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Nobel Prize in Literature goes to Bob Dylan

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G

Glix

Member
I ain't a-saying you treated me unkind
You could have done better but I don't mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don't think twice, it's all right.
Click to expand...

He's the GOAT.
 
O

Onlinehero

Member
Elven_Star said:
You have created a twisted version of what I'm saying. I meet people like you on a daily basis. They are out to prove they know more about literature than the guy who has studied it academically. It's some kind of self-confidence thing.

Here's the thing: Bob Dylan has been known as a song writer throughout his life. It's the first time they have awarded a Nobel prize to a song writer. You want to call it lyric poetry? Fine. The question is why it wasn't recognized as such till now. What has changed?
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Guy, I have a BA in literature as well, that's why I'm schooling you. The one time we get to shine you sully the field.

Lyrics is a major part of literature, that is a fact. Bob Dylan is known as a musician and a poet, also a fact. Even if people didn't think he's a poet, his lyrics area part of poetry as defined by Aristotle and anyone who knows literature academically (or so I thought).

I quoted fucking Aristotle on you and you still argue against it.

And it's a damn BA, it's not like we have MA:s. This is basic stuff, my man.
 
Elven_Star

Elven_Star

Member
Onlinehero said:
Guy, I have a BA in literature as well, that's why I'm schooling you. The one time we get to shine you sully the field.

Lyrics is a major part of literature, that is a fact. Bob Dylan is known as a musician and a poet, also a fact. Even if people didn't think he's a poet, his lyrics area part of poetry as defined by Aristotle and anyone who knows literature academically (or so I thought).

I quoted fucking Aristotle on you and you still argue against it.

And it's a damn BA, it's not like we have MA:s. This is basic stuff, my man.
Click to expand...

I never said his work should not be considered literature. Jesus. Are you even reading my posts? My question is something else.
Can we please stop this now? It's not getting us anywhere.
 
N

neoanarch

Member
Kaladin said:
I feel like if this is a new thing, if the Nobel Prize In Literature is going to songwriters, it should go to songwriters whose work transcends the music it's written for and is actually poetry and whose body of work had some significant impact on the world.

Bob Dylan certainly fits in that category.

That being said, Hank Williams should easily be awarded this down the line.
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Nobels aren't awarded posthumously. Nominated actually.
 
D

Dhx

Member
Inspired choice.

I wish that for just one time
You could stand inside my shoes
And just for that one moment
I could be you

Yes, I wish that for just one time
You could stand inside my shoes
You’d know what a drag it is
To see you
Click to expand...

Masterful conclusion from Positively 4th Street. Drives the entire song home with great simplicity.

Also, one of my all time favorites:

Masters of War
Bob Dylan

Come you masters of war
You that build the big guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain

You fasten all the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you sit back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
While the young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud
Click to expand...

Check out the rest if you are interested. Great commentary.
 
O

Onlinehero

Member
Elven_Star said:
I never said his work should not be considered literature. Jesus. Are you even reading my posts? My question is something else.
Can we please stop this now? It's not getting us anywhere.
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I never said you didn't. I was questioning how you could not be certain that it was and you argued with some high-horse bullshit.

Anyhow, to answer your question, it is not unprecedented in literature for lyrics to be included.
 
S

Sean C

Member
Elven_Star said:
Here's the thing: Bob Dylan has been known as a song writer throughout his life. It's the first time they have awarded a Nobel prize to a song writer. You want to call it lyric poetry? Fine. The question is why it wasn't recognized as such till now. What has changed?
Click to expand...
People are more willing to recognize the diverse forms of literature, perhaps. Every new discipline added to the Nobel's ambit was the first, at one point. It took 50 years for somebody to win for oratory, which is as classical a discipline as you can get.
 
Jag

Jag

Member
Dhx said:
Also, one of my all time favorites:
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Dylan did Masters of War as his encore at Desert Trip this weekend. Probably the best song he did. Pretty amazing that he was idolized by all the other acts that followed (Stones, Beatles, Who, etc).
 
Elven_Star

Elven_Star

Member
Onlinehero said:
I never said you didn't. I was questioning how you could not be certain that it was and you argued with some high-horse bullshit.

Anyhow, to answer your question, it is not unprecedented in literature for lyrics to be included.
Click to expand...

Again, not my question. Are you sure you have studied literature? Your reading comprehension is dismal.

