7 Bob Dylan 7he held for the rest of his career: sidestepping the desires
of the critics, he went in any direction but those called for
in print. When his audience and critics were convinced
that his muse had left him, Dylan would deliver an album
at full strength, only to withdraw again.
Dylan returned to Tennessee to record Nashville Skyline
(1969), which helped launch an entirely new genre, country
rock. It charted at number three, but, owing to the com-
parative simplicity of its lyrics, people questioned whether
Dylan remained a cutting-edge artist. Meanwhile, rock’s
first bootleg album, The Great White Wonder—containing
unreleased, “liberated” Dylan recordings—appeared in
independent record stores.
Over the next quarter century Dylan continued to
record, toured sporadically, and was widely honoured,
though his impact was never as great or as immediate as it
had been in the 1960s. In 1970 Princeton University
awarded him an honorary doctorate of music. In August
1971 Dylan made a rare appearance at a benefit concert
that former Beatle George Harrison had organized for the
newly independent country of Bangladesh. At the end of
the year, Dylan purchased a house in Malibu, California;
he had already left Woodstock for New York City in 1969.
In 1973 he appeared in director Sam Peckinpah’s film
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and contributed to the sound-
track, including “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” Writings
and Drawings, an anthology of his lyrics and poetry, was
published the next year. In 1974 he toured for the first time
in eight years, reconvening with the Band.
Released in January 1975, Dylan’s next studio album,
Blood on the Tracks, was a return to lyrical form. It topped
the charts, as did Desire, released one year later. In 1975
and 1976 Dylan toured North America, announcing shows
only hours before appearing. Filmed and recorded, the
Rolling Thunder Revue—including Joan Baez, Allen