I honestly don’t know whether this is a farce or the best Nobel selection in decades.
It may actually be both.
Wait, someone actually understood the lyrics Dylan sang?
That’s Amazing. 
My first thought when I saw the headline was “Somebody pranked the BBC website.” I went to the official announcement on the Nobel website AND The Guardian’s liveblog of the announcement before I was convinced it was real.
Then I started grinning, because, as I later emailed a friend, “How nice to have a startling news story that’s GOOD news for a change!”
Inevitable follow-up / argument starter:
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20161013-12-more-songwriters-worthy-of-the-nobel-prize-in-literature
Great choice.
I know you are being facetious to some degree but yes, certainly. His songs vary a great deal in their degree of obscurity. Personally I love “Don’t think twice” (and I’ve been surprised to see how many “best of” articles in the last few hours mention it). It is very much just a straight broken romance song, with not a single obscure line. “Girl of the North Country” similarly.
But then say “Mr Tambourine Man” is of course just opaque imagery that sounds great and evokes a certain feeling without being immediately comprehensible.
And in the middle is something like “Ballad of a Thin Man” which is clearly a song about an alienated square who doesn’t understand what is going on in a weird world, albeit that the precise imagery is surreal and doesn’t make sense.
I don’t think so, I guess he genuinely doesn’t understand. Sometimes you have to use abstraction to get your point across, but that’s not for everyone.
I read aceplace’s comment to be more about Bob’s diction (as in literally understanding what words he is singing) as opposed to the meaning of the words.
Yes, people have joked about Dylan’s phrasing for decades. It certainly sets him apart. It can be hard to understand in some of his songs.
STOP POSTING AND GO LISTEN TO YOUR NEW COPY OF HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED! Jesus, there are treasures awaiting you.
Bob’s singing voice, as well as those of his contemporaries Neil Young, Jerry Garcia, etc., hearkens back to the “old, weird America.” The eerie-sounding folk, blues, and country music of the early 20th century.
Listen to Harry Smith’s monumental Anthology of American Folk Music, which influenced a generation of folkies and rock-and-rollers, or read Greil Marcus’s Invisible Republic.
If you would rather listen to beautiful tenors and baritones, there’s always opera. I recommend Ian Bostridge for mid 19th century Romantic lieder. But not necessarily for “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.”
I listened to half of it, but my 2 year old just interrupted me and demanded to hear some Go-Gos. I’ll get back to it in its entirety. I think this is an album that I’m going to have to sit on and digest. Dylan, for whatever reason, still isn’t grabbing me. But Cohen does, go figure. Dylan’s always been one of those artists that, given my musical tastes, I should worship and adore, but, for some reason, it just hasn’t clicked yet. This may require its own thread so I can make a more serious effort to understand it. Some albums and artists take me many repeated listens before they sink in.
Try “Masters of War.” Straight forward lyrics and clear and understandable singing.
Bingo!
Ten years ago I decided I was going to “understand Laura Nyro” and I picked out her most difficult-to-love album New York Tendaberry to do it with. Took over a dozen listens to cram it into my head, but then I was ready to fully enjoy the much-easier Eli and the Thirteenth Confession.
Listen to “Like a Rolling Stone” until it really gets into your brain (even though you’ve been hearing it on FM radio for most of your life). Rolling Stone called it the best song of the 20th century.
And gasp he played electric at Newport!
JUDAS!!!
Oh, and also pay particular attention to “Desolation Row.” It’s in my top three DYlan songs along with “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Stuck inside of Mobile.”
I love Dylan and his music. I think he is as good a lyricist as Cohen, who is my favourite. I don’t think he should have won the Nobel Prize for literature, but good on him and the folks who want to expand boundaries and all. No grudge, but music and literature are different – books ain’t music. Music may be poetry, and graffiti may be high art, and a Big Mac may be the perfect food…
Or start with “Positively Fourth Street” which is simpler but retains all the invective. 
Like WordMan I enthusiastically suggest reading Chronicles, Volume 1. It’s nowhere near a complete, cohesive memoir but it’s the standout rock autobiography. Unfortunately, I have a sinking feeling that becoming a Nobel laureate removes any chance of his writing another book. Perversity to the end.
Wow, that’s a basic criterion?
I don’t claim to be an awards expert, but if someone set up an award with a requirement like that, i’d be tempted to conclude that the award-giver’s main purpose was to schmooze with, and bathe in the reflected glory of famous people, rather than to actually give an award based on merit.
Are there any well-respected awards that have a similar requirement?
Thirded, or fourthed.
It’s still all right.