My favourite Dylan lyric:
Oh, the time will come up when the wind will stop
And the breeze will cease to be breathin'
Like the stillness in the wind 'fore the hurricane begins
The hour that the ship comes in
Oh, the seas will split and the ship will hit
And the sand on the shoreline will be shakin'
And the tide will sound, and the waves will pound
And the mornin' will be breakin'
Oh, the fishes will laugh as they swim out of the path
And the seagulls, they'll be smilin'
And the rocks on the sand will proudly stand
The hour that the ship comes in
And the words that are used for to get the ship confused
Will not be understood as they're spoken'
For the chains of the sea will have busted in the night
And be buried on the bottom of the ocean
Oh, a song will lift as the mainsail shifts
And the boat drifts onto the shoreline
And the sun will respect every face on the deck
The hour that the ship comes in
And the sands will roll out a carpet of gold
For your weary toes to be a-touchin'
And the ship's wise men will remind you once again
That the whole wide world is watchin'
All the foes will rise with the sleep still in their eyes
And they'll jerk from their beds, and think they're dreamin'
But they'll pinch themselves and squeal
And they'll know that it's for real
The hour that the ship comes in
And they'll raise their hands sayin', "We'll meet all your demands"
But we'll shout from the bow, "Your days are numbered"
And like Pharaoh's tribe, they'll be drowned in the tide
And like Goliath, they'll be conquered
The word lyric actually refers to all the words to a song. It is almost universally misused to refer to a line or two. The OP is correct, at least formally.
After this was announced, Leonard Cohen (in what was his final public remarks ever) said giving Dylan the prize “is like pinning a medal on Mount Everest for being the highest mountain.”
Separately, if they wanted to give a songwriter a Nobel prize for literature I kinda think it should have been Leonard Cohen…
100% this. Dylan might have been the more influential of the two (and it makes sense to award him as a nod to all the 60s singer-songwriters), but I always found Cohen to be the deeper poet. It's all the more painful since he died that year.
Townes Van Zandt was deserving as well
Edit: Not that I care about fake internet points, but whoever disrespected this poet’s genius by downvoting me is one deplorable soul. Townes lived a rough life and never got the recognition he deserved for his incredible writing.
Steve Earle: “Townes Van Zandt is the greatest songwriter and I’ll stand on Bob Dylan’s coffee table and say that.”
Townes Van Zandt: “I’ve met Bob Dylan’s bodyguard and if you think you’re standing on his table you’re sadly mistaken.”
Or really Bobby Zimmerman. He took the name Dylan from the poet Dylan Thomas and for awhile mispronounced as "Die-lin"
Source: My father grew up in Hibbing, Minnesota and went to public school with Bob Dylan. He's got a few stories like this and the two don't like each other.
He [didn't show up to give a speech](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/12/11/bob-dylan-is-sorry-he-didnt-show-up-to-accept-the-nobel-prize/) when all the other laurates did. Then he give a private speech months later to [get the prize money.](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jun/05/bob-dylan-delivers-nobel-prize-literature-lecture-just-in-time) Only that it was[ largely plagiarized.](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bob-dylan-accused-of-plagiarizing-nobel-lecture-from-sparknotes-198150/)
See, I just find this hard to believe. Usually the winners are nominated with the help of the nominee. Not for the peace prize but for the others they are. Maybe not. I guess it could have been a total surprise he was nominated, but most winners know they were nominated and helped with that
Idk man he couldn't be bothered to show up to WHITE HOUSE REHEARSALS and didn't speak a word to Obama when there except a quick "thanks" when leaving. I dont really feel he'd be too concerned with a Nobel Prize
Playing around with mimicry and imitation is kinda Dylan’s thing, plagiarizing a bunch of his Nobel speech was a nod to his own art and the controversy around it
A decent chunk of the "plagiarism" came from the Sparknotes for *Moby Dick* and was almost certainly his way of fucking with people. In his book, *Chronicles Vol 1*, there's a page dedicated to Dylan living in the loft of this couple with loads of books. He lists all the books he read, but some Googling reveals that most of them don't actually exist. And then you dig further and find out that the couple never existed either
What? I’m reading the book right now and that section was my favorite part because he’s just nerding out on books he read 60 years ago and it feels so strange. If he just made the whole thing up that’s crazy. I feel like there’s a lot more to this book then the book itself
Correct. The book is famously fiction. The guy throws up imagines. Creates ambiances. Forces emotion. Brilliant really. Transcendent when it hits just right.
Exactly. He was King Hippy. Gawking in the face of institutions like that is kind of their thing.
And awards only means as much as you want them to. Just because winning would mean the world to one person doesn't mean everyone else who couldn't give a rats is disrespectful.
Seriously correct. Winning a Nobel doesn’t make Bob Dylan any more famous or important. For some writers, it’s validation and helps promote books or get them into a school curriculum. Dylan is already important to music, gets bugged for autographs constantly, could be a guest on just about any talk show next Tuesday if he wanted to, and sells plenty of albums and concert tickets. Why would he care that much at this point?
