Bob Dylan - Nobel Prize for Literature

MLF · 10-13-16, 12:36 PM

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 bench
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky
With one hand waving 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.

Mr Tambourine Man 1965

Yes, and how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, and how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take 'till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind

Blowing in the Wind 1963

Oberon · 10-13-16, 12:46 PM

In before people complain about the decision.

Anyway, my favourite:

Quote:

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'

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'

As true today as it was back then.

MLF · 10-13-16, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oberon

In before people complain about the decision.

I studied his lyrics in English lessons at school in 1966.
Listened to PM tonight and Pam Ayres summed things up by saying that some of his lyrics (poems) gave comfort to kids in those days, for example:-

"I can see that your head
Has been twisted and fed
With worthless foam from the mouth
I can tell you are torn
Between stayin' and returnin'
Back to the South
You've been fooled into thinking
That the finishin' end is at hand
Yet there's no one to beat you
No one to defeat you
'Cept the thoughts of yourself feeling bad

I've heard you say many times
That you're better 'n no one
And no one is better 'n you
If you really believe that
You know you have
Nothing to win and nothing to lose
From fixtures and forces and friends
Your sorrow does stem
That hype you and type you
Making you feel
That you gotta be just like them."

To Ramona 1964

Onkel Neal · 10-13-16, 02:03 PM

10-13-16, 02:22 PM

Thoroughly deserved.

u crank · 10-13-16, 04:16 PM

No one is better. No one has had a wider influence and why did this take so long?

Congrats Mr. Zimmerman.

A few more examples of his brilliance...

"You walk into the room with your pencil in your hand
You see somebody naked and you say, "Who is that man?"
You try so hard but you don't understand
Just what you will say when you get home
Because something is happening here but you don't know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?"

Ballad Of A Thin Man

"At midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew
Come out and round up everyone that knows more than they do
Then they bring them to the factory where the heart-attack machine
Is strapped across their shoulders and then the kerosene
Is brought down from the castles by insurance men who go
Check to see that nobody is escaping to Desolation Row"

Desolation Row

"Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon, there is no sense in trying"

It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

Platapus · 10-13-16, 07:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oberon

In before people complain about the decision.

Why would anyone complain about the decision? It is a private organization and they can award whom ever they want.

Torplexed · 10-13-16, 07:34 PM

Hmmm. If Dylan can win a Nobel, it might be time to nominate Leonard Cohen.

Oberon · 10-13-16, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Platapus

Why would anyone complain about the decision? It is a private organization and they can award whom ever they want.

I'm actually surprised that someone hasn't complained, like they usually do over who gets the peace prize.

Sailor Steve · 10-13-16, 10:20 PM

I'm complaining! I'm offended that some peacenik hippy writing all those anti-war lyrics should get the Peace Prize! It's an affront to all...

Wait, whut?

Aktungbby · 10-14-16, 09:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I'm complaining! I'm offended that some peacenik hippy writing all those anti-war lyrics should get the Peace Prize! It's an affront to all...

Wait, whut?

Allow me

:

Quote:

I'm complaining! I'm offended that some Hibbing, MINNESOTA peacenik hippy writing all those anti-war lyrics should get the Peace Prize! It's an affront to all...

EDIT following a lot of articles; pro and con;

Quote:

Billy Collins, the former United States poet laureate, argued that Mr. Dylan deserved to be recognized not merely as a songwriter, but as a poet.
“Most song lyrics don’t really hold up without the music, and they aren’t supposed to,” Mr. Collins said in an interview. “Bob Dylan is in the 2 percent club of songwriters whose lyrics are interesting on the page even without the harmonica and the guitar and his very distinctive voice. I think he does qualify as poetry.”
In giving the literature prize to Mr. Dylan, the academy may also be recognizing that the gap has closed between high art and more commercial creative forms.
“It’s literature, but it’s music, it’s performance, it’s art, it’s also highly commercial,” said David Hajdu, a music critic for The Nation who has written extensively about Mr. Dylan and his contemporaries. “The old categories of high and low art, they’ve been collapsing for a long time, but this is it being made official.”

Bottom line; I don't much care for his stuff (more Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Neal Young) but I never doubted that he is extremely talented, daring, never disappointing, and persistently messaging in many genres...for half a century!! He is still a 'work in progress' which many will undoubtedly follow with more interest now that the recognition is pretty universal.

Onkel Neal · 10-14-16, 10:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oberon

I'm actually surprised that someone hasn't complained, like they usually do over who gets the peace prize.

