Tomorrow in Stockholm, the Nobel Prize committee will announce the 2013 Nobel prize for literature. They have an opportunity to validate the music and culture born of the social and cultural upheavals of the 1960s. Indeed the frontrunner for the award, Haruki Murakami of Japan, who was strongly influenced by the social upheavals of the 60's is riding waves of acclaim for his fantastical novel “1Q84”.
But the question is: Why isn't the original artistic catalyst of the era Bob Dylan the front runner for the prize?
The troubadour poet Dylan, now in his seventies, has never stopped writing words or music of relevance and few poets of any era have seen their work bear more influence.
In May 1963, Dylan's political profile was raised when he walked out of The Ed Sullivan Show. During rehearsals, Dylan had been informed by CBS Television's "head of program practices" that the song he was planning to perform, "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues", was potentially libelous to the John Birch Society. Rather than comply with the censorship, Dylan refused to appear on the program.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.
The contemporary relevance is stunning. The Nobel Prize for literature is not awarded posthumously. I hope the Nobel committee considers that we have never lost our need for a strong voice for freedom.