In October 2016 Bob Dylan became the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature since Toni Morrison in 1993. He also became the very first musician to ever be awarded the prize with the Swedish Academy saying he got it “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition."
The decision was obviously celebrated by his fans, but it was frowned upon by many writers and novelists. Who felt a little cheated by a singer songwriter—even one of Dylan’s stature—robbing them of a prize meant for them.
It’s a controversy that, in his playful, trolling, Dylanesque way, he indirectly addressed in his 27 minute Nobel Lecture in Literature he released on 5 June 2017. The lecture is a requirement if you want to receive the prize money of $900,000 and has to be submitted within six months of being awarded the Nobel. With only days to spare Dylan delivered, and it closes the somewhat strange episode of Dylan’s Nobel Prize for Literature.
When he was initially given the award it took him more than two weeks to accept it. At first it was met with complete silence by Dylan which caused one academy member to call him “impolite and arrogant.” Then his first response to it when asked by the Telegraph was simply “Isn’t that something…?” He then said he would attend the prize-giving ceremony in December 2016, but didn’t turn up.
It all seems fittingly Dylan, however. And so is this lecture. In it Dylan begins by asking what a lot of people who were irked by his receiving it asked: How is it that his songs are related to literature? “I wanted to reflect on it and see where the connection was.” Dylan begins, saying he’s going to try and articulate what that connection is—but then admits that it will most likely happen in a roundabout way.
And, in effect, doesn’t really answer the question. But also kind of does. Because what he does is discuss his own relationship to literature, in particular with three classics. Firstly there’s Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, “Everything is mixed in. All the myths: the Judeo Christian bible, Hindu myths, British legends, Saint George, Perseus, Hercules – they're all whalers.” muses Dylan.
Then there’s Erich Maria Remarque’s novel about World War I All Quiet on the Western Front, “All Quiet on the Western Front is a horror story.” notes Dylan. “This is a book where you lose your childhood, your faith in a meaningful world, and your concern for individuals. You're stuck in a nightmare. Sucked up into a mysterious whirlpool of death and pain. You're defending yourself from elimination. You're being wiped off the face of the map.” Before concluding, “I put this book down and closed it up. I never wanted to read another war novel again, and I never did.”
And finally there’s Homer’s Odyssey, “He's always being warned of things to come. Touching things he's told not to.” Dylan drawls. “There's two roads to take, and they're both bad. Both hazardous. On one you could drown and on the other you could starve."
He talks about what they’re about and how they influenced him. Some influences are obvious, like in the lyrics for “Bob Dylan's 115th Dream” which state “I was riding on the mayflower when I thought I spied some land I yelled down to captain arab, I'll have ya understand.” Others not so, but by consuming the books, and many others, they fed into his music and lyrics.
Along with literature he also discusses the influence of folk stories and songs, how he absorbed them until they became part of him.
“By listening to all the early folk artists and singing the songs yourself, you pick up the vernacular.” he says. “You internalize it. You sing it in the ragtime blues, work songs, Georgia sea shanties, Appalachian ballads and cowboy songs. You hear all the finer points, and you learn the details.” continuing, “I had all the vernacular down. I knew the rhetoric. None of it went over my head – the devices, the techniques, the secrets, the mysteries—and I knew all the deserted roads that it traveled on, too. I could make it all connect and move with the current of the day. When I started writing my own songs, the folk lingo was the only vocabulary that I knew, and I used it.”
If you’ve ever listened to Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour, this lecture has a similar tone to its delivery and similar fireside intimacy about it. Like that it has Dylan’s distinctive slow, drawn out voice rambling over a soft piano playing in the background. And it’s equally as insightful and engaging. Have a listen to it below.
Rockarchive is delighted to be able to offer these iconic Bob Dylan images along with many more as limited edition photographic prints which you can buy here.
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, artist & writer. He has been influential in popular music & culture for more than five decades.
Bob Dylan performing live onstage at the Royal Albert Hall in London in November 2013.
Bob Dylan onstage at the Ahoy, Rotterdam in the Netherlands in June 1984.
Bob Dylan performing onstage at the Salzburgarena, Salzburg, Austria in July 2012 as part of his Never Ending Tour.
Bob Dylan and his band at the end of the second of three shows in London at Royal Albert Hall on November 26, 2013.
Early set of contact sheet photos by Don Hunstein taken of Bob Dylan in his New York apartment on West 4th Street in 1963.
At Columbia Studios, New York 1963 Bob Dylan crouching with his guitar during a recording session for his second studio album 'Freewheelin''
Bob Dylan during his recording sessions for 'Highway 61 Revisited' at Columbia Studios in June 1965
Bob Dylan shot while recording his 5th studio album, Bringing It All Back Home, in Columbia Recording Studios in New York City 1965.
An alternative version to the cover of the Bob Dylan Free Wheelin' album, which was similar, but also in colour.
Bob Dylan recording the Freewheelin' album in Columbia Recording Studios, New York City in 1963.
Bob Dylan rehearsing to an empty house on the Carnegie Hall stage in New York city, 1963.
Bob Dylan sitting with his girlfriend Suze Rotolo in their apartment in New York in February 1963
"This image of Bob Dylan and bass player Tony Garnier, snatched at an open air concert in Italy, sums up a beautiful partnership."
Don Hunstein has a knack for being in the right place at the right time, documenting many of the 20th Century’s most important musicians.
Bob Dylan recently revisited the UK for some live shows, the latest UK leg of his so-called Never Ending Tour.
Bob Dylan and The Polar Music Awards, Stockholm, May 2000 - words and pictures by Jill Furmanovsky