I remember when Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. I was pleased that they'd finally recognized lyricists as the true poets of today, but puzzled that they passed by real poets like Simon & Garfunkel and Leonard Cohen, to award it to someone whose lyrics I had always found shallow, simplistic, and abstract rather than p…
I remember when Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. I was pleased that they'd finally recognized lyricists as the true poets of today, but puzzled that they passed by real poets like Simon & Garfunkel and Leonard Cohen, to award it to someone whose lyrics I had always found shallow, simplistic, and abstract rather than poetically concrete. I reviewed the lyrics of at least 2 dozen Bob Dylan songs, looking for this alleged poetry or wisdom, and found none.
It wasn't until reading this just now that I realized they gave Dylan the Nobel because of all that, not despite it.
Hi Phil, I agree with you; historically I never was that impressed with the classically famous Bob Dylan songs (I am 60), but about 5 years ago someone told me to listen to (and read the lyrics of) Only a Pawn in Their Game. There are various covers of it that are even better than Dylan's version, such as:
Think how young Dylan was in 1963 to have composed the poetically concrete and politically insightful lyrics, not to mention the power of the musical arrangement.
I remember when Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. I was pleased that they'd finally recognized lyricists as the true poets of today, but puzzled that they passed by real poets like Simon & Garfunkel and Leonard Cohen, to award it to someone whose lyrics I had always found shallow, simplistic, and abstract rather than poetically concrete. I reviewed the lyrics of at least 2 dozen Bob Dylan songs, looking for this alleged poetry or wisdom, and found none.
It wasn't until reading this just now that I realized they gave Dylan the Nobel because of all that, not despite it.
Hi Phil, I agree with you; historically I never was that impressed with the classically famous Bob Dylan songs (I am 60), but about 5 years ago someone told me to listen to (and read the lyrics of) Only a Pawn in Their Game. There are various covers of it that are even better than Dylan's version, such as:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2LYt6gKbY8
Think how young Dylan was in 1963 to have composed the poetically concrete and politically insightful lyrics, not to mention the power of the musical arrangement.