Not attended to Stockholm, but sent a letter of thanks; Patti Smith sang one of her songs at the gala and forgot the lyrics
As expected, and you know, Bob Dylan did not attend yesterday to the awarding of the Nobel prizes. All in all, the brand-new Nobel Literature prize winner, managed to turn his absence into a powerful presence, to such an extent that even the Nobel Peace Juan Manuel Santos made a paraphrase of the song “Blowin’ in the Wind”. But that was not all. The poet sent an acceptance speech, it was assumed, would read singer Patti Smith, although ultimately the words of Dylan were confined to the privacy of the banquet of the Swedish Academy, which did not prevent him from finally getting to know.
In the beginning of his letter, Dylan says: “I Regret not being able to be there personally, but I am in spirit and honored to receive this award. Receive the Nobel prize for Literature, is something that I never imagined, such as stepping on the moon. From a very young age I read to those who had received: Kipling, Shaw, Thomas Mann, Pearl Buck, Albert Camus, Hemingway [?] My name is now joined to theirs, is a fact that eludes all description.” Dylan further explained towards the end of his letter: “Never, not once, I had time to wonder: “what Are literature my songs?“. I thank the Swedish Academy that she would take the time to consider that question and give a response as wonderful.”
Patti Smith, by his side, sang at the gala in Stockholm before the kings of Sweden, Silvia and Carlos Gustavo, and the crown princess, Victoria, with her husband, prince Daniel.The chosen song was “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,” which Dylan recorded in 1963, in an arrangement for guitar and orchestra. In spite of the orchestral accompaniment, the version was very intimate, almost a recitative. The writing of Dylan is labyrinthine, as labyrinthine as the making of the poet, and that song is especially, with images and metaphors that violate all previsbilidad. But Smith lost the thread in that maze of impulse from the bible. When you get to the verse “I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’” (I Saw a room full of men with hammers bloodied), got lost and was unable to continue singing. “Excuse me,” he said. “I’m very nervous.” This not ironic in a song in one of the last verses it is said: “Bu t I’ll know my song well before I start singin’” (But I am well aware of the song before starting to sing). A few verses later he returned to be confused, but no longer stopped. It is very likely that this version ends up turning into a reference.
Since they met, in October, the Nobel prize for Literature, Dylan caused rough discussions about the relevance (or not) to recognize the one who does not “write books”. It was for this reason that, in his speech, the critic and historian, Swedish Horace Engdahl tested on behalf of the Academy for a justification. “In and of itself, should not cause so much fury that a singer / songwriter worthy of the Nobel prize of literature. In the distant past, all poetry was sung or recited as a song, and the poets were rhapsodists, bards, troubadours. Lyrics comes from lira. But what Bob Dylan has done has not been back to the greeks or the provencal. Himself, body and soul to the american folk music of the TWENTIETH century, the one that sounded on radio stations and in gramophone records for the common people, white and black: songs of protest, country, blues, rock, primitive, gospel, commercial music. I listened to day and night, testing the material in their inst ruments, trying to learn.”
Engdahl not overlooked something that is known to any who has studied Dylan in-depth. “Soon the public stopped to compare it with Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams and started to put it in relation to William Blake, [Arthur] Rimbaud and [Walt] Whitman.” And, if you were in doubt: “To the people of the literary world who complain, I want to remind you that the gods do not write but sing and dance”.
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