Although Bob Dylan formally accepted his Nobel Prize for Literature while in Sweden in April, he was still required to deliver a speech in order to qualify for the 8 million kroner ($900,000) prize money.
He has now delivered his Nobel lecture, in the form of a 27-minute recording – which you can listen to below – which was recorded in Los Angeles on Sunday and published by the Nobel Foundation on Monday [June 5, 2017].
“The speech is extraordinary and, as one might expect, eloquent. Now that the lecture has been delivered, the Dylan adventure is coming to a close,” said Sara Danius, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy.
“When I received the Nobel Prize for Literature, I got to wondering exactly how my songs related to literature,” Dylan began his lecture. “I wanted to reflect on it and see where the connection was. I’m going to try to articulate that to you ― and most likely it will go in a round-about way.”
Meanwhile, fans can also buy Life‘s Bob Dylan special, a full-collector’s edition celebrating the songwriter’s music and work, from Sainsbury’s, Tesco, WHS, Easons (Ireland) and some independents.
The July 2017 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our exclusive interview with Roger Waters on the cover. Elsewhere in the issue, there are new interviews with Evan Dando, Jason Isbell, Steve Van Zandt and Kevin Morby and we look at shoegazing and the Scottish folk revival. We review The Beatles, Fleet Foxes, U2, Van Morrison and Dan Auerbach. Our free CD features 15 tracks of the month’s best music, including Can, Richard Dawson, Saint Etienne, Ride, The Unthanks, Songhoy Blues and more.