Bob Dylan today

[Bikerdoc]

What I like about the award is that it means BD remains timeless. I was certainly surprised but pleasantly so.

 

[Westerly Wood]

yeah, he is a poet, a real american poet

 

[Bill Ashton]

There is some Scottish author (sorry, Sandy :sad whose prostate is all in a bunch because Dylan got the award...no, wait...he says the Nobel Boards' prostates are all in a bunch so they selected Dylan...

I dunno, guess I just can't appreciate that any more :untroubled:...but sounds like sour-grapes to me...

 

[killdeer43]

To reiterate, don't listen to the music....READ his lyrics and you're reading poetry. Better than a lot of 'poetry' I've read/heard lately.

My Back Pages
Shelter From the Storm
Simple Twist of Fate
Mr. Tambourine Man
When the Ship Comes In
Tomorrow is a Long Time
Forever Young
A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall
The Times They Are A-changin'
Restless Farewell
and of course, Blowin' In the Wind

This short list is, of course, merely a sampler. His body of work is YUGE!

Joe

 

[NEONMOONY]

If I could even write something as good as Mr. Tambourine Man. As far as the award goes, it's their award, they can give it to anybody they want to. I do not think the Nobel Committees take their selections lightly.

Personally, I didn't think Dylan should have received the award, not because he wasn't deserving (I think he is quite talented and cutting edge even now) but because he didn't need the award or its stipend. I thought it should be somebody talented but in need of the dough.From the conversations, as with everything in Dylan's career, it brings controversy, therefore attention and spotlight. Every couple years he does something and he is back in the news, like Picasso and Dali were.

 

[adorshki]

Al,

As far as my Grammy comment goes, it was intended to refer to them being primarily a MUSIC award and few people know them as anything else. The point being that by selecting Bob Dylan for a literature award completely removes a strong distinction between genre of communication styles.

From the award announcement:
"for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition"[1]

We have these distinctions and separations for a reason.

I certainly can't think of one other than to categorize something for easy pigeonholing on a playlist.
"Talk Radio"
"Classic Rock"
"Adult Alternative"
"New Age"
Maybe if we didn't have such strong and strait-jacketed distinctions in radio today it'd be a whole lot more diverse like AM in the '60's, when you could hear Dylan right after Herb Alpert and followed by the Supremes..
I'm thinkin' these distinctions and separations maybe ain't such a good thing for exposing a listener to artistic diversity of style and content..
It's all about the almighty buck and presenting a pre-screened target market to advertisers, these days.

To blur these lines means that anyone can be awarded anything, as long as the selection committee thinks they are important enough.

So, the problem is.....?
I think maybe what's bugging you is maybe you're seeing the prize as a "validation of merit" (as so many do), but it's not.
The selection process starts with solicitations for nominations from a variety of sources and if the committee's fave isn't there they can't "write him in"...
After all, it was Alf's money to do with as he pleased, and a committee helps assure a variety of opinions, in deciding who "deserves" the prize, and there's limited categories of which "Music" or "Performing Arts" is not one, so where else would you put it?
"Physics"?

I worry that this is the case with this award. The committee were young adults in the 60s and into the " movement " music of the time. Therefore Dylan was important to them. In MY VIEW, Dylan hasn't been relevant since then.

Lotta people would say Steinbeck hasn't been relevant since Grapes of Wrath ('39), and he won it in '62, and a lot of people cried foul back then, but I admit, it's a snarky argument.

I think many people after that say they were into Dylan because that was the " in thing " to say. Again this is my view and I suspect those in the forum older than me have a different one. More than likely, they also think I don't know what the heck I am talking about since I wasn't old enough to get drafted in the 60s.

NO disagreement with your view, it may in fact be quite accurate. But you only have to be old enough to get drafted by '73 :friendly_wink:

We we all have our opinions. They are created by our experiences, which differ a lot.

Yep. And speaking of which:
The prize selection process is heavily politicized but nobody ever said it was supposed to be some kind of trial with a fair and impartial judge...the selection committee(s) are heavily eurocentric (basically Educated Swedish Males) and the award recipients have reflected that bias and have taken a lot of criticism for that in the past as well.
And as it turns out our boy's apparently turned it down.
Not the first one to do so, but I wonder what his reasons were...

 

[twocorgis]

This just showed up in my Facebook feed, and I got a kick out of it!

Might be the biggest thing that ever happened in Hibbing!

 

[richardp69]

Now Sandy, Hibbing is a fine town. I grew up not far from there. Obviously, he was a stellar song-writer. I never appreciated until later on in my life how good a guitarist he is as well.

 

[silverfox103]

Just read the Nobel prize committee has given up searching for him, as they can't find him.

Tom

 

[rampside]

Just read the Nobel prize committee has given up searching for him, as they can't find him.

Tom

Yep,.. chuckle.., some things never change.

I can state, with a certain amount of confidence, Bob Dylan was never about awards and accolades.

 

[rampside]

This just showed up in my Facebook feed, and I got a kick out of it!

Might be the biggest thing that ever happened in Hibbing!

Aw, come on, Sandy, what would possess you to make such a statement?

Let the truth be known, the majority of the residents here in Hibbing, could give a sh!t less about literature.

Why, there's been many and far bigger sports related events to happen here.

A little story about that lawn pictured there:

Back in 1967 the High School Hockey team qualified for the state tournament (if you know anything about Minnesota hockey, this is no easy feat and certainly is a HUGE thing).

