4 ms·
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 t
by 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 agoIs 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 agoWorks 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 agoI love that comparison. Just came here to say that.
- Myrmornis 10y agoI 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 agoMaybe. 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.