Bob Dylan

CONGRATULATIONS
​to
​
BOB DYLAN !
​
​Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature​

​The award was announced on October 13, 2016.  The Swedish Academy wrote that the prize was granted for "having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."  

“Dylan has recorded a large number of albums revolving around topics like the social conditions of man, religion, politics and love,” the Swedish Academy said in a biographical note accompanying the announcement. “The lyrics have continuously been published in new editions, under the title ‘Lyrics.’ As an artist, he is strikingly versatile; he has been active as painter, actor and scriptwriter.”
The academy added: “Since the late 1980s, Bob Dylan has toured persistently, an undertaking called the ‘Never-Ending Tour.’ Dylan has the status of an icon. His influence on contemporary music is profound, and he is the object of a steady stream of secondary literature.”

Icon, indeed!

The Announcement of the prize from the Nobel Academy:
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2016/announcement.html

The New York Times report on the day of the Announcement:​
​http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/arts/music/bob-dylan-nobel-prize-literature.html?_r=0

​Biobibliographical Notes from the Nobel Academy:
​https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2016/bio-bibl.pdf
​
​Redefining the boundaries of literature:
​http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/arts/music/bob-dylan-nobel-prize-literature.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0
​
​​America's great one-man songbook:
​​http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/arts/music/bob-dylan-nobel-prize.html?ref=todayspaper​
​
​Is Bob Dylan literature?  (Wall Street Journal reports)
​​http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-bob-dylan-literature-1476401068

​And from the BBC on October 13:  "words moving, meaningful, and puzzling."

​International:  Bob Dylan Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature:
http://uk.watsupeurope.com/news/bob-dylan-awarded-nobel-prize-for-literature/​
​(Video - 2:17 minutes;  WatsupEurope, 10/13/16)

Bob Dylan and New York City:  A Romance:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/15/nyregion/bob-dylan-new-york.html?ref=todayspaper

The Coolest Class at Harvard:  "Bob Dylan 101"
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/15/arts/music/bob-dylan-101-a-harvard-professor-has-the-coolest-class-on-campus.html?ref=todayspaper

Bob Dylan with Joan Baez, March on Washington, 8/28/1963

Winner of the Medal of Freedom, May, 2012

June, 2001

May 4, 2013

                                                                                Sampler:                                                       
​                                                        Music and Lyrics for Three Songs

Blowin' in the Wind  (March, 1963):
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=A0LEV1xB1v9XVFMAMAZXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEyaHZjYzhtBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjE4NzlfMQRzZWMDc2M-?p=Songs+-+Bob+Dylan&fr=mcafee#id=25&vid=556c36acface54ce52be43c1a5c98009&action=view

​Song text:
​How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man ?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand ?
Yes, how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned ?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Yes, how many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea ?
Yes, how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free ?
Yes, how many times can a man turn his head
Pretending he just doesn't see ?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Yes, how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky ?
Yes, how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry ?
Yes, how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died ?
The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Blowin' in the Wind (sung by Joan Baez - Dylan's #1 Ambassador -  live in Barcelona, 1977):
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&p=joan+baez+sings+Blowing+in+the+Wind#id=25&vid=199bb11709b93dd0b954eb74f2654a46&action=view

(Joan Baez live in Paris, France, 1983):
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&p=joan+baez+sings+Blowing+in+the+Wind#id=43&vid=ad4a67f9300445b52438b8b65ff5f74a&action=view

(Joan Baez live in Istambul, 2014[?] ):
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&p=joan+baez+sings+Blowing+in+the+Wind#id=42&vid=265d0ec3c3fc743b46c1b7dc0b42ab35&action=view

The Times Are A Changin' (from a 1964 version):
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=A2KLqIRU1v9Xx0MAsxv7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTBncGdyMzQ0BHNlYwNzZWFyY2gEdnRpZAM-;_ylc=X1MDOTY3ODEzMDcEX3IDMgRiY2sDOXMyOG5vbGFuMWo1aSUyNmIlM0Q0JTI2ZCUzRGV2VlNVZU5wWUVMekVua2JFYURjNGRnNmY4N3JibHIySEVvbkR3LS0lMjZzJTNEM2ElMjZpJTNEQ1JOQ1dwUGRsQXp5N0NkTEliaVEEZnIDbWNhZmVlBGdwcmlkAzdwdDRaM2RYVGhHdGR4NnNQZFl0Y0EEbXRlc3RpZANudWxsBG5fcnNsdAM2MARuX3N1Z2cDMARvcmlnaW4DdmlkZW8uc2VhcmNoLnlhaG9vLmNvbQRwb3MDMARwcXN0cgMEcHFzdHJsAwRxc3RybAM0MgRxdWVyeQNUaGUgdGltZXMgYXJlIGEgY2hhbmdpbmcgLSBCb2IgRHlsYW4gdmlkZW8EdF9zdG1wAzE0NzYzODc1MzAEdnRlc3RpZANudWxs?gprid=7pt4Z3dXThGtdx6sPdYtcA&pvid=3GvRTTk4LjGeCRfFVXDMsgBWNjguMwAAAACEJIyL&p=The+times+are+a+changing+-+Bob+Dylan+video&ei=UTF-8&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Av%2Cm%3Asa&fr=mcafee#id=2&vid=8dc7111df70c26b9f9b8b4118107e535&action=view