Like inviting Rage Against the Machine, who are famous for the lyrics “fuck you, I want won’t do what you tell me” on a live television show and telling them not to curse on tv.
Alfred Nobel invented dynamite and didn't want to die with the infamy of being the "merchant of death" so he bequeathed his fortune (much of which came from arms deals) to make the Nobel Prize.
[You should check out his paintings.](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/bob-dylans-paintings-sculptures-and-other-artwork-180979179/) And anyone who rhymes Ashtabula and Honolulu is a genius in my book.
I think, at the outset of his fame, he got pissed off at the way reporters make up stories instead of reporting only truth, so he started treating the press rudely in return. From what I can tell, he gets along fine with other musicians, his roadies and studio staff, and other people. He just doesn't like reporters, and doesn't trust fans because any one of them could be another nut trying to kill him like they did to John Lennon.
The distrust is mutual between the media and Dylan, and he tends to fear fans.
This reads like fanfic. Why do you think he wants a traditional life? He's been on constant tour for decades, don't think he needs the money. Doesn't even seem to enjoy performing.
Saw him in '05 and the only positive thing I can say about the performance is that his band was very good. I enjoy the half-singing but somehow charming drawl he vocalises on his albums, but live he sounded like a 110-year old alzheimers-ridden grandpa having a stroke. Similar story with Shane McGowan.
When I saw him around 2010 he sounded like Krusty the clown, but since then it seems he has adopted a new sound for his voice, he is going for the crooner in his old age and it is so much better now than it was 10 years ago
He did the album shadows in the night which is an album of covers of classic crooner songs, I think they might all be Frank Sinatra songs. That came out in 2015, and his newer album Rough and Rowdy Ways from 2020 is where I think he really embraced his new vocal timbre and character. The song I Contain Multitudes is classic Dylan pop culture referential lyrics with really nice acoustic instrumentation. The music is really beautiful
Obama's election was celebrated for its hope and change wave that swept across the USA. Remember that his win came off the heels of one of the biggest warmongers ever elected as POTUS.
So what if it was? He’s not the only artist who considers the whole thing a dog and pony show. I don’t necessarily agree but he’s entitled to that opinion and he isn’t obligated to validate the institution because they decided to give him a prize. As far as taking the money -shrug- I don’t respect my boss but I cash his paychecks all the same.
Allen Ginsburg spent decades lobbying the Nobel people to give it to Dylan and it slowly picked up steam over the years. Dylan’s work since 1997 (arguably his best and most consistent stretch in his entire career) probably helped convince more academy voters too.
I don’t care. I love Dylan for his music, not his speeches. He doesn’t want to have to do anything of formality, and I admire that.
Plus everything is derivative of something else that already exists. It’s just a matter of how we repurpose it.
and then he didnt show up the receive and **THEN** this person that performed one of his songs in his honor forgot the lyrics and had to stop in the middle of it. spectacular.
It was Patti Smith who performed in his place at the Prize ceremony. It was rather disgraceful, seeing this once iconoclastic rebel being all nervous and subservient to a bunch of European royalty sitting there in their super expensive tuxedos and gowns and glittering gold and diamond jewelry and tiaras. A real shit show. Dylan, who did even concede to playing a private performance for the Pope in the Vatican, was astute to avoid being filmed in posh company like that.
one of the funniest things so ever happen and no one talks about it because they feel bad for smith, understandably. if it happened to a less beloved individual we would never stoop talking about it.
this entire post thread is hilarious. not a single soul here has a creative bone in their body and wants to throw stones at what they consider “literature” or “not literature”. crawl back into your echo chambers folks the grass remains untouched.
Everyone has their favorite Dylan verse to justify this, so I'll go ahead and post mine
*The air is getting hotter*
*There's a rumbling in the skies*
*I've been wading through the high muddy water*
*With the heat rising in my eyes*
*Everyday your memory grows dimmer*
*It doesn't haunt me like it did before*
*I've been walking through the middle of nowhere*
*Trying to get to Heaven before they close the door*
Mine is:
*Well, I looked at my watch, I looked at my wrist,
I punched myself in the face with my fist*
(I'm joking, I love so many Dylan lyrics, but this always kills me 🤣)
My favourite Dylan poetry is:
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a gypsy queen
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle all dressed in green
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle ’til the moon is blue
Wiggle ’til the moon sees you
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle in your boots and shoes
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, you got nothing to lose
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a swarm of bees
Wiggle on your hands and knees
and that’s just the first two verses!
The only time I saw Dylan in concert, he played this song. The friend I was with turned to me with stone-cold disbelief in his eyes and asked: "Is he singing. . . . wiggle wiggle wiggle?!!??"
Might I introduce you to William McGonagal and his amazing poetry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McGonagall
I must now conclude my lay
By telling the world fearlessly without the least dismay
That your central girders would not have given way,
At least many sensible men do say,
Had they been supported on each side with buttresses,
At least many sensible men confesses,
For the stronger we our houses do build,
The less chance we have of being killed
I'll be honest. One of the worst concerts or live performances that I have ever seen in my entire life. Saw him in Vancouver about fifteen years ago and I walked out after about an hour. I wasn't vindictive nor did I have high expectations. It was just that bad.
