Vandaag begint in Stockholm de Nobelweek (6-12 december). De laureaten komen hun prijs afhalen gedurende een plechtige ceremonie en geven dan hun Nobel Lecture. Zoals te verwachten was, lezen we op de Nobelprijswebsite: As Literature Laureate Bob Dylan will not be present during Nobel Week, the Nobel Lecture in Literature will not be held. Jammer! Dylan werd dus voorgedragen, genomineerd, gelezen en goed bevonden voor de Nobelprijs Literatuur maar hij komt niet opdagen. Als de profeet niet naar de berg komt, komt de berg misschien wel naar de profeet. Van The times they’re a changing (1964) tot Things have changed (2000):
A worried man with a worried mind
No one in front of me and nothing behind
There’s a woman on my lap and she’s drinking champagne
Got white skin, got assassin’s eyes
I’m looking up into the sapphire tinted skies
I’m well dressed, waiting on the last train
Standing on the gallows with my head in a noose
Any minute now I’m expecting all hell to break loose
People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed
This place ain’t doing me any good
I’m in the wrong town, I should be in Hollywood
Just for a second there I thought I saw something move
Gonna take dancing lessons do the jitterbug rag
Ain’t no shortcuts, gonna dress in drag
Only a fool in here would think he’s got anything to prove
Lotta water under the bridge, lotta other stuff too
Don’t get up gentlemen, I’m only passing through
People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed
I’ve been walking forty miles of bad road
If the bible is right, the world will explode
I’ve been trying to get as far away from myself as I can
Some things are too hot to touch
The human mind can only stand so much
You can’t win with a losing hand
Feel like falling in love with the first woman I meet
Putting her in a wheel barrow and wheeling her down the street
People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed
I hurt easy, I just don’t show it
You can hurt someone and not even know it
The next sixty seconds could be like an eternity
Gonna get lowdown, gonna fly high
All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie
I’m love with a woman who don’t even appeal to me
Mr. Jinx and Miss Lucy, they jumped in the lake
I’m not that eager to make a mistake
People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed
Bob Dylan
En hoe Bob Dylan ook onze muziekscene beïnvloedde lees je op de The Low Countries-blog van Ons Erfdeel waar Lutgard Mutsaers in haar bijdrage Dylan’s Kin in the Lowlands stelt:
Most of the music made by Belgian and Dutch singer-songwriters in the American folk and blues tradition would not have existed without Dylan. Even though artists are reluctant to talk about their influences and mentors out of fear of revealing themselves as imitators, many of them have Dylan lurking in the background. He hides in the sources of their inspiration, the length of the numbers, the (in)comprehensibility of the words, the freedom of expressing one’s opinion, the criticism of the madness of the moment, the credibility of the person who sings. The idiosyncratic Dylan has always remained the same self-willed man, with an intuitive aversion to rigidity and predictability. Pop artists following in Dylan’s wake sought out their own paths in the light of Dylan’s revelations. With such a powerful model it is extremely difficult to step out of his shadow.
Update 10 december 2016: Banquet Speech Bob Dylan door de Amerikaanse ambassadrice in Zweden. Patti Smith eerde Bob Dylan ‘geëmotioneerd en overdonderd’ op de uitreiking van de Nobelprijzen met A hard rain’s a gonna fall :
Blauwkruikje 