Bob Dylan has been lying about his childhood for forty years

Myth making has always been a part of it Music industry. Throughout history, artists have always adopted exaggerated versions of themselves for their public persona. But in his case Bob DylanThis came down to a “clever” lie.

For a long time, mr Dylan She would tell people that her childhood was very turbulent. According to the singer, he was a social outcast from his early years, and would run away from home. He overcame difficulties on his own, seeking out strangers and so-called “freaks” with whom he felt a kinship. His story was that, at the age of thirteen, he was a runaway child who took a job in a traveling circus, hoping that the adventures of the world would open up to him.

“I've been with the circus for six years,” Dylan told Cynthia Gooding in one of his first recorded interviews. “[Έκανα] Almost everything. “I was the right boy for all the jobs.”

Imagine a young man Bob Dylan Making hay for circus animals is a funny picture worth seeing in your mind. Perhaps he believed that his music would be given greater credibility if it came from the furthest social isolation. Perhaps he thought that having a past of absolute madness would make his outward social commentary seem wiser and more powerful. Such as the 1960s belief that taking as much LSD as possible would allow one to uncover the true meaning of life.

Dylan seems to think that a childhood filled with many difficulties is a modern childhood Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer the Outcast – It would be the key to his well-planned career, even if it was all just a figment of his imagination.

In fact, Dylan's childhood was completely normal. His family was working class, but never had any financial problems. He grew up as Robert Zimmerman In the industrial city Hibbing in Minnesota, where he always had food on the table, school to go to, friends to play with, and space to be a normal kid. Dylan's father and uncle ran a furniture store and his family was part of the area's close-knit Jewish community. He was an example of normalcy for the American working class, and had nothing to do with what he stood for.

It is not known why and when he made up his lies circusBut he insisted on it until the truth was inevitably discovered.

He once declared that “all the truth in the world constitutes one big lie,” suggesting that creating myths or feeding the imagination is the work of the artist. His bizarre obsession with the circus continued as an image to which he returned throughout his career to flourish.

It can be said that Bob Dylan He is a petty con man and his fabricated childhood was a questionable attempt to feign poverty or make himself appear more oppressed in order to cash in on the social currency of his artistic struggle. It can be seen as another extreme example of comfortable artists who seem to think that hardship and instability are fun, while people who actually grew up in unstable environments are rarely given the same opportunity. Or, on the other hand, it could be a silly little story that does nothing more than add to the mystery surrounding Bob Dylan, which the artist used to pass time with the press.

The author once said: “Some myths are too toxic to be believed, but others have the power to change something in us, even if only for a minute or two.” Sam Shepard In reference to Bob Dylan's lie.