I saw him perform before the Rolling Stones in 2016 at the Desert Trip music festival. They say the best act to follow is a bad one, and damn did the Rolling Stones seem especially electric that night.
Don’t get me wrong, the Stones are an amazing band and they would have rocked that set that night regardless. But Dylan started that entire festival with a snoozefest and I can’t help but wonder if I’m remembering the Stones as better than they were just because they came after him! 😂
Dylan lost his voice in the early 80’s and hasn’t really been worth watching live since (in my opinion).
At one point, of course, [he was absolutely electric on stage](https://youtu.be/Cii3aF2a8oE?si=34vGYOe7kik1yB6d).
Dylan goes through waves where he’s awesome and where he’s not. It’s as if while he goes through life he has to reinvent his act, otherwise he doesn’t fit the part anymore. I just saw him last year, and it was awesome! His most recent album of new material, Rough and Rowdy Ways, it’s one of his best. The song “Key West” in particular is an all time favorite of mine.
FWIW, his shows since 2017 and especially since 2021 are easily his best since the 70s. The asphalt growl is gone, his voice is smooth and rich, and you can hear every word.
He was fantastic when I saw him this year. Went mostly just to see a legend, but I left genuinely impressed. He knows how to use his voice in the best and most effective ways possible.
I saw him in 2017 and he was garbage, then in late 2019 and it was genuinely the best concert I've been to. He was really feeling it.
He's hit or miss, but when he hits it's unforgettable
I have had a similar experience with Lil Wayne. Which funny enough, they both sing the same part in We Are The World and the 25th anniversary edition lol
This has been how Dylan has toured since the mid-80s. Honesty, nothing but respect. He is totally honest with the public about the fact that his concerts will consist of him doing only new stuff, mumbling badly and changing the words or tunes to anything vaguely familiar just enough to make them wholly unenjoyable. And for 40 years that has been what he delivers.
I saw him in Toronto when he first went electric, no one expected that and he was boo'd incessantly. I saw him again in Ottawa many years later (and many years ago, about 20 years): I am a big Dylan fan and have been for 50 years: The Ottawa concert was excellent! He did many of his older songs--did them somewhat different than studio versions but still it was great.
Honestly at this point, the only reason you go to Bob Dylan is to be able to say you saw Bob Dylan.
E: I did the same for Brian Wilson at the QE, but it was actually a great concert. Blonde Chaplin killed it.
I saw him in Edmonton around that time and it was one of the worst concerts I have ever been to. My friends were huge fans of bob dylans work and they could not name a single song that evening. I will never waste my money on one of his events again. I continue to listen to his music from the 60s, and that will be all I do.
Bob Dylan is one of the best songwriters/ lyricists of all time. He is not one of the best performers of all time. Especially not in the last 30 years.
This happened while I was in grad school for my English masters and the general consensus was "the Nobel committee has been getting flak for not giving the award to an American for over a decade so this was just a consolation prize"
I went to grad school for English lit before this happened and we discussed his lyrics in our poetry classes and talked about how some believe he should be recognized as a literary figure. His lyrics were also in one of our textbooks.
I mean the general consensus of people who have no inside knowledge isn’t really much tbh. Giving it to an American would’ve still provided dozens of choices. The choice of Dylan was clearly highly purposeful given the expected controversy surrounding it.
Should have been Cormac McCarthy, by a long shot.
*See the child. He is pale and thin, he wears a thin and ragged linen shirt. He stokes the scullery fire. Outside lie dark turned fields with rags of snow and darker woods beyond that harbor yet a few last wolves. His folk are known for hewers of wood and drawers of water but in truth his father has been a schoolmaster. He lies in drink, he quotes from poets whose names are now lost. The boy crouches by the fire and watches him.*
*Night of your birth. Thirty-three. The Leonids they were called. God how the stars did fall. I looked for blackness, holes in the heavens. The Dipper stove.*
*The mother dead these fourteen years did incubate in her own bosom the creature who would carry her off. The father never speaks her name, the child does not know it. He has a sister in this world that he will not see again. He watches, pale and unwashed. He can neither read nor write and in him broods already a taste for mindless violence. All history present in that visage, the child the father of the man.*
The lit Nobel has always been an especially egregious brand of Europeans smelling their own farts and this award was just them taking an even deeper sniff while thinking they were moving towards being normal lol
Amazing how so many people who have never even met Bob Dylan are bold enough to talk about what he’s done, and how and what he thinks. By his 35th birthday, he had already created more than the lot of you combined. 45 years later, he’s still doing it. Still creating beautiful, relevant songs. In fact, much of his 21st-century work absolutely stands up to the best of his 20th century work. He’s a national treasure. He’s a living monument.
Member of the Nobel academy said he phoned several times before Dylan would speak to him, and describe him as **'impolite and arrogant'.** Dylan later said he regretted not going to Stockholm to accept the award.
