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Bob Dylan moved to New York with the intention of establishing himself as a musician. He succeeded in this, but not without some challenges. He didn’t make a strong impression when he first arrived; nobody was very impressed with his singing or guitar playing, and he struggled to find places that would hire him to play shows. They saw him as an act that could clear a room, not bring in audiences.

A black and white picture of Bob Dylan wearing a hat and playing guitar in front of three microphones at a club in New York.
Bob Dylan | Sigmund Goode/Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images

Bob Dylan struggled to find work when he moved to New York

Dylan moved from Minnesota to New York to follow in the footsteps of his hero, Woody Guthrie. When he arrived, he quickly stood out to his fellow musicians. According to musician Dave Van Ronk, Dylan looked like “the scruffiest-looking fugitive from a cornfield I do believe I had ever seen” (via The Ballad of Bob Dylan: A Portrait by Daniel Mark Epstein). His take on the harmonica was messy and untrained. Still, Van Ronk said he found Dylan impressive.

“His singing had the same take-no-prisoners delivery as his harmonica playing,” he said. “We were impressed.”

Not everyone felt the same way, though. He dressed shabbily and didn’t sing or play guitar as well as his peers. He brought nervous energy to the stage. Because of this, he struggled to find work.

“He was too raw,” Van Ronk said. 

According to Epstein, many club owners wouldn’t even let Dylan play for free. 

“He was the kind of act you would bring on near closing time to clear a room,” Epstein wrote.

Has this view of Bob Dylan’s music ever changed?

Van Ronk’s recollection of Dylan’s early days in New York proves one thing: he’s always been a divisive artist. He may no longer struggle to find places to perform, but people have long questioned Dylan’s appeal. His songwriting rarely falls into question, but his singing voice does. 

Dylan has grown as an artist since his earliest days in New York — he was mostly trying to sound like Guthrie in the early 1960s — but the way people view him hasn’t changed all that much. If anything, this shows Dylan’s strength as an artist. Despite some opinions of him, he has managed to establish himself as one of the most influential musicians of all time with his songwriting.

Bob Dylan helped establish the folk music scene in New York

Dylan moved to New York in the early 1960s in order to make it as a musician. According to Van Ronk, he was lucky to have done this. While there were a number of folk musicians in the city, few, if any, could make a living from their music alone.

“I have heard him say . . . that he came to New York to ‘make it’ but that’s bulls***,” Van Ronk said. “When he came to New York, there was no great folk music scene.”

Dylan grew as a musician because of the artists he met while living in New York. He also helped establish the city, and Greenwich Village in particular, as a hub for folk music.

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