In these current strange days, I am not quite sure how I feel about Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. I think I’m okay with it. After all, I’ve always though of him as much a writer/poet as a musician. His lyrics have been winding around the world for fifty some years and it’s hard to find any musician just about anywhere who hasn’t been influenced by his words, his music and his social consciousness.
I was trying to pick a song from Dylan for this Sunday’s musical selection and realized what an impossible task it is. There is just such a vast and varied body of work, spanning so much time and covering so many phases in his career. You could just play his old folk stuff from before 1965 and you might think that was a whole career.
So today I thought I would play two of my favorites from two distinct periods of Dylan’s career. One is the early and fun Subterranean Homesick Blues with its well known video while the other is a mid-1990’s Love Sick. Just plain good stuff from the now Nobel Prize winning artist and writer.
Enjoy and have a good Sunday…
Well, maybe. But I’d be happier with Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot or Simon and Garfunkel, myself. Perhaps it’s just that I was never really sure of what Dylan’s lyrics actually were! 🙂
I was actually thinking about using a Gordon Lightfoot song this week but Dylan’s award made his pick a little more newsworthy. I will have some Gordon and Cohen up soon, no doubt!
Maybe he’ll write an acceptance song. Me? I prefer literature prizes go to people who produce literature. Dylan is a great songwriter: no argument from me on that. But, really.
Yes, I agree that it is stretching the boundaries a bit. And I believe he has been honored in so many ways that it’s not like he has gone through his career under-appreciated.