Listen: Bob Dylan on How His Songs Related to Literature in a Special Audio Released by Nobel Foundation

Bob Dylan circa 1970s. Photo: CSU Archives/Everett Collection

When Bob Dylan was declared the winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature  last October, his lack of comments on the same for at least the first five days left fans and critics flummoxed around the globe: some blamed his introverted nature while others called it arrogant. And although a few interviews in the subsquent weeks managed to clear the air (Dylan admitted the award left him “speechless”), a new recording released by the Nobel Foundation today has the man himself telling, in his famously raspy voice, how “my songs related to Literature.”

In the 27-minute recording, which the video mentions took place on June 4th at Los Angeles, the world’s greatest songwriter of all time talks about his influences–from Fifties’ musician Buddy Holly to the folk and blues artists that shaped his musical sensibilities. “When I started writing my own songs, the folk lingo was all the vocabulary I knew, and I used it… and I had something else. I had principles and sensibilities and an informed view of the world. And I had had that for a while; learnt it all in grammar school–Robinson Crusoe, A Tale Of Two Cities, Gulliver’s Travels,” he says.