One Year Ago Today: Bob Dylan Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature

It was one year ago today that the Swedish Academy announced that it had awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature to Bob Dylan, "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition." 

The British have had a particular fascination with Bob Dylan since his 1965 tour in the United Kingdom which was famously captured in the D.A. Pennebaker doccumentary film, Don't Look Back.. 

Here is the report that aired on BBC when the news of Dylan's Noble Prize was released.

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Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

He actually did far better than I expected with his acceptance speech. It was beautifully humble, wonderfully literary, and skillfully brief. Bob Dylan was not on hand to receive his Noble Prize for Literature in person, but he wrote his acceptance speech which was delivered by the U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, Azita Raji. The speech was given at the Nobel Banquet on December 10, 2016.

In addition to sending his acceptance speech, Dylan sent Patti Smith to perform on his behalf. The song she sang was an emotional rendition of an early Dylan song "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall." It was first recorded in 1963 on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (his second studio album). Dylan skillfully adapted the 17th century English ballad style to create a timeless classic.

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Bob Dylan, bard for a changing world

PBS News Hour covers the news out of Stockholm this past week of Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize in Literature

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