NWR: Bob Dylan

originally posted by Keith Levenberg:
Every Dickinson poem can be sung to the tune of the Gilligan's Island theme. Advantage: Dylan
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Also Amazing Grace. Also the Yellow Rose of Texas. Also Rock of Ages. It's called hymn rhythm, which is a four foot iambic line, followed by a three foot one. I didn't know Stairway to Heaven also followed that metre, but I'm not surprised.
 
Google Little Roger & The Goosebumps and Stairway to Heaven. Hopefully, the parody is online because Zeppelin sued Little Roger over this.
 
Gilligan's Island is hymn rhythm, but Stairway to Heaven is regularly slightly off. If you attend to the parody, you'll hear them futzing with the melody to make it fit. And just try to sing Because I could not stop for death to Stairway.

Because it's amazing how many people can't scan lines, I used to use singing to teach the standard metres, but one of the rules to get the scansion correct was to insist that you had to sing like a robot with absolutely no cheating with the melody by holding a note or with the text by elisions to words that you wouldn't pronounce if speaking.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
Gilligan's Island is hymn rhythm, but Stairway to Heaven is regularly slightly off. If you attend to the parody, you'll hear them futzing with the melody to make it fit. And just try to sing Because I could not stop for death to Stairway.

Because it's amazing how many people can't scan lines, I used to use singing to teach the standard metres, but one of the rules to get the scansion correct was to insist that you had to sing like a robot with absolutely no cheating with the melody by holding a note or with the text by elisions to words that you wouldn't pronounce if speaking.
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Are your scansions any good with the "Pirates of Penzance"?
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
Gilligan's Island is hymn rhythm, but Stairway to Heaven is regularly slightly off. If you attend to the parody, you'll hear them futzing with the melody to make it fit. And just try to sing Because I could not stop for death to Stairway.

Because it's amazing how many people can't scan lines, I used to use singing to teach the standard metres, but one of the rules to get the scansion correct was to insist that you had to sing like a robot with absolutely no cheating with the melody by holding a note or with the text by elisions to words that you wouldn't pronounce if speaking.
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Are your scansions any good with the "Pirates of Penzance"?
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Sure."A paradox, a paradox," is a standard iambic tetrameter. It's words can thus be sung to "Greensleaves" and, for instance,"To His Coy Mistress" can be sung to either.
 
originally posted by Carl Steefel:
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
I'll grant you Joyce. It would hardly have been possible for them to recognize either Kafka or Proust as both of them had their major works published or completed posthumously. It's the Pearl Bucks and William Goldings of the Nobel list that get me.
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As I recall, Proust published Swann's Way in 2013, 9 years before he died. Given this was arguably his greatest work, 9 years seems enough for the reek of his genius to waft up to Norway. But I grant you there was no way they could have recognized Kafka...

Definitely would not argue with your thoughts on Golding and Pearl Buck...
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Don't blame this on us Norwegians. We've enough scandals with the Peace prize (delegated to Norway by Alfred Nobel since the Swedes had a more warmongering tradition than us at the time). Since then we've bombed Libya and had soldiers in Afghanistan while the Swedes wisely have stayed away.
 
originally posted by Odd Rydland:
originally posted by Carl Steefel:
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
I'll grant you Joyce. It would hardly have been possible for them to recognize either Kafka or Proust as both of them had their major works published or completed posthumously. It's the Pearl Bucks and William Goldings of the Nobel list that get me.
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As I recall, Proust published Swann's Way in 2013, 9 years before he died. Given this was arguably his greatest work, 9 years seems enough for the reek of his genius to waft up to Norway. But I grant you there was no way they could have recognized Kafka...

Definitely would not argue with your thoughts on Golding and Pearl Buck...
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Don't blame this on us Norwegians. We've enough scandals with the Peace prize (delegated to Norway by Alfred Nobel since the Swedes had a more warmongering tradition than us at the time). Since then we've bombed Libya and had soldiers in Afghanistan while the Swedes wisely have stayed away.
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Sorry about that. I guess I transferred "ownership" to the Norwegians via the Peace Prize, which does have its own problems (I recall Kissinger winning it shortly after he finished distributing explosives all over Laos).

Well, Dylan is certainly a better choice than many (e.g., Pearl Buck), and only one of the problems with a subjective prize like this (prize for Economics, the quintessential Non-Science, with none to the Earth Scientists).
 
originally posted by MarkS:
originally posted by Steve Edmunds:
...Bob's my uncle
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Seriously? Didn't know you had Minnesota roots.
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As I return from a 4 year hiatus, a good friend of mine from college (Bob showed at his wedding, which was a real trip) is Bob's nephew, so Bob IS his Uncle...
 
