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Post by Admin on Oct 13, 2016 20:49:48 GMT
The 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, for "having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition." The Swedish Academy's permanent secretary, Sara Danius, said Dylan, 75, "is a great poet in the English-speaking tradition." She drew parallels between his work and that of ancient Greek poets. "If you look back, far back, 2,500 years or so, you discover Homer and Sappho and they wrote poetic texts that were meant to be listened to, that were meant to be performed, often with instruments -- and it's the same way with Bob Dylan," she said. Although Dylan is not in the established canon of literary writers, Danius praised his creative output over five decades, including his constant reinvention of himself. She also described him as "a wonderful sampler, a very original sampler."
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Post by Admin on Oct 15, 2016 19:31:23 GMT
When Bruce Springsteen inducted Bob Dylan into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he said: "Bob freed your mind the way Elvis freed your body. He showed us that just because music was innately physical did not mean that it was anti-intellectual." Dylan's influence on music cannot be overstated: the way he subverted the notion that radio tunes have to be three minutes long; the way he proved that songs with overtly political themes can be commercially successful; the way his music resonates just as much today as they did when he recorded them decades earlier. Yes, and how many years can a mountain exist Before it's washed to the sea? Yes, and how many years can some people exist Before they're allowed to be free? Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head And pretend that he just doesn't see? The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind The answer is blowin' in the wind THEN: When he wrote this song in 10 minutes sitting in a cafe -- as Dylan claims -- he had no way of knowing it would become an anthem of the civil rights movement. After all, he once called it "just another song." He sang it at a voter registration rally in Greenwood, Mississippi. Peter Yarrow sang it during the march from Selma to Montgomery. And the trio, Peter, Paul and Mary played it on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, just hours before Martin Luther King Jr. stood before thousands and declared "I have a dream." NOW: Now a timeless classic, "Blowin' in the wind" sits securely atop any list of anti-war songs. It's the most covered of all Dylan songs. In 2007, it was the subject of a homily by Pope John Paul II, the only time a pop song had prompted such a sermon. In it, the pontiff said, "You say the answer is blowing in the wind, my friend. So it is: but it is not the wind that blows things away. It is the wind that is the breath and life of the Holy Spirit, the voice that calls and says, 'Come!'"
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Post by Admin on Oct 23, 2016 19:52:28 GMT
A prominent member of the academy that awards the Nobel literature prize has described this year’s laureate, Bob Dylan, as arrogant, citing his total silence since the award was announced last week. The US singer-songwriter has not responded to repeated phone calls from the Swedish Academy, nor reacted in any way in public to the news. “It’s impolite and arrogant,” said the academy member, Swedish writer Per Wastberg, in comments aired on SVT public television.
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Post by Admin on Oct 30, 2016 19:35:14 GMT
For two weeks after the Nobel Prize in Literature was announced, Bob Dylan kept the world hung up in his silence. Per Wastbërg, wasn't happy about that. He chaired the committee that gave Bob Dylan the Nobel Prize in literature. After Dylan didn’t respond, Wastbërg told Swedish TV that Dylan’s silence was “impolite and arrogant.” That was Wastbërg’s interpretation and he wasn't alone. It says more about his expectations than about Dylan. Poets should be polite and decorous, I guess. But was Rimbaud polite? Was Allen Ginsberg decorous?
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Post by Admin on Oct 31, 2016 19:28:50 GMT
Bob Dylan apparently isn't going to leave the Nobel Prize committee hanging. The singer-songwriter, whose tunes have spoken to the socially conscious for more than five decades, told a reporter for The Telegraph newspaper of the United Kingdom that he probably will show up at the award ceremony in December. "Absolutely," he told The Telegraph. "If it's at all possible." He playfully told the reporter, "Well, I'm right here," when asked why he hadn't spoken about claiming the high honor and nice check that goes with it. "It's hard to believe," he said, adding that learning he had won the Nobel Prize for Literature was "amazing, incredible. Whoever dreams about something like that?"
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