Re:The Nobel Prize in Literature 2016 awarded to Bob Dylan
by stinkytaco on Thursday October 13, 2016 @01:19PM
(#12702392)
Tambourine Man definitely struck me in a similar way to Prufrock. In fact, I don't think songwriting gets the credit it really deserves. Dylan is verbose, but most great songwriting is better equated to a sonnet than Prufrock. And an album to a sonnet sequence.
One example I might offer on the same line as Prufrock is Bookends by Simon and Garfunkel. From "Save the Life of My Child" all the way to "At the Zoo" we follow a life (or many lives) and its roller coaster. "America" and "Hazy Shade of Winter" are particular favorites.
(as an aside, one of my favorite lyrics of all time is by Gordon Lightfoot in his excellent "Black Day in July" -
"And then the tanks go rolling in
To patch things up as best they can"
Talk about summing up so much in a few words.)
Re:The Nobel Prize in Literature 2016 awarded to Bob Dylan
by RodericDay on Thursday October 13, 2016 @01:46PM
(#12702608)
If it's because of music, Bob Dylan is not the best musician.
If it's solely because of lyrics, Bob Dylan is not the best lyricist.
It's a weird comfort-food-like pick either way.
Really? I've spent pretty much all my spare time and money on music for the last 30 years, but no lyrics by themselves have ever had the effect on me that, for example "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" has had
... but then maybe I'm looking at this wrong, and the prize is being awarded for the songs rather than just the lyrics. If that's the case then I guess the prize is well-deserved