Michael Gray

With the most successful of these, the Golden Chords, he gives a notorious performance at his high school in which he bounces so wildly at the piano that the pedal breaks.

Less impressed than the students, the principal cuts his microphone and pulls the curtain.

As a teenager, Bob's musical talent, charm, and piercing blue eyes make him a favorite with the girls, who, as he later puts it, bring out the poet in him.

At school, he also earns a reputation for storytelling, though not all of the legends he invents about himself stand up to fact checking.

In the school yearbook, he's still going by his real name, but soon he'll choose himself a new one.

Either way, by 1959, when he enrolls in a liberal arts program at the University of Minnesota, he's settled on the stage name that will eventually accompany him to international fame.

As a student, he discovers the records of folk artists, in particular Woody Guthrie, whose songs about the struggles of working people are so very different from what's often played on the radio.

This May, on the Noisa Podcast Network, Real Vikings concludes as the epic excursions of the Norsemen culminate in a monumental showdown.

On Short History Of, we'll witness the world-changing events of the Spanish Civil War and uncover the real James Bond.

On Real Survival Stories, a remarkable tale of escape from a devastating earthquake in China and an extraordinary encounter with a humpback whale.

And in Sherlock Holmes short stories, we're amidst the misty expanse of Dartmoor for one of Conan Doyle's most beloved works, The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.

And by the way, a short history of ancient Rome.

Noiser's first book is out now in paperback, available in all good bookshops.

Dylan begins performing covers as a solo artist, and soon becomes a fixture on the local folk circuit.

Emulating Guthrie in his preference for jeans, work shirts, and Newsboys caps, he even copies his hero in the way he holds his cigarettes.

In January 1961, he drops out of his studies and leaves for New York City, determined to meet his hero and seek his own fortune.

Dylan arrives in New York in January 1961, just as John F. Kennedy is sworn in.

But the country the new president inherits is restless and divided.

Racial violence grips the South as the civil rights movement gathers force, and nuclear conflict feels closer as the Cold War intensifies.