Once read an article about work and some of his lyrics.

I was quite amazed by the quality - a very intelligent man

It could have been worse. Some people on Facebook were suggesting that it should have been given to laughing Len!

He is not a patch on Pete Waterman!

Enthusiastic Contrafibularities posted:

 

He is not a patch on Pete Waterman!

Hmmm: let's see...

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'

Versus:

All the way
We're going all the way
Going all the way
Going all the way
We're going all the way

The quality of this is very poor, but considering the mess that US politics is currently in, I think it servers as an important reminder of how it can be urgent, accessible and important...

Every Grain of Sand

Bob Dylan, 1981

In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need,
When the pool of tears beneath my feet flood every newborn seed,
There's a dyin' voice within me reaching out somewhere,
Toiling in the danger and in the morals of despair.
Don't have the inclination to look back on any mistake -
Like Cain I now behold this chain of events that I must break.
In the fury of the moment I can see the Master's hand
In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand.

Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear,
Like criminals they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer.
Ah, the sun beat down upon the steps of time to light the way,
To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay.
I gaze into the doorway of temptation's angry flame
And every time I pass that way I always hear my name.
Then onward in my journey I've come to understand
That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand.

I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night,
In the violence of a summer's dream, in the chill of a wintery light,
In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space,
In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face.
I hear the agéd footsteps like the motion of the sea,
Sometimes I turn - there's someone there - other times it's only me.
I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man,
Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand.

I'm afraid Dylan never did it for me ....I find his songs a bit banal .....but I know I'm in the minority 

velvet donkey posted:

Wordsworth must be in with a chance next year.

Give me Wordsworth any day  

Bossa Nova Baz posted:

I'm afraid Dylan never did it for me ....I find his songs a bit banal .....but I know I'm in the minority 

Yeah, there was only one or two I could get away with too.  

Most of it was music to slit your wrists to 

Enthusiastic Contrafibularities posted:

 

He is not a patch on Pete Waterman!

 

 

Devil's Advocate Enigmatic Contraversials? 

Sprout posted:

Most of it was music to slit your wrists to 

Nope. That was Leonard Cohen! 

Bossa Nova Baz posted:

velvet donkey posted:

Wordsworth must be in with a chance next year.

Give me Wordsworth any day  

Has 'Jobsworth' won one yet?

Xochi posted:

Sprout posted:

Most of it was music to slit your wrists to 

Nope. That was Leonard Cohen! 

Soz, Zimmerman an all   

In the chauvinistic days of my late adolescence one regarded his Bobness as being a tart's act.

Yet at parties we never had cause to hide his gramophone records under the settee as we would with Laughing Len. 

The work of a genius.

I was walking
Down the high street
When I heard footsteps behind me
And there was a little old man (hello!)
Scarlet and Gray, chuckling away

Well he trotted
Back to my house
And he sat beside the telly (ahh)
With his tiny hands on his tummy
Chuckling away, laughing all day

i'll have to report you to the gnome office
(gnome office? ahahahah!)

Hah hah hah
Hee hee hee
I'm a laughing gnome and you can't catch me
Hah hah hah
Hee hee hee
I'm a laughing gnome and you can't catch me
Said the laughing gnome

Well I gave him roasted toadstools
And a glass of dandelion wine (*burp* pardon)
Then I put him on a train to Eastbourne
Carried his bags, and gave him a fag (have you got a light boy?)

hey where do you come from?
(gnome-ans land, hehe!)
oh really?

In the morning
When i woke up
He was sitting on the edge of my bed
With his brother who's name was Fred
He brought him along
To sing me a song

alright let's hear it
now, what's that clicking noise?
(that's Fred, he's a metro-gnome, haha)

Hah hah hah
Hee hee hee
I'm a laughing gnome and you can't catch me
Hah hah hah
Hee hee hee
I'm a laughing gnome and you can't catch me

(oh now, i'm a gnome anyway haha)
haven't you got a home to go to?
(no, we are gnome-ads hehe)
didn't they teach you to get your hair cut at school you look like a rolling gnome
(nah, not at the London school of eco-gnome-ics)

Now they're staying
Up me chimney
And we're living on cavier and honey (hurray!)
Cos they're earning me lots of money
Writing comedy prose
For radio shows

it's the errrr
it's the gnome-service of course!

Hah hah hah
Hee hee hee
I'm a laughing gnome and you can't catch me
Hah hah hah
Hee hee hee (oh really)
I'm a laughing gnome and you can't catch me
(one more time!)
Hah hah hah
Hee hee hee
I'm a laughing gnome and you can't catch me

Well done Enigmatic Contradictions. David Bowie got there ahead of Dylan then but has not (yet) been awarded a Nobel. 

Yep, I'd take Bowie over Dylan, anytime  

On the basis that the award was literature based I would suggest Dylan is way ahead of Bowie. I possess all of Bowie's gramophone records and very few of Dylan's because I prefer music to lyrics.

I think the Clintons are more likely to have wanted Joni Mitchell to have won the prize...

US singer-songwriter Bob Dylan says he accepts his Nobel Prize in literature, ending a silence since being awarded the prize earlier this month.

He said the honour had left him "speechless", the Nobel Foundation said in a statement.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-37806639

Interesting El Rolo that a guy honoured for his words is 'lost for them' when he needs them most.

Mind you the scruffy bugger looks like he needs a bath.

And the word you're looking for Bob is 'soap'  

Saint posted:

Interesting El Rolo that a guy honoured for his words is 'lost for them' when he needs them most.

 

Mind you the scruffy bugger looks like he needs a bath.

 

And the word you're looking for Bob is 'soap'  

Just as acerbic as ever Sainty 

    just foolin'

Saint posted:

Interesting El Rolo that a guy honoured for his words is 'lost for them' when he needs them most.

 I thought the same, although it could have been worse. At least Bob didn't do what he normally does when caught on the spot, and start spouting nonsense about always carrying a lightbulb, or whatever...

Saint posted:

Interesting El Rolo that a guy honoured for his words is 'lost for them' when he needs them most.

 

Mind you the scruffy bugger looks like he needs a bath.

 

And the word you're looking for Bob is 'soap'  

Rofl  

My David Bowie joke-ette aside, if we are talking poets then I am going to throw a heavyweight into the ring; Gil Scott-Heron.

Try this on for size: The Revolution will not be Televised. 

*aapologies for formatting, I'm mobole*

You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and
Skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
Blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
Hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.

The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by the
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
Thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.

There will be no pictures of you and Willie May
Pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,
Or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.
NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32
Or report from 29 districts.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
Brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
Brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
Run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.

Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and
Women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
Will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock
News and no pictures of hairy armed women
Liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,
Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be right back
After a message about a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
Bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.

The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
Will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers,
The revolution will be live.

Yes I have that one on my electric iPod classic- a personal favourite.

Garage Joe posted:

Yes I have that one on my electric iPod classic- a personal favourite.

Your iPod sounds like it has a class selection of artists and tune GJ.