--- title: Bob Dylan Gives Deep Nobel Prize Lecture description: Bob Dylan has recorded a 27-minute long speech following being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. canonical: https://time.com/4806017/bob-dylan-nobel-prize-literature-lecture/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-05T19:55:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:05:40.384Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Bob Dylan Gave a Very Deep Lecture About His Nobel Prize og:description: He ponders the question raised about his prize: are his lyrics literature? og:url: https://time.com/4806017/bob-dylan-nobel-prize-literature-lecture/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted5e98db9ccc20e4/6988d030a988ca34b46bc897/gettyimages-462898048.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: MusiCares Person Of The Year Tribute To Bob Dylan - Show og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bob Dylan Gave a Very Deep Lecture About His Nobel Prize twitter:description: He ponders the question raised about his prize: are his lyrics literature? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted5e98db9ccc20e4/6988d030a988ca34b46bc897/gettyimages-462898048.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bob Dylan Explores Whether Song Lyrics Are Literature in Nobel Prize Lecture > Sponsored content. 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Bob Dylan finally accepted his Nobel Prize for Literature in early April, and now, he has the full-length acceptance speech — or “Nobel Lecture” — to go along with it._ by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Jun 5, 2017 7:55 PM UTC Bob Dylan finally accepted his Nobel Prize for Literature in early April, and now, he has the full-length acceptance speech — or “Nobel Lecture” — to go along with it. by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Jun 5, 2017 7:55 PM UTC [Bob Dylan](http://time.com/4597291/bob-dylan-nobel-prize-speech/) has delivered a lecture for his Nobel Prize the way he’s lived his life: on his own terms. The announcement that the legend had [won the Nobel Prize](http://time.com/4550250/bob-dylan-nobel-prize-interview/) in literature last October met with mixed reactions. Members of the literary community [debated](https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/09/bob-dylan-doesnt-need-to-win-the-nobel-prize/310477/) whether the lyrics to popular music deserve to be honored by the same award that has recognized writers like Toni Morrison, Saul Bellow and Ernest Hemingway. Now, in a 27-minute speech recorded on Sunday and released on Monday by the Nobel Foundation, the artist ponders that very question. The talk comes in just under the wire: Dylan’s deadline to present a lecture, at the risk of losing [his prize money](http://ew.com/books/2017/06/05/bob-dylan-nobel-prize-literature-acceptance-speech/), was June 10. “I got to wondering exactly how my songs related to literature,” he begins in the recording. “I wanted to reflect on it and see where the connection was.” After speaking about some of his early influences, including Buddy Holly, the award winner discusses the ways in which three classics, _Moby-Dick_, _All Quiet on the Western Front_ and Homer’s _The Odyssey_ influenced his work. He then offers some insight into what set his music apart. “Folk lingo was the only vocabulary that I knew, and I used it,” he says. “I had principles and sensibilities and an informed view of the world.” But does his contribution to the American songbook qualify as literature? Though he doesn’t offer a definitive answer, he doesn’t hesitate to point out one important distinction. “Songs are unlike literature. They’re meant to be sung, not read,” he says, asking listeners to experience his lyrics “the way they were intended to be heard: in concert or on record or however people are listening to songs these days.” Listen to the lecture above. ## Transcript [00:00] When I received the Nobel Prize for literature, I got to [00:03] wondering exactly how my songs related to literature. [00:09] I wanted to reflect on it and see where the connection [00:12] was. I'm going to try to articulate that to you and most [00:16] likely will go in a roundabout way. But I hope what I say [00:20] will be worthwhile and purposeful. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [00:25] If I was to go back, to the dawning of it all, I guess [00:29] I'd have to start with Buddy Holly. Buddy died when I [00:33] was about 18 and he was 22. From the [00:37] moment I first heard him [ MUSIC ] I felt akin. I felt [00:40] related, like he was an older brother. I even thought I [00:44] resembled him. But he played the music that I loved. [00:48] The music I grew up on. Country western, rock and roll [00:53] and rhythm and blues. Three separate strands of [00:57] music that he intertwined and infused into one genre, [01:00] one brand And Buddy wrote songs, songs that had [01:04] beautiful melodies and imaginative verses. And he [01:08] sang great, he sang in more than a few voices. He [01:13] was the archetype, everything I was and wanted to be. [01:15] I saw him only but once, and that was a few days [01:19] before he was gone. I had to travel a hundred miles to [01:22] get to see him play and I wasn't disappointed. He was [01:26] powerful and electrifying. He had a commanding [01:29] presence. I was only six feet away. He was [01:32] memorizing. I watched his face, his hands, the way he [01:36] tapped his foot, his big black glasses, the eyes behind [01:39] the glasses, the way he held his guitar, the way he [01:43] stood. His neat suit, everything about him. He looked [01:46] older than 22. Something about him seemed [01:49] permanent and he filled me with conviction. Then out [01:52] of the blue, the most uncanny thing happened. He [01:56] looked at me right dead straight in the eye and he [01:58] transmitted something, something I didn't know what, [02:01] and it gave me the chills. I think it was a day [02:05] or two after that that his plane went down and [02:08] somebody, somebody I had never seen before handed [02:09] me a Lead Belly record with the song Cotton Fields on [02:13] it. And that record changed my life right then and [02:16] there. Transported me into a world I'd never known. It [02:19] was like and explosion when off. Like I had been [02:22] walking in darkness and all of a sudden the darkness [02:24] was eliminated, it was like somebody laid hands on me [02:27] I must have played that record a 100 times. All [02:32] songs are alive in the hands of the living, the songs are [02:36] [ UNKNOWN ] they are meant to be sang not read. The [02:40] words in Shakespeare's plays were meant to be acted [02:42] on the stage, just as lyrics in songs are meant to be [02:46] sung, not read on the page. And I hope some [02:50] of you get the chance to listen to these lyrics the way [02:53] they were intended to be heard. In concert, on record, [02:57] or however people are listening to songs these days. I [03:01] returned once again to Homer, who says sing in me old [03:04] muse. 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