Text of Dylan's acceptance speech:

Bob Dylan - Banquet Speech © The Nobel Foundation 2016.
General permission is granted for immediate publication in editorial contexts, in print or online, in any language within two weeks of December 10, 2016. Thereafter, any publication requires the consent of the Nobel Foundation. On all publications in full or in major parts the above copyright notice must be applied.

Banquet speech by Bob Dylan given by the United States Ambassador to Sweden Azita Raji, at the Nobel Banquet, 10 December 2016.

Good evening, everyone. I extend my warmest greetings to the members of the Swedish Academy and to all of the other distinguished guests in attendance tonight.

I'm sorry I can't be with you in person, but please know that I am most definitely with you in spirit and honored to be receiving such a prestigious prize. Being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature is something I never could have imagined or seen coming. From an early age, I've been familiar with and reading and absorbing the works of those who were deemed worthy of such a distinction: Kipling, Shaw, Thomas Mann, Pearl Buck, Albert Camus, Hemingway. These giants of literature whose works are taught in the schoolroom, housed in libraries around the world and spoken of in reverent tones have always made a deep impression. That I now join the names on such a list is truly beyond words.

I don't know if these men and women ever thought of the Nobel honor for themselves, but I suppose that anyone writing a book, or a poem, or a play anywhere in the world might harbor that secret dream deep down inside. It's probably buried so deep that they don't even know it's there.

If someone had ever told me that I had the slightest chance of winning the Nobel Prize, I would have to think that I'd have about the same odds as standing on the moon. In fact, during the year I was born and for a few years after, there wasn't anyone in the world who was considered good enough to win this Nobel Prize. So, I recognize that I am in very rare company, to say the least.

I was out on the road when I received this surprising news, and it took me more than a few minutes to properly process it. I began to think about William Shakespeare, the great literary figure. I would reckon he thought of himself as a dramatist. The thought that he was writing literature couldn't have entered his head. His words were written for the stage. Meant to be spoken not read. When he was writing Hamlet, I'm sure he was thinking about a lot of different things: "Who're the right actors for these roles?" "How should this be staged?" "Do I really want to set this in Denmark?" His creative vision and ambitions were no doubt at the forefront of his mind, but there were also more mundane matters to consider and deal with. "Is the financing in place?" "Are there enough good seats for my patrons?" "Where am I going to get a human skull?" I would bet that the farthest thing from Shakespeare's mind was the question "Is this literature?"

When I started writing songs as a teenager, and even as I started to achieve some renown for my abilities, my aspirations for these songs only went so far. I thought they could be heard in coffee houses or bars, maybe later in places like Carnegie Hall, the London Palladium. If I was really dreaming big, maybe I could imagine getting to make a record and then hearing my songs on the radio. That was really the big prize in my mind. Making records and hearing your songs on the radio meant that you were reaching a big audience and that you might get to keep doing what you had set out to do.

Well, I've been doing what I set out to do for a long time, now. I've made dozens of records and played thousands of concerts all around the world. But it's my songs that are at the vital center of almost everything I do. They seemed to have found a place in the lives of many people throughout many different cultures and I'm grateful for that.

But there's one thing I must say. As a performer I've played for 50,000 people and I've played for 50 people and I can tell you that it is harder to play for 50 people. 50,000 people have a singular persona, not so with 50. Each person has an individual, separate identity, a world unto themselves. They can perceive things more clearly. Your honesty and how it relates to the depth of your talent is tried. The fact that the Nobel committee is so small is not lost on me.

But, like Shakespeare, I too am often occupied with the pursuit of my creative endeavors and dealing with all aspects of life's mundane matters. "Who are the best musicians for these songs?" "Am I recording in the right studio?" "Is this song in the right key?" Some things never change, even in 400 years.

Not once have I ever had the time to ask myself, "Are my songs literature?"

So, I do thank the Swedish Academy, both for taking the time to consider that very question, and, ultimately, for providing such a wonderful answer.

My best wishes to you all,

Bob Dylan
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. . . . . . Pete
 
originally posted by Steve Edmunds:
I enjoyed that a lot
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Approximately 25 years ago I was warming up on the driving range at Riviera country club in LA when I glanced to my right and there was Bob Dylan also hitting golf balls. My image of him changed at that moment,never to be restored. I've always wished it had never happened.
 
originally posted by Lou Kessler:
My sad experience
originally posted by Steve Edmunds:
I enjoyed that a lot
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Approximately 25 years ago I was warming up on the driving range at Riviera country club in LA when I glanced to my right and there was Bob Dylan also hitting golf balls. My image of him changed at that moment,never to be restored. I've always wished it had never happened.
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why?
 
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