I greatly enjoy Dylan's music . . . and Dylan.
I'm surprised we went so far in this thread without one of the large number of Dylan-haters at FR insulting him and calling him "Robert Zimmerman."
Of course, they would go ballistic if you called John Wayne "Marion Michael Morrison."
You have a point. But, it's the same one John McCain made when he griped on that Ohio radio talk-show host (Cunningham?) for saying "Hussein" is Obama's middle name. So you are in questionable company when you complain about somebody referring to somebody else by their "real" name.
I've never heard Bob Dylan say he hated the Zimmerman name, but then, I may not have been paying attention. I really don't like his music. Not even a little bit. Sort of like John "Cougar" Melonhead, a rose by any other name....
Read the Rolling Stone mag interview where this Robert Zimmerman repeatedly calls himself Robert Zimmerman and talks about a Hell's Angel named Bobby Zimmerman. Is Dylan insulting himself?
The interview is really worth reading even if the mag is not worth paying for (I read it in B&N Starbucks.)