{"id":7582,"date":"2016-10-23T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-23T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=7582"},"modified":"2020-12-30T15:44:54","modified_gmt":"2020-12-30T15:44:54","slug":"like-sand-and-glue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=7582","title":{"rendered":"Like sand and glue"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A
A young Bob Dylan singing protest songs at a rally in the US.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A little while ago, Bob Dylan was award the Nobel Prize in Literature \u2013 the first songwriter ever to receive the award. I found this really interesting for two reasons\u2026<\/p>\n

Firstly that some people should question that a songwriter should be given an award for literature.<\/p>\n

And secondly \u2013 why\u00a0hasn\u2019t it happened before?<\/p>\n

Personally \u2013 I am a Dylan fan. I\u2019ve seen him in concert a couple of times. I love his early acoustic roots and songs like Blowing in the Wind \u2013 but I am also a fan of his electric side.<\/p>\n

He really does know how to write a song! His music might not appeal to everyone. David Bowie got it pretty right when he wrote about \u2018a strange young man called Dylan \u2013 with a voice like sand and glue.\u2019<\/p>\n

Dylan\u2019s rough and scratchy voice might not appeal to the purists or to opera lovers. But sand and glue is exactly what his songs are\u2026..<\/p>\n

Sand is rough. It scratches polished surfaces and shows what\u2019s underneath. It gets in your shoes and irritates you until you have to do something about it. Sometimes a sandy beach or a desert is so hot it burns when you touch it. Sand shifts and changes over time. And glue sticks. Sometimes when you don\u2019t want it to.<\/p>\n

Dylan\u2019s music has been all that to me.<\/p>\n

\"My
My first Bob Dylan album – it featured the storytelling song ‘Hurricane’ about a black boxer falsely (so Dylan said) convicted of murder by an all-white jury.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Nobel Committee is supposed to award the prize to the person \u2018who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction\u2019. Literature is technically defined as a body of written work \u2013 and commonly thought to be work of high artistic or intellectual value.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not quite sure what is meant by an ideal direction \u2013 but when you look back at the history of this award \u2013 there are some hints of what the Nobel Committee thinks it is\u2026.<\/p>\n

    \n
  • subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny \u2013 Doris Lessing<\/li>\n
  • reveal the absurdity of society’s clich\u00e9s – Elfriede Jelinek<\/li>\n
  • scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden – Dario Fo<\/li>\n
  • reflecting a continent’s life and conflicts – Gabriel Garc\u00eda M\u00e1rquez<\/li>\n
  • illuminate the human condition in the world of today – William Golding<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Dylan was given the award \u201cfor having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”<\/em>. Many of Dylan\u2019s songs became the anthems of the American Civil Rights movement. They were the voice of protest. And sadly many of those protests songs are still relevant today.<\/p>\n

    As of today, Dylan hasn\u2019t acknowledged the award \u2013 but then, he is \u2018a strange young man\u2019 \u2013 although at 75, perhaps not so young anymore \u2013 at least in years.<\/p>\n

    As I write this, the music going around in my head is, surprisingly, not Dylan\u2019s. Last night I was at a gig with another singer-songwriter in the great American tradition.<\/p>\n

    \"Loudon
    Loudon Wainwright appeared briefly on MASH – writing funny, but insightful songs about wars and the people who have to fight them.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Loudon Wainwright isn\u2019t as famous as Dylan, but like Dylan, and Woody Guthrie, and Hank Williams and so many other \u2013 he sings songs and life and death and love and families and government and\u2026. Songs about people.<\/p>\n

    I guess that\u2019s what\u2019s meant by \u2018an ideal direction\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A little while ago, Bob Dylan was award the Nobel Prize in Literature \u2013 the first songwriter ever to receive the award. I found this really interesting for two reasons\u2026 Firstly that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-music","category-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7g6jm-1Yi","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7582"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7588,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7582\/revisions\/7588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}