The Great Pioneer?

In profile. Get it? "PROFILE"!

"Oh, look at me, I've got a girlfriend!"

In about a month's time, we celebrate the 70^th birthday of Bob Dylan. As such, you can expect to see a lot of articles on the great man for the next few weeks; the unparalleled impact he had on popular music through his influence, his struggles with his own identity throughout his life, his arguable status as the greatest American poet since T.S. Eliot. He has, however, had another important effect to which I wish to pay tribute now. You see, Bob Dylan was history's first Facebooker.

"Oh yeah, I play guitar. It's no big deal."

Blurry AND holding a guitar. Pretentious or what?

Yes, it seems strange, but give some thought to his album covers. The vast majority are posed pictures of himself; from the faux-casual "Oh, I don't know I'm being photographed at all!" style of The Freewheelin' and Desire, to the frequent posing with guitars (Nashville Skyline,  

In his Tom Baker days.

All black and white and moody.

Time Out of Mind), to the "crazy" effects (the blurring of Blonde on Blonde, the black and white of Love and Theft, among others) to the crude drawing on the cover of Self Portrait. All of these things are styles that are most frequently witnessed in Facebook profile pictures.

This is what Bob Dylan thinks he looks like.

If incontrovertible evidence of this point is required, I can easily oblige. Take a look at this:

There you are. The ultimate pose. Not only is he wearing clothing picked to emphasise his "rebel" status, he stares at the viewer with a hostile, moody expression. What's more, his hand is out of shot, suggesting he's taking the picture himself. He's even holding sunglasses. Indoors. If ever there was a more quintessentially Facebook photo, I certainly haven't seen it.

Quite apart from these pictures, Dylan's general demeanour suggests a Facebookian view of life (yes, "Facebook" is a root for many neologisms). He has a generally self-involved air, often doing odd things like retreating to a cabin from the pressures of fame; the real life equivalent of not appearing on Facebook Chat. Furthermore, recently a startling discovery was made – a notebook in which Dylan wrote what look suspiciously like status updates:

"Guys, does anyone else think Lee Harvey Oswald is a pretty relatable guy?" (November 1963) [underneath this, in the handwriting of another, is written simply "dislike".]

"Omg some bastard just called me Judas! WTF?!!!" (March 1966)

"Such a klutz! Just crashed my motorbike lol!" (July 1966)

"Sara's such a bitch sometimes" (September 1974)

"Guys, Jesus is the answer!" (January 1979)

"Lol jk" (January 1990)

In addition to these, his rambling, stream of consciousness liner notes often have the appearance of a loosely connected series of status updates (albeit ones written by someone not in full possession of their senses).

Thus it is clear: Bob Dylan was a dedicated Facebooker before Mark Zuckerberg was even thought of. Even the Dylan biopic I'm Not There predates The Social Network by a few years. In the film, Dylan slips between performed identities over a number of years – just like many Facebookers. The invention of social networking etiquette is one of Dylan's many achievements which will fall through the cracks as he is celebrated in the next few months, so please join with WAKE UP in celebrating a man who truly blogged early, blogged often – and hasn't stopped since.