Dylan, Bob(b. May 24, 1941), American singer-songwriter who throughout his career intentionally—but unsuccessfully—did everything he possibly could to convince people he was not great. Despite making a wide range of purposely awful musical and creative choices over a 50-year period—including contorting his voice into a series of ungodly screeches and croaks, playing extended one-note harmonica solos, recording a half-assed cover album, embarking on an extended Christian phase, and just flat-out not trying for years at a time—Dylan has so far been unable to accomplish his goal of making people think he wasn’t a complete and utter songwriting genius. Music historians and rock fans alike generally agree that even if Bob Dylan attempted to sabotage himself by recording nothing but willfully off-key salsa albums for the rest of his career, he would not only still go down as one of the best two or three recording artists ever, but those albums would also probably be kind of great.
