Legendary American folk singer songwriter Bob Dylan has just been awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature.
The 75-year-old poet has not only created 37 studio albums ranging from grinding rock and roll grooves to acoustically crooning serenades, but he has also written a whimsically mysterious collection of poems called Tarantula and Chronicles – a flowing, buttery autobiographical memoir detailing his rise to fame and his musical trials in New York City. He has also published an encyclopedia of all of his lyrics from 1961-2012.
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Dylan’s hits were hailed as being revolutionary during such trying times as the Vietnam War. In his beloved single “The Times Are A-Changin”, you can hear gut-wrenching, politically charged lyrics describing the rocky cultural landscape of the 60s:
““Come mothers and fathers throughout the land
And don’t criticize what you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a’ changin’!””
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When Secretary of the Swedish Academy Sara Danils was asked about whether the musician deserved the prize, she simply said:
“Well of course he does — he just got it. He is a great poet in the English speaking tradition, and he is a wonderful sampler. … For 54 years now, he’s been at it and reinventing himself constantly, creating a new identity.”
(WATCH the video below)
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