84 years ago today Bob Dylan was born. At his Nobel Prize winning best, from 1961 to 1966, he challenged us (and still challenges) to rethink everything with everything he wrote.

Donald Trump, born about 5 years after Dylan, in 1946, looks to me like he is just entering into a period of his Dylanesque best. Trump forces us to revealuate this modern world all the time.

Bob Dylan mastered and elevated American music twice to great literature in a few short years, first as a folkie but then as a great rock n roller. Potus 45 surprised everyone to come down a golden elevator and beat the former First Lady in 2016. In 2024, Trump was the victim of unrelenting lawfare but still beat the ridiculously senile Biden in debate and then beat the diversity hire Kamala Harris at the polls. (Dylan almost prophesied this: “Now all the authorities/They just stand around and boast/How they blackmailed the sergeant-at-arms/Into leaving his post/And picking up Angel who/Just arrived here from the coast/Who looked so fine at first/But left looking just like a ghost” from Just Like Tom thumb’s Blues, 1965)

With Trump, America has, finally, succeeded, metaphorically, in both 2016 and 2024, in electing Archie Bunker president. (Dylan: “The city fathers they’re trying to endorse/The reincarnation of Paul Revere’s horse/But the town has no need to be nervous” from Tombstone Blues, 1965)

Trump provokes, incites, enrages and inspires many different people. So-called reality television helped create his capacity to do this. (Dylan: “……. something is happening here/But you don’t know what it is/Do you, Mister Jones?” from Ballad Of A Thin Man, 1965)

“You’re fired.” Trump said one by one to many, many people across fifteen seasons of The Apprentice. (Dylan: “……. in comes Romeo, he’s moaning/“You Belong to Me I Believe”/And someone says, “You’re in the wrong place my friend/You better leave …….” from Desolation Row, 1965)

Happy Birthday Bob.

Thank you, Bob, for showing us how to be free.

And thank you, POTUS 45 and 47, for making freedom fun again.

Geoff Fox, 24th May, 2025, American time.