It was announced over the PA system, that students would not be allowed to miss school the following day, in order to attend the state hockey tournament in the Twin Cities.

Well, thanks in part, I suppose to Mr. Dylan's involvement in launching the protest movement, the vast majority of the student body walked out onto that lawn and refused to re-enter the school.

Needless to say, we were all suspended for 3 days. At least we were able to go and support our beloved team.

Missing school to support a home team, has not been an issue since. :smile-new:

I drove by BD's boyhood home on my way to work today, and there is no excitement to report. Although, I was singing to myself, "Blowin' In The Wind" as I passed.

 

[silverfox103]

Hibbing MN is also where NBA great Kevin McHale, Hall of Famer and 3X NBA Champ as a member of the Boston Celtics is from.

Tom

 

[Westerly Wood]

Aw, come on, Sandy, what would possess you to make such a statement?

Let the truth be known, the majority of the residents here in Hibbing, could give a sh!t less about literature.

Why, there's been many and far bigger sports related events to happen here.

A little story about that lawn pictured there:

Back in 1967 the High School Hockey team qualified for the state tournament (if you know anything about Minnesota hockey, this is no easy feat and certainly is a HUGE thing).

It was announced over the PA system, that students would not be allowed to miss school the following day, in order to attend the state hockey tournament in the Twin Cities.

Well, thanks in part, I suppose to Mr. Dylan's involvement in launching the protest movement, the vast majority of the student body walked out onto that lawn and refused to re-enter the school.

Needless to say, we were all suspended for 3 days. At least we were able to go and support our beloved team.

Missing school to support a home team, has not been an issue since. :smile-new:

I drove by BD's boyhood home on my way to work today, and there is no excitement to report. Although, I was singing to myself, "Blowin' In The Wind" as I passed.

I am glad the school took a hard line against the protest. I wish more schools today in American had spines.
and equally glad you were able to see the game.

 

[rampside]

Hibbing MN is also where NBA great, Hall of Famer and 3X NBA Champ as a member of the Boston Celtics is from.

Tom

Correct!

 

[davismanLV]

This whole thing of eschewing awards gets on my nerves. Seems that so many people want to make a statement and have an ax to grind with something or another. Regardless of your personal feelings about it, once you reach a certain level of success just be GRACIOUS and SMILE and thank them for the award. That's all. If you don't need the money (which I'm sure he doesn't) then donate it to charity. Easy enough. It seems so many people who get in these positions want to protest something or show their disdain for such recognition and it grates on me.

Smile. Say Thank You. Tell the world you're honored by the recognition. Then put the damn thing in a drawer or cupboard and get on with your life.

That's my opinion, if he doesn't want it. Sheesh.....

 

[adorshki]

Smile. Say Thank You. Tell the world you're honored by the recognition. Then put the damn thing in a drawer or cupboard and get on with your life.

That's my opinion, if he doesn't want it. Sheesh.....

 

[davismanLV]

Rejecting prestigious awards is LACK of dealing with his life, in my opinion. Is he that much of a wreck that he can't be gracious?

 

[adorshki]

Rejecting prestigious awards is LACK of dealing with his life, in my opinion. Is he that much of a wreck that he can't be gracious?

Apparently so, lack of grace seems to be one of the definitive elements of his character myth:
(from Wiki):
" By the end of 1963, Dylan felt both manipulated and constrained by the folk and protest movements.[62] Accepting the "Tom Paine Award" from the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee shortly after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, an intoxicated Dylan questioned the role of the committee, characterized the members as old and balding, and claimed to see something of himself and of every man in Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.[63]"
and:
"In the latter half of 1964 and 1965....Dylan began to spar with interviewers. Appearing on the Les Crane television show and asked about a movie he planned, he told Crane it would be a cowboy horror movie. Asked if he played the cowboy, Dylan replied, 'No, I play my mother.'[69]"
"In May 1963, Dylan's political profile rose when he walked out of The Ed Sullivan Show. During rehearsals, Dylan had been told by CBS television's head of program practices that "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues" was potentially libelous to the John Birch Society. Rather than comply with censorship, Dylan refused to appear.[57]"
"On July 29, 1966, Dylan crashed his 500cc Triumph Tiger 100 motorcycle near his home in Woodstock, New York and was thrown to the ground. Though the extent of his injuries was never disclosed, Dylan said that he broke several vertebrae in his neck.[112] Mystery still surrounds the circumstances of the accident since no ambulance was called to the scene and Dylan was not hospitalized.[112][113] Dylan's biographers have written that the crash offered Dylan the chance to escape the pressures around him.[112][114] Dylan confirmed this interpretation in his autobiography: "I had been in a motorcycle accident and I'd been hurt, but I recovered. Truth was that I wanted to get out of the rat race."[115] Dylan withdrew from public and, apart from a few appearances, did not tour again for almost eight years.[116]"
He did accept a Medal Of Freedom, though:

 

[rampside]

Re: the motorcycle thing. During the mid-seventies, I had a close work association with BD's uncle. One day he was telling me about, just returning from an important family event that Bob had invited him to and was held in LA. I won't disclose any of the details he told me, but he confirmed that BD was not doing well and had been going through a very troubling period in his life, but things were starting to turn around.

I offer no opinion on whether he needs to be gracious or not. 56 plus years and counting, and as always, he'll deal with it HIS way, and I'm good with that.

 

[walrus]

Dylan should join LTG. He would fit in nicely with the rest of us grumpy old men... :grumpy:

walrus