Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize

Subject: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: bobad
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 07:10 PM

Bob Dylan wins Pulitzer prize

2 hours ago

NEW YORK (AFP) — Legendary musician and folk icon Bob Dylan was handed a special citation from the Pulitzer Prize board Monday, following in the footsteps of fellow musicians Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane.

Dylan was honored with the special citation for his "profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power," the board said, announcing the winners.

The board, which normally concentrates on US print journalism, does not make special citations every year but has in the past recognized Theodor Seuss Geisel, the writer of the "Dr Seuss" books, and author Ray Bradbury.

Jazz musicians Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane were both mentioned posthumously, in 2006 and 2007.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jSnXAXH43XnwXiWdZXi5MhMCDZiQ

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Peace
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 07:11 PM

YES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: bobad
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 07:15 PM

You can't argue about about what he was cited for.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 07:15 PM

Yay, Bob!

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Amos
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 07:15 PM

Yas, yas, yas!! That's gettin' 'er done right!!

A

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 07:19 PM

Penelope Rutledge will be impressed. Winston W-J will be jealous. Perhaps Penelope will invite Bob to her next gala, who knows?

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Beer
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 07:27 PM

Super.....Fantastic, Right on..... You deserve it Mr.Dylan.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 07:28 PM

Great news.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 07:30 PM

...and Gene Autry is STILL not recognized. He influenced *my* generation.


ah, well...I think he earned more $$$$ than Bob did.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 08:16 PM

Surely you jest! ;-) I remember Gene Autry in some 50's comics I read when I was a kid. Those were the days when cowboys were still being done up to look like they had ridden in out of some swanky circus rodeo in Beverly Hills or something.

Long before the spaghetti westerns.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Peace
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 08:18 PM

He does not jest, and stop calling him Surely.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Joe_F
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 08:22 PM

When I see "Legendary" at the beginning of a sentence, I reach for my revolver.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 08:25 PM

Good for Dylan!

I like it when people are honored while they still walk this earth.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Amos
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 08:32 PM

He was always a legend in his own mind, and now is one in his own time, as well.


A

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 08:40 PM

Bill D - While Autry did make big bucks from music, he made mega-bucks through canny investments with that money: producing his and other TV shows (Flying A Productions); the merchandising rights to his name and likeness (clothing, cap guns and holster sets); media (Golden West Broadcasters}; real estate (major hotels in Palm Springs and Los Angeles and elsewhere); the Los Angeles/Anaheim Angeles baseball team; and lord knows what else.

Little Hawk, those westerns were never meant to faithfully represent the true west. Most took place in a never-never land that was part old west in a modern setting. They were never meant for adults, but for the kiddy, pre-teen set. The lesson in each show was that it is important to be honorable and true to your word; good always prevails in the end-- badness loses. Definitely not your spaghetti western, and definitely not real life. But, perhaps an ideal to aspire to,

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 08:42 PM

I have that reaction, Joe, when I hear the phrase "quality time"...

Hey, Amos, most of the people I've ever known were legends in their own minds (whether or not they were prepared to admit it)...specially some in my immediate family and close relations! Geez, and I am not kidding about that.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Little Hawk
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 08:43 PM

You're quite right, John.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Beer
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 08:51 PM

As I'm reading your post John, I'm thinking that the big thing back then was that the bad guys never won. Then I come up to the end of your post and sure enough you were ahead of me(good always prevails in the end-- badness loses.). I guess the old saying was also being put into movies as well. "Crime doesn't pay". Not so sure anymore.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 09:22 PM

Far out!

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 09:38 PM

Justice...

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: topical tom
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 11:20 PM

Congratulations, Bob. A richly deserved honour.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: ex-pat
Date: 07 Apr 08 - 11:49 PM

Great stuff. I was just listening to his Greatest Hits CD (#1) on my way from Gettysburg to Toronto today.
Robert Zimmerman (aka Bob Dylan) is a phenomenal American talent who deserves this prize so much.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 12:08 AM

Wonderful......

I can still remember my first introduction to Dylan's music - it was my cousin's engagement part and I was all of 19 - maybe........someone played the record and the adults (and I have to admit -- ME!) said -- what is this noise? I have grown a lot since then......!

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Deckman
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 12:38 AM

Who's Bob Dylan?

