Nobel Prize for Literature goes to Bob Dylan

Atavachron wrote: Dean wrote: Lifetime Achievement Award - aka 'life's consolation prize for being good in your chosen career without ever winning the equivalent of your profession's Oscar' award.  Until it's given to someone you think deserves a Lifetime Achievement award (which this award wasn't at all really).   I realize you'd still think it a silly award (as do I, frankly), but it's at its most silly when given for the reasons you elucidate.  "Honorary" in the worst way. But Bob Dylan has won countless Grammys (his profession's Oscar) and a huge amount of other honors from Halls of Fame to Medals of Honor worldwide.

Edited by Dean - October 22 2016 at 03:19

To give Bob Dylan his due, his songwriting, particularly when his songs were performed by other artists from Peter, Paul and Mary to Fairport Convention to Jimi Hendrix to Guns and Roses is phenomenal. And that goes for the music as well as the lyrics. His influence on the Beatles cannot be underestimated. A song like The Day In The Life would not be possible, IMHO, without Dylan going first. And that just of dozens from the Fabs. Incidentally, we would not have folk rock without him. The Byrds being the other half of that accomplishment.For rock music, Dylan is one of it's milestones. But as other's have said and I have asked, are lyrics actually poetry? I think not, but that takes nothing away from my appreciation of Dylan.

Edited by SteveG - October 22 2016 at 03:10

He has a great voice, or maybe I should say he is a great singer.  I'm not even that big a fan and I can hear the greatness in his vocal ability and expression.  That it's nasal and annoying to is irrelevant.  In fact his singing ability is far better than those who are usually credited as having "a good voice".   He even beats many of his peers in singing: Neil Young, Hendrix, Clapton, certainly Townshend, Waters & Gilmour.

I've actually walked out on Bob.  In '93 we attended a double bill with Bob and Santana, Santana first.  It was a beautiful evening, outdoor show in our amazing summertime.  After getting sufficient lubed up at the beer tent, we took our seats for a magical time as Carlos wailed away while the sun was setting behind him.  The dude in front of us pulled out some HUGE joints and started sharing with his immediate neighbors....how could I refuse, it would have been impolite, right?     I hit those babies with all the attitude my lungs could muster....and with a beautiful girl on my arm, a 78 degree moonlit evening, and Santana right in front of me....I mean, that's a decent evening!  Naturally after that all amazing ganja kicked in Carlos' playing took on new spiritual meaning 
So That ends, out walks Bob with his acoustic.....after about 3 songs with his grunts and groans, we were like....."well, look at the time"......and started for the exit.  Moral of the story is....when Carlos is having a truly memorable set, Bob is not the ideal closer. 

Also saw him with the Grateful Dead once....and even thought Jerry was practically in a diabetic coma on that tour, he still upstaged King Bob. 

^
I hear you David.  I don't like Bob, but I like Garcia and people always bitch about this voice too, say he sucks, say Weir sucks too.  But their croaking works fine for me, so I understand liking Bob.  We like what we like, simple as that. 


Edited by Finnforest - October 22 2016 at 15:18

Finnforest wrote: ^ I hear you David.  I don't like Bob, but I like Garcia and people always bitch about this voice too, say he sucks, say Weir sucks too.  But their croaking works fine for me, so I understand liking Bob.  We like what we like, simple as that.

Well yeah Dylan's old, and live performances are always shaky.   One has to have attended many, many live shows to begin to understand the difficulty in performing, especially singing, live.   It's just a whole different thing: you're not as relaxed as in the studio, your voice or health may be off, you have weather and temp conditions, can't redo a botched take, can't stop and tell the bass player he's out of tune, the key is wrong, fans are yelling, you're nervous.   It's a mess, and the vocalist has it the worst.

No excuses though, he is not what he used to be, as a singer, songwriter, harp player.  Nothing lasts forever.  He doesn't even know where those classic songs came from, they just wrote themselves and then left him like a fickle lover.




Edited by Atavachron - October 22 2016 at 15:28

While the initial examples you gave are completely different cases, hence my disagreement on ranking BD above them.
I believe a singer must have minimal "technical" resources to be able to express artistically the song's emotions, and there Dylan doesn't always satisfy me (and I praise him as songwriter, don't misunderstand me)

^
Yep, Zep for sure.  God they had some sh*tty nights.     Despite awesome albums. 

I always thought the Who did a pretty good job of getting it up, despite their obvious problems with Moonie. 

Yeah, the Who without Moonie is just a different beast.  Altogether.  Not to dump on Kenney but Moon was simply too integral to what make them The Who.  That style of gonzo drumming mattered. 

Yep, and i always so proud of them that they did "hang it up" and do other things.  For the most part.