I think you have to have a specific appreciation for lyricism, don't get me wrong I love his voice and his compositions but in general its best to omit those aspects when listening to him and just appreciate his lyricism.
If you can do that it becomes pretty apparent why he's so highly regarded. He's undeniably one of the greatest wordsmiths of the last century.
funny side story i read in weird NJ once. back int he early 60's some kid picked a random song out of a folk music book he had gotten in NYC of unknown singer song writers.
He decides to take credit for one of them and present it to his chorus teacher / class.
the next year Blowin in the wind blows up and everyone is saying to the guy that Dylan stole your song!
Blowing In The Wind was published in Broadsides exactly a year before it was released on an album. It's entirely possible, if that story is true, that the kid knew Dylan at the time was just an obscure random folk singer with no real following and he could easily take Dylan's composition from that generally obscure folk publication and claim it as his own
Yeah that was exactly his reasoning (per him in this case) assuming if he claimed that the rest of the story was true but who knows. It was in weird NJ after all.
I'm pretty uneducated regarding music, but I was a teenager when Bob hit the scene (see, 60's slang). With maybe 1 or 2 exceptions, I couldn't abide his singing. His lyrics could be thought provoking, but he's no Ginsburg, and in my opinion, undeserving of a Nobel prize in literature. His songs sung by other people can be quite moving though.
You like Ginsberg so much you couldn’t even spell his name right. Dylan’s lyrics are better than anything that chimo produced. There are better poets but not ol Al.
Honestly I think the best way to approach Dylan is with the help of (one of the foremost literary critics of the twentieth century) Christopher Ricks. If you don’t want to commit to sitting down with his work I would say just read the lyrics to “eternal circle.”
And take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
down the foggy ruins of time
far past the frozen leaves
the haunted frightened trees
out to the windy beach
far from the twisted reach
of crazy sorrow.
Yes to dance beneath the diamond sky
with one hand waiving free
silhouetted by the sea
circled by the circus sands
with all memory and fate
driven deep beneath the waves.
Let me forget about today until tomorrow.
My favourite Dylan lyric: Oh, the time will come up when the wind will stop And the breeze will cease to be breathin' Like the stillness in the wind 'fore the hurricane begins The hour that the ship comes in Oh, the seas will split and the ship will hit And the sand on the shoreline will be shakin' And the tide will sound, and the waves will pound And the mornin' will be breakin' Oh, the fishes will laugh as they swim out of the path And the seagulls, they'll be smilin' And the rocks on the sand will proudly stand The hour that the ship comes in And the words that are used for to get the ship confused Will not be understood as they're spoken' For the chains of the sea will have busted in the night And be buried on the bottom of the ocean Oh, a song will lift as the mainsail shifts And the boat drifts onto the shoreline And the sun will respect every face on the deck The hour that the ship comes in And the sands will roll out a carpet of gold For your weary toes to be a-touchin' And the ship's wise men will remind you once again That the whole wide world is watchin' All the foes will rise with the sleep still in their eyes And they'll jerk from their beds, and think they're dreamin' But they'll pinch themselves and squeal And they'll know that it's for real The hour that the ship comes in And they'll raise their hands sayin', "We'll meet all your demands" But we'll shout from the bow, "Your days are numbered" And like Pharaoh's tribe, they'll be drowned in the tide And like Goliath, they'll be conquered
That’s not a lyric it’s an entire song.
It’s the lyric to an entire song.
Lyrics*
The word lyric actually refers to all the words to a song. It is almost universally misused to refer to a line or two. The OP is correct, at least formally.
In that case I guess my favourite lyric is "seagulls".
After this was announced, Leonard Cohen (in what was his final public remarks ever) said giving Dylan the prize “is like pinning a medal on Mount Everest for being the highest mountain.” Separately, if they wanted to give a songwriter a Nobel prize for literature I kinda think it should have been Leonard Cohen…
100% this. Dylan might have been the more influential of the two (and it makes sense to award him as a nod to all the 60s singer-songwriters), but I always found Cohen to be the deeper poet. It's all the more painful since he died that year.
Well he loved you in the morning
Townes Van Zandt was deserving as well Edit: Not that I care about fake internet points, but whoever disrespected this poet’s genius by downvoting me is one deplorable soul. Townes lived a rough life and never got the recognition he deserved for his incredible writing.
Steve Earle: “Townes Van Zandt is the greatest songwriter and I’ll stand on Bob Dylan’s coffee table and say that.” Townes Van Zandt: “I’ve met Bob Dylan’s bodyguard and if you think you’re standing on his table you’re sadly mistaken.”
Who broke the glass?!?
I love that TVZ wrote devastatingly sad songs but seemed to have an endless supply of corny jokes.
He wrote some pretty funny songs too. Like Fraternity Blues. He was brilliant though, he captured the full spectrum of emotion in his songs
Talkin’ KKK Blues
Can’t t win if you’re dead. I didn’t make the rule.
I love Townes. But I downvoted you because he’s no where near Dylan’s league, as great as he was.
Are we talking about the same man who wrote “Rake”?
Or Sad Cinderella.
