If anyone ever doubted that Bob Dylan is a poet of the great American song tradition, the Nobel Prize Committee has confirmed it. The bard will be in concert at the Berglund Center in Roanoke Saturday night.
"How many roads must a man walk down before we call him a man? How many seas must a white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand?"
Bob Dylan has been singing questions like this since the 1960’s. Last month, that earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first time a roots music rock and roller has won the honor.
The prize is recognition of the way his lyrics forever changed American popular music.
“Prior to Dylan bursting on the scene, popular music was a lot of boy meets girl kind of lyrics and very simple narratives and Dylan changed all that," says Virginia Tech Music Professor, Jay Crone.
Crone says initially Dylan was closely aligned to the civil rights and protest movements, which he denied.
"It sort of added to his mystique. And then later on, when he moved into more popular kind of music, rock and roll specifically, he changed that completely," says Crone.
Bob Dylan is playing the Berglund Center in Roanoke Saturday night.
