Dylan's parents, Abram Zimmerman and Beatrice "Beatty" Stone, were part of a small Jewish community, but strong in the region. Robert Zimmerman lived in Duluth until age six years old when his father was stricken with polio and the family returned to his mother's hometown, Hibbing, where Zimmerman spent the rest of his childhood. Robert Zimmerman spent most of his youth listening to the radio blues andcountry first radio station in Shreveport, Louisiana and, later, rock and roll. He has trained several groups in high school: Shadow Blasters short term, but in addition, the agreements of gold, lasted longer and played popular songs include the performance of their ofDanny and Juniors' Rock and Roll is here to stay "to show their high school talent is so strong that the principal cut the microphone. In 1959, the school yearbook, Robert Zimmerman is listed as his ambition "To join Little Richard." In the same year, using the name Elston Gunnn (sic), it displays two dates with Bobby Vee, playing piano and providing handclaps.
Zimmerman moved to Minneapolis in September 1959 and enrolled at the University of Minnesota. It focuses early rock and roll gave way to an interest in American folk music. In 1985, Dylan describes the attraction that folk music was given to him: "This is rock'n'roll for me is that anyway it is not enough ... There is a great catch-phrases and rhythms impulse control ... but the song is not serious or does not realistically reflect the life I know. when I'm in folk music is more serious than typing. The song is filled with more despair, sadness, triumph over, the deep faith, a sense of the supernatural much deeper. "Soon he began performing at 10: 00 Scholar, a café a few blocks from campus, and actively involved in the local circuit Dinkytown folk music.
During his Dinkytown days Zimmerman began introducing himself as "Bob Dylan". In his autobiography, Dylan admitted that he had been influenced by Dylan Thomas poem. Explain the change of name in a 2004 interview, Dylan said: "You're born, you know, the name is wrong, bad parents I mean, it happened, you call it what you want to call you ... is the land of freedom. "