After Bob Dylan received the Nobel Prize for Literature the other day, a few grad school buddies and I had an animated discussion over whether he deserved it (most said “yes”). But I also argued that had Lennon and McCartney both been alive, they would have equally deserved the prize for literature.
When someone sardonically pointed out that Nobels aren’t given for corpses, I continued to argue that Paul McCartney deserved the Prize as much as did Dylan. Well, that may have been hyperbole, but McCartney wrote a number of fantastic “rock” songs: Eleanor Rigby; The Fool on the Hill; the fantastic final medley of Abbey Road; Penny Lane, Here, There and Everywhere; Yesterday, and this classic, supposedly about civil rights. When listening to some of these songs again (and don’t miss this live version by an older McCartney, I found this superb version of “Blackbird” by Sarah McLachlan, which I hadn’t heard. Enjoy it; it’s a good way to start a lazy Saturday.
A great performance of a great song by a great singer. Really, really good stuff.
Lovely performance of a lovely song.
IMO, Beatles songs tended to be nicer musically but Dylan’s songs were more interesting lyrically. (Referring to their work in the ’60s.)
Yes, the Beatles lyrics tend to be more personal with love songs predominating. Dylan has a more social/political intent which makes them, to some, more profound. Yet, it is hard to say what is profound. Sometimes I think a beautiful love song can be as profound as a social movement.
This contrasted has been noted in terms of films that win Academy Awards. A film dealing with social problems has a distinct advantage over films which deal with personal subjects.
John Lennon was an excellent lyricist, I think. He was heavily influenced by Dylan, which he openly acknowledged in interviews. Sometimes you can hear it overtly, as in “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” which is essentially a Dylan pastiche. Other times, it’s a more subtle lyrical influence, as in “Come Together.”
While “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” certainly reflects the strong influence Dylan had on Lennon in the mid-60s, to me it still sounds uniquely Lennonesque, with a sort of weary, wary, insecure outlook on the world that many of Lennon’s songs had, in his Beatles and solo years. Help! also fits the mode, albeit with a more pop/rock sheen than the folk rock of YGTHYLA. Dylan’s lyrics rarely reflected any insecurity, aside from Tangled Up in Blue and a few other songs from Blood on the Tracks.
I Am the Walrus was Lennon tripping on LSD and listening to police sirens outside his window and wanting to skewer Dylan’s lyrical style and coming up with one of my favorite Beatles’ songs (but I have a lot of favorites!).
Blackbird, of course, is one of McCartney’s masterpieces and Sarah McLachlan and her accompanist (who I don’t recognize) performed a very lovely rendition here.
I didn’t mean to denigrate “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away,” in any way. I love that tune, and have ever since I was a kid and saw the scene in Help with Ringo playing the tambourine in his sunken bed. 🙂
And then there’s “For No One”, one of my all-time favorite McCartney-as-Beatle songs.
You’ll also find a few excellent songs on Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, which, despite two or three duds, is easily one of McCartney’s best solo records — and one that comes closest to sounding like a Beatles record (thanks to the excellent production by Radiohead’s producer).
I too feel that Dylan was not the best choice. There is no dearth of literature writers and yet it was a peculiar move!
Has there ever been a shared Nobel in Literature?
What not Simon and Garfunkel then? And they can sing (or would that be a strike against them?).
I would think that Paul Simon would come closer (but not close enough) than Lennon McCartney. Dylan won his prize because, standing alone, his lyrics are great poetry. These others, IMO, are known more for blending melody with lyrics to make great songs. But their lyrics, without the melody, don’t hold a candle to Dylan’s.
I can see that argument.
It’s mostly a matter of taste. I think Dylan is great, but for just the quality of the songwriting, it’s hard to beat Paul Simon or Randy Newman.
Speaking of Randy Newman, have you listened to his Faust? I think denizens of WEIT would enjoy it.
I agree with the way you’ve ranked these guys. I do love Dylan’s poetry.
Do her fans always scream like that or was it a subtle tribute to Beatlemania?
Fantastic. The Beatles produced some amazing music. I was 8 when they first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, and I recall my parents not being very impressed. But despite my parents poor opinion of them, IMHO they wrote some great music.
Brad Mehldau’ trio did Blackbird.
I don’t think Macca would have written half the great stuff he wrote without the motivating brilliance of Lennon alongside him as a competitor; and you see that after the Beatles split, with McCartney’s work being generally pretty inessential whilst Lennon, at least in the first few years of the seventies, writing maybe the best songs he ever wrote and two very different but classic albums in Imagine and Plastic Ono Band…
But McCartney was still a brilliant songwriter, and he was at his most obscenely prolific and talented best circa the white album, with Blackbird, Martha My Dear, Back In The USSR, Helter Skelter… The latter is just monumental, hewn-from-stone heavy rock – how that came from the same guy who wrote Blackbird I don’t know.
Maybe McCartney suffers by comparison with Lennon but I still think he was a brilliant songwriter.
Paul McCartney deserves a Nobel — if they start giving one out for melody. Don’t get me wrong, McCartney has written some great lyrics — just as Bob Dylan has written some great melodies. But Dylan (as he’s acknowledged) won’t win an lifetime awards for his melodies (a lot of which are re-workings of traditional, public-domain tunes), and Maca won’t win for his lyrics.
