Re: Bob Dylan Wins Nobel Prize In Literature!

Laura14 · ‎06-09-2014

@Pearlee wrote:
@Laura14 wrote:
How bad do the books have to be that they give the Literature prize to a songwriter? I don't get it and I'm with @cherry. I really don't understand the man and his music either.
@Laura14 Per the article, it was given for the poetry of the lyrics, set to music as the Greeks did.. Literature isn't just "books." Also as the article states, his lyrics expressed what was going on in society with regard to war and the civil rights movement. Indeed it did. I suspect you and cherry are much younger than I am. His words correctly expressed the monumental changes going on in society. But IMO he should have been awarded this prize almost 50 yrs. ago; not sure why he's being awarded it now.

By the way, I own none of his recordings and never did. As I posted above, I do have other artists such as Peter, Paul and Mary performing his songs which I love. None of Dyln's recordings though.

@Pearlee No I understand why it was given and I respect that he was a generation's voice. It was slightly before my time. I didn't get here til the next decade. I have mad appreciation for the 40s and 50s but I just really don't get the 60s in any way. Guess you truly had to be there.

I could be wrong but I thought there was a Nobel Prize for poetry. To me, that would be the one to give him and literature should be for the broader written word. I am a writer in my free time and I love to write. So chalk my post up to a personal issue.

The television and movie awards sometimes do this with comedy and drama. I don't think it's fair to shut out the others in this case novelists and other authors by giving an award to a person that honestly belongs in another category and should be competing over there.

gonnab · ‎03-10-2010

Have to agree with some of the previous posters - am personally " not a fan, - nails on a chalkboard". To each his own.

Lila Belle · ‎01-24-2013

I think it is a well deserved honor.

Laura14 · ‎06-09-2014

@Laura14 wrote:
@Pearlee wrote:
@Laura14 wrote:
How bad do the books have to be that they give the Literature prize to a songwriter? I don't get it and I'm with @cherry. I really don't understand the man and his music either.
@Laura14 Per the article, it was given for the poetry of the lyrics, set to music as the Greeks did.. Literature isn't just "books." Also as the article states, his lyrics expressed what was going on in society with regard to war and the civil rights movement. Indeed it did. I suspect you and cherry are much younger than I am. His words correctly expressed the monumental changes going on in society. But IMO he should have been awarded this prize almost 50 yrs. ago; not sure why he's being awarded it now.

By the way, I own none of his recordings and never did. As I posted above, I do have other artists such as Peter, Paul and Mary performing his songs which I love. None of Dyln's recordings though.
@Pearlee No I understand why it was given and I respect that he was a generation's voice. It was slightly before my time. I didn't get here til the next decade. I have mad appreciation for the 40s and 50s but I just really don't get the 60s in any way. Guess you truly had to be there.

I could be wrong but I thought there was a Nobel Prize for poetry. To me, that would be the one to give him and literature should be for the broader written word. I am a writer in my free time and I love to write. So chalk my post up to a personal issue.

The television and movie awards sometimes do this with comedy and drama. I don't think it's fair to shut out the others in this case novelists and other authors by giving an award to a person that honestly belongs in another category and should be competing over there.

I just realized I became one of "those" posters!

@Pearlee Sorry, I didn't mean to bring negativity into a post you meant to be celebratory. I am walking to the corner for my time out now.

occasionalrain · ‎03-10-2010

@Jacie wrote:
Years ago he was interviewed on the radio morning talk show in Minneapolis.

The interviewer asked him a question about so many people taking his lyrics to heart and what they meant. Dylan answered something to the effect that "don't take it all too seriously, the words happened to rhyme."

That told me enough!

Apparently you took what he said literally when what he meant was that if the interviewer was that obtuse there was no point in explaining.

How many authors have influenced their generation and suceeding ones, how many have their words become common useage?

sidsmom · ‎11-25-2011

It does seem like an odd accolade for Dylan.

If we're focusing on the lyrics which expressed

what was going on during the 60-70's,

the music industry was LITTERED w/ folk musicians

during that time period. It could've been awarded to anyone.

If anything, Crosby Stills Nash & Young had a stronger connection

with lyrics & music. IMHO.

Seems like the great award of the Nobel Prize has been

dumbed down for the masses of today's generation.

Cakers3 · ‎06-17-2015

@occasionalrain wrote:

@Jacie wrote:
Years ago he was interviewed on the radio morning talk show in Minneapolis.

The interviewer asked him a question about so many people taking his lyrics to heart and what they meant. Dylan answered something to the effect that "don't take it all too seriously, the words happened to rhyme."

That told me enough!
Apparently you took what he said literally when what he meant was that if the interviewer was that obtuse there was no point in explaining.

How many authors have influenced their generation and suceeding ones, how many have their words become common useage?

@occasionalrain Exactly.

"" Compassion is a verb."-Thich Nhat Hanh

Jacie · ‎01-09-2011

@occasionalrain wrote:

@Jacie wrote:
Years ago he was interviewed on the radio morning talk show in Minneapolis.

The interviewer asked him a question about so many people taking his lyrics to heart and what they meant. Dylan answered something to the effect that "don't take it all too seriously, the words happened to rhyme."

That told me enough!
Apparently you took what he said literally when what he meant was that if the interviewer was that obtuse there was no point in explaining.

How many authors have influenced their generation and suceeding ones, how many have their words become common useage?

Wow. I guess I am not surprised. As of late the Nobel Committee has handed out prizes for some people, who've done nothing, yet got the prize for potential!

"Cats are poetry in motion. Dogs are gibberish in neutral." -Garfield

Pearlee · ‎06-11-2011

@Laura14 Thanks for elaborating. And yes, you definitely had to be there to "get" the 1960s. I'm really glad I was around for it. It was by far the most interesting (not always in a good way with all the assassinations and violence but definitely interesting) decade of my life. Esp. the social changes - not only the Civil Rights movement but also the women's movement. And the space race with the moon landing of course. Never a dull moment! A fascinating decade in history.

When my older sister went to college, my father was not allowed up to visit her in her room except on Sunday which was visitor's day and men were allowed past the lobby of her dorm. When I went to college five years later, we had coed dorms! So much change in such a short time! When I was a child, before the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, I lived in an all-Jewish neighborhood. We piled into the car to go to another section of town at Christmas time to see Christmas lights. Why that area? Because they had restrictive covenants in the deeds there: you couldn't sell to Jewish people or Negroes (as African Americans were referenced then). So we knew there would be a lot of Christmas lights there and nobody really thought much of it! Restrictive covenants in deeds were commonplace. I remember watching TV and seeing "Negroes" escorted to schools/colleges in the south by the national guard after laws were passed to end segregation. Some of the south was slow to accept it. As I say, "never a dull moment." You really had to be there and watch it all transpire on the nightly news to even believe some of it! Not all of it was good, but it was all fascinating.

QueenDanceALot · ‎04-18-2013

YAY for him. I've always loved him. I didn't even have a fit when he went "electric". lol.

You either love him or hate him it seems. When I worked with horses I worked in a barn with a woman who despised his voice and whenever he came on the radio I'd turn it up.