Dylan expresses awe over Nobel Prize, alludes to Shakespeare

December 11 (ANI): Rock Hall’s singer-songwriter Patti Smith, who filled in for “Nobel Prize for Literature” victor Bob Dylan at the ceremony in Oslo, forgot lines to his lyrics as she was “so nervous”.

Dylan, 70, had declined to receive his prize in person, citing a prior engagement, to the disappointment of the assorted Swedish royals, politicians and former prize-winners in the Stockholm Concert Hall, but was represented by his friend.

Smith was in Sweden to accept Dylan’s Nobel Prize for literature, and she chose to perform the song from his 1962 album “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”. “Sorry, I’m so nervous”, but the august audience didn’t seem to mind in video of the performance on the Nobel Prize Facebook page.

Don’t think twice, Patti.it’s alright.

In his speech, Dylan wrote about (among varied other topics), William Shakespeare, the playwright so legendary, his works are among the most revered entries in not only the dramatic canon, but that of literature as well. In the text of the speech, Dylan compares his work ethic in music to that of Shakespeare’s in the theater – namely, that both he and the Bard were both so busy creating their work, that neither artist would necessarily have had the time handy to ruminate on certain awards bestowals.

Dylan’s relationship with Hibbing has been complicated: Many didn’t understand the artistic Robert Zimmerman, and after he left, they didn’t realize how famous he’d become, Minnesota Public Radio News reported. As if the oracle of Delphi were reading the evening news.

At least in the United States, the percentage of adults who read literature fell to at least a three-decade low last year, according to a report from the National Endowment for the Arts published earlier this year. On Google Trend, internet users interest over literature related topics is declining year by year.

The Colombian president also used the Nobel podium to reiterate his call to “rethink” the war on drugs, “where Colombia has been the country that has paid the highest cost in deaths and sacrifices”. “He sees”, Wilentz says, “a kind of literature in performance”.

Dylan said he too focuses on “mundane matters” such as recording in the right key, not on whether his songs are literature.

The times, they are a changin’.

“In a distant past, all poetry was sung or tunefully recited, poets were rhapsodists, bards, troubadours; “lyrics” comes from “lyre”.

According to the Nobel Foundation, his prize should be presented to him in person sometime in 2017, either in Sweden or overseas.

The controversy may go on for a while. “The answer, my friend, is blowin” in the wind”.