Michael Gray

Dylan also stops playing some of his former hits.

His 1983 album, Infidels, is seen as more successful.

But overall, the 1980s is not a good period for him.

Despite losing his way as an artist, Dylan is firmly established as a global megastar.

Invited by Irish musician Bob Geldof, he contributes to the charity single We Are the World, with artists including Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder.

The record spends four weeks at number one, and in July 1985, Dylan appears at the Philadelphia edition of Live Aid, performing with Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.

The following year, Carolyn Dennis, one of Dylan's backing singers, gives birth to his sixth child.

In the summer of 1986, she and Dylan wed in Los Angeles, but the contract is filed with the L.A.

County Court Registrar as a confidential marriage.

Though Dylan is no more faithful to his new secret wife than he was to Sarah, he is a better father than husband and is as dedicated to his youngest daughter Desiree as he is to his other five children.

Towards the end of the 80s, Dylan begins what fans call his never-ending tour.

Though not its official title, it sees the restless star commit to a life on the road.

Like the wandering folk singers of old, it casts Dylan in one of the few roles he is happy in, that of the modern troubadour.

By 1992, after just six years, his second marriage is over.

Dylan returns to his roots with a pair of stripped-back albums consisting of folk covers.

And although he performs at events marking the inauguration of the new president, Bill Clinton, the following year, his public role feels more that of a heritage figure rather than a contemporary force.

In the mid-1990s, Dylan gives up drinking and his creativity revives.

The result is his first album of original material in seven years.

Time Out of Mind will contain some of the most powerful songs of his later career.

Among them are the much-covered Make You Feel My Love and Not Dark Yet.