Mumbai : The Indian music fraternity including sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan and composer AR Rahman on Thursday hailed the announcement of American music legend Bob Dylan bagging the Nobel Literature Prize, calling it a “proud moment” for all musicians.
The surprise announcement by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm was also welcomed as a “marvellous and amazing decision” with noted lyricist Javed Akhtar saying it proves that music can also be a part of literature.
75-year-old Dylan, whose most popular songs include “Blowin’ in the Wind”, “Mr Tambourine Man”, “Like a Rolling Stone” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”, was cited “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.
Khan said he is happy that a musician has received the honour and called Dylan a “deserving candidate” for the Nobel Prize. “He has given so much happiness and good music to people. This is the beauty of music that as a musician of any country we are connected with each other because we work with the same seven notes.”
Rahman, in a Facebook post, thanked Dylan for influencing him with the songs and transporting people to an alternate world. “#ARRahman, #VishweshKrishnamoorthy & the team of ’99 Songs’, celebrate the noble peace prize award for #BobDylan and want to thank him for influencing three generations with his songs, transporting people from their crazy lives to an alternate world.” Akhtar said he was very excited to learn the news. “I am very excited. As a matter of fact it is so wonderful to know that people are not rejecting or accepting things by genre but by quality. We tend to be puritan about certain things. If it is a song it is not taken as literature. Ghazals and ‘nasam’ are considered literature. Bob is a great guy. He is a man who created a moment,” Akhtar said. Veteran singer Usha Uthup said she was “very excited” and the excitement is not going to die down.
“It is such an exciting moment. This is an amazing decision for people who think that song is part of a literation. This is a marvelous decision. I am elated.”
Singer Adnan Sami, composer-singer Vishal Dadlani and Shilpa Rao took to Twitter to share how Dylan’s works helped shape their music. “Can’t even express my joy! #BobDylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature! This is AWESOME! His songs shaped the meaning of freedom for me!” Dadlani tweeted. “Congratulations to @bobdylan !! Extremely well deserved!! #BobDylan. Your music will impact the world only when your Melody becomes ‘one’ with the emotions of your Soul… #Music #Passion #Soul,” Sami wrote. “Here’s to celebrating lyrics and lyricists #NobleforDylan,” Rao tweeted. -PTI
