Bob Dylan wins Nobel prize for Literature

yahoo ^ | 10-13-16

[Sir_Humphrey]

Bob Dylan has won the Nobel Prize for Literature "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition," the Swedish Academy said on Thursday in awarding the 8 million Swedish crown ($927,740) prize.

Literature was the last of this year's Nobel prizes to be awarded. The prize is named after dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel and has been awarded since 1901 for achievements in science, literature and peace in accordance with his will.

[Enchante]

Yup, some great songs!

I remember reading in a book about the Beatles that when the album “Highway 61 Revisited” (which included “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Tombstone Blues”) came out in August 1965, John Lennon got it immediately and went straight to Paul McCartney, and they listened to it mesmerized, over and over again. At least, that is a story someone tells, I forget which book.....

Anyway, it is certainly true that “Like a Rolling Stone” is pretty much the dividing line between earlier rock/pop with mostly formulaic songs, tight time limits for top 40 radio, etc., and the vast expansions in songwriting vision and performance that occurred so widely after 1965 and onward.

It was Dylan who blew the walls down and unleashed vast creative forces in many many songwriters and musicians. Of course there is never one single cause for musical and artistic trends, but Bob Dylan had an enormous influence on countless others.

[Yaelle]

Definitely (another ex English major) Dylan was a poet. Glad he received this recognition. I think very little of the Nobel committee though.

Al Gore, Barack Obama, Yassir Arafat??

[MayflowerMadam]

I prefer Kris Kristofferson when it comes to great lyrics.

[miss marmelstein]

I must link Judy Collin's devastating rendition of Hattie Carroll which was included on her 3rd album, I believe. Between her performance and Dylan's rhythmic, repetitious words, surely it is one of the most moving of all the protest songs. A tragic story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwGmxYPQ7ZE

[miss marmelstein]

Try the link again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwGmxYPQ7ZE

[miss marmelstein]

Dylan was always a prankster. When he had his show on Sirius (he may still have, I don’t know) he used to pretend he had a vicious, running fight with Gordon Lightfoot. Then he would spin his favorite records.

[mylife]

Always liked his highbrow gutter humor.

[af_vet_1981]

My collection of Bob Dylan covers is even more extensive than Dylan originals. I’m hard pressed to find a cover version of a Dylan song that I don’t like.

Same with Leonard Cohen. Both great American songwriters. But I think Cohen is more of a New York thing.

Cohen was Jewish in Montreal.

"I will comment on his receiving the Nobel Prize, which to me is like pinning a medal on Mount Everest for being the highest mountain," Cohen said ...

[af_vet_1981]

and Owsley Stanley wins the Nobel in chemistry.

While the music played, you worked by candlelight
Those San Francisco nights
You were the best in town
Just by chance you crossed the diamond with the pearl

[af_vet_1981]

But throughout the 20th century there were poets who wrote just as beautifully who actually said something.

Zimmerman compared to Yeats, to Dylan Thomas, even to Robert Frost? No comparison.

Poetry without music is like a coral reef without fish; they belong together and one complements the beauty of the other.

[af_vet_1981]

Yes, yet, I think Leonard Cohen is better.

I would not use better; the songs are so different. I cannot image Dylan writing Famous Blue Raincoat, Chelsea Hotel, I'm Your Man, Marianne, Suzanne, Bird on a Wire, Halleluyah ... nor Cohen writing any of Dylan's many, many gems; different trees in the forest of our dreams.

[Daffynition]

To split hairs, perhaps I could have used a better word, than better. :)

[af_vet_1981]

You could have used mountain, but I suppose that analogy was already taken. Their songs touched millions.

Days after singer-songwriter Bob Dylan was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature for his prolific career in the music industry — causing quite a bit of brouhaha in the aftermath — his friend and contemporary Leonard Cohen had a few eloquent words to say about Dylan's monumental achievement. "I will comment on his receiving the Nobel Prize, which to me is like pinning a medal on Mount Everest for being the highest mountain," Cohen said ...

[Daffynition]

I thought about using the word *tomato*, but thought better of it.

[HandyDandy]

I've had a lifelong fascination with the guy. I definitely think he's an old fashioned conservative. I've thought of him as a mix of Charlie Chaplain, Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso. He has a gift that he himself doesn't fully grasp or have full command of. Throughout his tremendous body of work he's given us a glimpse of the American Hero. A man of dignity but who has to serve somebody. A man whose clothes are dirty but his hands are clean. My nickname here on FR, "HandyDandy", is a tribute to Bob Dylan. His song of that title gives one more description in filling out that character of the great American Hero. Bob is an American treasure. An artist in the truest sense. Another great American artist (a painter) was Edward Hopper. Hopper claimed he was just painting pictures. But we study those "pictures" and see interpretations of America. Sometimes I think of Dylan's works as putting words to Hoppers paintings. Anyway, for your pleasure, the lyric to "Hand Dandy", a rough sketch of the great American Hero:

"Handy Dandy"

Handy Dandy controversy surrounds him

He's been around the world and back again

Something in the moonlight still hounds him.

Handy Dandy just like sugar and candy

Handy Dandy if every bone in his body were a-broken he would never admit it

He got an all girl orchestra and when he says strike up the band they hit it.

Handy Dandy

Handy Dandy

He'll say what are you made off

He'll say can you repeat what you say

You'll say what are you afraid off

He'll say nothing neither alive nor dead.

Handy Dandy he's got a stick in his hand and a pocket full of money

He'll say oh darling tell me the truth how much time I got

She'll say you got all the time in the world honey.

Handy Dandy Handy Dandy He got that clear crystal fountain

He got that soft silky skin

He got that fortress on the mountain

With no doors or windows so no thieves can break in.

Handy Dandy sitting with a girl named Nancy and they got feeling kinda lazy

He said Hon' if you want a gun I'll give you one

She said boy you're talking crazy.

Handy Dandy just like sugar and candy

Handy Dandy pour him another brandy

Handy Dandy he got a basket of flowers and a bag full of sorrow

He finishes his drink he gets up from the table he says

OK boys I'll see you tomorrow.

Handy Dandy

Handy Dandy just like sugar and candy

Handy Dandy just like sugar and candy

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Define music?

Poetry was originally developed to keep track of history. It has melody and song built into it.

That said, “song” and “poetry” are two separate arts. Sometimes united, sometimes not. But “poetry” still stands alone as its own art.

And the great poets of the 20th century often had a far more melodic and lyrical quality than the most praised pop music that was hailed as poetry.

[af_vet_1981]

Define music?

Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?

[SteveH]

by Joni Mitchell.

[Mozilla]

Dylan has just too much material. Been listening to him on a pay service called Napster, formerly Rhapsody. There is too much to choose from as good material. But having followed the guy a long time, I know two albums not available there.