{"id":3081,"date":"2016-10-31T09:02:41","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T13:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/riley\/?p=3081"},"modified":"2016-10-31T10:55:32","modified_gmt":"2016-10-31T14:55:32","slug":"sweet-november-or-whither-anthony-newley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/riley\/2016\/10\/sweet-november-or-whither-anthony-newley\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweet November, or Whither Anthony Newley"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hardrainknopf\"<\/a>\"hardrainvint\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dylan’s Nobel<\/strong><\/p>\n

Extra points for how the announcement landed on Paul Simon<\/a>‘s 75th birthday (October\u00a013). I like what\u00a0Milo Miles<\/a>\u00a0wrote:<\/p>\n

\n

Like many an academically beloved poet \u2014 say, Ezra Pound or T. S. Eliot \u2014 Mr. Dylan has always placed himself on a literary continuum where allusions focus and amplify meaning. \u2014 Jon Pareles, NY Times<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I think this is true. But speaking of continuums, I also think poetry and song lyrics lie along one of them doohickeys. At one end are impressive, irresistible poems that can\u2019t be set to any substantial music without being blurred or diminished. At the other end are perfect words for knockout songs that don\u2019t work a fraction as well without their music raiment.<\/p>\n

No question Dylan lies way more toward the literary end of the scale. But that does not mean the opposite ends of the continuum are identical. My serious gripe is with the Nobel categories. Why in the blank hell is there no Nobel Prize for Music?<\/em>\u00a0[ephasis added]\u00a0<\/strong>If you want to go over the top, you could holler that the Lit Prize is a bit of a dis to Dylan \u2014 implying that none of his tunes belong in the same exalted universe as his lyrics.<\/p>\n

Remnick quotes<\/a> Dylan on Leonard Cohen, proving he should keep writing books:<\/p>\n

\u201cHis gift or genius is in his connection to the music of the spheres,\u201d Dylan went on. \u201cIn the song \u2018Sisters of Mercy,\u2019 for instance, the verses are four elemental lines which change and move at predictable intervals\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. but the tune is anything but predictable. The song just comes in and states a fact. And after that anything can happen and it does, and Leonard allows it to happen. His tone is far from condescending or mocking. He is a tough-minded lover who doesn\u2019t recognize the brush-off. Leonard\u2019s always above it all. \u2018Sisters of Mercy\u2019 is verse after verse of four distinctive lines, in perfect meter, with no chorus, quivering with drama. The first line begins in a minor key. The second line goes from minor to major and steps up, and changes melody and variation. The third line steps up even higher than that to a different degree, and then the fourth line comes back to the beginning. This is a deceptively unusual musical theme, with or without lyrics. But it\u2019s so subtle a listener doesn\u2019t realize he\u2019s been taken on a musical journey and dropped off somewhere, with or without lyrics…\u201d<\/p>\n

See earlier Dylan posts here<\/a>, here<\/a> and here<\/a>. Emerson College interview (“And what about CRITICS? Don’t WE write literature too? Give a big kiss to Clive JAMES before he dies!”)\u00a0here<\/a>. All Dylan links<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Accidental Life: An Editor’s Notes on Writing and Writers, <\/strong>by\u00a0Terry McDonell (Knopf)<\/p>\n

Recommended, forgiving a few whoppers (like\u00a0page\u00a075, where he claims “For years there was no finer writer at Rolling Stone<\/em>…”). This from a\u00a0man who edited both Thompson and Marcus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Why in the blank hell is there no Nobel Prize for Music?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3081"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3096,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3081\/revisions\/3096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/riley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}