Allen Iverson was targeted after a fight in a bowling ally and given five years. Five years for a fight. So maybe it's still what white America want's to see. This almost kept him from becoming one of the most popular basketball players ever. However, after his trial there were a lot of protests and marches and it took Virginia Governor, Douglas Wilder, pardoning him to set him free. Carter was luckily freed as well after spending 14 years in prison.

In Dylan's song A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall he writes "I saw a newborn baby with wolves all around it." This song isn't necessarily about race but if can only imagine that, given the images on the news every week, that this is how I would imagine I would feel if I were a black parent in America.

Dylan also wrote songs about war. In Masters of War he writes to those higherup singing, "you hide in your mansions, on the young people's blood." He also writes-

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world

He covers all the bases in this song, it's one of my favorites of his. Just go listen to this one. I'm breaking voice right now and for that I apologize but this song is freakin' great.

I believe the above stanza is important because the average human wants good things for others. So when we hear about a conflict or an injustice we are quick to stand on a side that we believe is right and will keep us safe. But how many of our enemies or fears are created, with this human condition in mind?

When I go back and listen to Bob Dylan, he is so defiant but always comes from a place of good-intentioned humility. His music is very direct and personal, like he is playing in the same room as you and for you. Most of all, I relate to the feeling he emits of being somewhat helpless. A beautiful irony about him is that he often sounds like he is hopelessly unheard, despite being one of the most well-known musicians and songwriters of our time. So many people feel unheard today, like their voices don't matter but we can make America great again by voting for Donald J. Trump. No, I'm just kidding, don't do that. But see how Trump has played off of a human truth of wanting to be heard to make himself seem needed. And he certainly isn't the first person to do that.

Back to my point, constantly watching all of the things wrong in the world while we are in school or at work makes it hard to feel like we can do anything about it. We're busy and have investments to protect. And it's easy to constantly see the issues because we have phones which keep us updated every 5 minutes. I, at least, feel very frustrated and trapped and fed up with no real outlet to try and change things. For example, maybe 30 people will read this post and half won't agree and the other half will watch a cat video and forget all about it. Not much will change and that's exactly my point. What would Dylan say about the election? Something spot on probably but at the end of it, someone's gonna be our next president and he knows it.

In the 60's we had Hurricane Carter and Vietnam. More recently we have Iverson and Syria. Bob Dylan's topics, lyrics, and music are still so relevant, especially from a political standpoint, and I believe it's because not much has changed over the last 70-80 years.

Mr. Dylan see's the patterns of time, that what goes up must come down and everything will fade eventually. So he often begs the question, "when will it end," something we all wonder. Frustrated with our inability to recognize our destructive patterns, he finds solace in simplicity and song which is demonstrated best in this last song, Mr. Tamborine Man. If I may say so, it's a behavior mankind could benefit from