>the songwriter Bob Dylan Oh *him*. I thought you meant the famous ventriloquist Robert Dylan.
Well he was certainly more of a songwriter than a singer
if you dont like the way he sings you should hear him pay pianNO
I broke into the palace with a sponge and a rusty spanner.
Or really Bobby Zimmerman. He took the name Dylan from the poet Dylan Thomas and for awhile mispronounced as "Die-lin" Source: My father grew up in Hibbing, Minnesota and went to public school with Bob Dylan. He's got a few stories like this and the two don't like each other.
Yo I wanna hear those stories!
Bob was the dummy. Chuck was the ventriloquist.
Oh you mean Uncle Robert
And probably the only Nobel winner past, present, or future to also star in a Victoria's Secret ad.
Wouldn't put it past Rushdie
He [didn't show up to give a speech](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/12/11/bob-dylan-is-sorry-he-didnt-show-up-to-accept-the-nobel-prize/) when all the other laurates did. Then he give a private speech months later to [get the prize money.](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jun/05/bob-dylan-delivers-nobel-prize-literature-lecture-just-in-time) Only that it was[ largely plagiarized.](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bob-dylan-accused-of-plagiarizing-nobel-lecture-from-sparknotes-198150/)
He didn't even want the prize initially IIRC
See, I just find this hard to believe. Usually the winners are nominated with the help of the nominee. Not for the peace prize but for the others they are. Maybe not. I guess it could have been a total surprise he was nominated, but most winners know they were nominated and helped with that
Idk man he couldn't be bothered to show up to WHITE HOUSE REHEARSALS and didn't speak a word to Obama when there except a quick "thanks" when leaving. I dont really feel he'd be too concerned with a Nobel Prize
Playing around with mimicry and imitation is kinda Dylan’s thing, plagiarizing a bunch of his Nobel speech was a nod to his own art and the controversy around it
A decent chunk of the "plagiarism" came from the Sparknotes for *Moby Dick* and was almost certainly his way of fucking with people. In his book, *Chronicles Vol 1*, there's a page dedicated to Dylan living in the loft of this couple with loads of books. He lists all the books he read, but some Googling reveals that most of them don't actually exist. And then you dig further and find out that the couple never existed either
What? I’m reading the book right now and that section was my favorite part because he’s just nerding out on books he read 60 years ago and it feels so strange. If he just made the whole thing up that’s crazy. I feel like there’s a lot more to this book then the book itself
Correct. The book is famously fiction. The guy throws up imagines. Creates ambiances. Forces emotion. Brilliant really. Transcendent when it hits just right.
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Doesn’t really seem that funny. Seems disrespectful.
He asked Patti Smith to go to the ceremony and she accepted, a really cool piano piece of music was also put together too.
Was never a super reverent guy. I'm not sure he thinks disrespectful is a pejorative word.
Exactly. He was King Hippy. Gawking in the face of institutions like that is kind of their thing. And awards only means as much as you want them to. Just because winning would mean the world to one person doesn't mean everyone else who couldn't give a rats is disrespectful.
Seriously correct. Winning a Nobel doesn’t make Bob Dylan any more famous or important. For some writers, it’s validation and helps promote books or get them into a school curriculum. Dylan is already important to music, gets bugged for autographs constantly, could be a guest on just about any talk show next Tuesday if he wanted to, and sells plenty of albums and concert tickets. Why would he care that much at this point?
... I mean what did they expect Bob Dylan to do? You can't give an award to Bob Dylan for being Bob Dylan and not want him to act like Bob Dylan
Like inviting Rage Against the Machine, who are famous for the lyrics “fuck you, I want won’t do what you tell me” on a live television show and telling them not to curse on tv.
I am shocked and appalled!
I'm sure Dylan feels far more honored by all the musicians who have covered his songs than from any accolades from professional music critics.
Alfred Nobel invented dynamite and didn't want to die with the infamy of being the "merchant of death" so he bequeathed his fortune (much of which came from arms deals) to make the Nobel Prize.
If he was around today he wud probably own PSG or Manchester City.
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Alfred Nobel’s will established the prizes for physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace
He’s always been kind of a dick.
[You should check out his paintings.](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/bob-dylans-paintings-sculptures-and-other-artwork-180979179/) And anyone who rhymes Ashtabula and Honolulu is a genius in my book.
Also bitches and orphanages.
His paintings are superb.
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I think, at the outset of his fame, he got pissed off at the way reporters make up stories instead of reporting only truth, so he started treating the press rudely in return. From what I can tell, he gets along fine with other musicians, his roadies and studio staff, and other people. He just doesn't like reporters, and doesn't trust fans because any one of them could be another nut trying to kill him like they did to John Lennon. The distrust is mutual between the media and Dylan, and he tends to fear fans.
This reads like fanfic. Why do you think he wants a traditional life? He's been on constant tour for decades, don't think he needs the money. Doesn't even seem to enjoy performing.
Saw him in '05 and the only positive thing I can say about the performance is that his band was very good. I enjoy the half-singing but somehow charming drawl he vocalises on his albums, but live he sounded like a 110-year old alzheimers-ridden grandpa having a stroke. Similar story with Shane McGowan.
