By Larry Fyffe
Naysayers and the the connoisseurs of ‘high art’ alike claim Bob Dylan is not deserving of the Nobel Prize in Literature because, for one thing, the singer/songwriter/musician is not that familiar with those artists considered worthy thereof.
I beg to differ – Bob Dylan makes it clear that he is quite aware of the works of a number of Nobel winners – often brought to his attention through watching movies.
There’s Rudyard Kipling, for example:
The finest man I knew Was our regimental 'bhisti', Gunga Din He was Din, Din, Din (Rudyard Kipling: Gunga Din)
The song lyrics beneath mention the darkly humorous 1939 movie based thereon, starring Carey Grant:
Clouds so swift, and the rain falling in Gonna see a movie called 'Gunga Din' (Bob Dylan: You Ain't Going Nowhere)
An early humorous poem by the singer/songwriter refers to Nobeller TS Eliot:
I thought she was hip When we sat and drank coffee And I flipped when she recited All of 'Prufrock' by heart (Bob Dylan : Untitled Poem)
Dylan’s certainly aware of Nobel-winner Steinbeck’s ‘Mice And Men’ – through the well-known ‘Beat writer’ for one, who refers to a film starring Burgess Meredith:
Once I went to a movie At midnight, 1940, 'Mice And Men', the name of it (Jack Kerouac: Mexico City Blues)
The song lyrics below refer to the 1950 movie titled “The Gunfighter” – Kerouac’s off-hand style of writing paid tribute to in the lines below (as in “You Ain’t Going Nowhere”):
Well, there was this movie I seen one time About a man riding 'cross the desert, and it starred Gregory Peck (Bob Dylan: Brownsville Girl ~ Dylan/Shepard)
Below, an example of Kerouac’s casual and wordy style:
… but burn, burn burn, like yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop …”
(Jack Kerouac: On The Road)
Dylan has a little fun at the Beat’s expense though Jack is not a Nobel Prize winner:
Build a fire, throw on logs, and listen to it hiss And let in burn, burn, burn, burn on a night like this (Bob Dylan: On A Night Like This)
But all kinds of tributes as well:
No one in front of me, and nothing behind
(Bod Dylan: Things Have Changed)
A Dylanesque twist on:
Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me ...
(Jack Kerouac: On The Road)
The following verse comes from a poem that’s written by a Nobel winner:
It wasn't the King of Diamonds Nor the Joker she drew first It wasn't the King or Queen of Hearts But the Ace of Spades reversed (WH Auden: Victor)
Tribute is paid thereto in the following song lyrics:
Back stage the girls were playing five-card stud by the stairs Lily had two queens, she was hoping for a third to match her pair .... Lily called another bet, and drew up the Jack of Hearts (Bob Dylan: Lily, Rosemary, And The Jack Of Hearts)
Song lyrics below are from a 1964 movie, based on the play “Pygmalion”:
And, oh, what a towering feeling Just to know that somehow you are near The overpowering feeling That any second, you may suddening appear (Bill Shirley: On The Street Where You Live)
The lines from the song beneath indirectly pay tribute to George Bernard Shaw, a Nobel winner – referencing, not without humour, the above song from the movie “My Fair Lady” based on Shaw’s “Pygmalion”:
But, oh, what a wonderful feeling That just to know that you are near Sets my heart a-reeling From my toes up to my ears (Bob Dylan: The Man In Me)
Writes a Nobel Prize winner, the verse below:
I will find out where she has gone And kiss her lips, and take her hands And walk among long dappled grass (William Yeats: The Song Of The Wandering Aengus)
Rather directly alluded to in the following song lyrics:
You gonna have to leave me now, I know But I'll see you in the sky above In the tall grass, in the ones I love (Bod Dylan: You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go)