Bob Dylan and the Nobel Prize
Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2017 9:47 am
I'd be curious to hear what forum members feel about Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.
My own feeling is that it is a brilliant decision, though I suspect the Nobel Prize will benefit from it more than Dylan himself. Who won the Nobel Prize for Literature last year? Have you ever heard anybody talk about it?
I'm not going to defend everything Dylan has ever written. There is no doubt that some of his work is a bit half-baked and trite. At his best, though, - and he is at or close to his best a great deal of the time - he is utterly brilliant.
People not very familiar with his work generally refer to his early period - the folk/protest songs of the 60s. While these are, of course, fantastic, what I really admire about Dylan is the way he has continued to evolve and re-invent himself over decades and decades of work. His courage is incredible, too. He never stays with the tried and true, but keeps taking risks. He is quite prepared to alienate his fans and has done so over and over - while they squeal a bit at the beginning, he generally wins them over - with interest - in the long run.
Certainly in the world of popular song, I can't think of another artist who comes close to him in terms of creative lyrical output.
No doubt there will be quite a few on the forum who will say they are too old to have ever caught the Dylan Train, and that is fair enough. Then again, it's never too late to discover something new...
Lastly, can song lyrics be considered literature? My own feeling is that they definitely can, but I know there will be many who disagree.
My own feeling is that it is a brilliant decision, though I suspect the Nobel Prize will benefit from it more than Dylan himself. Who won the Nobel Prize for Literature last year? Have you ever heard anybody talk about it?
I'm not going to defend everything Dylan has ever written. There is no doubt that some of his work is a bit half-baked and trite. At his best, though, - and he is at or close to his best a great deal of the time - he is utterly brilliant.
People not very familiar with his work generally refer to his early period - the folk/protest songs of the 60s. While these are, of course, fantastic, what I really admire about Dylan is the way he has continued to evolve and re-invent himself over decades and decades of work. His courage is incredible, too. He never stays with the tried and true, but keeps taking risks. He is quite prepared to alienate his fans and has done so over and over - while they squeal a bit at the beginning, he generally wins them over - with interest - in the long run.
Certainly in the world of popular song, I can't think of another artist who comes close to him in terms of creative lyrical output.
No doubt there will be quite a few on the forum who will say they are too old to have ever caught the Dylan Train, and that is fair enough. Then again, it's never too late to discover something new...
Lastly, can song lyrics be considered literature? My own feeling is that they definitely can, but I know there will be many who disagree.