Bob Dylan

[miguel1984]

If Bob Dylan had only written the following verses, he still would have deserved the Nobel prize:

"When you're lost in the rain in Juarez when it's Easter time, too
And your gravity fails and negativity don't pull you through
Don't put on any airs when you're down on Rue Morgue Avenue
They got some hungry women there and they really make a mess outta you

Now, if you see Saint Annie, please tell her thanks a lot
I cannot move, my fingers are all in a knot
I don't have the strength to get up and take another shot
And my best friend, my doctor, won't even say what it is I've got

Sweet Melinda, the peasants call her the goddess of gloom
She speaks good English and she invites you up into her room
And you're so kind and careful not to go to her too soon
And she takes your voice and leaves you howling at the moon

Up on Housing Project Hill, it's either fortune or fame
You must pick one or the other, though neither of them are to be what they claim
If you're lookin' to get silly, you better go back to from where you came
Because the cops don't need you, and man, they expect the same

Now, all the authorities, they just stand around and boast
How they blackmailed the sergeant-at-arms into leaving his post
And picking up Angel, who just arrived here from the coast
Who looked so fine at first but left looking just like a ghost

I started out on burgundy but soon hit the harder stuff
Everybody said they'd stand behind me when the game got rough
But the joke was on me, there was nobody even there to bluff
I'm going back to New York City, I do believe I've had enough"


--Bob Dylan, Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues

[kobaia]

From today's Wall Street Journal, with Dylan making the front page:

Yes, Bob Dylan Deserves the Nobel Prize - WSJ

Guess Pynchon's pretty much ####ed out of ever getting the Prize at this point. Perhaps McCarthy, too.

If we're going to start giving songwriters the Prize on the regular now, I nominate Momus.

Momus: The Angels Are Voyeurs - YouTube

[Druidic]

Cohen deserves one too. He and Bob make most past winners look as insignificant as they are.

[gveranon]

I have mixed feelings about Dylan receiving this award. I might write more about this later, if I have time and can get my thoughts together.

In the meantime: Bob Dylan still silent on Nobel literature prize win

[Druidic]

Gveranon, I thought you might feel a bit ambiguous about Dylan's award. But his influence alone has been vast across many genres--far more so than other past winners-- and his work will stand for far longer I suspect. I'm serious about Cohen as well. His work is Literature in the best sense of the word. Of course, his novels should be burned (as with Dylan's Tarantula).
So listen, my friend, to Cross the Green Mountain and then raise a glass or two to The Bard.
If you want to toast Shakespeare as well that would be cool, too.

61 is the most brilliant record I know.

One last thought: Dylan's work really belongs to an oral tradition of song and recited poetry. The printed page diminishes it. Far less true of Cohen who has the voice and vision of an authentic poet. One of the Masters.

The word 'poet' is pretty meaningless today; its been degraded beyond belief by attaching it to everything from hip hop to a silly assertion that anyone can write poetry. Wrong. Nick Cave is the only other songwriter I know whose work has real poetic resonance but he's not in the same league as these two gentlemen.
It's a sad thing when we're told more people write poetry than read it. (How keen would you be on eating a slice of pie baked by someone who boasts they have never read a recipe or received instruction of any kind? Learning to write good poetry is no different in principle than learning to bake or building a house. You need to study and learn your craft.)
Once, poets like Robert Frost were icons of popular culture;
well, as Lou Reed might say, "Those were different times, Jim."

Poetry as an art form is dying...if not already dead. Certainly it's dead as a popular/commercial form of literature. So let us give Dylan and Cohen a big Thanks for reminding us what it once was all about!

Now, gveranon, old friend, lets discuss the haunting fragmented imagery of Big Jim Morrison lol.

[Mr. Veech]

I love Dylan! Always have, always will.

Bob Dylan - One More Cup of Coffee (Live) - YouTube

Who wants to place bets that they'll give it to Kanye West by 2030?

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

Wonder how many of these hold up?
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_priz...ure/laureates/

[symbolique]

nil