The somewhat reclusive singer/songwriter skipped the Nobel Prize banquet last December, but was still required to give a lecture
Bob Dylan has finally delivered the lecture for his Nobel Prize for literature.
The somewhat reclusive singer/songwriter skipped the Nobel Prize banquet last December, but was still required to give a lecture by June 10 or he would lose the $900,000 in prize money.
His 27-minute taped lecture, framed by a soft bluesy piano and his iconic raspy voice, is just as unconventional as Dylan is. The lecture was recorded on Sunday, June 4, in Los Angeles and was released by the Nobel Committee on YouTube Monday morning.
Here are four things we learned during Dylan’s poetic lecture:
1. It all started with Buddy Holly. He played the music that Dylan loved – country western, rock ‘n’ roll and r&b. Dylan only saw him live once and travelled 100 miles for the show, just a few days before Holly died in a plane crash.
“He filled me with conviction, ” Dylan said.
2. During elementary school, Dylan read “Moby Dick, ” “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “The Odyssey” – all of which informed his view of the world and permeated his music. He quoted Homer at the end of his lecture: “Sing in me, oh Muse, and through me tell the story, ” he said.
3. Even Dylan doesn’ t quite understand what a Nobel Prize in Literature has to do with his music.
“Songs are unlike literature. They’ re meant to be sung, not read, ” he said.
4. Dylan said he has “written all sorts of things” into his music and he’s beyond worrying about meaning.
“If a song moves you, that’s all that’s important, ” he said.
Regardless, Dylan wants listeners to hear his lyrics how they were intended: “In concert or on record or however people are listening to songs these days.”
