Dylan did some amazing stuff (particularly in his early years) but....Nobel Prize? Nope,does not compute.
But then,he deserves one more than the Community Organizer-In-Chief does.
Well, your nephew is partially right.
I grew up on Zimmerman (Dylan is a marketing ploy from Madison Ave.) and thought he was a genius and all that.
After I studied English and got a degree in it (a real degree, not an honorary degree) and have been studying American literature and poetry fervently for these past 30 years, I realize that Zimmerman really just copied the voice of all the Imagists, aided with a bit of weed.
Yes, very pretty, poetic sounds. Strong images.
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 has to convey a meaning, other wise it is nothing more than the “jingle jangle” clang of cymbals.
Quote:
“My 27 year old nephew...a very bright and “cerebral” kid...thinks that Dylan’s works are worthless.We once had a long discussion about Tambourine Man in which he said that he couldn’t even begin to see its meaning or “purpose”.”
“Bright and cerebral?” And without a soul evidently.
Anyone who would describe Dylan’s music as “worthless” is someone I wouldn’t waste one second of my time talking to.
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.