# Bob Dylan just won the Nobel Prize for literature **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 13, 2016, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-just-won-the-nobel-prize-for-literature/768405 "2016-10-13T11:11:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-just-won-the-nobel-prize-for-literature/768405/21 "2016-10-13T13:22:13Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > 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 😉 Good one :D. Yeah, I’ll stop pissing on this parade, my opinion is clear but it’s not important. Good for him and his millions of sincere fans. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-just-won-the-nobel-prize-for-literature/768405/22 "2016-10-13T13:25:50Z")
I think it’s deserved, as a poet he’s definitely one of the greats of the 20th century. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-just-won-the-nobel-prize-for-literature/768405/23 "2016-10-13T13:26:47Z")
I find this interesting, having just attended PEN/New England’s third awarding of a prize specifically for lyrics as literature/poetry. I don’t follow the high roads of Lit, but there seems to be a rising interest in our better lyricists as formal successors to epic poets and balladeers, much of whose work is highly regarded in Lit studies. Dylan is pretty much the number one pick in this category, and I think I know why he hasn’t received the PEN award among the first six awardees: the recipient has to show up in person to receive it. He’s not that easy. Gotta be a King making that call. At least, so I hear if I lean out far enough from Desolation Row. ETA: The interesting question is this: When will a Nobel Lit be awarded to an artist working a medium that did not exist when the prize was established? ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-just-won-the-nobel-prize-for-literature/768405/24 "2016-10-13T13:57:08Z")
I utterly loathe Bob Dylan - and yes, I know I’m in a tiny minority. The man is pretentious and inauthentic, and always has been. You want to hear REAL folk music? Listen to Woody or Arlo Guthrie. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-just-won-the-nobel-prize-for-literature/768405/25 "2016-10-13T14:01:01Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Kipling wasn’t a songwriter, but his poetry was a major factor in the decision to award him the Nobel prize in 1907. If we’re just looking for poets, I can think of two off the top of my head that won it in my lifetime: Seamus Heaney and Wislawa Szymborska. And Pablo Neruda a few years before I was born. (All three are among my favorite poets). It’s the songwriter part that’s unique. I never did/could get into Dylan. Maybe I’ll give it another shot. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-just-won-the-nobel-prize-for-literature/768405/26 "2016-10-13T14:32:08Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > I utterly loathe Bob Dylan - and yes, I know I’m in a tiny minority. The man is pretentious and inauthentic, and always has been. You want to hear REAL folk music? Listen to Woody or Arlo Guthrie. Dylan genuflects at the Guthrie altar and always has. Yes, he has been a pretentious ass at times in his career. But he’s the more than worthy successor to Woody and the other American originals of that era. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-just-won-the-nobel-prize-for-literature/768405/27 "2016-10-13T14:46:19Z")
According to one website, the poets who won the Nobel Prize are the following: Rabindranath Tagore W.B. Yeats Gabriela Mistral T.S. Eliot Pablo Neruda Czeslaw Milosz Octavia Paz Seamus Heaney Wislawa Szymborska Rudyard Kipling Romain Rolland Correct me if any of this is wrong. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-just-won-the-nobel-prize-for-literature/768405/28 "2016-10-13T14:54:26Z")
_“Cinderella, she seems so easy, “It takes one to know one,” she smiles And puts her hands in her back pockets Bette Davis style And in comes Romeo, he’s moaning. “You Belong to Me I Believe” And someone says, “You’re in the wrong place, my friend, you’d better leave” And the only sound that’s left after the ambulances go Is Cinderella sweeping up on Desolation Row”_ I’m thrilled by this choice. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-just-won-the-nobel-prize-for-literature/768405/29 "2016-10-13T14:55:34Z")
> [@tnetennba](#): > > [Nobel prize in literature won by Bob Dylan – as it happened | Nobel prize 2016 | The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/books/live/2016/oct/13/nobel-prize-in-literature-2016-liveblog) Don’t be silly - [New Republic says Dylan couldn’t possibly win.](https://newrepublic.com/article/137496/will-win-2016-nobel-prize-literature) ([“Did I say that?”](https://newrepublic.com/minutes/137762/bob-dylan-won-2016-nobel-prize-literature) - written six days later) > [@tnetennba](#): > > I don’t know if they’ve ever given it to a lyricist before. Feeling giddy. > [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > According to one website, the poets who won the Nobel Prize are the following: > > Rabindranath Tagore > W.B. Yeats > Gabriela Mistral > **T.S. Eliot** > Pablo Neruda > Czeslaw Milosz > Octavia Paz > Seamus Heaney > Wislawa Szymborska > Rudyard Kipling > Romain Rolland If you want to get technical, T.S. Eliot wrote the lyrics to most of the songs in _Cats_. Does that count? ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-just-won-the-nobel-prize-for-literature/768405/30 "2016-10-13T14:56:04Z")
