I don’t know if they’ve ever given it to a lyricist before. Feeling giddy.
Just heard about this. Even though I’m not a fan of all of his records, I can’t think of a more deserving person in rock/pop.
Congrats Bob!
Funny. I can think of at least 10 more deserving persons in… you know… literature. Oh well :rolleyes:.
Yes, you just know that Katy Perry is going to win one in 2046 now. :eek:
As it is, I think they saved o bunch on band for the Nobel Dinner this year.
And few have deserved it more IMHO.
Poetry is considered literature.
And Dylan was/is a poet.
Yay, Bobby!!
“Darkness at the break of noon…”
Quite a tumultuous year for Minnesotan musical icons!
You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
His book Chronicles Volume 1, a memoir of how he found his voice as a songwriter, is pretty much the best I’ve read. Nothing like a straight-up autobiography - Keith Richards’ is an amazing example - but truly compelling writing and insights.
Yay Bobby! He does deserve it, even while I can see other writers - Philip Roth, say - who should have won years ago going unrecognized.
Folks are joking about Katy Perry winning. But think of other songwriters who might look at this and think “hey, I have a shot!” Sting - I am looking at you, buddy. And no, you don’t. Someone like Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen or Leonard Cohen (just wonderfully profiled in The New Yorker) might be considered, but now that the Nobellians have picked Dylan, I doubt they will go back to songwriters anytime soon.
I haven’t before now heard anything by Katy Perry but I am reliably informed this is from her biggest hit:
You’re so supersonic
Wanna feel your powers
Stun me with your lasers
Your kiss is cosmic
Every move is magic
OK, so you think by 2046 they will think that to be a worthy successor to:
Though I know that evenin’s empire has returned into sand
Vanished from my hand
Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping
My weariness amazes me, I’m branded on my feet
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street’s too dead for dreaming.
If your judgment is correct, I hope I’m dead before 2046 rolls around.
I’m happy to hear it. I’ve just been going through the list of past winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature, to see if any previous winner was a songwriter. I don’t think they were.
But the thing I noticed is that a bunch of the names from the first couple of decades are completely unrecognizable to me. And actually, even among the recent winners, I’ve never read most of them. So I’m glad they chose someone with popular appeal, and who might be known to people a hundred years from now.
I’d rate Dylan as one of the greatest American songwriters of all time (tied with Springsteen and Woody Guthrie), so I’d say this award was well-deserved.
- Come gather ‘round people, wherever you roam
And admit that the waters around you have grown
And accept it that soon you’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’*
“I’m a poet
I know it
Hope I don’t blow it.”
What a great decision. 100 years ago and more people quoted poetry all the time. Today people quote Dylan lyrics. The Nobel committee, with this year’s award and last year’s too, seems to have broken its usual boundaries.
I know that, thanks. However,
I’ll just quote David Crystal:
This is so cool. No other artist had a bigger impact on my life than Dylan.
I did laugh at this Facebook comment:
Kipling wasn’t a songwriter, but his poetry was a major factor in the decision to award him the Nobel prize in 1907.
I know it’s an unusual award, but I’m pleased. Some of Dylan’s lyrics really are quite good. Three of my favorites:
http://bobdylan.com/songs/highway-61-revisited/
http://bobdylan.com/songs/desolation-row/
http://bobdylan.com/songs/things-have-changed/
I agree but then IMHO Bob’s stuff does more than look like poetry.
To paraphrase Captain Redbeard Rum, opinion is divided on the subject of whether Bob Dylan’s lyrics are poetry; everybody else thinks they are, you think they aren’t 
The times they are a-changin’!
Go on you, Mr. Zimmerman! I was shocked, and thrilled, to see this on my news feed this morning.