Posted on 04/08/2008 8:51:40 AM PDT by Borges
Thanks to Bob Dylan, rock 'n' roll has finally broken through the Pulitzer wall. Dylan, the most acclaimed and influential songwriter of the past half century, who more than anyone brought rock from the streets to the lecture hall, received an honorary Pulitzer Prize on Monday, cited for his "profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power."
It was the first time Pulitzer judges, who have long favored classical music, and, more recently, jazz, awarded an art form once dismissed as barbaric, even subversive.
"I am in disbelief," Dylan fan and fellow Pulitzer winner Junot Diaz said of Dylan's award.
Diaz's "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," a tragic but humorous story of desire, politics and violence among Dominicans at home and in the United States, won the fiction prize. Diaz, 39, worked for more than a decade on his first novel — "I spent most of the time on dead-ends and doubts," he told The Associated Press on Monday — and at one point included a section about Dylan.
"Bob Dylan was a problem for me," Diaz, who has also published a story collection, "Drown," said with a laugh. "I had one part that was 40 pages long, the entire chapter was organized around Bob Dylan's lyrics over a two year-period (1967-69). By the end of it, I wanted to throttle my like of Bob Dylan."
The Pulitzer for drama was given to Tracy Letts' "August: Osage County," which, like Diaz's novel, combines comedy and brutality. Letts calls the play "loosely autobiographical," a bruising family battle spanning several generations of unhappiness and unfulfilled dreams.
"It's a play I have been working on in my head and on paper for many years now," said Letts, reached by the AP in Chicago at the Steppenwolf Theater Company, where "August: Osage County" had its world premiere last summer.
"There were just some details from my grandmother, my grandfather's suicide (for example) that I had played over and over in my head for many, many years. I always thought, `Well, that's the stuff of drama right there.'"
Former U.S. poet laureate Robert Hass, already a National Book Award winner for "Time and Materials," won the poetry Pulitzer, as did Philip Schultz's "Failure."
"This is the book ... I have always wanted to write," Schultz told the AP. "Everyone is expert on one subject and failure seems to be mine. ... I was born into it. My father went bankrupt when I was 18 and he died soon afterward out of (a) terrible sense of shame. And we lost everything, my mother and I."
Other winners Monday: Daniel Walker Howe, for history, for "What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848"; Saul Friedlander, general nonfiction, for "The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945"; for biography, John Matteson's "Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father."
"I wrote my book in a way that is generally accessible to the curious literate reader," Howe said. "And I think that's very important, and I wish more books were written that way."
"It's a special honor because it ties me even more to the country of which I'm now a citizen," said Friedlander, who became a U.S. citizen seven years ago and won the German Booksellers Association's 2007 Peace Prize for his work on documenting the Holocaust.
"I am surprised, grateful, overjoyed — and a little embarrassed to do this with my first book," said Matteson, a professor of English at John Jay College in New York City who added that his 14-year-old daughter was an inspiration.
"Not only did I understand parenting better after writing the book, but being a parent helped me to write the book."
Dylan's victory doesn't mean that the Pulitzers have forgotten classical composers. The competitive prize for music was given to David Lang's "The Little Match Girl Passion," which opened last fall at Carnegie Hall, where Dylan has also performed.
"Bob Dylan is the most frequently played artist in my household so the idea that I am honored at the same time as Bob Dylan, that is humbling," Lang told the AP.
Long after most of his contemporaries either died, left the business or held on by the ties of nostalgia, Dylan continues to tour almost continuously and release highly regarded CDs, most recently "Modern Times." Fans, critics and academics have obsessed over his lyrics — even digging through his garbage for clues — since the mid-1960s, when such protest anthems as "Blowin' in the Wind" made Dylan a poet and prophet for a rebellious generation.
His songs include countless biblical references and he has claimed Chekhov, Walt Whitman and Jack Kerouac as influences. His memoir, "Chronicles, Volume One," received a National Book Critics Circle nomination in 2005 and is widely acknowledged as the rare celebrity book that can be treated as literature.