And just to set everyone’s head spinning a little - IMHO the current crop of poet/lyricists working today are all in the Rap/Hip Hop world. Today it’s a “folk singer” winning, in 30 years it could be a “rapper”. ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-just-won-the-nobel-prize-for-literature/768405/31 "2016-10-13T15:07:42Z")
Dylan also gets credit for picking talented band members. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-just-won-the-nobel-prize-for-literature/768405/32 "2016-10-13T15:07:51Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > If we’re just looking for poets, I can think of two off the top of my head that won it in my lifetime: Seamus Heaney and Wislawa Szymborska. And Pablo Neruda a few years before I was born. (All three are among my favorite poets). It’s the songwriter part that’s unique. > > I never did/could get into Dylan. Maybe I’ll give it another shot. On the heels of this, what one album would be a good place to start? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-just-won-the-nobel-prize-for-literature/768405/33 "2016-10-13T15:28:40Z")
> [@SaharaTea](#): > > This is so cool. No other artist had a bigger impact on my life than Dylan. > > I did laugh at this Facebook comment: > > > [@](#): > > > > Yo it’s 2016. You can NOT have headlines that start “Bob Dylan, Titan of American Music”…We’ve lost enough this year, you’re gonna give people a panic attack The guilty undertaker sighs… ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-just-won-the-nobel-prize-for-literature/768405/34 "2016-10-13T15:34:03Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > On the heels of this, what one album would be a good place to start? Not an album suggestion, but here’s a few songs: Lyrical mastery, It’s Alright Ma Clever lyrics, nothing necessarily brilliant, but the song rocks, Cold Irons Bound [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/9hO-83CIVKM/maxresdefault.jpg "Bob Dylan - Cold Irons Bound (Live Video)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hO-83CIVKM) ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-just-won-the-nobel-prize-for-literature/768405/35 "2016-10-13T15:41:46Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > On the heels of this, what one album would be a good place to start? Highway 61 Revisited ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-just-won-the-nobel-prize-for-literature/768405/36 "2016-10-13T15:46:54Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > If you want to get technical, T.S. Eliot wrote the lyrics to most of the songs in _Cats_. Does that count? Yeats and Kipling, at least, have also had their poetry posthumously set to music. Doesn’t make them songwriters. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-just-won-the-nobel-prize-for-literature/768405/37 "2016-10-13T15:49:14Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > Highway 61 Revisited Yeah, that one. Or _Bringing it all Back Home._ _Blood on the Tracks_ came out when I was 14 years old, and I remember thinking “Bob Dylan is really a big deal. I should not only get the new album but listen to all his older stuff, too.” Luckily, BOTT turns out to ALSO be an excellent album with which to start. Yes, in my opinion Bob well deserves a Nobel. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-just-won-the-nobel-prize-for-literature/768405/38 "2016-10-13T15:49:54Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > On the heels of this, what one album would be a good place to start? “Blood on the Tracks” is probably the most consistent and melodic – and has several (IMO) masterpieces. It’s a favorite of my 22 yo daughter as well. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-just-won-the-nobel-prize-for-literature/768405/39 "2016-10-13T16:06:31Z")
When I saw this on my Google News page I honestly thought it was from a satire site. Not because Dylan isn’t worthy; because the Nobel Prize committee doesn’t work that way. I wonder who the new members are. Dylan is getting the award for the five albums from 1964-1966: _The Times They Are a-Changin_, _Another Side of Bob Dylan_, _Bringing It All Back Home_, _Highway 61 Revisited_, and _Blonde on Blonde_. And you can make a good case for the transitional _The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan_ from 1963. The transition was from folk singer to angry bard. We’ve had great folk singers before, some of them as angry as Woody Guthrie. Dylan was our first true modern bard. He didn’t keep up the anger for the next 50 years, probably why he’s still alive and making music today, but he’s still mythic in ways that not even the Beatles are. That 50 extra years of music is a gift with nuggets of pure gold. If you lived through the 60s, when rock music was the devil’s enema aftermath, you will be lightheaded with vindication. And just as lightheaded with astonishment. I’m still betting it’s satire. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-just-won-the-nobel-prize-for-literature/768405/40 "2016-10-13T16:08:31Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I’m still betting it’s satire. _Life_ is satire, Xap. Anyone who tells you differently is selling something. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-just-won-the-nobel-prize-for-literature/768405.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bob-dylan-just-won-the-nobel-prize-for-literature/768405.md?page=3)