Posted on 10/13/2016 4:37:05 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Helping you nephew to understand "Mr. Tambourine Man" might be difficult unless he has some familiarity with the 60s drug subculture.
Many songs of that era (e.g. the Byrds' "Eight Miles High" or PP&M's "Puff the Magic Dragon"), were double entendres, with one meaning for the regular people, and a special meaning for the initiates of the flourishing drug subculture. "Mr. Tambourine Man" is a perfect example of that. In my opinion, the whole song is an allegory of an LSD experience.
The song is filled with mages like "diamond sky" (think also of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds"), and the most obvious of all "Take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship". Throughout the song, Dylan alludes to the effects of the drug itself, and the desire of its users to withdraw from the predominant culture which they loathed.
I believe Dylan used the tambourine reference in part because tambourines were briefly popular in the "folk-rock" movement, and also as an allusion to the pied piper story, with rock musicians playing the role of the piper.
My only regret is the Byrds chose not to record the entire song as Dylan wrote it, maybe to make it more palatable to the teenyboppers, and almost certainly to keep it short so it would fit on a single.
Whatever you might think about the drug connotations, some good and much bad, it's still a beautiful song filled with amazing imagery.
And Dylan was certainly one to play word games with his listeners, deliberately creating mysteries of meaning for people to pick apart, analyze, and argue over.
In the end, the meaning of a song like "Mr. Tambourine Man" might not be so important after all, as long as you join with it and lose yourself in the flowing images. And that, after all, is what poetry is all about.
Hard to imagine your nephew is familiar with the work of John Donne or a number of other dead white guys who had a metaphysical take on things.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wox_oQr29i8&feature=youtu.be
As I walked out tonight in the mystic garden
The wounded flowers were dangling from the vines
I was passing by yon cool and crystal fountain
Someone hit me from behind
Ain’t talkin’, just walkin’
Through this weary world of woe
Heart burnin’, still yearnin’
No one on earth would ever know
They say prayer has the power to help
So pray from the mother
In the human heart an evil spirit can dwell
I’m trying to love my neighbor and do good unto others
But oh, mother, things ain’t going well
Ain’t talkin’, just walkin’
I’ll burn that bridge before you can cross
Heart burnin’, still yearnin’
They’ll be no mercy for you once you’ve lost
Now I’m all worn down by weepin’
My eyes are filled with tears, my lips are dry
If I catch my opponents ever sleepin’
I’ll just slaughter them where they lie
Ain’t talkin’, just walkin’
Through the world mysterious and vague
Heart burnin’, still yearnin’
Walking through the cities of the plague
The whole world is filled with speculation
The whole wide world which people say is round
They will tear your mind away from contemplation
They will jump on your misfortune when you’re down
Ain’t talkin’, just walkin’
Eatin’ hog-eyed grease in hog-eyed town
Heart burnin’ – still yearnin’
Someday you’ll be glad to have me around
They will crush you with wealth and power
Every waking moment you could crack
I’ll make the most of one last extra hour
I’ll avenge my father’s death then I’ll step back
Ain’t talkin’, just walkin’
Hand me down my walkin’ cane
Heart burnin’, still yearnin’
Got to get you out of my miserable brain
All my loyal and much-loved companions
They approve of me and share my code
I practice a faith that’s been long abandoned
Ain’t no altars on this long and lonesome road
Ain’t talkin’, just walkin’
My mule is sick, my horse is blind
Heart burnin’, still yearnin’
Thinkin’ ‘bout that gal I left behind
It’s bright in the heavens and the wheels are flying
Fame and honor never seem to fade
The fire’s gone out but the light is never dying
Who says I can’t get heavenly aid?
