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* I’ve been surprised at the number of people who think Bob Dylan didn’t deserve his Nobel Prize for Literature. But here’s Rolling Stone’s take…
This is easily the most controversial award since they gave it to the guy who wrote Lord of the Flies, which was controversial only because it came next after the immensely popular 1982 prize for Gabriel García Márquez. Nobody can read the minds of the Nobel committee – it’s not that kind of award. You can’t argue that Dylan jumped the line in front of more deserving candidates, because there’s no internal logic to the process. Like most literary Nobels, except much more so, it comes out of the blue, giving Dylan fans a whole new glorious enigma to battle over. So settle in. This argument will take us years. If you’re looking to get silly, you better go back to from where you came.
According to the Swedish Academy, Dylan won “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” Of course it’s not poetry, not even sung poetry. It’s songwriting, it’s storytelling, it’s electric noise, it’s a bard exploiting the new-media inventions of his time (amplifiers, microphones, recording studios, radio) for literary performance the way playwrights or screenwriters once did…. He won for inventing ways to make songs do what they hadn’t done before.
The best argument for Dylan’s Nobel Prize comes from Ralph Waldo Emerson, even though he died a century before Shot of Love. His 1850 essay “Shakespeare; or the Poet,” from the book Representative Men, works as a cheat sheet to Dylan. For Emerson, Shakespeare’s greatness was to exploit the freedoms of a disreputable format, the theater: “Shakespeare, in common with his comrades, esteemed the mass of old plays, waste stock, in which any experiment could be freely tried. Had the prestige which hedges about a modern tragedy existed, nothing could have been done. The rude warm blood of the living England circulated in the play, as in street-ballads.”
This is a key point – Shakespeare was a writer/actor/manager hustling in the commercial theater racket for live crowds. He didn’t publish his plays – didn’t even keep written copies. Once it was onstage, he was on to the next one. (After his death, his friends had to cobble the First Folio together, mostly from working scripts, hence the deplorable state of his texts.) Low prestige meant constant forward motion. The theater was becoming a national passion, “but not a whit less considerable, because it was cheap.” He aimed his poetry at the groundlings: “It must even go into the world’s history, that the best poet led an obscure and profane life, using his genius for the public amusement.”
Dylan didn’t write many books either – his songs came out of that same “rude warm blood.” He makes sure you can’t reduce his songs to their verbal content
Agreed.
* Your brunchtime Bob…
I got forty red-white-and-blue shoestrings
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 10:27 am
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I think it was deserved. Some of his lyrics are not just remarkable poetry, they are transcendent. I just personally would rather hear a different voice perform them. Just a matter of taste.
Comment by Ron Burgundy Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 10:36 am
I enjoyed Rich’s post with the Comments on Dylan yesterday, but didn’t comment.
Bob Dylan’s writing goes beyond a turn of a phrase that matches notes on a paper. The beauty of Dylan’s writing is taking the competed package of music and lyrics and telling a story, a feeling, bringing emotion to the surface, and touching the entertained not only in the simple senses, but allowing emotional and at times tangible emotion to be intertwined.
Bob Dylan has taken the writing element in his field beyond storytelling, beyond emotional appeal, even beyond a political message. Dylan is worthy, undisputed for me, by allowing me the opportunity to have words and music strike chords in me like emotion and thought and be taken beyond waiting for another track to begin, but digesting the meaning of what Dylan was trying to say, and let the emotions wash over as those phrases he turns tickle more than snaps in the brain.
Congratulations, Bob Dylan. You have entertained but stoked more than the joy of music and words making a catchy tune.
Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 10:40 am
Dylan’s cover of “Lonesome Whistle Blues” is always worth checking out.
Comment by AlfondoGonz Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 10:42 am
Good take by Winter on this one.
Comment by X-prof Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 10:43 am
I agree.
Dylan is revered among songwriters. His songs have stood the test of time unlike some much of pop music. And much of his music had a purpose.
Finally, as mentioned, the Nobel prize selection process isn’t objective. It’s up to the committee.
