Bob Dylan is 70 on Tuesday: Andy Gill gives that many reasons why he is the most important figure in pop-culture history

1. Because he wrote the song "Blowin' in the Wind".

2. Because he made teenagers interested in poetry again. He offered a route into symbolists like Rimbaud, Verlaine and Baudelaire, and City Lights beats like Ginsberg, Corso and Ferlinghetti.

3. Because when Martin Luther King Jr gave his legendary "I have a dream" speech, Dylan wasn't just in the audience, he was on stage a few feet from Dr King, having just sung "Only a Pawn in Their Game" and "Blowin' in the Wind".

4. Because he invented folk-rock.

5. Because he's a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Read the whole thing here. Video link, here.