All the great McCartney lyrics you cite are from his Beatles days, none from his subsequent 45-year career. Paul was a better lyricist as long as he had John around to spur him and goad him, to act as his lyrical conscience. (Similarly, John did his best work in conjunction with Paul, either in partnership with or reaction to him. The sum of those two was greater than its parts.)
BTW, I recently saw Eight Days a Week, Ron Howard’s documentary about the Beatles’ American tours. It’s wonderful.
Leonard Cohen
Yes! We read his lyrics in school! I feel badly for him as he seems to be suffering with health issues recently and admitted he is ready for death in an article l read. His latest song “You Want It Darker” seems to reflect this. It’s a great tune too.
He’s recently changed his mind about wanting to die.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/oct/14/leonard-cohen-giving-nobel-to-bob-dylan-like-pinning-medal-on-everest
He probably freaked out so many people that he had to dial it back!
I love Leonard Cohen’s lyrics. Understand very little. I have no idea what this is about but hearing it gives me chills.
From “Last Year’s Man”
“And the skylight is like skin
for a drum I’ll never mend
and all the rain falls down amen
on the works of last year’s man.”
My favourite stanza from Nevermind:
That song was used in the last season of True Detectives
Among musicians, I’d put Dylan above any mentioned so far.
However, when I first read Dylan was awarded the Literature prize, I immediately ticked off a mental list of more deserving recipients. Steven Pinker, Matthew Stewart, Rebecca Goldstein, and Richard Dawkins were the first names that came to mind.
As an aside, I hope everyone remembers Bertrand Russell won his Nobel for literature.
I recently watched something where Paul McCartney admired he suffered from thinking he was a fraud (like many of us do) all his life. Paul McCartney!! At least I don’t feel so bad when I get those feelings now.
One way to think of it is we are all frauds. But, the trick is to create something rich and meaningful from the artifice.
Yeah, “Fake it till you make it”.
But it’s quite true, if you can pretend to be doing something well enough, then you probably are doing it in actuality.
(Well on in my career, I was shocked to hear myself referred to as ‘our expert’ on some technical matters, since I knew very well how sketchy my knowledge was. Equally disconcerting was the subsequent realisation that I appeared that way to my colleagues because they knew even less.)
cr
When I think of the literature prize, I think of John Steinbeck. I like John Steinbeck.
I like Bob Dylan, too, and have been a fan for over fifty years. One Dylan song I like is “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” which includes the following lyrics:
Situations have ended sad
Relationships have all been bad
Mine’ve been like Verlaine’s and Rimbaud
But there’s no way I can compare
All those scenes to this affair
You’re gonna make me lonesome when you go
Not just anybody can write lyrics like that and not get arrested. Brilliant.
Later in the same song he rhymes Honolulu with Ashtabula. A musician friend of mine who is much younger was working on learning a couple Dylan songs and this was one, based mostly on the delightful Shawn Colvin cover. We were discussing all the crimes against language that appear in this song and he asked about Ashtabula, if it made any sense. I told him that it was a city in Ohio known mostly for the crank. Why is it in the song? Obviously, need to have something to rhyme with Honolulu.
But, I do like Dylan. At his best, his songs are like little bitty John Steinbeck novels. “Of Mice and Men” or “The Winter of Our Discontent” in four minutes.
Interesting point about Steinbeck, given the parallels between his work and that of Dylan’s musical mentor, Woody Guthrie, especially in novels like Grapes of Wrath and Cannery Row.
“based mostly on the delightful Shawn Colvin cover”
Indeed.
If you are a folkie, I can’t recommend highly enough Shawn Colvin’s two covers albums: Cover Girl (1994) (includes Dylan’s “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome …”) and Uncovered.
All songs include “crimes against language.”
No one is expected to follow all grammar and usage rules in lyrics — just enough so that they don’t lose you. In fact, bending the rules is part of the impact, often.
— from “Willin’ by Lowell George.
When used under such circumstances, these aren’t “crimes against language”; they constitute “enallage” — the intentional use of ungrammatical constructions for rhetorical effect.
Such literary devices can be found throughout the oeuvres of Bob Dylan and Little Feat, among others.
Blackbird was released on the 1968 “White Album”. Paul sings it pure like it should be.
If two members of the Beatles should receive a Nobel prize, what Lou Reed should get? Superpowers?
Lol
That Nobel litterature prize has opened a can -I would not say of worms- of something.
Blackbird’s lyrics are not particularly good (immo), but the clever guitar work and melody definitely are outstanding.
A Nobel prize for music? Ag nay, Bach is a corpse already.
I play that song! But I don’t (yet) sing it while picking it.
I’ve always loved SM’s cover of this song. What a beautiful voice.
Interesting that her accompanist does not play it the way Macca did (and I follow Macca). He strums the 16th-note picks in the piece.
Here’s what that bah-bap-a-ba-ba-bah rhythmic bit looks like (with the opening glissando in front of it):
http://www.berettaconsulting.com/barbarossa/M/Pics/bird.jpg
Hey jbillie: I can’t fingerpick but I love learning new songs… In case you haven’t heard it this is ‘Blue Spotted’ Tail by Fleet Foxes, which is about as close to a modern ‘Blackbird’ as there is.
Sodding embedding. Apologies, again.
Thanks!