Sean C said:
People are more willing to recognize the diverse forms of literature, perhaps. Every new discipline added to the Nobel's ambit was the first, at one point. It took 50 years for somebody to win for oratory, which is as classical a discipline as you can get.
Click to expand...
This guy got my question.
 
I

Iksenpets

Banned
I think Murakami is actually happier about Dylan winning than he would be about himself. I imagine every other page of his next novel is going to be about the protagonist putting on a record by Nobel Prize-winning artist Bob Dylan while he cooks pasta and drinks budget-priced Scotch.
 
Kaleinc

Kaleinc

Banned
Kaladin said:
One of my favorite obscure Dylan songs:

I've been a moonshiner,
For seventeen long years,
I've spent all my money,
On whiskey and beer,
I go to some hollow,
And sit at my still
And if whiskey dont kill me,
Then I dont know what will,

I go to some bar room,
And drink with my friends,
Where the women cant follow,
And see what I spend,
God bless them pretty women,
I wish they was mine,
Their breath is as sweet,
The dew on the vine,

Let me eat when I am hungry,
Let me drink when I am dry,
A dollar when I am hard up,
Religion when I die,
The whole world's a bottle,
And life's but a dram,
When the bottle gets empty,
It sure ain't worth a damn.
Click to expand...
I'm not particularly familiar with man's work but

If that's the best he's got
Then we are fucked what not


See you at 2017 awards
 
S

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
A worried man with a worried mind
No one in front of me and nothing behind
There's a woman on my lap and she's drinking champagne
Got white skin, got assassin's eyes
I'm looking up into the sapphire tinted skies
I'm well dressed, waiting on the last train

Standing on the gallows with my head in a noose
Any minute now I'm expecting all hell to break loose

People are crazy and times are strange
I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range
I used to care, but things have changed

This place ain't doing me any good
I'm in the wrong town, I should be in Hollywood
Just for a second there I thought I saw something move
Gonna take dancing lessons do the jitterbug rag
Ain't no shortcuts, gonna dress in drag
Only a fool in here would think he's got anything to prove

Lotta water under the bridge, lotta other stuff too
Don't get up gentlemen, I'm only passing through

People are crazy and times are strange
I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range
I used to care, but things have changed

I've been walking forty miles of bad road
If the bible is right, the world will explode
I've been trying to get as far away from myself as I can
Some things are too hot to touch
The human mind can only stand so much
You can't win with a losing hand

Feel like falling in love with the first woman I meet
Putting her in a wheel barrow and wheeling her down the street

People are crazy and times are strange
I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range
I used to care, but things have changed

I hurt easy, I just don't show it
You can hurt someone and not even know it
The next sixty seconds could be like an eternity
Gonna get lowdown, gonna fly high
All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie
I'm love with a woman who don't even appeal to me

Mr. Jinx and Miss Lucy, they jumped in the lake
I'm not that eager to make a mistake

People are crazy and times are strange
I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range
I used to care, but things have changed


Saw him in concert in 1998-1999, just a stellar performance. This is well deserved, fantastic choice by the Nobel Committee.
 
H

hiredhand

Member
Kaladin said:
One of my favorite obscure Dylan songs:

I've been a moonshiner,
For seventeen long years,
I've spent all my money,
On whiskey and beer,
I go to some hollow,
And sit at my still
And if whiskey dont kill me,
Then I dont know what will,

I go to some bar room,
And drink with my friends,
Where the women cant follow,
And see what I spend,
God bless them pretty women,
I wish they was mine,
Their breath is as sweet,
The dew on the vine,

Let me eat when I am hungry,
Let me drink when I am dry,
A dollar when I am hard up,
Religion when I die,
The whole world's a bottle,
And life's but a dram,
When the bottle gets empty,
It sure ain't worth a damn.
Click to expand...
That is not written by Dylan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moonshiner
 
B

Bold One

Member
1361478083_dave-chappelle-spit-hot-fire-gif.gif
 
S

Snowman Prophet of Doom

Member
Reeks of desperation, tbh. Dylan's little different from other songwriters in that his words don't really work as poetry in the absence of the music to cover up notable flaws like obvious, blunt symbolism, cliche colloquialisms (evident even in the lyrics quoted in the thread thus far), forced rhyme schemes, etc.
 
S

Serenitynow

Member
Some of my favorite verses:

My Back Pages said:
In a soldier's stance, I aimed my hand at the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not that I'd become my enemy in the instant that I preach
My existence led by confusion boats, mutiny from stern to bow
Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now
Click to expand...

