"The gist being that it was obvious from the gitgo that Bob wasn't just different, but was doing things to "achieve stardom." when I first read that, I thought it was just retrospective sour grapes, but I know now it isn't. He worked at being different and in the right place at the right time."--catspaw49

Is it too cynical to suggest a creative man who simply saw a MARKET ripe for the picking? The "folk" movement was monolithic in its politics and taste, regionally aggregated into very bite-size marketing morsels, and just organized enough to be tappable on a grand scale.

As to grand-scale listenership--he also arrived at the time of a grand-scale shift in the world view of mass media.

The suggestion doesn't really diminish the quality of his work--maybe just a gentle tweak to the "fans"