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: pavane
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 04:19 AM

Should there also be an award to 'anon', original author of so much of the extraordinary and influential poetry?

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: fat B****rd
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 04:26 AM

Good, Super, Smashing. Wasn't Champion The Wonder Horse Gene Autry's?.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: PoppaGator
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 11:27 AM

Hooray for Zimmie!

I'm not sure ANYONE in human history ever set out to have an impact upon the world he lives in, and been so successful in his own lifetime. Of course, the instant worldwide communication available today has never existed in human history, so it's not a fair comparison to great persons of the past, but Bob's achievements are unparalled in our contemporary age.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: M.Ted
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 12:31 PM

Just chill on that, PG--there are a lot of people who have made impact on the world they live in...etc than Bob Dylan. Alexander Graham Bell, for instance. Or those nice men who made the first Personal Computer in their garage--

Even at that, my grandmother, who just passed away last year, at age 104, said that the thing that had the most impact, in all those years, was "electricity"--and the guy who developed alternating current and system for generating and distributing it was Nicola Tesla--"Blowin' in the Wind" doesn't hold a candle to that.

I'm not putting Dylan down at all, I'm just sayin'--

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 01:20 PM

Hey, let's not try and compare apples with staplers, okay? The one is a tasty meal, the other is for attaching pieces of paper together. Both quite useful, but not comparable.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: PoppaGator
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 01:54 PM

OK Ted, I'll accept that. I would still contend that Bob's influence as an artist ~ in any art form, literature, film, etc. ~ is completely unparalleled. Hence the fittingness of a special Pulitzer. I suppose is was because of this context that I failed to consider inventors, developers of technology, etc.

You're right about Tesla, a completely under-appreciated historical figure. I never even heard of him until relatively recently. People seem to be getting the word about him in recent years, though. Having a rock band named after oneself is a dubious honor, to be sure, but that at least got his name out into the arena of public discussion. And he was a sort-of major character in one of those recent movies about magicians. (There were two very similar films on that subject released at the same time last year. Why does that happen so often?)

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 02:16 PM

Synchronicity. There's a whole spiritual theory around that...basically states that archetypal changes and movements happen in spirit first...then are evidenced in multiple similar events in the material world. Imagine a wave of unseen energy passing through a medium. It will produce various waves, patterns, and ripples as it does so. Those patterns are the events as we perceive them. This implies that there are in fact probably NO coincidences, but that everything is intelligently connected to everything else in a meaningful way...as in a hologram. All parts are interconnected, and the One is fully present in all its apparently separate parts at all times.

I like that theory. Materialists usually don't like it. They would rather think things happen by accident and that things are irrevocably separate from one another and on their own...rather than all being part of one great unity.

Those are essentially the two opposing views of reality. One sees relationship in unity. The other sees separation of "things". One sees meaning and purpose in everything. The other sees no meaning in things (other than meanings that are arbitrarily invented through a subjective process...just meaningless processes unfolding according to some kind of immutable laws of nature. One perceives a living soul. The other perceives only a mortal and short-lived body. One thinks it IS that soul. The other thinks it is that body. One lives. The other dies.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Gulliver
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 02:41 PM

I'm listening to Liam Clancy on the radio (RTE) right now talking about Dylan and the good times they had together back in the sixties. Good to see Bobby getting the recognition.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: PoppaGator
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 03:49 PM

LH: I'm with you on the general idea of synchronicity, but I'm not sure that's the main explanation for why Hollywood moguls, in recent years, have so often released two ~ never three ~ competing productions with near-identical subject matter, both at once. I think it has more to do with capitalism than spirituality.

~ Two simultaneous bad movies about an asteroid crashing into the earth.

~ Two simultaneous highbrow productions about Truman Capote writing "In Cold Blood."

~ Two simultaneous magic-reality offerings about 19th century magicians.

I'm sure there are more such pairs, but that's what occurs to me right now.

In most but not all cases, one is much more successful, and the other is quickly withdrawn from distribution. The two asteroid extravaganzas, of course, could both have gone down the tubes as far as I'm concerned, but on the other hand, I found the less-successful Capote biopic to have been very good when I accidentally found it on late-night cable. That was a film that deserved a wider audience than it got, and if it had not been competing with another fine film on the same subject at the same time, it would undoubtedly have been more successful.

