Dylan wins the Nobel prize for literature
For me this is amazing news. It is a victory for music and poetry. The history of the storyteller and shaman. In an anesthetized world its good to view the world through a slug of bourbon and from a troubadour in a tradition stretching back hundreds of years.
Re: Dylan wins the Nobel prize for literature
Well it's better than Obama getting it.....how fucking stupid must they feel about THAT in hindsight?
Bobby had some good tunes, I ain't one for his politics but he helped bring about The Band which of course were absolutely amazing. I'll say Bob is a cult of personality, he's been around a long long time, good for him to win. I still won't forgive him for the staged photo with Rubin Carter though....bleh
Re: Dylan wins the Nobel prize for literature
great news, it was only yesterday that I listened to Desire, the man is a genius and it is fully deserved
Re: Dylan wins the Nobel prize for literature
been a fan of bob dylan since, 1993 02 17
Re: Dylan wins the Nobel prize for literature
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35gheud5xBo
They're selling postcards of the hanging, they're painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors, the circus is in town
Here comes the blind commissioner, they've got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker, the other is in his pants
And the riot squad they're restless, they need somewhere to go
As Lady and I look out tonight, from Desolation Row
Cinderella, she seems so easy, "It takes one to know one, " she smiles
And puts her hands in her back pockets Bette Davis style
And in comes Romeo, he's moaning. "You Belong to Me I Believe"
And someone says, "You're in the wrong place, my friend, you'd better leave"
And the only sound that's left after the ambulances go
Is Cinderella sweeping up on Desolation Row
Now the moon is almost hidden, the stars are beginning to hide
The fortune telling lady has even taken all her things inside
All except for Cain and Abel and the hunchback of Notre Dame
Everybody is making love or else expecting rain
And the Good Samaritan, he's dressing, he's getting ready for the show
He's going to the carnival tonight on Desolation Row
Ophelia, she's 'neath the window for her I feel so afraid
On her twenty-second birthday she already is an old maid
To her, death is quite romantic she wears an iron vest
Her profession's her religion, her sin is her lifelessness
And though her eyes are fixed upon Noah's great rainbow
She spends her time peeking into Desolation Row
Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood with his memories in a trunk
Passed this way an hour ago with his friend, a jealous monk
Now he looked so immaculately frightful as he bummed a cigarette
And he when off sniffing drainpipes and reciting the alphabet
You would not think to look at him, but he was famous long ago
For playing the electric violin on Desolation Row
Dr. Filth, he keeps his world inside of a leather cup
But all his sexless patients, they're trying to blow it up
Now his nurse, some local loser, she's in charge of the cyanide hole
And she also keeps the cards that read, "Have Mercy on His Soul"
They all play on the penny whistles, you can hear them blow
If you lean your head out far enough from Desolation Row
Across the street they've nailed the curtains, they're getting ready for the feast
The Phantom of the Opera in a perfect image of a priest
They are spoon feeding Casanova to get him to feel more assured
Then they'll kill him with self-confidence after poisoning him with words
And the Phantom's shouting to skinny girls, "Get outta here if you don't know"
Casanova is just being punished for going to Desolation Row"
At midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew
Come out and round up everyone that knows more than they do
Then they bring them to the factory where the heart-attack machine
Is strapped across their shoulders and then the kerosene
Is brought down from the castles by insurance men who go
Check to see that nobody is escaping to Desolation Row
Praise be to Nero's Neptune, the Titanic sails at dawn
Everybody's shouting, "Which side are you on?!"
And Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot fighting in the captain's tower
While calypso singers laugh at them and fishermen hold flowers
Between the windows of the sea where lovely mermaids flow
And nobody has to think too much about Desolation Row
Yes, I received your letter yesterday, about the time the doorknob broke
When you asked me how I was doing, was that some kind of joke
All these people that you mention, yes, I know them, they're quite lame
I had to rearrange their faces and give them all another name
Right now, I can't read too good, don't send me no more letters no
Not unless you mail them from Desolation Row
Re: Dylan wins the Nobel prize for literature
I've seen Dylan about 8 times. Had most of his disks until my car got broken into. Dylan is an American institution. When I grow up I want to be just like him
Re: Dylan wins the Nobel prize for literature
Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're tryin to be so quiet
Re: Dylan wins the Nobel prize for literature
I don't know what it means to be regarded as the best at something like writing, but I do enjoy several Dylan albums. Tbh, I don't really really pay much attention to a lot of the speed induced lyrics I hear on Highway 61 or Blonde on Blonde. I like them as musical pieces more. The lyric writing was better for me on the earlier folky, protest albums, but I prefer those tunes a lot less. I think where it really meshes well is on Time out of Mind. I enjoy both the lyrics and the music on that one and think they both complement one another well. That and Blood on the Tracks are his best albums.
Re: Dylan wins the Nobel prize for literature
Not bad for a 21 year old. It is so cinematic and all enveloping like a journey thru songs from previous generations and yet so new that when Ginsberg heard it he apparently had to sit down and admit that the man bringing him to tears had picked up a guantlet that he had no business wearing. Then factor in the form and the deep knowledge of songs like it that preceded it in folk music for a hundred years + before, and then the ability of a young Dylan to be much more than a Woody lite and the restraint with which he sings words like
'I heard the sound of a thunder that 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.'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ex-m-eEKsg
Re: Dylan wins the Nobel prize for literature
How many musicians have done what Dylan has done. Blowin in the wind then three years later desolation row. Touring damn near non stop since the 80's. When read his lyrics are poetry. Never emptied the well. Still producing great stuff over fifty years into his career. Seriously the GOAT. I bet he would kicks floyds ass in the ring.
Re: Dylan wins the Nobel prize for literature
Heres a video for all boxing fans, if you like Dylan or not you should take a look at this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IssR_J0QWr4