Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan performed at the Baton Rouge River Center Wednesday, nearly two weeks after becoming the first musician to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
The Swedish Academy did not need to give such a famous person the award, but Dylan deserved it nonetheless. His lyricism is not traditional literature, but he transcended regular music and used it as a tool to tell stories, comment on social issues and give a voice to the voiceless.
Dylan’s ability to tell a story in a limited amount of time sets him apart from novelists. Songs such as “Hurricane” and “Motorpsycho Nightmare” tell stories like any other piece of literature, but they reach more people than books could. His stories are told in a simple, easily understood way.
“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple,” Steve Jobs said in an 1998 BusinessWeek profile. “But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
Dylan moved mountains with his lyrics, and part of what makes his work so special is the way he could change a person’s worldview with just a single song. He wrote songs in which the original context may lose relevance over time, but the broader meaning of the songs will live forever.
His songs tell a story about humanity, and the humanity he speaks of will always exist in our society. In the song “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” his lyrics are as applicable now as they were in the ’60s.
When guitarist and singer José Feliciano heard one of Dylan’s most famous songs, “Blowin’ In the Wind,” he realized the goal of Dylan’s music.
“I realized then what Bob Dylan was all about,” Feliciano said. “It wasn’t about being a great guitarist or even being a great singer, but it was about getting the message of what you wrote across.”
Feliciano perfectly characterizes Dylan’s work. Dylan never cared about showmanship or popularity, but rather saying what he and others needed to say.
Dylan is a famous artist, but he told the story of those formerly unknown by most of society. In “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll,” Dylan told the tale of Hattie Carroll, a black woman who was beaten to death by William Zantzinger, a white man who served a mere six-month sentence for his crime.
Hattie Carroll’s murder would have gone unknown without Dylan’s song. Many opponents to Dylan’s Nobel Prize win say that he is too famous to receive it, but awarding the prize to him also awards it to those he gave a voice to.
He changed the world through his music, and he inspired many other people to change the world as well. We must give newer and more current writers the chance to change their world, but for Dylan, this award was long overdue.
Dylan’s songs are poetry. They are masterfully written and thought-provoking, and his words are some of the best I have ever read. I would not be the same person I am today without his music in my life, and I am glad that he won the Nobel Prize.
Lynne Bunch is an 18-year-old mass communication freshman from Terrytown, Louisiana.