Odd you should say that, Bill. I have very little trouble understanding Dylan most of the time. About the only stuff he ever wrote or said that I'm a bit puzzle by would be:

1. why are there so many apparent references to homosexuality in "Ballad of a Thin Man"?

2. most of "Tarantula" is rather hard to comprehend, and probably not worth the trouble to...but it does have a few good passages here and there

So, what I am saying, Bill, is that 99% of his work is very understandable to me. Maybe not to you...

My impression with Dylan, when he receives these various awards, is usually this: he's embarrassed and wishes he was somewhere else, anywhere else, when they bring him out on stage to get the award. Ever since about 1965-66 he's been very shy of public exposure, with good reason. For Christ's sake, all he wanted to do in the early 60's was write songs he believed in and sing them for people...and he did it so incredibly well that he became millions of people's chosen "messiah" against his own will! That was not what he planned on, it was not what he anticipated, it was not what he wanted in any sense whatsoever. It was a sick exaggerated situation spiralling out of control, and he was in the middle of it and couldn't escape. He got put in a position where he no longer felt able to DO the one and only thing he had wanted to do for years...write songs and walk out on a stage and play them for people.

His most treasured personal dream got killed by being too successful. You try that on for size and see how it feels if you think it's so great...and then listen to people who don't know fuck-all about it bitching about your big ego on top of that. As if they cared! Feh!

That's why he turned away to the dream of wife and family. It appeared to be the one real thing left in a World gone totally mad, the one island of safety.

And what did people do when he turned away? They criticized him vitriolically for not living out their own dreams for them. Most people are selfish when it comes right down to it.

As for those who can see little or no value in his work, well they will have less than a clue what I am talking about here, and so what? What difference does it make? He obviously wasn't born to please them, was he?