Bob Dylan wins the Nobel Prize for literature

Ally1BS

Doesn't say whether it's for his work before or after he plugged his guitar in. 

Any fans around here? I'm a late convert, only really connected a few years ago when I clicked that you have to listen to his voice as a punk rock sneer, like Johnny Rotten or an anguished wail like Kurt Cobain. Before that moment, I just thought he sounded like the noise you get when you switch on a Hoover.

Reckon you should listen to Maggie's Farm really loud if you don't get it.  

Still, Nobel Prize eh? Hope for us all. 

Fatfingers

Blood On The Tracks is a work of genius. And his lyrics are amazing. 

brojangles

I support his Nobel Prize although I'm annoyed that they haven't given it to Philip Roth yet.

xSkarloey

Hey hey. Bob 'what's a middle eight?' Dylan!


He deserves it in terms of his wider career, although on purely literary grounds there will be doubters, me among them.

However, it's worth mentioninng that the Nobel Prize for Literature is not that often awarded on purely literary grounds. Interestingly the citation mentions it's for "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".
Okay, if you bolt some borrowed Dylan Thomas, tons of pseudo-Rimbaud gobbledeegook, a dash of Eliot and a heavy dose of Kerouac at his 'don't think, just type' worst  onto the three chord folk song format, then yeah I guess he added something new to the mix.

However, I actually don't think he's that original, and he is certainly less talented and cuts less of a dash IMO than a US songwriter like Cole Porter.

That said people have been angling for this for years, and there are less deserving candidates. So I do think it's justified in terms of his cultural impact largely on those who were young in the 60s and 70s. Hearty congratualtions to him.



Anyway, in other news, the Nobel Prize for Economics has gone to George Osborne

For Physics to former PM David Cameron for rending an entire nation down the middle

For Chemistry Mr Philippe Ponce, a teacher from Montreal, who specialises in dropping chemicals that go 'bang' into large tanks of water to the eternal delight of 9 year olds

For Biology to Hugh Hefner for promoting understanding of the female body

And the Taking the Peace Prize goes to Vladimir Putin.

Ravenous

"Wanna buy some Mandies, Bob?" 

ourmaninthenorth

Don't really give a shite for any establishment award...but I'm a great admirer of Dylan's work. 

Ally1BS

I thought the Nobel Prize for Chemistry was going to Keith Richards

benmurray85

I love Dylan. Probably my favourite artist tbh. Regardless of what you think of his work nobody looked cooler in the 60's that Dylan. 

Hootsmon

I was late tae the party too until the penny one day dropped

xSkarloey

benmurray85 said:

I love Dylan. Probably my favourite artist tbh. Regardless of what you think of his work nobody looked cooler in the 60's that Dylan. 

Lennon

Steve McQueen

Alain Delon

Harold Wilson

octatonic

He absolutely deserves it.
This has been discussed for nearly 20 years- glad to see he got it.

ICBM

benmurray85 said:

I love Dylan. Probably my favourite artist tbh. Regardless of what you think of his work nobody looked cooler in the 60's that Dylan. 

Jim Morrison did.


But although I like Morrison's lyrics too, Dylan beats him even discounting that Morrison died young and had no time to develop further.

thebreeze

This is long, long overdue.  He is a genius.  

I can't agree with Skarloey - he is more than original (although I accept those references that have informed his work and I appreciate he was chasing some Woodie Guthrie kind of archetype at the age of 16) .

 He is probably more prophetic.  No-one has ever come close to writing the amount of poems/songs that he has that has reached so many people and that also have the depth, power and sophistication (and some of that is due to his influences) but that have also changed the way things are.  He's able to see things before anyone else.  He's able to express things like nobody else (Blood on the Tracks as mentioned, but any album you care to mention.) 

His early stuff was astonishing but the amazing thing (and also pretty unique thing) is that he has been able to maintain his writing right up until today.

Literature wouldn't be the same without Dylan.  We can't read or write anything now without Dylan having some (and an important) say in the matter.

Sambostar

Different times.  He was a poet and he stood his ground.  Prizes are shitewe though and an acrimonious atrocity.  The best people shouldn't be recognised as it's all part of the containment protocol.

Sambostar

He was Jewish, like Jesus Christ.

DiscoStu

I know a lot of Dylan songs but I've never heard a Dylan album, something I've meant to rectify many times over the years. I guess now's as good a time as any.

KKJale

The BBC made a bit of a boo-boo in tthe 6 o'clock news by showing footage of someone with a black Strat singing Like A Rolling Stone who very clearly, ahem, is NOT Bob Dylan. At all.  It's at 19.50...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07xpbql/bbc-news-at-six-13102016

thumpingrug

Fully deserved, not only for his own wide and full songwriting but also his huge influence on many others.

BigLicks67

DiscoStu said:

I know a lot of Dylan songs but I've never heard a Dylan album, something I've meant to rectify many times over the years. I guess now's as good a time as any.

Listen to, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde and Blood On The Tracks and you should get what all the fuss is about.

BigLicks67

Skarloey said:

Hey hey. Bob 'what's a middle eight?' Dylan!


He deserves it in terms of his wider career, although on purely literary grounds there will be doubters, me among them.

However, it's worth mentioninng that the Nobel Prize for Literature is not that often awarded on purely literary grounds. Interestingly the citation mentions it's for "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".
Okay, if you bolt some borrowed Dylan Thomas, tons of pseudo-Rimbaud gobbledeegook, a dash of Eliot and a heavy dose of Kerouac at his 'don't think, just type' worst  onto the three chord folk song format, then yeah I guess he added something new to the mix.

However, I actually don't think he's that original, and he is certainly less talented and cuts less of a dash IMO than a US songwriter like Cole Porter.

That said people have been angling for this for years, and there are less deserving candidates. So I do think it's justified in terms of his cultural impact largely on those who were young in the 60s and 70s. Hearty congratualtions to him.



Anyway, in other news, the Nobel Prize for Economics has gone to George Osborne

For Physics to former PM David Cameron for rending an entire nation down the middle

For Chemistry Mr Philippe Ponce, a teacher from Montreal, who specialises in dropping chemicals that go 'bang' into large tanks of water to the eternal delight of 9 year olds

For Biology to Hugh Hefner for promoting understanding of the female body

And the Taking the Peace Prize goes to Vladimir Putin.

"William Zanzinger killed poor Hattie Carroll 
With a cane that he twirled around his diamond ring finger
At a Baltimore hotel society gatherin'
And the cops were called in and his weapon took from him
As they rode him in custody down to the station
And booked William Zanzinger for first degree murder
But you who philosophise disgrace and criticise all fears
Take the rag away from your face
Now ain't the time for your tears..."

I'm struggling to see any 'pseudo-Rimbaud gobbledegook' here, perhaps you can give us an example. Sounds more like gritty reportage than any flights of fancy to me.

I would have thought Steinbeck as a more obvious influence.

xSkarloey

That ain't the Steinbeck influence. That's Woody Guthrie.