Bob Dylan is the 2016 Nobel Laureate for Literature.
When I first heard that news I was not shocked, but I was
surprised. The Nobel Prize for Literature usually goes to well known authors
like John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Harold Pinter, Doris Lessing, Alexander Sholzenitsyn
and a lot of other famous authors whom I have not read and whose names I cannot
pronounce.
When I thought a little more about it I rejoiced at such an appropriate choice. “Why not Bob Dylan?,” I thought. He wrote the songs that
inspired a generation in the 1960s when the times certainly were a changing. He
has continued to write song lyrics that are great poetry in anybody’s language.
I was in Toronto, Canada in 1962-64 and the times certainly
were a changing. Every night on television we watched Martin Luther King Junior
marching peacefully for civil rights against aggressive and brutal opposition.
We watched President John Kennedy, against a background of riots and vicious
slayings, tell the American people that unless all citizens enjoyed liberty and
the pursuit of happiness, then no American was really free. We watched as Robert Kennedy called out
the National Guard to an enable African-American, James Meredith, to be the first
negro to enrol at the Mississippi’s state university, even though Governor,
George Wallace, was standing in the doorway to block his entry.
We watched Martin Luther King Junior tell over 100 000
people at the Washington Monument one very hot afternoon in August, 1963, about
his dream to one day live in a country where a man was judged by the strength
of his character and not by the colour of his skin.
He did not live to see that day. He was shot dead in 1968.
So was Bobby Kennedy. Just like his brother, JFK, five year earlier. Oh, the
times they were a changing alright. The answer was blowing in the wind. And Bob
Dylan wrote words that inspired and challenged us all to try and make it happen.
Come writers and
critics who prophesy with your pen
And keep your eyes wide,
the chance won’t come again.
And don’t speak to
soon for the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’
who that it’s namin’
For the loser now will
be later to win,
For the times they are
a changin’.
Dylan’s Nobel award started me thinking of other songwriters
who would also have been worthy Nobel winners for a lifetime of creating
notable poetic expressions with their song lyrics.
Leonard Cohen came to mind. I have seen Leonard Cohen twice in
live concerts about twenty years apart. At that first concert after he said
hello to the audience he expressed surprise that there were so many people
there who so obviously “liked listening to music to slit your wrists by.”
I was first attracted to Leonard’s work when I heard him
sing
“Like a bird on a wire
Like a drunk in an old
midnight choir
I have tried in my way
to be free”
His words and music touched me. Then I heard him sing Dance
Me to the End of Love.
“Dance me to your beauty
like a burning violin.
Dance me through the panic
till I’m gathered safely in.
Lift me like an olive
branch and be my homeward dove.
Dance me to the end of
love”
The music, the biblical references and the word pictures he
painted made me a Leonard Cohen fan for life. Like Dylan, Cohen has produced a
huge body of work that compares favourably with any writers of any century. He’s
my man!
Bob Dylan received his Nobel Literature Award "for
having created new poetic expressions within the great American song
tradition" It reminded me of the words spoken by legendary TV newsman,
Walter Cronkite, way back in 1997, on the occasion celebrating the 100th
birthday of America’s greatest songwriter, Irving Berlin. At that time,
Cronkite remarked that ”Irving Berlin helped write the songs of this country,
capturing the best of who we are and the dreams that shape our lives.”
I have enjoyed Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen’s music and
poetry for many years, however, I am more a Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra
and Tony Bennet sort of music lover. I love tuneful melodies that also have
great lyrics. So, it will surprise no one who knows me that I would have no
trouble nominating Cole Porter and Irving Berlin as two gentlemen who combined
wonderful melodies with lyrics that were often witty, enchanting or terribly sad.
After all, when we were very much younger, falling in and
out of love, it was Cole Porter who gave us the words that woo.
You’d be so easy to
love
Easy to idolize all
others above
So worth the yearning
for.
So swell to keep the home fires burning for.
We’d be so grand at
the game,
So carefree together
that it does seem a shame
That you can’t see
your future with me,
‘Çause you’d be. Oh,
so easy to love.
Cole Porter reminded us how harrowing the gut
tearing, yearning anxiety that separated love could be. Mimicking the endless
tick, tick, ticking of the clock that makes time and separation the enemy of lovers everywhere he wrote
Night and day, you are
the one.
Only you, beneath the
moon and the sun.
Whether near to me or
far
It’s no matter
darling, where you are
I think of you
Night and day. Night
and day.”
Of course, Cole was a rather cheeky chappy. He loved the double entendre and giving quite risqué interpretation
to his lyrics.