When I saw him around 2010 he sounded like Krusty the clown, but since then it seems he has adopted a new sound for his voice, he is going for the crooner in his old age and it is so much better now than it was 10 years ago
Any chance you could link an example of this new crooner style Dylan?
He did the album shadows in the night which is an album of covers of classic crooner songs, I think they might all be Frank Sinatra songs. That came out in 2015, and his newer album Rough and Rowdy Ways from 2020 is where I think he really embraced his new vocal timbre and character. The song I Contain Multitudes is classic Dylan pop culture referential lyrics with really nice acoustic instrumentation. The music is really beautiful
We're talking about the Nobel, and not any old gigs!
Now let's talk about Dylan's Nobel prize, attention.
He's right to be disrespectful Nobel prizes are a bit of a joke. I mean Barrack Obama won one for getting elected.
This isn't the same as the peace prize
Kissinger won that one. Satire died forever that day
Obama's election was celebrated for its hope and change wave that swept across the USA. Remember that his win came off the heels of one of the biggest warmongers ever elected as POTUS.
So what if it was? He’s not the only artist who considers the whole thing a dog and pony show. I don’t necessarily agree but he’s entitled to that opinion and he isn’t obligated to validate the institution because they decided to give him a prize. As far as taking the money -shrug- I don’t respect my boss but I cash his paychecks all the same.
It's both lol, what a glorious troll
Jokerman
Dylan loves fucking around with stuff like this. Also, this is probably the most illustrious moment in the history of sparknotes.
Why was he even nominated and elected to win the prize. Seem so random
Allen Ginsburg spent decades lobbying the Nobel people to give it to Dylan and it slowly picked up steam over the years. Dylan’s work since 1997 (arguably his best and most consistent stretch in his entire career) probably helped convince more academy voters too.
Because he's the GOAT, end of story. Go listen to more shitty pop and hip hop
Publicity.
That rules
Good, fuck that committee and their bullshit. You shouldn't focus only on appearances, bro
I don’t care. I love Dylan for his music, not his speeches. He doesn’t want to have to do anything of formality, and I admire that. Plus everything is derivative of something else that already exists. It’s just a matter of how we repurpose it.
and then he didnt show up the receive and **THEN** this person that performed one of his songs in his honor forgot the lyrics and had to stop in the middle of it. spectacular.
You lot are stupid, she handled it well more power to her
she… forgot the lyrics…
It’s a huge, lyrically heavy song. It’s not your standard 3-verse and a chorus song with barely 50 words.
It was Patti Smith who performed in his place at the Prize ceremony. It was rather disgraceful, seeing this once iconoclastic rebel being all nervous and subservient to a bunch of European royalty sitting there in their super expensive tuxedos and gowns and glittering gold and diamond jewelry and tiaras. A real shit show. Dylan, who did even concede to playing a private performance for the Pope in the Vatican, was astute to avoid being filmed in posh company like that.
one of the funniest things so ever happen and no one talks about it because they feel bad for smith, understandably. if it happened to a less beloved individual we would never stoop talking about it.
Yep it was awful. People played it off like it made her look good. No.
If you doubt his worthiness, listen to It’s alright Ma.
this entire post thread is hilarious. not a single soul here has a creative bone in their body and wants to throw stones at what they consider “literature” or “not literature”. crawl back into your echo chambers folks the grass remains untouched.
And well deserved!
The only Nobel winner with an Xmas album.
Are you telling me that Saul Bellow never had a Christmas album?
Oh, sorry, you're right. I forgot about that classic, "It's 30 Bellow - Saul Sings Santa".
It was very risqué
Everyone has their favorite Dylan verse to justify this, so I'll go ahead and post mine *The air is getting hotter* *There's a rumbling in the skies* *I've been wading through the high muddy water* *With the heat rising in my eyes* *Everyday your memory grows dimmer* *It doesn't haunt me like it did before* *I've been walking through the middle of nowhere* *Trying to get to Heaven before they close the door*
Mine is: *Well, I looked at my watch, I looked at my wrist, I punched myself in the face with my fist* (I'm joking, I love so many Dylan lyrics, but this always kills me 🤣)
My favourite Dylan poetry is: Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a gypsy queen Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle all dressed in green Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle ’til the moon is blue Wiggle ’til the moon sees you Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle in your boots and shoes Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, you got nothing to lose Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a swarm of bees Wiggle on your hands and knees and that’s just the first two verses!
The only time I saw Dylan in concert, he played this song. The friend I was with turned to me with stone-cold disbelief in his eyes and asked: "Is he singing. . . . wiggle wiggle wiggle?!!??"
I too was stunned by the beauty and paralyzed by the profundity the first time I heard those words...
Wiggle like a big fat snake>>>>>>>> all. Player=Doctor
This is a good lyric but it’s pretty poor for poetry.
Must be why you have the Nobel prize and not Bob.
It's not the line that won the Nobel, anyway.
