For his diehard fans, there’s really no limit to Bob Dylan’s reach, in time or space.
Having delivered yet another soul-stirring album at the age of 79, what’s left to say for his 80th birthday? This self-described “song-and-dance man” is a category of his own in cultural history (Better to put him next to William Shakespeare than Bruce Springsteen, more a Wolfgang Mozart than a Paul McCartney.) Across a lifetime, his myth and music have circled the planet many times over, from his emergence in the 1960s as the 20-something would-be voice of his generation, through to his never-ending tour that has touched down in 1,000 cities in at least 54 different countries.
That leaves us with the only possible real limit to his reach: language. It was inevitable that his songs — from classics like “Blowin” in the Wind” and “Like a Rolling Stone” to more hidden gems like “Farewell Angelina” and “Simple Twist of Fate” — would end up translated and sung in other languages. So to wish Bob a very “happy birthday” in our own Worldcrunch way, here’s a multilingual sampling of Dylan International. Enjoy!