That’s why birds do it,
bees do it
Even educated fleas do
it.
Let’s do it. Let’s
fall in love.
Cole Porter was married to Linda Porter and they stayed
married despite Cole’s predeliction for male Spanish dancers and similar macho
types. However, he remained devoted to Linda throughout his life.
Their relationship could perhaps be summed up in his song
But, I’m always true
to you darling in my fashion.
I’m always true to
you, darling, in my way.
Yes, Cole Porter would be a very worthy Nobel Laureate, but
if you only get one pick, then it is Irving Berlin for me.
Irving Berlin wrote over 1550 songs. They are all good. Many
of them are great and sold multi millions of copies. Some of them are incomparable. Berlin
was born in Russia in 1897 and came to America with his parents when he was
five.
In 1911 he wrote Alexander’s Rag Time Band. This rag time
tune instantly became famous around the world. The next year he married Dorothy
Goetz. Six months later she died from typhoid fever which she contracted on
their honeymoon in Havana.
Irving Berlin was devastated by the death of his young bride.
He wrote a beautiful song to express his heartfelt grief. Simple words that portray loss on a
grand and sorrowful scale. It quickly sold over a million copies.
I lost the sunshine
and roses.
I lost the heavens of
blue.
I lost the beautiful
rainbow, I lost the morning dew.
I lost the angel who
gave me summer, the whole winter too.
Oh, I lost the
gladness, that turned into sadness when I lost you.
He continued to express his melancholy in song. What’ll I Do
encompassed the grief experienced when separated from a loved one either by
death or distance.
What’ll I do with just
a photograph
To tell my troubles
to.
When I’m alone
With only dreams of you
That won’t come true,
What’ll I do?
However, despite this great sadness, Berlin’s life had a happy
ending. In 1925 he married Elin Mackay, an heiress. They remained devoted to
each other for 63 years before Elin died in July, 1998. Irving died two months
later, in September, 1998.
Elin’s family was a catholic. Before the marriage, the family
were not too keen on her interest in a young Jewish songwriter, so they sent her off
to Europe to forget about him. However, Irving wooed his lover over the airways
with songs such as Remember and Always.
Remember the night
The night you said “I
love you?”
Remember?
Remember, you vowed by
all the stars above you?
Remember, we found a lonely
spot,
And after I learned to
care a lot
You promised that you’d
forget me not?
But you forgot to
remember.
Of course, Always became a popular song at weddings.
I’ll be loving you,
always.
With a love that’s
true, always.
Not for just a year, not
for just a day,
Not for just an hour,
But always.
Like the rest of America, and the world, Elin could not
resist such tender expressions of love. She came back to America and they
eloped. Elin’s father was not impressed. Thinking Irving was after his daughter's
huge financial inheritance he promptly disinherited her. Irving immediately assigned her
the royalties from several of his songs, including Always, which is still
played at weddings and anniversary celebrations. She immediately became very wealthy in her own right.
Mr Mackay refused to speak to Irving for several years. However his
attitude mellowed during the great depression, in the 1930s, when he suffered
severe financial hardship and his very affluent songwriting son-in-law bailed
him out.
Berlin wrote a substantial part of the Great American Songbook.
One of his most famous songs, of course, is White Christmas, which Bing Crosby
first sang in a 1941 for a film called Holiday Inn.
That Crosby version alone has sold more
records than any other song in history.
Irving Berlin loved America. And America loved him. It made him a very, very rich man. It is reported that on one occasion his accountant told him of certain steps he could take to minimize his income tax. Berlin exclaimed, “ But, I don’t want to minimize my tax. I like paying taxe. I love this country.” (Donald Trump, please take note)
Irving Berlin even wrote a love song to America. One of the
most poignant moments in the aftermath of the Twin Towers tragedy of September
11, 2001, was the televised gathering of stunned and shocked US congressmen and
women standing on the steps of the Capitol building and singing
God bless America,
land that I love,
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans white with foam,
God bless America,
My home sweet home.
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans white with foam,
God bless America,
My home sweet home.
We must be forever grateful to Irving Berlin. Indeed, we must be grateful for the world of music. In this troubled world of ours, the times still are a changing. Often, not in the way we would like.
Let us be thankful then, that people like Irving Berlin, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Cole Porter together with Paul McCartney, John
Lennon, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen and all the other lyrical poets have
given us words and music to lift our spirits and leave us with a song in our
hearts.
As Walter Cronkite so eloquently said of Irving Berlin, they have indeed captured the best of who we are and the dreams that shape our lives.
