This Is Why Bob Dylan Won The Nobel Prize

John Riley · #1 09-11-2021, 05:06 PM

https://youtu.be/-UHHc7POovg

It's new like Shakespeare or Wordsworth were new.

Cally Conan-Davies · #2 09-12-2021, 04:08 PM

Terrific, John! That song. I had these lines taped to the wall next to my bed for about ten years: "There are those among us / who think life is but a joke / you and I have been through that / this is not our fate / so let us not speak falsely now / the hour is getting late"

Cally

Roger Slater · #3 09-12-2021, 04:53 PM

I agree, but I think he already deserved it for The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carrol, just to name one off the top of my head. (And he didn't even have to rhyme very much).

Roger Slater · #4 09-12-2021, 04:59 PM

Heck, I'd have given him the prize just for writing "But I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."

Cally Conan-Davies · #5 09-12-2021, 05:03 PM

Wow. Haven't listened to that for years. Gave me chills.

Cally Conan-Davies · #6 09-12-2021, 05:05 PM

I'd give it to him for writing the perfect lyric poem "Knockin' on Heaven's Door".

Jim Moonan · #7 09-12-2021, 06:06 PM

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And this.
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John Riley · #8 09-13-2021, 04:48 PM

Bob Dylan is not a pop singer.

Bill Dyes · #9 09-13-2021, 05:25 PM

John:

I disagree. Popular Music is the umbrella which includes folk, rock, blues, Broadway, and everything else except jazz and classical.

Bill

Jim Moonan · #10 09-13-2021, 05:32 PM

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Jesse: "To me John Lennon doesn't belong anywhere near this conversation. He is a great songwriter, but clearly his lyrics can't hang with the others mentioned here."

I’ve followed Dylan’s work all my adult life and have seen him twice on stage. (The live concerts were garbled and poorly produced , imo.) He has been, without question, the quintessential bard of our time. From the standpoint of folk music, he catalyzed the genre and sent it hurtling into rock. Unquestionably a great artist and a fine poet.

But for pure artistic genius and for the sheer honesty of his solo work I still want Lennon on the stage with Dylan, reflecting the angst of our times, speaking relentlessly about love, writing unvarnished personal lyrics of pain and redemption and religion and family and power and war.

Just Gimme some truth, The kind Mr. Tambourine Man played in the jingle jangle morning, and I’ll follow.

John: "Bob Dylan is not a pop singer."

No he's not. Nor is Lennon's solo work (see my response to Jesse). I like my music lyrics like I like my poetry: first and foremost personal, with clear, broader implications. Both Dylan and Lennon are masters at that.

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