Popular culture is what we make it. We rely on uncouth and uncommon characters like Dylan to help us define and redefine it, otherwise it becomes meaningless dreck dreamt up by marketing departments.

God bless Dylan in all his flaws and fortitude for boldly sharing his vision of US society in full contrast, and for adding to our mythology in a way that made room for cultural outsiders and that fed the torch of justice.

May we be blessed the world over with more brave and critical visionaries like him, and may they help us find heaven within this hellish confusion.

Read the full Bob Dylan special feature in the current issue of Hot Press – out now: