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Bob Dylan, nonpareil wordsmith, was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota, on 24 May 1941. His remarkable life is just too complex to detail here; suffice to say he is probably the single most influential figure on modern popular music who is alive today.

Dylan’s extraordinary achievements as a musician are based largely on the sheer poetry of his lyrics, and his love of word play, figurative allusions and constant creation of verbal imagery have been much copied and sometimes parodied down the decades.

The word ‘Dylanesque’ describes songs and poems in which the use of words has been inspired by the master himself. Bryan Ferry, former lead singer of Roxy Music, ensured the word had permanence in plastic when he titled his 2007 album of Dylan covers Dylanesque. It’s well worth a listen, but to really appreciate what is Dylanesque, you have to read and hear some of Bob Dylan’s many classic lyrics.