Michael Gray

But on the road, he fails to remain faithful to his wife, and a rift develops between the pair.

It is the collapse of his marriage, many say, that inspires one of his greatest albums, Blood on the Tracks.

A searingly personal collection of songs, recorded and released when he is 33, it is seen as a return to form.

Over the next year, he undertakes a carnival-like touring project called the Rolling Thunder Revue, with a rotating cast of collaborators, including the musicians Scarlett Rivera, Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Joni Mitchell, and the poet Allen Ginsberg.

Joan Byers rejoins Dylan on stage around the same time that she releases her own take on her romance with him.

Her song, Diamonds and Rust, evokes an enigmatic former lover with eyes bluer than robin's eggs and becomes one of her greatest successes.

Alongside Sarah, Dylan, she also appears in his experimental film, Ronaldo and Clara, which blends concert footage with surreal dramatizations of his life and relationships.

But as well as mining his personal life for material, he also returns to political music.

After reading the autobiography of Rubin Carter, an African-American boxer who many believe to have been wrongly convicted of murder, Dylan visits him in prison in New Jersey.

Moved by his story, Dylan not only co-writes a song about him entitled Hurricane, but also drums up public support with benefit performances.

In spite of his efforts, Carter remains in prison until 1985, when his convictions are finally set aside.

The album that opens with Hurricane closes with a song called Sarah, a tribute to Dylan's wife that one critic calls a fevered cry of loss posing a sincere devotion.

But despite inspiring some of Dylan's most beautiful songs, Sarah is struggling.

Being the wife of a mercurial womanizing rock icon is not easy.

In 1977, she files for divorce, taking primary custody of their children, though the kids spend holidays with their father, who remains a loving and affectionate parent.

It is said that Sarah's ongoing silence about her time with Dylan is a condition of the settlement.

Reeling from the split and further disappointment when Ronaldo and Clara is badly received, Dylan embarks on a long world tour.

During one date in San Diego, a fan tosses a silver cross onto the stage, and Dylan picks it up and begins to wear it.

Shortly after, he experiences a moment of spiritual transformation and converts to Christianity.

A pair of explicitly Christian albums follow in the early 1980s.