The first time Bruce Springsteen heard Bob Dylan, he was in the car with his mother. The radio was playing Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone. His mother looked at him and said: 'That guy can't sing.'
But Springsteen's mother was wrong. Not only could Dylan sing, but he turned out to be one of the greatest singer-songwriters of the 20th century.
Dylan, the newly-released compilation album, is a testimony to Dylan's greatness. The 18 tracks on the album are American classics. Each of them represents a stage in Dylan's life and art which, despite the fact that numerous books have been written on them, remain shrouded in mystery.
The album begins with Blowin' In The Wind and The Times They Are A-Changin', the two protest songs that became the soundtrack to the civil rights movements.
While the former poses questions about peace and freedom, the latter turned Dylan into the 'Prince of Protest', a label he has strived to get rid of ever since.
In the essay World Gone Wrong Again, writer Tom Piazza says Dylan is a typical American artist because he embodies contradiction.
After releasing hugely successful acoustic albums such as The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, the artist went electric and released Bringing It All Back Home, which saw the birth of folk-rock and featured America's first rap song, Subterranean Homesick Blues.