On a personal level it is very difficult, even impossible, to describe the importance of music in my life. Ever since I fell in love with the soulful voice of Ray Charles in a very early age, about four years old, some time later Fats Domino, Hank Williams and many more, and then until today, sixty years later, music became one of the bare necessities of my life, an endless treasure hunt and an endless road map to my soul. From the start it of course wasn’t about the lyrics or the words, it was about how the music made me feel, the magic impact of just listening to a song. I wasn’t at all dependent on understanding what the words meant, I just let the song, the voice, the words, the rhythm and the music shower over me like a magical rain of silver and blue, if it did move me. That’s how it was. And, essentialy, that’s how it still is, even if, little by little, of course, the understanding of the words, the lyrics and the poetry, became a more and more important part of the experience. Still, the main core of my love of music, is not an act of intellectual reflection, but of how the sound of it finds a place in my heart, sometimes combined with how it makes my foot tap. From the ear directly to my heart and soul. That’s how it was, and that’s how it is.

Then, about fifty years ago this year, my world opened in a new way. I was fourteen, and I visited a friend from school to listen to records. Out of the blue he played a new album by an artist I just barely knew. By the end of the album I was completely hooked, once and for all, by this wonderful voice of truth crying in the wilderness. The album was “Desire”, the voice was a voice without restraint, the voice was Bob Dylan’s voice. This day became a milestone of my life. It from then was a before and after. At Bob Dylan’s 85th birthday I’m brought back to this day.

Both the financial situation as a fourteen years old up in the northern part of Norway, and the limited access of music stores, made the years go by before I, little by little, had achieved the complete catalogue of Dylan’s official records, starting with “Street Legal” and “At Budokan” before I got hold of the albums from the sixties, slowly getting into the absolutely wonderful and complex mosaic of albums, songs, lyrics and voices. The live albums made me realize the limitless possibilities of listening to Dylan live, at first saddened by the fact that I surely never would be able to experience this myself. But, lo and behold, in 1984 I got to see him in Gothenburg. Mind-blowing as it was for me, I was pretty sure this was my only chance to see him in person. So little did I know. I was so much older then.

More than two hundred shows later I understand that, in my unwritten book, the insights in Dylan as a live artist would be as much of importance as his recordings, even if both parts in different ways underscores his ability to remain in a state of becoming through all those years. Still busy being born. Seeing him in concert also in the last years, in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, he never fails to impress or take me by surprise, with new timings and phrasings, new changes in arrangements or the way he acts the songs onstage, as in Paris in 2024, or including this extra and surprising songs, as he did with Lake of Pontchartrain or Rainy Nights in Soho in Ireland 2025. Moments to die for. So many of those through the years. Poetry for your ear.

The shows in 2026 implies the same pattern, the artist is keepin’ on keepin’ on, heading for that next show, changes in both setlist and arrangements, changes in both vocal delivery and instruments used in the show, keeping he and she who has ears on their toes, wanting for more, inspiring us all to search for that internal state of becoming.

Makes me humble and grateful. Hoping for more, but knowing that I have already received far more than I could ask for and expect. In the great choir of all my musical heroes in the tower of song, there is one voice that stands out and rises above all others. The voice of Bob Dylan.

Happy Birthday, Mister Dylan! Thank you for your voice without restraint, the music and the endless inspiration!
All the best from Johnny Borgan