Repackaged music is now moving beyond the performance stage onto canvases and exhibit halls at local museums. One example to reach New York this fall is “Bob Dylan’s American Journey 1956-1966.” This exhibit allows fans of folk music from the sixties to take a close look at the early career of a legendary singer who would help shape political thinking among the radical masses of the time and become a permanent part in the fabric of American culture.Born Robert Zimmerman in Minnesota, Bob Dylan (as he later re-annointed himself) moved to New York after college to pursue his dream of writing and performing music. In 1961 his first concert at Carnegie hall drew a crowd of merely fifty people. Within two to three years, however, he was leading the growing folk movement that used music as a means of taking a strong stance against civil inequities and other political injustices.
This first comprehensive exhibition devoted to Bob Dylan's early career, is on view at The Morgan Library & Museum from September 29, 2006, through January 6, 2007. The exhibit includes instrument, manuscripts that show how Dylan refined some of his most notable songs, listening stations, performance footage, posters and letters.