Ain’t talkin’, just walkin’
Carrying a dead man’s shield
Heart burnin’, still yearnin’
Walkin’ with a toothache in my heel
The suffering is unending
Every nook and cranny has it’s tears
I’m not playing, I’m not pretending
I’m not nursing any superfluous fears
Ain’t talkin’, just walkin’
Walkin’ ever since the other night
Heart burnin’, still yearnin’
Walkin’ ‘til I’m clean out of sight
As I walked out in the mystic garden
On a hot summer day, hot summer lawn
Excuse me, ma’am I beg your pardon
There’s no one here, the gardener is gone
Ain’t talkin’, just walkin’
Up the road around the bend
Heart burnin’, still yearnin’
In the last outback, at the world’s end
Bob Dylan 2006
FWIW, Monica Lewinsky tweeted “Congrats to #Bob Dylan, # Leonard Cohen’s next.”
https://mobile.twitter.com/MonicaLewinsky
Thanks.
Makes me smile.
After thinking about this, [as if I care what Nobel thinks about anything :(], I would nominate Laurie Anderson.
But no one axed me. >:)
“The Nobel Prize is a piece of poop..”
Singular? It appears that you are conflating the Peace Prize awarded by the Norwegians with the original Chemistry, Literature, Physics, and Medicine prizes Economics added much later) awarded by the Swedes.
Tut tut, tsk tsk.
If the Swedes were going to go off the reservation (as the Norwegians do regularly with the NPP), so to speak, I am glad they chose Dylan.
Bravo!
May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young
“Then again, the Nobel prize is a crap anyway”
Why do you conflate the other more noble (see what I did there? ;) ) prizes with the Peace prize?
They are not even selected and awarded by the same country.
Accolades and comments are pouring in from all over the world, but there ae some nay-sayers including:
Kanye: “Beyoncé should have won that”
No one can understand him!
FMCDH(BITS)
Honorable mention to Tom Waits
Honorable mention to Tom Waits
Love the Pogues
“He wanted nothing to do with the 60s counterculture.”
Just like his biggest influence Jack Kerouac .
Like they say, “Tom Waits for no one”.
“Like a Rolling Stone: was the first one that sprang to my mind when I heard the announcement. Next I thought of “Blowin’ in the Wind”, and then these two:
Just Like a Woman
Nobody feels any pain
Tonight as I stand here in the rain
Everybody knows that baby’s got new clothes
But lately I see her ribbons and her bows
Have fallen from her curls
She takes just like a woman
She makes love just like a woman
And then she aches just like a woman
But she breaks just like a little girl
Queen Mary, she’s my friend
Yes I believe I’ll go see her again
Nobody has to guess that baby can’t be blessed
‘Till she finally sees that she’s like all the rest
With her fog, her amphetamines, and her pearls
She takes just like a woman
She makes love just like a woman
And then she aches just like a woman
But she breaks just like a little girl
It raining at first, and I was dying there of thirst
So I came in here
And your long-time curse hurts, but what’s worse
Is this pain in here
I can’t stay in here
Ain’t it clear
That I just can’t fit
I believe it’s time for us to quit
But when we met again and are introduced as friends
Please don’t let on that you knew me when
I was hungry, and it was your world
You take just like a woman
You make love just like a woman
And then you ache just like a woman
But you break just like a little girl
Lay Lady Lay
Lay lady lay, lay across my big brass bed
Lay lady lay, lay across my big brass bed
Whatever colors you have in your mind
I’ll show them to you and you’ll see them shine
Lay lady lay, lay across my big brass bed
Stay lady stay, stay with your man awhile
Until the break of day, let me see you make ‘em smile
Your clothes are dirty but your hands are clean
And I’m the best thing that you’ve ever seen
(Stay lady stay, stay with your man awhile)
Why wait any longer for the world to begin?
You can have your cake and eat it too
(Why wait any longer for the one you love?
I am standin’ in front of you)
Lay lady lay, lay across my big brass bed
Stay lady stay, stay with your man awhile
You long to see me in the morning light
You long to reach for me in the night
(Stay lady stay, stay while the night is still ahead)
So maybe I’ll stay, stay while the night is still ahead
(Stay lady stay, stay while the night is still ahead)
So maybe I’ll stay
Stay while the night is still ahead
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