“I was so much older then / I’m younger than that now.”

Bob Dylan sang those wise words at the tender age of 23, on his track My Back Pages.

As he reaches his 80th birthday on Monday, we’ve decided to ignore the advice of the famous Dylan documentary Don’t Look Back and celebrate the life and career of the US singer-songwriter.

Be warned though before we get started, this list is about as long and exhaustive as some of the verses on his last album..

And just before you dive in – if you’re collecting Vinyl, CDs or items of memorabilia from the great man – fill the gaps in your collection eil.com.

Rarities, imports, archive pieces and much more.

1. Bob Dylan is not his given birth name. But you already knew that, right? So here are 79 more facts about the artist formerly known as Robert Allen Zimmerman.

2. He has sold more than 125 million albums around the world.

3. Despite his success and cultural impact, Dylan has never had a number one single in the UK or US. For context, Mr Blobby, Crazy Frog and Las Ketchup have all topped the charts.

4. A poll of musicians, writers and academics, conducted on Dylan’s 70th birthday, found his best song to be 1965’s Like a Rolling Stone, which the singer once said was his most honest and direct work. “After that I wasn’t interested in writing a novel or a play,” he said. “I knew I wanted to write songs because it was just a whole new category.”

5. Bruce Springsteen said the track, with its opening snare kick, sounded like “somebody kicked open the door to your mind”. While another high-profile fan, U2’s Bono, called it “a black eye of a pop song”…

Read the full list here at the BBC

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