Bob Dylan

Quick, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2015? Svetlana Alexievich of the Ukraine. Haven’t read anything by her? How about in 2014? Patrick Modiano. I only know because I looked them up. Does Bob Dylan deserve to win for Literature in 2016? Does anyone really care?

I’ve read a bunch of stuff about Dylan winning, and beyond the Nobel voters and authors who get snubbed, I don’t see the cause for excitement. I am a huge Bob Dylan fan, so that probably colors my response. Why not Dylan? His lyrics can be transcendent (like “Masters of War” – go look them up), and his entire life seems to be very literary (and made up – don’t forget the stuff he’s fabricated about himself through the years – mostly as a lark, I’d say). Why shouldn’t he get the prize?

In a way I’m sure that part of selecting Dylan for the Prize was to get people talking about the Literature Prize. While Alexivich and Modiano are no doubt deserving of the award, no one spent much time talking about them. And maybe the committee who votes just doesn’t like Phillip Roth (to name one of the “deserving” authors who hasn’t won). What Dylan has done with his words and music has changed the course of music, and probably affected the culture immensely, even if what he’s done isn’t exactly “literature” in the strictest sense (or poetry, either. I’ve come to agree with the people who say lyrics aren’t poetry, for boring reasons that I won’t go into here).

So let’s celebrate the Dylan win by listening to this week’s podcast, completed before the prize was awarded, so no Dylan (but Donovan, one of the new Dylans that popped up occasionally). This week’s podcast has Drive-By Truckers, Johnny Winter, Jo Jo Gunne, the Charlatans, Junior Parker, Otis Blackwell, Darrell Banks, the Five Royales, Spizzenergi, Joe Jackson, Adam & the Ants, the Buzzcocks, the Damned, Donovan, R.B. Greaves, the Box Tops, Al Green, and Alison Moyet.

This podcast is available to stream or download at http://brennick.net. Thank you for taking the time to stream or download this podcast, or any of the other podcasts which are all still available at the site. Please leave comments and suggestions (I do read the comments), and share this with other like-minded friends. Thank you.