In July of 1965, Bob Dylan took the stage at the Newport Folk Festival armed with an electric guitar. People were incensed because folk music was played with an acoustic guitar. The boos rang above the music. To Bob Dylan however, it was unnecessary. For him, the music was not as relevant as the message and the message was in his lyrics.
These lyrics, coupled with a few books on poetry, is what prompted the Nobel committee in Sweden to award a 75 year old Bob Dylan with the Nobel Prize for Literature. He will receive his prize at a ceremony in December. The world over, people have been polarised by this decision. For many, the Nobel for literature is to be awarded to those who weave magic with the written word, in hardbound or paperback tomes, not a troubadour with a guitar, who wrote and sang “The Titanic sails at dawn/ And everybody’s shouting “Which Side Are You On?” / And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot / Fighting in the captain’s tower / While calypso singers laugh at them / And fishermen hold flowers.” “That’s not literature, that’s commercial shtick!” they said, in commentary pieces, Facebook posts and tweets.
But is it? All Bob Dylan has ever needed, was a pen, paper and a guitar. He implored the government, through song, to revisit the case of Reuben ‘Hurricane” Carter and find him innocent of crimes he was purported to have committed. He sang about love, life, heartbreak, betrayal, the troubles and travails of the common man. But those were not just words thrown together with crass indifference, they were poetic barbs and crutches, aimed to injure the oppressors or assist the oppressed. The tenets of the Nobel prize state, “The term "literature" shall comprise not only belles-lettres but also other writings which, by virtue of their form and style, possess literary value.” Lyrics possess literary value say the Nobel Committee. It has been decided. They have now decreed that lyrics are not too lowbrow for a Nobel prize and that “his influence on contemporary music is profound”. So is it that the Nobel committee has decided to now bring pop culture under the ambit of literature and adapt to the changing times? If so, then they couldn’t have picked a better champion to lead the charge.
Bob Dylan’s last album, released in May 2016, was his 37th. He has inspired some of the biggest names in the music industry today. He is more than just a musician, he is an icon. For five decades he has written poetry and set that to music, mostly. He’s also written two books of poems and his lyrics have now been published too. The Nobel is awarded for a lifetime of writing, and not just one body of work. In that case, Bob Dylan deserves it ten times over.
