Bob Dylan awarded Nobel Prize in Literature. For all the time I spent in my youth soaking up Highway 61 Revisited, Bringing It All Back Home, etc., when I was supposed to be reading Silas Marner, I am vindicated.
The Mahablog
Politics. Society. Group Therapy.
I love ALL of Dylan’s stuff – at least until his “Christian” conversion album.
I especially love “Blood on the Tracks, ” and “Desire.”
I’m glad he’s being honored. But I suspect this was done to placate us baby boomers.
Sure, he was a great lyricist and musical arranger, but there were other people less well known who by receiving his award would have benefited more in money and prestige than Dylan.
Other more obscure songwriters and poets, perhaps. And not just from America.
So, while I’m happy, I feel sorry for others who were also worthy.
If that makes me a bad person, then so be it….
That’s Highway 61 Revisited. Dylan’s allusion to the profound influence of the blues on what he was doing.
It appears all of us Dylan fans are vindicated. I am happy to see him honored in this way.
On occasion I’ll spend a late evening on You Tube travelling down memory lane and reconnecting with past emotions through song. A stop along the way usually includes this song by Dylan. I don’t know what the exact attraction is on an emotional level, but I do know it connects in a heavy duty fashion on my emotional memories. A wound, or survival?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTVwGNqbBYg
I’m happy to see him honored also.
The coolest thing my sister ever did was to buy Bob Dylan records from the very beginning. So, I was fortunate enough to benefit from them. As a result, I still think of “Nashville Skyline” as of the “new” albums despite so many years passing.
Aside from his talents as a writer, his vocal style has influenced so many people, especially his phrasing. It was hard to imagine that would be the case at the time of his first albums, but, he kept refining his playing, his writing and his singing. As much as any other artist, he spoke for our times. Future generations will be able to get a sense of our era our passions and our hopes when we are all eating dandelions from the roots.
Different songs hit me at different times, but, lately, I think “A Hard Rains Gonna Fall” is one of the best of his early stuff. It has roots back to vary early ballads, but it blended our concerns in so well, and of course, a lot of us were just like to the young man venturing out for the first time.
My older bro (14 years my senior) was/is a stone Elvis fan, graduated HS in ’58. One day in the mid-60’s when I was about 13, I was riding around with him and he made some disparaging remark about the Beatles in comparison with the King, (mis-)directed at me. I remember sitting there thinking, “Hell, I don’t have a dog in that fight. I think Bob Dylan’s better than both of them.”