No Direction Home is a pretty good documentary, Mark. I like Bob Dylan quite a bit. I like Guthrie a little more. There were I think 3 different versions of This Land Is Your Land. The original works best.

It was mass produced for school children to sing. As a patriotic anthem. But it was written when land was being taken during the depression.

Anyone who assumes I intended to criticize or belittle Dylan's lyrics/poems should reread the above. I said nothing positive or negative about his words (although I like a good number of his songs). My comment was about the power of song.

Tim, is that for real? Amazing story!

Yes, Mark, Tim's story beats yours--but I love yours, too. Thanks for posting it.

Claudia--I see what you mean. In context, it read to me that you were criticizing Dylan's selection here (and fair enough...), but I get the other side of it now.

James, and others talking about Guthrie/Dylan and Dylan/Lennon: Dylan has often spoken of how Guthrie (another of my heroes) was a crucial influence on him and how he had to move through emulation of Woody to find his way. Perhaps it was similar between Dylan and Lennon--if perhaps less so and for a shorter time (hard for me to opine here; I'm not much of a Beatles fan...). I would post here if I could find online a wonderful painting I saw once in Rolling Stone. It was titled "Mr. Guthrie's Homeroom" (or similar) and showed Dylan acing a test in Woody's class while Springsteen and a cross-sampling of every other rootsy white American male singer of the later twentieth century try to cheat off his paper...

Yeah, I think that's true, Simon. And I'd like to see that painting. (Do you think anyone successfully cheated?)

I think more than anything else, Mark, as I mentioned in my first response, opening this up to song writers made me think of others who could/should be considered. As far as lyrics, I'm kind of partial to Paul Simon (on his own, probably more). But Bob Dylan is understandable. I'm not really complaining. Just thinking...

Hmm...posthumous award for Jacques Brel!

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cul...ylan-nobel-win

Very high spirited piece by Remnick, editor of the New Yorker, that ends with lots of links.

My parents were very junior English professors at the Hibbing Community College. They rented an apartment above the Zimmerman Store, and they paid the boy ten cents an hour to push my stroller. No wonder I turned to poetry! He became famous when I was twelve, and I loved and memorized his songs. This prize delights me even more than VS Naipaul, who was honored right after 9/11 in a rare nod to a conservative.

Claudia, an awful lot of Burns' appeal depends on the ancient airs he set his lyrics to. I teach Burns in high school every January 25, and I am more influenced by him than any other poet.

The prize spurred me to upload a recording to YouTube of Dylan's performance of Mr Tamourine Man at Wolftrap in 1997. The audio quality isn't very good (and there's 3 seconds of pure static in the opening 15 seconds or so) but it's a truly great performance. He changes up the melody and the tone is very different from his studio recording. It ends with a long guitar solo. Anyway, I love it so I figured I'd share it now. HERE

Now, if next year Richard Wilbur is honored, a lot of people are going to feel Springsteen was robbed.

Here's an opinion from Alicia Stallings.

Right on, Alicia! Thanks for the link, Roger.