Happy birthday, Bob Dylan. The singer-songwriter turns 73 today. Dylan is as busy as ever, having just teased his cover of Frank Sinatra’s 1945 hit “Full Moon and Empty Arms” in anticipation of a new album due out later this year.
The craggy-voiced icon is known to be a straight-faced, serious performer, rarely smiling on stage or in photos — the perfect accompaniment for his somber lyrics and political anthems. “It’s hard not to feel that the sense of Dylan’s music as so very deep and meaningful would be so persuasive if it didn’t issue from the pouting sloucher on the record sleeves,” pondered The Guardian’s Lindesay Irvine.
Dylan’s stern facade has occasionally cracked to reveal a lighthearted artist who indulges in random headstands, goofy antics, and toothy grins. Check out the photo evidence in celebration of the counterculture poet’s birthday.
Party.
Young Dylan and former girlfriend Suze Rotolo.
Dylan and Suze.
Dylan and Suze being silly.
Happy about all that hair?
Joan Baez helping to lighten the mood.
Joan Baez and Dylan backstage on the Rolling Thunder Revue tour in 1975.
It’s impossible to be stern in the face of a smiley Patti Smith.
This is what happens when the man comes around.
