Bob Dylan

While reading Jazz's post below I was reminded of an article in the LA Times yesterday, Bob Dylan a Finalist for Book Award. At 58 I am an aging hippy. I was in college in the late 60's and remember waiting for the next Dylan album. That was a time that the fabric of the United States was being torn apart by another war that couldn't be won. The musical poetry of Bob Dylan was a big part of that. He is a poet who happens to sing his poems. His poems are about man's shortcomings and failings, man's inhumanity to man. He was not afraid to go beyond what was acceptable even among his contemporaries. He went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk festival, an event that changed the folk and music scene forever but was not met with much enthusiasm at the time. Poems are often love songs and Dylan didn't disappoint on that front either. His 1987 album Time out of Mind has several heart tweaking examples. Well now the poet is being recognized. His autobiography is being recognized as a nominee for the National Book Critics Circle prizes.

Bob Dylan, the unofficial poet laureate of the rock 'n' roll generation, has now been officially placed alongside such literary greats as Philip Roth and Adrienne Rich, not to mention biographers of Shakespeare and Willem de Kooning. All were among nominees announced Saturday for the National Book Critics Circle prizes.

Dylan, whose memoir "Chronicles, Volume One" was a favorite with reviewers and readers, is among the finalists in the biography/autobiography category. His competition includes two acclaimed bestsellers: Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton and Stephen Greenblatt's biography of Shakespeare, "Will in the World." Also nominated were John Guy's "Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart" and "De Kooning: An American Master," by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan.

Virtually all literary efforts by rock stars, from the Kinks' Ray Davies to the Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan, are laughed off by critics, but Dylan has been praised for an unusually rich and engaging book, in which he writes passionately about such influences as Woody Guthrie and Robert Johnson and recalls his years as a young singer-songwriter in Greenwich Village.

I can't wait to read it, it's a history that is a big part of my life as well.