Comment by Sir Reel Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 10:44 am
There is no better Dylan cover than this one by Johnny.
Comment by WTF Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 10:54 am
I commented yesterday, but Willy stated my thoughts much better.
Comment by illini Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 11:03 am
“I got sidetracked in El Paso…stopped to get myself a map,
Went the wrong way into Juarez with Juanita on my lap.
Then I went to sleep in Shreveport…. woke up in Abilene…
Wondering why the hell I’m wanted at some town halfway between.”
For those who can’t fathom the heartbreaking and dark beauty of that metaphor on the trials of the soul, the truth of poetry is just lost on you.
Comment by wordslinger Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 11:11 am
Well deserved. As for the article, I got
“If you’re looking to get silly, you better go back to from where you came.”
“Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues”
and
“ the fire he built on Main Street and shot full of holes.”
“Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again”.
What else is in there?
Comment by Bigtwich Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 11:18 am
Now the rainman gave me two cures
Then he said, “Jump right in”
The one was Texas medicine
The other was just railroad gin
An’ like a fool I mixed them
An’ it strangled up my mind
An’ now people just get uglier
An’ I have no sense of time
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again
That is literature people. Might not be your cup of tea, but this was a great selection by the Nobel committee.
Comment by 47th Ward Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 11:25 am
Agree 100% with 47th on Memphis Blues.
The mere fact that a man with a voice like his could sell so many records is all the proof you need of his genius. If you need more proof, listen to Johnny Cash rumble, “God said to Abraham . . .”
Comment by Whatever Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 11:33 am
I’ve been surprised at the number of people….
“Oh, you’ve never understood that it ain’t no good…”
Comment by GOP Extremist Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 11:37 am
I don’t understand the controversy over this.
Listen to/read his work - it’s pure genius.
And I love the voice. The voice is perfect. The voice is part of the creation.
It’s not the voice he was born with - a Jewish kid from Hibbing, Minnesota - it’s the voice he chose to convey the message.
And it’s the perfect vessel for his art.
Like Leonard Cohen.
Comment by TinyDancer(FKASue) Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 11:39 am
@TinyDancer - totally agree about Leonard Cohen, another of my long time favorites. And a great poet in his own right !!
Comment by illini Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 11:46 am
Well deserved. Dylan is the standard bearer for three generations of song writers.
Jimmy Buffett was asked when he knew he had “made it”. He said it was when a friend called and told him he was at a show when Bob Dylan covered “A Pirate looks at Forty”. Buffett called it the highest compliment of his life.
Comment by Chad Hays Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 11:47 am
Some people may not think he’s a great poet because not all the words rhyme. /s
Comment by Bleugrass Boy Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 11:52 am
- illini -, thanks, appreciate your kind words.
Even before the announcement, I’ve heard often in complete concert Bob Dylan referred to as a poet and a songwriter, and by having both discriptions, elevating Dylan above many who are skilled at only one. That’s really, for me, why Dylan is deserving.
Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 11:52 am
For my money, a passage from “Mr. Tambourine Man” stands out as poetry that can make its case independent of music. A lot of Dylan’s work is like that, of course, which is why he deserves it. You can study Dylan’s work ad nauseum and still have healthy debates about the true meaning, which is what defines great art.
Take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time
Far past the frozen leaves
The haunted frightened trees
Out to the windy bench
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky
With one hand waving free
Silhouetted by the sea
Circled by the circus sands
With all memory and fate
Driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow
Comment by He Deserves It Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 12:15 pm
Seems to be a debate 50 years out of touch… art and lit is all pc today.
Comment by Liberty Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 12:34 pm
the misogyny angle of some of his work aside and I don’t agree completely with Joni on Dylan is fake gate. but I do think Joni Mitchell would have been a nice winner.
Comment by Amalia Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 1:20 pm
Seems like the awards themselves are in search of publicity to make themselves relevant. No better way to do it than to throw a few at some pop culture icons. Maybe MC Hammer can win for literature next year. I always liked his parachute pants.
Comment by Saluki Friday, Oct 14, 16 @ 2:10 pm