Song Text:
​Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall:
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=A2KLqIHH4v9X9zAA5wf7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTBncGdyMzQ0BHNlYwNzZWFyY2gEdnRpZAM-;_ylc=X1MDOTY3ODEzMDcEX3IDMgRiY2sDOXMyOG5vbGFuMWo1aSUyNmIlM0Q0JTI2ZCUzRGV2VlNVZU5wWUVMekVua2JFYURjNGRnNmY4N3JibHIySEVvbkR3LS0lMjZzJTNEM2ElMjZpJTNEQ1JOQ1dwUGRsQXp5N0NkTEliaVEEZnIDbWNhZmVlBGdwcmlkA0p5UW80cVBhUjBLNVBNVlZJWUxjUEEEbXRlc3RpZANudWxsBG5fcnNsdAM2MARuX3N1Z2cDMQRvcmlnaW4DdmlkZW8uc2VhcmNoLnlhaG9vLmNvbQRwb3MDMARwcXN0cgMEcHFzdHJsAwRxc3RybAM0MwRxdWVyeQNoYXJkIHJhaW4ncyBnb2luZyB0byBmYWxsIC0gQm9iIER5bGFuIHZpZGVvBHRfc3RtcAMxNDc2MzkyNjUyBHZ0ZXN0aWQDbnVsbA--?gprid=JyQo4qPaR0K5PMVVIYLcPA&pvid=4.p6ZTk4LjGeCRfFVXDMsgOUNjguMwAAAABCJWL5&p=hard+rain%27s+going+to+fall+-+Bob+Dylan+video&ei=UTF-8&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Av%2Cm%3Asa&fr=mcafee#action=view&id=3&vid=161b1906d8ebba87f2bba7446a4016b5
​
​Song Text:
​Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
And where have you been my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
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.

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.

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin'
I heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
I heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin'
I heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin'
I heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin'
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, who did you meet my blue-eyed son?
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony
I met a white man who walked a black dog
I met a young woman whose body was burning
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow
I met one man who was wounded in love
I met another man who was wounded in hatred
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

And what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
And what'll you do now my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin'
I'll walk to the deepths of the deepest black forest
Where the people are a many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
Where black is the color, where none is the number
And I'll tell and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'
But I'll know my songs well before I start singin'
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.
​

                                                                             *  *  *  *
​
Image credits:
Bob Dylan (top image - c. 1962 @ Carnegie Hall?):  www.nbcnews.com
1963:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dylan
2001:  http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/14/arts/music/bob-dylan-nobel-prize-literature.html?_r=0
2012:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dylan
2013:  www.performanceimpressions.com
​Swedish Academy (below left):  www.nobelprize.org
Swedish Academy (below right):  www.dreamstime.com

Tags:  #BobDylan #SingerSongWriter #NobelPrizeLiterature2016

​Genius has its day.

Swedish Academy, Stockholm

Academy (image #2)

​Post Script #1:
Dylan did not attend the Nobel Prize ceremonies that took place on December 10, 2016.  He declined the invitation.  He sent a note to the Swedish Academy, accepting the Prize but stating that he had pre-existing commitments that prevented his attendance.  It was an ethical error of epic proportions, extreme arrogance.  He was just too busy!  No one knows where he was on that day of festivities in Stockholm.
www.nytimes.com/2016/12/10/arts/bob-dylan-skips-nobel-prize-ceremonies.html?_r=0

​Post Script #2:
And finally, he did receive the Nobel medal and commemorative diploma in Sweden, weekend of April 1, 2017.  Nobel laureates are awarded approximately $900,000 (8 million Swedish krona) in Prize money.  They are required to give a lecture within 6 months of the Prize ceremony which took place on December 10, 2016.  It remains unclear exactly when Dylan will give his lecture and whether it will be in person or taped.
www.nytimes.com/2017/03/29/arts/music/bob-dylan-accept-nobel-prize.html?ref=todayspaper
​