Bob Dylan to get Medal of Freedom

27 April 2012 Last updated at 03:39 ET

Bob Dylan is to receive America's highest civilian honour, the Medal Of Freedom, it has been announced.

He is being recognised alongside former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, John Glenn, the third American in space, and Nobel Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison.

President Obama will award the medals at the White House in the coming weeks.

In a statement, he said: "They've challenged us, they've inspired us and they've made the world a better place."

Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941 and began his musical career in 1959, playing in coffee houses in Minnesota.

He took his stage name from the poet Dylan Thomas and, not coincidentally, paid as much attention to his lyrics as his music.

Much of his best-known work dates from the 1960s, when he became an informal historian of America's troubles.

Songs like Blowin' In The Wind and The Times They Are A-Changin' became anthems of the anti-war and civil rights movements.

His move away from traditional folk songwriting, paired with a controversial decision to "go electric" proved equally influential - his confessional, introspective lyrics were undoubtedly absorbed by The Beatles in their later work.

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Bob Dylan to get Medal of Freedom