Michael Gray

Against this backdrop, Greenwich Village hums with creative energy.

The folk revival is in full swing, breathing new life into traditional music and using it to address the social issues of the day.

Armed with his guitar and harmonica, it's here that Dylan hones a repertoire that largely consists of covers of Woody Guthrie and other folk and blues songs.

In between gigs, he tracks his idol down, locating him at a psychiatric hospital in New Jersey.

Though Guthrie has been diagnosed with Huntington's disease, a neurological condition, he still gathers weekly with family and friends for dinner.

Deploying his gift of the gab, Dylan talks his way into one of these evenings, leaving with a small keepsake, a card on which Guthrie has scrawled, I ain't dead yet.

Back in the village, Dylan's reputation grows fast.

One of his first major compositions is Song to Woody, adapting the melody from Guthrie's ballad 1913 Massacre.

Dylan's slurred delivery echoes his idle sound, though Guthrie's is accentuated by his illness.

But in writing his own songs, Dylan sets himself apart in a musical environment in which most big stars rely on other people's material.

However, it's not all work and no play.

In the summer of 1961, Dylan meets a captivating 17-year-old and falls in love.

These influences make their way into his performances, and he adopts a slightly bumbling, scruffy stage persona, reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin.

Leaning into his fondness for myth-making, he also regales audiences with invented stories of his itinerant youth spent traveling with carnival folk.

In September 1961, he plays a gig that changes his fortunes.

Six months after signing with Columbia, he releases his eponymous debut album.

It draws primarily on traditional songs, but sales are disappointing.

Within a month, though, he's back in the studio, this time recording original material.

One is a song entitled The Death of Emmett Till, about the 1955 racist murder of a 14-year-old African-American boy, and a song titled Blown in the Wind.

Deriving its melody from a 19th century anti-slavery song, it is built around a series of rhetorical questions, and it will change Dylan's life.