(Sorry about the MAJOR thread drift. I'm especially sorry to have interrupted discussion of such good news for/about The Bob. But, that's what happens with stream-of-consciousness)

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Apr 08 - 04:15 PM

It probably has something to do with both capitalism and the spiritual priniciples of synchronicity, PG. ;-) There were also some different movies released almost simultaneously based on H.G.Wells' "War of the Worlds" awhile back. Only the one with Tom Cruise got widespread notice.

I liked "Deep Impact", by the way. Not a bad movie. I didn't like the other asteriod one nearly as well.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Owlkat
Date: 09 Apr 08 - 02:19 PM

Interesting. I'm just wondering how Joan Baez, as someone who still walks the walk, would feel about this.
I remember Eric Bogle's song about Dylan, and chortling until the root beer I was drinking came out my nose. Ah, those were the days when we really knew how to have fun.   
Musingly,
Owlkat/Danna

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 09 Apr 08 - 04:32 PM

Well he's always had his critics, but I was THRILLED when I heard he received this well deserved award. They bandy the word 'genius' about, but I believe he truly is a musical genius. And as influential as he's gotten, he has maintained a sort of humility about his creative process- saying the songs just come through him.

I remember being a teenager and listening to all this teenybopper stuff about icicles and popsicles, and crying over it being my party, and it all sounded like iceskating muzak- about things that had nothing to do with my life, or life in general. One day this sound comes out of the radio that made my hair stand on end. It was Bob, singing (crying?) about things that were REAL in life, and real to me, (and apparently to an entire generation). A perverse fairy tale in the aftermath of Eisenhower 's age of conformity ..ah, once upon a time.

It was a searing music of blistering raw emotion, but somehow it was a comfort to me-to know that I was not alone in how I saw the world. (and growing up in suburban candyland, I sure felt like a lone soul). Sorry to sound a bit worshipful, but I never would have sung, written, made a picture or known what a creative high is-if it hadn't been for the man from Minnesota.

The riverhead for all who followed him. Congrats Bob.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: GUEST,highlandman
Date: 09 Apr 08 - 04:45 PM

Well, you can't tell me he hasn't received recognition before. If there's a 'most awards' prize in music Dylan probably would get it.
Obviously this special prize wasn't for commercial sales success (Autry beats out Bob by a wide margin in that category) but I have to agree about the 'poetic power' and 'impact on culture' bits.
Congrats Mr. Z.
-Glenn

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 09 Apr 08 - 05:46 PM

I wonder if he got the prize for services to 'Music' or the 'Music Industry' ... ? Just wondering, that's all!

" ... but Bob's achievements are unparalled in our contemporary age."

What!!!??? Get a grip!

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: GUEST,Greycap
Date: 09 Apr 08 - 06:25 PM

Hey, Gang,
Let's not use this as a sounding board for other issues, such as who else is great,life is crap,comparisons etc. Let's all stay with the original program, shall we?
Bob Dylan has had an exceptional profound impact on popular music with his contribution, in my humble opinion, and that is what he was recognised for.
Good on you, Bob!! There have been stuff I loved and stuff I didn't. It was always you.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Apr 08 - 06:42 PM

They ALL walk the walk. That is to say, they walk their walk. The one they and they alone were made to walk.

I love both Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. They both walk their walk, and they make no compromises about it. They both continually take the considerable risk and the flak for being exactly who they are, no matter what.

Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts...Bob IS the Jack of Hearts. Joan is Queen Jane, and she's a whole lot more besides...I nominate her for another Pulitzer Prize.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 09 Apr 08 - 11:17 PM

Thread creep perhaps but as we are talking about Joan Baez---I remember being in high school in England and in about our second year different classes were allowed to organize assembly. One of the other second form classes played Joan Baez - All My Trials.....I had never heard anything like it in my life.......I was transfixed......some of the teachers looked as if they were enjoying it, others waiting for it to end.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Apr 08 - 12:01 AM

Yeah, some get it...and some don't. Same goes for Bob's music. ;-) I'm in the happy position of thinking they both sound absolutely great.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Big Tim
Date: 10 Apr 08 - 11:02 AM

We all know what Bob achieved in the 60s: firstly in 'folk' (check out the DVD 'The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan live at the Newport Folk Festivall 1963-65') and then in rock, 'Highway 61' etc, then in the 70s, 'Blood on the Tracks', 'Rollin' Thunder/Hard Rain'. Then a fallow period, then a great and lasting comeback, cracking new and original albums in 1997, 2001 and 2006 (number 1 around the world). A near 67 year-old genius! (I know he got rather angry at Joan Baez for using that word in 1965).