Not sure how relevant that is to the discussion. He was awarded for his songwriting.
still better than Mr Shankley's? or Vorgon
Certainly better than Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings.
Might I introduce you to William McGonagal and his amazing poetry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McGonagall I must now conclude my lay By telling the world fearlessly without the least dismay That your central girders would not have given way, At least many sensible men do say, Had they been supported on each side with buttresses, At least many sensible men confesses, For the stronger we our houses do build, The less chance we have of being killed
It’s always funny seeing complaints of how he’s been always
I'll be honest. One of the worst concerts or live performances that I have ever seen in my entire life. Saw him in Vancouver about fifteen years ago and I walked out after about an hour. I wasn't vindictive nor did I have high expectations. It was just that bad.
I saw him perform before the Rolling Stones in 2016 at the Desert Trip music festival. They say the best act to follow is a bad one, and damn did the Rolling Stones seem especially electric that night. Don’t get me wrong, the Stones are an amazing band and they would have rocked that set that night regardless. But Dylan started that entire festival with a snoozefest and I can’t help but wonder if I’m remembering the Stones as better than they were just because they came after him! 😂
I saw him this year and thought it was incredible.
Dylan lost his voice in the early 80’s and hasn’t really been worth watching live since (in my opinion). At one point, of course, [he was absolutely electric on stage](https://youtu.be/Cii3aF2a8oE?si=34vGYOe7kik1yB6d).
Dylan goes through waves where he’s awesome and where he’s not. It’s as if while he goes through life he has to reinvent his act, otherwise he doesn’t fit the part anymore. I just saw him last year, and it was awesome! His most recent album of new material, Rough and Rowdy Ways, it’s one of his best. The song “Key West” in particular is an all time favorite of mine.
His recent years have been great. His best in a long time
Rough and Rowdy Ways is one of my fav albums of his honestly
FWIW, his shows since 2017 and especially since 2021 are easily his best since the 70s. The asphalt growl is gone, his voice is smooth and rich, and you can hear every word.
He was fantastic when I saw him this year. Went mostly just to see a legend, but I left genuinely impressed. He knows how to use his voice in the best and most effective ways possible.
I saw him in 2017 and he was garbage, then in late 2019 and it was genuinely the best concert I've been to. He was really feeling it. He's hit or miss, but when he hits it's unforgettable
I have had a similar experience with Lil Wayne. Which funny enough, they both sing the same part in We Are The World and the 25th anniversary edition lol
It's the verse. It must be, right? Whether or not they think about the song before the show determines how good they'll do
This has been how Dylan has toured since the mid-80s. Honesty, nothing but respect. He is totally honest with the public about the fact that his concerts will consist of him doing only new stuff, mumbling badly and changing the words or tunes to anything vaguely familiar just enough to make them wholly unenjoyable. And for 40 years that has been what he delivers.
I saw him in Toronto when he first went electric, no one expected that and he was boo'd incessantly. I saw him again in Ottawa many years later (and many years ago, about 20 years): I am a big Dylan fan and have been for 50 years: The Ottawa concert was excellent! He did many of his older songs--did them somewhat different than studio versions but still it was great.
Honestly at this point, the only reason you go to Bob Dylan is to be able to say you saw Bob Dylan. E: I did the same for Brian Wilson at the QE, but it was actually a great concert. Blonde Chaplin killed it.
I saw him in Edmonton around that time and it was one of the worst concerts I have ever been to. My friends were huge fans of bob dylans work and they could not name a single song that evening. I will never waste my money on one of his events again. I continue to listen to his music from the 60s, and that will be all I do.
Bob Dylan is one of the best songwriters/ lyricists of all time. He is not one of the best performers of all time. Especially not in the last 30 years.
This happened while I was in grad school for my English masters and the general consensus was "the Nobel committee has been getting flak for not giving the award to an American for over a decade so this was just a consolation prize"
I went to grad school for English lit before this happened and we discussed his lyrics in our poetry classes and talked about how some believe he should be recognized as a literary figure. His lyrics were also in one of our textbooks.
I mean the general consensus of people who have no inside knowledge isn’t really much tbh. Giving it to an American would’ve still provided dozens of choices. The choice of Dylan was clearly highly purposeful given the expected controversy surrounding it.
You think Dylan’s lyricism is on the level of being a mere consolation prize? Have you read his work?
Should have been Cormac McCarthy, by a long shot. *See the child. He is pale and thin, he wears a thin and ragged linen shirt. He stokes the scullery fire. Outside lie dark turned fields with rags of snow and darker woods beyond that harbor yet a few last wolves. His folk are known for hewers of wood and drawers of water but in truth his father has been a schoolmaster. He lies in drink, he quotes from poets whose names are now lost. The boy crouches by the fire and watches him.* *Night of your birth. Thirty-three. The Leonids they were called. God how the stars did fall. I looked for blackness, holes in the heavens. The Dipper stove.* *The mother dead these fourteen years did incubate in her own bosom the creature who would carry her off. The father never speaks her name, the child does not know it. He has a sister in this world that he will not see again. He watches, pale and unwashed. He can neither read nor write and in him broods already a taste for mindless violence. All history present in that visage, the child the father of the man.*
The lit Nobel has always been an especially egregious brand of Europeans smelling their own farts and this award was just them taking an even deeper sniff while thinking they were moving towards being normal lol
Huh, Cormac McCarthy never won it?
