I bought Bob Dylan’s first album when it came out in the UK in 1962 and have subsequently bought most others over the years, so it’s fair to say I’m a fan even if sometimes a disappointed one. Anyway, his 80th birthday deserves a mention.
It took Bob ages to respond to the Nobel Prize offer and during that time when it seemed he might not accept I wrote No Belle For Bob (below). However, his speech, when it finally came, was eloquent and gracious. I reproduce an extract below:
‘Well, I’ve been doing what I set out to do for a long time, now. I’ve made dozens of records and played thousands of concerts all around the world. But it’s my songs that are at the vital center of almost everything I do. They seemed to have found a place in the lives of many people throughout many different cultures and I’m grateful for that.
But there’s one thing I must say. As a performer I’ve played for 50,000 people and I’ve played for 50 people and I can tell you that it is harder to play for 50 people. 50,000 people have a singular persona, not so with 50. Each person has an individual, separate identity, a world unto themselves. They can perceive things more clearly. Your honesty and how it relates to the depth of your talent is tried. The fact that the Nobel committee is so small is not lost on me.
But, like Shakespeare, I too am often occupied with the pursuit of my creative endeavors and dealing with all aspects of life’s mundane matters. “Who are the best musicians for these songs?” “Am I recording in the right studio?” “Is this song in the right key?” Some things never change, even in 400 years.
Not once have I ever had the time to ask myself, “Are my songs literature?”
It’s a question many critics have asked and which I for one say ‘yes’. If songwriting can ever be literature then Dylan’s songs (not all but many) must surely fall into that category. Much of his work is also rambling and inconsequential, but that’s because he is an innovator and always pushing boundaries and not everything is going to work. Nevertheless, he is without doubt head and shoulders above his peers, and certainly the most influential song writer since WWII.
My song is simply a compilation of song titles and certainly not worth any award, but it was fun to write.
NO BELLE FOR BOB Dylan’s Unacceptance speech
Hey Mr Nobel – afraid I must decline
Been standing at the gates of Eden, since the changing of the times.
Don’t need no rainy day woman, to see the man in me,
If you want somebody babe, no, no, no, it ain’t me – babe.
Hey Mr Nobel – there’ll be no belle for me,
It’s just one too many mornings, or a ballad in plain D,
For I threw it all away man just like a rolling stone,
In dreams of St Augustine – a long, long, way from home.
Hey Mr Nobel, still won’t work Maggie’s Farm,
And those visions of Johanna, ain’t going, going, gone.
Farewell Angelina, baby if not for you,
Call me the Jokerman all tangled up in blue.
Hey Mr Nobel, ain’t knockin’ on heaven’s door,
Yet nor am I with Isis, or your bloody masters of war.
All right ma I’m only bleeding, and I got the tombstone blues,
Don’t need no prize for literature, though it’s way, way, way overdue.
Hey Mr Nobel, can’t you see that old slow train?
You may have God on your side but I’ve got the hurricane.
Just one too many mornings makes me lonesome when you go,
Blowing in the wind around desolation row.
To hear track:
https://soundcloud.com/mauricebaker-1/no-belle-for-bob