Quote:
Originally Posted by william z
Literature and music should be separate and there is no way song lyrics should win a prize for literature.
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But what if the song lyrics happen to
be literature? There are serious producers of "proper" literature who consider Dylan a serious poet. Look at what Paul Muldoon has to say on the subject:
Quote:
A particular favorite is “Early Roman Kings.” It’s from “Tempest,” his thirty-fifth album, which was released in 2012. I mention the date because a mark of the great artist is surely his capacity to stay the course. I’m certain that’s one of the components the Nobel committee is rewarding with today’s announcement:
All the early Roman kings
In their sharkskin suits
Bow ties and buttons
High top boots
Drivin’ the spikes in
Blazin’ the rails
Nailed in their coffins
In top hats and tails
Here Dylan rather brilliantly combines a version of the Roman empire with the railroad and steel moguls who provided the infrastructure of the American empire, as well as a version of a Puerto Rican gang from the Bronx, as well as a self-portrait of the artist in his natty stage gear! This is the artist who continues to fiddle while America burns, not out of negligence but out of sheer need:
Bring down my fiddle
Tune up my strings
I’m gonna break it wide open
Like the early Roman kings
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http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-...e-dylan-lyrics