Times they are a-changin’ as ‘world’s greatest poet’ bags Nobel prize
Bob Dylan, regarded as the voice of a generation for his influential songs from the 1960s onwards, on Thursday won the Nobel prize for literature in a surprise decision that made him the only singer-songwriter ever to have won the award.
The 75-year-old Dylan — who won the prize for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition” — now finds himself in the company of Winston Churchill and Rudyard Kipling as Nobel laureates.
The announcement was met with gasps in Stockholm’s stately Royal Academy hall, followed by laughter.
More than 50 years on, Dylan is still writing songs and is often on tour, performing his dense poetic lyrics, sung in a sometimes rasping voice that has been ridiculed by detractors.
Awarding the $930 000 prize, the Swedish Academy said: “Dylan has the status of an icon. His influence on contemporary music is profound.” Swedish Academy member Per Wastberg said: “He is probably the greatest living poet.”
Over the years, however, not everyone has agreed. Novelist Norman Mailer once countered: “If Dylan’s a poet, I’m a basketball player.”
Sara Danius, of the academy, said there was “great unity” in the panel’s decision to give Dylan the prize.
Dylan has always been an enigmatic figure. He went into seclusion for months after a motorcycle crash in 1966, leading to stories that he had cracked under the pressure of his new celebrity.
He was born into a Jewish family but in the late 1970s converted to Christianity, later saying he followed no organised religion. At another point, he took up boxing. — Reuters