Somewhere, Bob Dylan is celebrating his 80th birthday today.

Bob Dylan’s career as a musician, songwriter, performer and recording artist has spanned a fraction over 60 years. At some point in the midst of his immense success, I wonder if Dylan has ever pondered what turns his life would have taken if that folk singer thing hadn’t worked out all those years ago.

If, for instance, John Hammond, Sr. – producer and talent scout for Columbia Records – had not seen something he liked when the two first met in New York City’s Greenwich Village in the Fall of 1961.

I’ve asked myself lately what would life have been like for me if Bob Dylan had not become …Bob Dylan.

What if there had been no albums…?

No Greatest Hits (vol.1, 1967)

(With that fabulous Milton Glaser poster!)

John Wesley Harding (1968)

Nashville Skyline (1969)

Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (1971)

No concerts…

Bob Dylan & The Band – January 14, 1974 at the Boston Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.

The Rolling Thunder Revue – November 9, 1975 at the University of New Hampshire’s Lundholm Gym in Durham, New Hampshire.

The Spring Tour of Canada & USA – April 11, 1997 at the University of New Hampshire’s Whittemore Center in Durham, New Hampshire.

No songs…

How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?

Goodbye is too good a word, babe, so I’ll just say “Fare thee well”…

Come mothers and fathers throughout the land and don’t criticize what you can’t understand…

Ah but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.

Cloud so swift, the rain won’t lift. Gate won’t close, the railing’s froze…

How does it feel?

Kick your shoes off, do not fear. Bring that bottle over here…

I offered her my hand, she took me by the arm…

“There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief…

May you build a ladder to the stars and climb on every rung…

I see my light come shining from the west unto the east. Any day now…

Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free…

Ah, the songs. With lyrics like nobody else.

Can’t imagine life without Bob Dylan’s songs.

Can you?

Probably, neither can he.

Happy Birthday, Bob Dylan.

May your songs always be sung.