Why Bob Dylan Won The Nobel Prize

SOURCES AND FURTHER READING:

Clinton Heylin, "Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions, 1960-1994" (pg 69-71)

Albin J. Zak III, "Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix: Juxtaposition and Transformation "All along the Watchtower" Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 57, No. 3 (Fall 2004), pp. 599-644

Nicholas Taylor, "Bob Dylan: John Wesley Harding" (via Pop Matters) 2000

Robert Johnson Wikipedia:

Herb Bowie, "All Along The Watchtower" (via Reason To Rock)

D.A. Pennebaker, "Don't Look Now" 1967

Kees de Graaf, "All Along The Watchtower Analysis (via his website)

[DaTJo]

I met Dylan in 1986 in Sydney Australia. During our first conversation which was mostly about music, he asked me “What’s the first line of one of your songs?” I told him a line. He seemed surprised when I asked him in return to tell me the first line of one of his songs.

I wondered with great anticipation, which one he would say, out of all his many genius songs. After a little while he leaned over and said, “There must be some way out of here.”

Out of all his songs, that’s the line he chose. It amazed me. I felt at the time that he was referring to life on planet earth, but who really knows. The beauty of good art is it’s open to endless interpretation.

[JoshGrayMusic]

If you ask Dylan about this he'd probably say it's just a song

[MiamiMarkYT]

I still remember my English teacher Mr. Hayward bursting with gleeful anticipation that Dylan could actually win the award. He would practically campaign to us about it. Years later I ran into him at a restaurant and we talked about how he won it and his joy and excitement made him tear up a little. I’m so glad Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize.

[spacealienjesus]

This song is as mysterious as Dylan himself..

[NataliaSergheev]

Wish you'd mention Dylan liked Hendrix's version of the song better than his. Dylan has described his reaction to hearing Hendrix's version: "It overwhelmed me, really. He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them. He found things that other people wouldn't think of finding in there. He probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using. I took license with the song from his version, actually, and continue to do it to this day."[26] In the booklet accompanying his Biograph album, Dylan said: "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way... Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

[AA-snlz]

Thought this was Polyphonic for a second..

[aaronquist]

The thing I like more about Dylan's original over Jimi's is it's mood/atmosphere. Its more earthy and straightforward tone makes it feel more timeless and immediate, like it's there to deliver a message, a riddle, a parable or something. Whereas Jimi's is more about the sound itself, less concerned with the content. Both are masterpieces though.

[cccc]

I've always taken the meaning of this song to be a conversation between the biblical horsemen War (joker) and Death (Theif) commenting on how humans continue to treat humans so poorly: the rich princes keep the barefoot servants out of their castle while taking the fruits of their labor, dividing them into inferior classes. War (class struggle) wants to prolong the Apocalypse to give them more time to figure things out, but Death points out that it's too late- the storm has already started, and the other two horsemen have almost arrived.

[alfiewills]

"You think you'll stick with folk rock, or will you go into more writing?"
"I don't play folk rock"
"What would you call your music?"
"I'd call it... emmm..." 😂😂

[philophos]

This fucked with my perception of time so hard just now. I was like, what the fuck, I swear Bob Dylan only won the Nobel Prize like a couple of weeks ago -- how in the actual hell can nerdwriter have written this 4 months ago?! Was it actually four months ago?!

I was close to crisis there, man. Everyone, he won it mid-October. This seems to have been an ad hoc title change. Don't fall into crisis like I did.

[cillianmclaverty]

I like the “emmm” genre, very mysterious

[ferociousgumby]

Here's the kicker: his latest album is among the best he's ever done, and he was 79 when he made it. THAT is why he got the Nobel: not just for a few songs, but for a body of work that stretches over decades. He is one of the few constants in our lives, especially for those of us who grew up listening to him. He has been described by one biographer as "one of the hardest-working musicians in the country", and I think that expresses a certain earthbound doggedness that has kept him going when a lesser man would have collapsed under the weight of his legend.

[felipegutierrez]

Best part of the week: new Nerdwriter upload.

[cameron]

I think the song is about a conversation between two polarizing, universal forces. The Joker is life and The Thief is death personified. Since these two things are so closely related they have had this same conversation over and over.

The Joker comes at The Thief asking for some meaning to his life. "'There must be some kind of way out of here, '
Said the joker to the thief" is life's attempt to gain some deeper meaning into the existence of it all. He believes that nobody knows what any of it means and he is frustrated by this. The Thief, however, is much more pessimistic and basically say "Ohh come on be reasonable, there is no meaning to life its all just a joke" and I think that is why Life would be named The Joker.

Any way that covered the first two verses of lyrics establishing these polarizing forces. The third goes into the hierarchy of civilization summarized in the structure of a watchtower. "Princes kept the view, While all the women came and went, Barefoot servants too" These lines establish the hierarchy of life, Princes at the top, men and women in the middle and servants at the bottom. But the Joker and the Thief are not in this hierarchy they are witnesses in the cold distance, never really taking part in life themselves but rather being the horsemen that protect/observe it.

This is just a theory me and some friends thought about. Lemme know what you guys think.

[bereckdavid]

It's such a powerful piece, it feels as if something is about to happen. It has a sense of urgency. I never looked for meaning.

[gary_buckley]

And then Hendrix came along and made the instrumental worthy of the lyrics

[CaptainBeefheart]

12 lines =12 apostles= 12/4=3 = he's Hebrew heritage so are the three stooges --> half life 3 confirmed

[Quotenwagnerianer]

Jeez. Now I finally realize why they did pick this song for Battlestar Galacatica and the way the hidden cylons realized who they were.

[benking]

This is a legendary piece of music journalism. I continue to refer to this when people ask me about about music. You’ve made a really great thing.

[lupcokotevski]

The imagery and characters seem Shakspearean to me: jesters, thieves, princes, watchtowers, characters providing commentary, horsemen, etc.