According to publisher Simon & Schuster, Dylan is working on a second volume of memoirs. No release date has been set.
Ok, maybe it is just acquired familiarity on my part since I listen to a lot of Dylan. I admit that some Dylan songs are hard to understand, even with the lyrics, but many are plain enough, with or without lyrics, to my ears anyway.
“You were right from your side and I was right from mine...”
Yes, the Rod Stewart version is great. And it’s a great song.
To flip that back at you, I recommend Sting’s Soul Cages album. It was written to help him get over the death of his father. I have never heard more interesting musical grieving and commentary on the process. Listen well to the lyrics (you won’t need a cheat sheet).
“All this time the river flowed, endlessly, to the sea.”
In the end, it doesn’t matter. :D
Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream-one of my all time faves!
I was riding on the Mayflower
When I thought I spied some land
I yelled for Captain Arab
I have yuh understand
Who came running to the deck
Said, “Boys, forget the whale
Look on over yonder
Cut the engines
Change the sail
Haul on the bowline”
We sang that melody
Like all tough sailors do
When they are far away at sea
“I think I’ll call it America”
I said as we hit land
I took a deep breath
I fell down, I could not stand
Captain Arab he started
Writing up some deeds
He said, “Let’s set up a fort
And start buying the place with beads”
Just then this cop comes down the street
Crazy as a loon
He throw us all in jail
For carryin’ harpoons
Ah me I busted out
Don’t even ask me how
I went to get some help
I walked by a Guernsey cow
Who directed me down
To the Bowery slums
Where people carried signs around
Saying, “Ban the bums”
I jumped right into line
Sayin’, “I hope that I’m not late”
When I realized I hadn’t eaten
For five days straight
I went into a restaurant
Lookin’ for the cook
I told them I was the editor
Of a famous etiquette book
The waitress he was handsome
He wore a powder blue cape
I ordered some suzette, I said
“Could you please make that crepe”
Just then the whole kitchen exploded
From boilin’ fat
Food was flying everywhere
And I left without my hat
Now, I didn’t mean to be nosy
But I went into a bank
To get some bail for Arab
And all the boys back in the tank
They asked me for some collateral
And I pulled down my pants
They threw me in the alley
When up comes this girl from France
Who invited me to her house
I went, but she had a friend
Who knocked me out
And robbed my boots
And I was on the street again
Well, I rapped upon a house
With the U.S. flag upon display
I said, “Could you help me out
I got some friends down the way”
The man says, “Get out of here
I’ll tear you limb from limb”
I said, “You know they refused Jesus, too”
He said, “You’re not Him
Get out of here before I break your bones
I ain’t your pop”
I decided to have him arrested
And I went looking for a cop
I ran right outside
And I hopped inside a cab
I went out the other door
This Englishman said, “Fab”
As he saw me leap a hot dog stand
And a chariot that stood
Parked across from a building
Advertising brotherhood
I ran right through the front door
Like a hobo sailor does
But it was just a funeral parlor
And the man asked me who I was
I repeated that my friends
Were all in jail, with a sigh
He gave me his card
He said, “Call me if they die”
I shook his hand and said goodbye
Ran out to the street
When a bowling ball came down the road
And knocked me off my feet
A pay phone was ringing
It just about blew my mind
When I picked it up and said hello
This foot came through the line
Well, by this time I was fed up
At tryin’ to make a stab
At bringin’ back any help
For my friends and Captain Arab
I decided to flip a coin
Like either heads or tails
Would let me know if I should go
Back to ship or back to jail
So I hocked my sailor suit
And I got a coin to flip
It came up tails
It rhymed with sails
So I made it back to the ship
Well, I got back and took
The parkin’ ticket off the mast
I was ripping it to shreds
When this coastguard boat went past
They asked me my name
And I said, “Captain Kidd”
They believed me but
They wanted to know
What exactly that I did
I said for the Pope of Eruke
I was employed
They let me go right away
They were very paranoid
Well, the last I heard of Arab
He was stuck on a whale
That was married to the deputy
Sheriff of the jail
But the funniest thing was
When I was leavin’ the bay
I saw three ships a-sailin’
They were all heading my way
I asked the captain what his name was
And how come he didn’t drive a truck
He said his name was Columbus
I just said, “Good luck.”