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall said:
Oh, what did you see, my blue eyed son?
And what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin'
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin'
I saw a white ladder all covered with water
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
Click to expand...

I'm only 20, but I've listened to Dylan for years and have managed to turn a few of my friends on to him. Actually, my name is Dylan. I have my dad to thank for that and Zimmerman's music is something we've bonded over more and more as I've gotten older.

Fantastic choice for the award.
 
T

Trokil

Banned
I checked the internet, how a lot of people wrote that this was not deserved and his work is not literature. I think this is strange, because it is actually the most ancient version of literature, the story either sung or in form of a poem. This was the beginning of our storytelling, a long time before books and our form or definition of literature even existed.

Dylan is often described as a bard and that is true. Bards are telling is stories in form of songs and this is literature. Homer did it as well as the bards in the middle ages. So, because he is a songwriter does not disqualify him from this price.

And a lot of criticism is coming either from authors or people in the printing business, because noble prize is a big seller for them. Now that people like Dylan can get them too, of course it is a problem for their business.
 
Lionel Richie

Lionel Richie

Member
Not sure if it has been posted, but this piece at Pitchfork is ungodly awful and completely misses the point of any fucking award fucking ever IMO. Not surprising since it is Pitchfork and I'm not sure why I still visit there, I really must be a masochist. He calls Bob Dylan "a singer-songwriter", that's like calling The Godfather "a movie". While it's true, it's also true for Michael Bolton and The Room, so fuck reductionism.

Congrats to one of my favorite artists of all time.
 
Z

ZeroRay

Member
Well Deserved.

Changed the game for musicians and his own work has a timeless quality to it that will reverberate through the ages.

Breh's got bars too. Side 2 of Bringing it All Back home might be the greatest lyrical tour de force in popular music.
 
E

eyeball_kid

Member
I Shall Be Free mixes up the best of his political satire, focus on civil rights, and playful wit. This is some great poetry right here.

I's out there paintin' on the old wood shed
When a can o' black paint it fell on my head
I went down to scrub and rub
But I had to sit in back of the tub
Cost a quarter
Half price

Well, my telephone rang it would not stop
It's President Kennedy callin' me up
He said, "My friend, Bob, what do we need to make the country grow?"
I said, My friend, John, Brigitte Bardot
Anita Ekberg
Sophia Loren
Country'll grow

Now, the man on the stand he wants my vote
He's a-runnin' for office on the ballot note
He's out there preachin' in front of the steeple
Tellin' me he loves all kindsa people
He's eatin' bagels
He's eatin' pizza
He's eatin' chitlins
Click to expand...
 
T

To Far Away Times

Member
I'm okay with this.

Bob Dylan would never win points for his singing "ability," but no one ever doubted his song writing and lyrical skill.

If even one musician deserves this, it's him.
 
D

Dylan

Member
I'm a huge Bob Dylan fan. I was partially named after the man.

But I truly believe that his skill as a lyricist is massively overblown. I see him as an artist who likes to express a vague concept by taping a bunch of rhyming words together meaninglessly under the illusion of craftsmanship.

I can't argue his influence & lasting impact though.
 
Elven_Star

Elven_Star

Member
Maybe they should consider Justin Bieber for an Oscar now. He acts in his music videos so, he's "technically" an actor.
Ancient Greeks used to have choruses in their tragedies. It's the oldest form of acting!
 
A

alfredofroylan

Member
According to some media, they can't contact Dylan.
The Swedish Academy says it has given up trying to reach Bob Dylan, days after it awarded him the Nobel Prize for Literature.

"Right now we are doing nothing. I have called and sent emails to his closest collaborator and received very friendly replies. For now, that is
certainly enough," the academy's permanent secretary, Sara Danius, told state radio SR on Monday.

So far the American troubadour has responded with silence since he won the prize on Thursday.

He gave a concert in Las Vegas that very night, but made no mention of the accolade.

So -- as an early Dylan song may have put it -- how does it feel?

"I am not at all worried," said Danius. "I think he will show up."
Click to expand...
https://www.thelocal.se/20161017/silent-bob-swedish-nobel-crew-cant-find-dylan
 
D

Deleted member 80556

Unconfirmed Member
"I am not at all worried," said Danius. "I think he will show up."
Click to expand...

Imagine if he didn't receive it. Imagine. Dylan's the best.
 
B

Bruce Springsteen

Member
I'm happy to say I've seen him live, but his voice was so shit I barely understood a damn word he said. He also only played new material which I know nothing about it. At least I can say I saw the legend
 
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