Story Behind The Song

About 10 in the morning in October 2016 I was listening to NPR when they announced that Bob Dylan had won the Nobel Prize for literature. I was astounded. I had never thought that a songwriter might be considered as a literary giant. That was quickly followed by total acceptance and understanding. Of course he should win - he is a great writer, a master of words, and a true original.

Song Description

The speaker in the song is pondering the overall meaning of events and trends in the culture and keeps being reminded that the breakthrough of a brilliant songwriter as the winner is cause for hope and comfort when so many signals are ominous and discouraging. Each of the seven verses paints a scene. The announcement of the news on the radio, the discovery that the Russians were meddling in the election that produced a president of dubious virtue, the death of several other great songwriters in one week, the expression of deep and complex emotions produced by Kate McKinnon's performance of Hallelujah on SNL, the awe that a 17-minute song about JFK's assassination could hit #1 on the Billboard charts, and the hope for humanity engendered by the fact of Dylan's winning the award is a light in the dark, something to hang onto and be grateful for.

Lyrics

Bob Dylan Won the Nobel Prize

We were sitting drinking coffee when
A voice came on the news at ten
With a headline that took us by surprise.
The earth stood still; the axis tipped.
I swear I felt a seismic shift
When I heard Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize.

It was just before Election Day
America was giving way
To lying charlatans and Russian spies
The Nobel vote was strange but smart
To see the genius in his art
And so Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize

Leonard Cohen died that week.
I tried to turn the other cheek,
Then Leon Russell said his last goodbyes.
When I heard about Mose Allison
I thought "Man, you just cannot win,
But at least Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize."

That weekend Kate McKinnon sang
"Hallelujah" and I felt the pangs
Of grief and tears fell hotly from my eyes.
When so much goes wrong it's hard to know
Just what to think, which way to go,
But, hey, Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize.

I just heard his latest song
A single seventeen minutes long,
About the murder most foul of JFK
As I listened I sat there stunned
The song hit Billboard's number one
Maybe things might just turn out OK

It's hard to tell reality
From a show I saw once on TV
So many nasty, brazen, outright lies
Sometimes it makes my blood run cold
The center may or may not hold
But at least Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize