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It feels foolish, trying to put Bob Dylan's music into any sort of cogent framework. It's like trying to absorb all the paintings in the Louvre in a day, or attempting to describe the United States from the space shuttle.

There's so much to consider, so much to factor in, so many different versions of Dylan that are all the same but different.

If that doesn't make sense, it's still true. Dylan was a folkie, he went electric, he sang country tunes, he converted from Judaism -- or did he? -- to Christianity. His music was a template for the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, the Grateful Dead and just about any musician who ever aspired to play guitar and write intelligent lyrics.

Perhaps Dylan's most amazing feat is that he continues to be a creative, influential force at 61, an age when many musicians are relegated to oldies revivals or featured spots on the rib festival circuit. His last two albums, "Time Out of Mind" and "Love and Theft," compare favorably with anything he's recorded in a career that spans four decades.

Try to name another musician who's kept his skills so sharply-honed over a similar time period. Dylan's that rare artist who inspires other artists in other mediums -- writers, poets, artists, actors -- to invoke his name with awe.

Even his missteps -- 1989's "Dylan & the Dead" comes to mind -- piqued interest. And during the early 1990s, when many of his live shows were marked by sloppy arrangements, and his singing seemed to be channeled through a cement mixer, the concerts were worth the price of admission just to try to figure out what was going on.

Perhaps the only constant is that despite Dylan's enormous catalog and his constant touring, he remains enigmatic and unknowable. Continually in the spotlight, he's still a shadowy figure, inscrutable and immutable, protean and Promethean, the quintessential stranger "in a land we're passing through." We've asked local musicians, writers and fans for their thoughts, ideas and memories of Bob Dylan. Look for it in Tuesday's Living section.

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