There's no one like him, or ever close (IMO). That's why he got the award.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: M.Ted
Date: 10 Apr 08 - 01:09 PM

What exactly is it that Dylan did? Be specific, and give examples from your readings;-)

"There's no one like him" is rather vague--if albums and album sales are any sort of criteria, then he is nothing compared to Mariah Carey, and the less said about his singing, the better. Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote way more hits than he did, and even with the Pulitzer, and his other awards, he doesn't get played much on the radio (even on "folk" programs!)

Describe his impact, and the reasons, if any, that you think he deserves a place in the Pantheon--and don't role out the superlatives--he hasn't had more impact than Dante, or Shakespeare, St. Thomas Acquinas, Homer, Dickens, and he is less well known than Homer Simpson--

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: M.Ted
Date: 10 Apr 08 - 02:52 PM

But that doesn't mean he's not great--it's just that the details of that greatness that are elusive--

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Apr 08 - 03:04 PM

If you have to ask "why?", you don't get it. If you don't get it, there ain't no use trying to explain it to you.

Just listen to Joan Baez explain it in the DVD "No Direction Home". She says that Bob will always mean little or nothing to certain people...if they just don't get with whatever he's about, but that for other people who do get with whatever he's about (as she did) he goes "way deep". That's why. He goes way deep.

Homer Simpson provides a form of light entertainment. Bob Dylan goes way deep.

That's why.

No one really gives a shit about Homer Simpson...or ever will. He's just fun, that's all. A lot of people care deeply about Bob Dylan.

The more said about his singing, the better. ;-) Again, on the DVD "No Direction Home", Joan Baez says, "He sure could sing!" And, yes, he sure could. (but there ain't much left of that young voice now)

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: M.Ted
Date: 10 Apr 08 - 05:29 PM

I just want some fact,LH and all I get from you is an attack on my imagination--Oh, God! am I here all alone?--

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: PoppaGator
Date: 10 Apr 08 - 05:46 PM

What "facts" could possibly satisfy your request? AS LH sez, either you get it or your don't, but if you get it, it's really quite something.

Opinion, not fact, to be sure ~ but a very high opinion indeed, and one apparently shared by members of the Pulitzer committee.

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: M.Ted
Date: 10 Apr 08 - 06:04 PM

I've got many contacts among the lumberjacks to get me facts, PG--

Subject: RE: Bob Dylan Wins Pulitzer prize
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Apr 08 - 10:43 PM

When someone attacks your imagination.... ;-)

But no one has any respect!

They probably expect you to give all your checks to some tax deductible charity organization.

Man, it must be a real drag, M. Ted. They've got a lot of nerve, don't they?

Look, I am not going to waste my time looking up "facts" for you. There are more biographies out there about Dylan than you can shake a stick at. Just read a few of them and you will find all the facts and opinions you could possibly desire.

I don't give a toot who sold the most records, frankly. Anyway, aren't "folkies" supposed to wear their low record sales like a badge of righteousness? (grin) Some of them do that, and no one can ever accuse them of "selling out", because their conspicuously low profile guarantees they will never get stuck with that label! They will never have to face the "Dylan" test of "How can he still be acceptable to US (the people who are really in the know) when he's this popular? He must have sold out, the dirty little rat!"

I do give a toot, however, to who reached my mind and heart the strongest and thus affected my life the most. When it comes to that, Dylan's way up there. It's not about his record sales or the lack of them...whichever way you want to look at that. Seems to me that people use that argument BOTH ways in order to pick on Bob Dylan, which tells you a lot about the human mind, but nothing about Bob.

Didn't I hear recently that Mariah Carey's record sales had surpassed anyone else's, including the Beatles and Elvis?

And so what? Does it matter? I think not. She's not likely to win a Pulitzer Prize, because she has not enlarged the boundaries of cultural perception. Dylan did, and he did so profoundly.

He is as significant to his own time as Shakespeare was to another time...but you will almost have had to be there to appreciate that...if it registers on you at all, that is. I bet Shakespeare didn't register on a lot of people back then either.