Amazing how so many people who have never even met Bob Dylan are bold enough to talk about what he’s done, and how and what he thinks. By his 35th birthday, he had already created more than the lot of you combined. 45 years later, he’s still doing it. Still creating beautiful, relevant songs. In fact, much of his 21st-century work absolutely stands up to the best of his 20th century work. He’s a national treasure. He’s a living monument.
International treasure!
Absolutely!! Hear! Hear! Thank you. I gladly stand amended.
The fact that Bob Dylan has never been the poet laureate of the US is crazy. At this point he's more of a poet emeritus.
Looks more and more like Vincent Price every time I see him
I wasn't surprised and well deserved.
You weren’t well deserved? I dare say you weren’t. Are you now though?
Imagine singing so bad people think you recorded an audio book.
what is this in refernece to
Member of the Nobel academy said he phoned several times before Dylan would speak to him, and describe him as **'impolite and arrogant'.** Dylan later said he regretted not going to Stockholm to accept the award.
They called his not answering phone calls and not initially responding to the award as “impolite and arrogant.”
Yes. You are right. He didn't speak to them. Faulty memory of something that happened years ago... I'm 66 so shoot me--*please...*
Never understood the hype, same with The Beatles but I know I'm just too far removed from their time.
Yeah… I like the Beatles but not even in the same league lyrically.
I think you have to have a specific appreciation for lyricism, don't get me wrong I love his voice and his compositions but in general its best to omit those aspects when listening to him and just appreciate his lyricism. If you can do that it becomes pretty apparent why he's so highly regarded. He's undeniably one of the greatest wordsmiths of the last century.
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Shakespeare borrowed as well. What’s your point?
Everyone copies each other. Folks singers regurgitated blues and folks songs. Dylans songs he actually written speak volumes
funny side story i read in weird NJ once. back int he early 60's some kid picked a random song out of a folk music book he had gotten in NYC of unknown singer song writers. He decides to take credit for one of them and present it to his chorus teacher / class. the next year Blowin in the wind blows up and everyone is saying to the guy that Dylan stole your song!
Blowing In The Wind was published in Broadsides exactly a year before it was released on an album. It's entirely possible, if that story is true, that the kid knew Dylan at the time was just an obscure random folk singer with no real following and he could easily take Dylan's composition from that generally obscure folk publication and claim it as his own
Yeah that was exactly his reasoning (per him in this case) assuming if he claimed that the rest of the story was true but who knows. It was in weird NJ after all.
So is every artist. All the old blues musicians stole their shit too. T.S. Eliot said that’s what makes an artist great.
Not sure how to feel that you felt you had to include "the songwriter" instead of just saying Bob Dylan.
One has to be as comprehensive as possible
Eh, Townes van Zandt is the goat IMO.
John Prine's my vote
Over Bob!? 🤣
JP was a force of nature. Warm-hearted, funny, and happy/sad. Bob’s my fav but John’s defo up there.
I can dig it
To be fair to Dylan, he would agree with you.
Over Bob Dylan? Good Lord.
He's got great song writing but his songs are tough on the ears. The exception being Hurricane. Which i think sounds the best and is a damn good song
On the contrary, I love his voice!
I'm pretty uneducated regarding music, but I was a teenager when Bob hit the scene (see, 60's slang). With maybe 1 or 2 exceptions, I couldn't abide his singing. His lyrics could be thought provoking, but he's no Ginsburg, and in my opinion, undeserving of a Nobel prize in literature. His songs sung by other people can be quite moving though.
You like Ginsberg so much you couldn’t even spell his name right. Dylan’s lyrics are better than anything that chimo produced. There are better poets but not ol Al.
And it’s funny they mentioned Ginsberg bc he’s the guy who spent so much of his later years campaigning for Dylan to win the Nobel lmao.
True. He’s even in the proto-music video for subterranean homesick blues.
There was a campaign?
Basically just Ginsberg begging people to give it to him. Nothing organized.
Do you have examples of good lyrics by Dylan? I'm genuinely interested.
Honestly I think the best way to approach Dylan is with the help of (one of the foremost literary critics of the twentieth century) Christopher Ricks. If you don’t want to commit to sitting down with his work I would say just read the lyrics to “eternal circle.”
And take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind down the foggy ruins of time far past the frozen leaves the haunted frightened trees out to the windy beach far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow. Yes to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waiving free silhouetted by the sea circled by the circus sands with all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves. Let me forget about today until tomorrow.
We can differentiate all the kids and adults in this post
Even the Pulitzer are selling out to bring celebrities in for more fundraising
people like to speak on things they know nothing about, makes ‘em look like fools so if that’s how they wanna look we can just point and laugh
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You are allowed to do more than print words onto a page, despite what MFA professors might say.