Dylan the Poet Laureate

I’m of two minds about Bob Dylan winning the Noble Prize for Literature. On the one hand the prizes are arbitrary and meaningless (Peace Prize President, anyone?), no more to be taken seriously than Time magazine’s Person of the Year.  And although I always liked the Freewheeling, Blonde, Highway 61 stuff, we always knew he was putting us on.

F’rinstance:

You used to ride on a chrome horse with your diplomat

Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat

– Like a Rolling Stone

Oh, really?

On the other hand, there was some real lyrical poetry at times that deserves to be acknowledged. How could the dawn in a song about a tambourine man be anything but a jingle jangle morning?

There may be better examples, but here are a couple snippets from other songs I like:

The wind howls like a hammer

The night wind blows cold n’ rainy

My love, she’s like some raven

At my window with a broken wing

– Love Minus Zero/No Limit)

They say ev’ry man needs protection

They say ev’ry man must fall

Yet I swear I see my reflection

Some place so high above this wall

– I Shall Be Released

Some fans were outraged when Dylan went electric, went Nashville, went Christian… but he wouldn’t be pigeonholed. And although I’ve always appreciated his refusal to serve as an icon of someone else’s movement, I admit I secretly suspect he is some kind of libertarian or anarchist.

Who knows?

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2:45 pm on October 14, 2016