Rock History Week! 1965 Don't Follow Leaders

Was this the first rap music? Inspired by Bob Dylan's reading of Jack Kerouac and Fyodor Dostoevsky, Subterannean Homesick Blues was recorded for Dylan's 1965 Bringing it All Back Home album. Since his emergence in the bohemian underground of early 60's Greenwich Village, Dylan had been an iconic figure for the American Counterculture, just as Kerouac had been an inspiration for them in the 1950s. As the 50's became the 60's the 'beats' were replaced by Hippies, Yippies and the LSD culture, the civil rights and anti war movements heavily influenced the tone of the song particularly the line 'Don't follow leaders'. This was a clear break with the stiffling and authoritarian conformity of the 1950s. The Rabbi in the background is beat poet Allen Ginsburg