6 ms·

Totally 100% well deserved. Just imagine the 13 year old out there discovering "Masters of War" or "Idiot Wind" for the first time today. Their entire point of

• stinkytaco 10y ago
  Also No Direction Home, which encompass and expands on Don't Look Back is equally excellent.
• mcphilip 10y ago
  That MusiCares speech is a great read if you have 30 minutes to spare. A few favorite bits: On Dylan's immersion in classic folk: >If you sang "John Henry" as many times as me – "John Henry was a steel-driving man / Died with a hammer in his hand / John Henry said a man ain't nothin' but a man / Before I let that steam drill drive me down / I'll die with that hammer in my hand." If you had sung that song as many times as I did, you'd have written "How many roads must a man walk down?" too. On what's often missing from rock & roll: >The other half of rock & roll has got to be hillbilly. And that's a derogatory term, but it ought not to be. That's a term that includes the Delmore Bros., Stanley Bros., Roscoe Holcomb, Git Tanner and the Skillet Lickers... groups like that. Moonshine gone berserk. Fast cars on dirt roads. That's the kind of combination that makes up rock & roll, and it can't be cooked up in a science laboratory or a studio.
  • duaneb 10y ago
    >The other half of rock & roll has got to be hillbilly. And that's a derogatory term, but it ought not to be. That's a term that includes the Delmore Bros., Stanley Bros., Roscoe Holcomb, Git Tanner and the Skillet Lickers... groups like that. Moonshine gone berserk. Fast cars on dirt roads. That's the kind of combination that makes up rock & roll, and it can't be cooked up in a science laboratory or a studio. Considering that most of the rock & roll I listen to comes from Britain, I have no idea what he considers rock & roll to be. It's certainly not american folk music.
    • geebee 10y ago
      I'd encourage you to investigate the link between Clapton and American folk music. I could post links, but I'd just be doing what I'm encouraging you to do - research this a bit.
      • duaneb 10y ago
        I mean I realize the link—assuming you're calling american blues "folk", that is—but it's just that, a link, not an identity. Clapton certainly sounds unique. I'm more interested in the fact that he thinks rock & roll is actually a discrete genre rather than a band format. I'm also not a huge fan of Clapton sans Cream OR the Stones, so maybe I just don't like american flavored rock & roll. It didn't really click for me until Iggy Pop showed up. It didn't feel right to be caught halfway between him and Woody Guthrie—both ends make sense, but the middle sounds terrible to me.
        • abakker 10y ago
          I'd love to highlight Lynyrd Skynyrd as a prime example of American Rock. I think the link in their music is much clearer.
    • anamoulous 10y ago
      Do you like Wilco?
• deleted 10y ago
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• Chathamization 10y ago
  I don't know. I like Dylan's music alright, but reading the lyrics posted here and imagining how they would sound on their own (If you've heard the songs, you tend to impose the music on them when you read them), I don't think they're particularly impressive. If you slipped, say, "The Ballad of a Thin Man" into a poetry anthology I don't believe many people coming across it blind would consider it one of the greats.
  • sliverstorm 10y ago
    Is it right to consider the lyrics without the music? Isn't that a little like reading a literal translation of a poem in another language?
    • greendragon 10y ago
      Works for the Tao Te Ching, and others. You lose something but not enough you can't see the genius if it's there. For Dylan I'd actually prefer to consider his lyrics without the music since sometimes I can't really understand what he's singing. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLCewTcb-jc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLCewTcb-jc)
    • nchelluri 10y ago
      I love that comparison. Just came here to say that.
  • Myrmornis 10y ago
    I don't know what the official criteria are but I'm going to think of the prize decision as recognizing his incredible songs as art in themselves rather than just the lyrics as "literature".
    • Chathamization 10y ago
      Maybe. I took the fact that this is a Nobel Prize in Literature and that the site states that they awarded it to him for "new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition" as meaning this was about his lyrics.
• mynameishere 10y ago
  I was probably 13 or so when I bought a "Freewheelin Bob Dylan" cassette out of a bargain bin for maybe a dollar. I thought then, and think now, that "Masters of War" was embarrassingly juvenile. I mean, come on: And I hope that you die And your death’ll come soon I will follow your casket In the pale afternoon And I’ll watch while you’re lowered Down to your deathbed And I’ll stand o’er your grave Til I’m sure that you’re dead Really right up there with "Suicide is Painless". And rhyming deathbed and "you're dead" is an awkward classic finish. I wouldn't bother opining this way but that dumb song's reputation is truly bizarre.
  • enneff 10y ago
    "Suicide is Painless" is a great song.
• 99_00 10y ago
  There are plenty of prices for excellence in young adult literature. The noble price shouldn't be one of them.
  • robotresearcher 10y ago
    > The nobel price You aren't even trying.