“Dylan’s greatness is certainly not his vocal skills (or lack there of)”
Agreed.
He’s an enigmatic word smith/poet with a deep understanding of human nature. That is beautiful in its own right.
Love him or hate him, his music is profound.
"Dream of the Blue Turtles".
'Nuff said.
Oddly enough, the Party Shuffle in iTunes just came up with “Fortress” from that album.
Fully concur.
It amazes me that people just because they do not like something (or someone) cannot appreciate their talent or greatness, be it in athletics, or the performing arts.
I saw "Swan Lake" the ballet in NYC (a gift to my wife). I was bored, but recognized and appreciated the tremendous skills displayed by the dancers. I would not deny them their ability just because I did not fully appreciate it.
Here, people complain that Dylan mumbles or cannot sing, yet his catalog of 100's of songs, and versions played by 100's of people are open testimony that there is a unique talent in the man. The fact that he still sells out his shows after over 40 years of playing indicates that he has well withstood the test of time.
Michael Stipe? He can’t sing! See post # 129.
Rod Stewart's music is gay; I have no idea about the man himself. That you would hold him up as an exemplar of anything "good" about music speaks volumes about your taste, though.
The younger generation cannot understand Dylan’s words as their eardrums have been dislocated with the $5,000.00 base boom boxes in their $700.00 cars.
I too can understand him, but he sings the words so fast that they do not register in my head. Esp. 4th street shakdown. How could he remember those lyrics in concert? I’d mumble some too.
(the pump don’t work cause the vandals took the handles)
Don’t know what your tastes are vis a vis bluegrass, celtic and contemporary acoustic, but Tim O’Brien put out a record 10 or so years ago entitle Red on Blonde, all Dylan covers. His version of Forever Young is really fine. Farewell Angelina is pretty incredible as well.
This isn't the first time there is a question about Dylan's lyrics and it probably won't be the last, and only a fan like me would probably notice. :-)
The lyrics you posted look to be identical to those on Dylan's website but at least one line differs from print to recording when Dylan sings "My Back Pages" and also in the Byrd's version.
In Dylan's recording, Dylan sings "My existence led by confusion boats" rather than "My pathway led by confusion boats." Perhaps he rewrote the line recently.
For any doubters or naysayers, "My Back Pages" in the recorded version performed by Bob Dylan himself and linked below, is the most clearly pronounced version I have ever heard.
In a soldier's stance, I aimed my hand
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not that I'd become my enemy
In the instant that I preach
(Bob Dylan's and Byrd's recorded version:)
Mypathwayexistence led by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now"
Here's Dylan singing My Back Pages and here are the Byrds singing it.
His early work, with Jeff Beck, The Faces and his first solo albums (i.e The Rod Stewart Album) are all exellent and certainly not gay, IMHO. I lost interest in him when turned into a lounge type act singing smaltzy Barry Manilow crap.
His version of Tom Waits "Downtown Train" was his last good piece of work.
So, if everything Rod sings is gay... and he performs a lot of Dylan songs.... that means that Dylan’s music is gay, right?
Thank you. I will have to look that up as I am a fan of Celtic and Bluegrass.
Dylan routinely had multiple versions of his songs. I have a copy of what is referred to as the “New York Sessions” of the Blood on the Tracks record, which were cut earlier than what ultimately appeared on the record, and quite a few of the songs have different verses.
Not 4th street! That was subterrain’g homesick blues.
Ouch, my old brain hurts.
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