When it's stupid, we complain.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Catfish

Because Dylan was and is 100-percent anti war, he demonstrated and still is against the Vietnam war, the US belligerent engagement in the middle East and against racism.
For right-wingers and "patriots" this is usually enough to throw with dirt.

Well, almost all artists and musicians are "anti-war", that's pretty easy to ignore when enjoying their works.

But it begs the question: who is really "pro-war"? That's getting off topic, but most people are against war.

Oberon · 10-14-16, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

But it begs the question: who is really "pro-war"? That's getting off topic, but most people are against war.

Anyone when they're made to be.

Catfish · 10-14-16, 02:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Platapus

Why would anyone complain about the decision? It is a private organization and they can award whom ever they want.

Because Dylan was and is 100-percent anti war, he demonstrated and still is against the Vietnam war, the US belligerent engagement in the middle East and against racism.
For right-wingers and "patriots" this is usually enough to throw with dirt.

fumo30 · 10-14-16, 04:56 AM

Complaining would be outrageous, because Bob is the worlds official goodguy and everyone's holy duty is to admire him. I wouldn't dare complaining the decision, cause after doing that, most propably no-one here ever gonna talk a word to me again.

..But there's a woman named Joni Mitchell, who allegedly said that "Everything about Bob is a deception" .
Does she know something about Bob we don't?

10-13-16, 12:36 PM	#1
MLF Weps Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: SW France Posts: 361 Downloads: 137 Uploads: 0	Bob Dylan - Nobel Prize for Literature 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 bench Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky With one hand waving 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. Mr Tambourine Man 1965 Yes, and how many times must a man look up Before he can see the sky? Yes, and how many ears must one man have Before he can hear people cry? Yes, and how many deaths will it take 'till he knows That too many people have died? The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind The answer is blowin' in the wind Blowing in the Wind 1963 __________________ Je pense donc je fuis!

10-13-16, 02:03 PM	#4
Onkel Neal Born to Run Silent Join Date: Jan 1997 Location: Cougar Trap, Texas Posts: 21,385 Downloads: 541 Uploads: 224	__________________ SUBSIM - 26 Years on the Web

10-13-16, 04:16 PM	#6
u crank Old enough to know better Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Prince Edward Island Posts: 11,747 Downloads: 136 Uploads: 0	No one is better. No one has had a wider influence and why did this take so long? Congrats Mr. Zimmerman. A few more examples of his brilliance... "You walk into the room with your pencil in your hand You see somebody naked and you say, "Who is that man?" You try so hard but you don't understand Just what you will say when you get home Because something is happening here but you don't know what it is Do you, Mr. Jones?" Ballad Of A Thin Man "At midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew Come out and round up everyone that knows more than they do Then they bring them to the factory where the heart-attack machine Is strapped across their shoulders and then the kerosene Is brought down from the castles by insurance men who go Check to see that nobody is escaping to Desolation Row" Desolation Row "Darkness at the break of noon Shadows even the silver spoon The handmade blade, the child's balloon Eclipses both the sun and moon To understand you know too soon, there is no sense in trying" It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) __________________ “Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” ― Arthur C. Clarke

10-13-16, 07:34 PM	#8
Torplexed Let's Sink Sumptin' ! Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 5,823 Downloads: 43 Uploads: 0	Hmmm. If Dylan can win a Nobel, it might be time to nominate Leonard Cohen. __________________ --Mobilis in Mobili--

10-13-16, 10:20 PM	#10
Sailor Steve Eternal Patrol Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: High in the mountains of Utah Posts: 50,369 Downloads: 745 Uploads: 249	I'm complaining! I'm offended that some peacenik hippy writing all those anti-war lyrics should get the Peace Prize! It's an affront to all... Wait, whut? __________________ “Never do anything you can't take back.” —Rocky Russo

10-13-16, 02:22 PM	#5
AndyJWest Stowaway Posts: n/a Downloads: Uploads:	Thoroughly deserved.

10-14-16, 04:56 AM	#15
fumo30 Grey Wolf Join Date: Jan 2016 Posts: 872 Downloads: 15 Uploads: 0	Complaining would be outrageous, because Bob is the worlds official goodguy and everyone's holy duty is to admire him. I wouldn't dare complaining the decision, cause after doing that, most propably no-one here ever gonna talk a word to me again. ..But there's a woman named Joni Mitchell, who allegedly said that "Everything about Bob is a deception" . Does she know something about Bob we don't? Last edited by fumo30; 10-14-16 at 05:13 AM.