Bob Dylan wins Nobel Literature Prize

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Not sure that I can actually Tev - if forced to choose, I'd probably plump for GBS .

Well, this was what I thought was intended as "the correct" answer - Shaw wasn't a poet.


I've always preferred Dylan's literary achievements to his Music - and have known four "A"-level Literature teachers at different establishments who have used the "lyrics" as poems. I don't really see what's so controversial about this nomination.

[gurnemanz]

Well, this was what I thought was intended as "the correct" answer - Shaw wasn't a poet.


I've always preferred Dylan's literary achievements to his Music - and have known four "A"-level Literature teachers at different establishments who have used the "lyrics" as poems. I don't really see what's so controversial about this nomination.

As a student in 1969 - 70 I spent a year as the English language assistant in a German Gymnasium (grammar school) as part of my German degree. The Abitur (A level) class kept asking about Bob Dylan (they were only a couple of years younger than me). I said I would get some texts for them and talk about then in our conversation class. In those days I could only get hold of the the words by writing them down while playing the LP, then typing them up onto a roneo master and getting the school secretary to make multiple copies for the students. We did Mr Tambourine (modern Pied Piper), Times They are a Changin' (of course! ..... they were!), It Ain't Me, Babe (His No No No! a kind an antidote to the Pop Yea, yeah, yeah).

[french frank]

I don't really see what's so controversial about this nomination.

I don't see it as controversial - it's absolutely in tune with now. It's what 'people' value and that's why prizes are awarded. Reading people's favourite pieces here, I'm still reminded of the gaucheness of Country & Western lyrics, a semi-literate rawness with (in Dylan's case) a distinctively creative imagination.

The OED defines 'cult' as 'a collective obsession with or intense admiration for a particular person, thing, or idea' …

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The OED defines 'cult' as 'a collective obsession with or intense admiration for a particular person, thing, or idea' …

But is there now - and has there been in the past, say, thirty years - a "Dylan Cult"?

[french frank]

But is there now - and has there been in the past, say, thirty years - a "Dylan Cult"?

I would have said there had been one. Less so since his more recent reinvention, though possibly now due for a revival.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I would have said there had been one. Less so since his more recent reinvention, though possibly now due for a revival.

"More recent" than which "reinvention", though? I've rather lost track since his "born-again Christian" declaration: but that was in the early '80s (if not before) after some years of non-activity before that. Even the Travelling Wilburys is 20 years ago. If there is a "cult" then the "collective" that is "obsessed" with him is miniscule - and hardly sufficient, I would have thought, to have assaulted the fortifications of the Nobel committee?

[gradus]

Congratulations to him. I dislike his singing and playing but like the lyrics and I'm lukewarm about the tunes. Called the greatest ever songwriter on R4 earlier today but I don't think so.

[MrGongGong]

Seems about right to me
If you want a musician then Tom Waits is what is needed

Bob Dylan ?

"But mostly it’s the voice. That drowning mongoose, nails down a blackboard, clown’s horn with pneumonia, chainsaw nailed to a rollercoaster, foxes having sex, fuck awful voice."

[antongould]

Me .... I've always found Paul Simon much, much less productive, but superior and it's his 75th birthday ......

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Incidentally - is there any reason why there isn't a Nobel Prize for Music?

[teamsaint]

Seems about right to me
If you want a musician then Tom Waits is what is needed

Bob Dylan ?

"But mostly it’s the voice. That drowning mongoose, nails down a blackboard, clown’s horn with pneumonia, chainsaw nailed to a rollercoaster, foxes having sex, fuck awful voice."

Plenty of people might agree about the voice, but the vast number of covers of his songs must say something about his ability as a musician ?

Anyway, the point about his lyrics , for me, is how well they work with the music.

Edit :I wouldn't call myself a huge fan of his singing, but it works very well on something like "Maggie's Farm."

[MrGongGong]

Plenty of people might agree about the voice, but the vast number of covers of his songs must say something about his ability as a musician ?

Not really
They might say something about his ability as a songwriter

Many times folks have tried to convince me of his significance usually by telling me to pay attention to the words
but compared to Tom the music (and the lyrics) are doggerel

I wonder what he thinks of that Elgar piece so beloved of the faithful ?

[teamsaint]

Not really
They might say something about his ability as a songwriter

Many times folks have tried to convince me of his significance usually by telling me to pay attention to the words
but compared to Tom the music (and the lyrics) are doggerel

I wonder what he thinks of that Elgar piece so beloved of the faithful ?

I'd count songwriters as musicians.

[MrGongGong]

I'd count songwriters as musicians.

I'd count them like branches of "Subway" and Tambourines
You could get rid of 95% of them and there would still be too many

I know lots of folks love him
Which is fine
and no problem with him getting an award at all

[Lat-Literal]

I am not a part of a cult because I found him independently in 1989. People of my own age tried to sell him to me seven years earlier just as teachers had offered Shakespeare but I didn't feel ready for him. In the 1990s a friend who is a decade or more older than me, a big Bob fan and in my former (prize winning) music quiz team said that he was always astonished how later generations took to him. In his mind, he was wedded to one era. By that time, I had bought album after album in the way that some do books on discovering a new author. And I think what struck me most was how different all of them were as well as how similar. The writing changed, the beliefs changed, the voice changed....and often all of them changed back again. Nothing was predictable........and with the extraordinary number of recent releases of recordings that hadn't been heard, what is clear is that many of these Dylans were running in parallel. It is a pity that the television and radio networks have dug out just three clips for the occasion but it highlights the contrasts in imagination.

Anyhow, I also took to Van Morrison in 1989 and no one I knew then was with me on either Van or Bob. Both released albums in that year that were fairly high profile though not universally acclaimed. Apart from that point, I don't think it was a coincidence. These are to my mind in age terms the mid-twenties popular music artists if you weren't, say, ten or sixteen in the early 1960s, that is, beyond the handful of songs that everyone knows from a very early age. Only Nick Drake and Gil Scott-Heron fully came to me (just a bit) later!