Times a-changing as Bob Dylan collects pop music's first Nobel Prize

American singer Bob Dylan has been hailed as “a great poet in the English-speaking tradition” following his surprise win of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The 75-year-old was given the prestigious accolade for “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.

The last American to have won the literature prize was Beloved author Toni Morrison in 1993.

Permanent Secretary at the Swedish Academy, Sara Danius, said he was deserving of the prize, adding: “He is a great poet in the English-speaking tradition, and he is a wonderful sampler, a very original sampler, he embodies the tradition.

“And for 54 years now he’s been at it and re-inventing himself constantly, creating a new identity.”

Speaking after making the announcement, in a video posted to the official Twitter page of the Nobel Prize, Danius said she hoped there would not be criticism over the decision.

She suggested that anyone wanting to “start listening or start reading” Dylan should use the famous lyricist’s 1966 Blonde on Blonde album as a starting point.

She said that particular body of work was a good example of his “brilliant way of rhyming and putting together refrains and his pictorial thinking”.

Born Robert Zimmerman on May 24 1941, in the backwaters of Minnesota, he reinvented himself as Bob Dylan.

He is considered one of the greatest lyricists of modern times having penned memorable hits such as Blowin’ In The Wind and The Times They Are A-Changin’.

Asked about broadening the horizons of the prize, given that Dylan has not written novels in the “usual sense”, Danius said Dylan’s works were comparable to those of the ancient Greek lyric poet Sappho and Homer, author of The Iliad and Odyssey.

“It may look that way but really we haven’t (broadened the horizons), if you look back 2,500 years ago you discover Homer and Sappho, they wrote poetic texts that were meant to be listened to, they were meant to be performed with instruments and it’s the same with Bob Dylan,” she explained.

“He can be read and should be read and is a great poet in the grand English-speaking tradition”.

Dylan is the first musician to win the award, which was the last of this year’s Nobel Prizes being announced.

In 2008, the singer-songwriter won the Pulitzer Prize for his contributions to music and American culture.

The last album he released in May this year, titled Fallen Angels, was praised by critics - with Rolling Stone saying: “His phrasing remains spectacular, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hilarious, and the playing is sublime.”

The album was a follow-up to 2015’s Shadows in the Night, which saw Dylan singing songs made famous by Frank Sinatra.

Professor Lucia Boldrini, head of the department for English and comparative literature at Goldsmiths, University of London, said Dylan being awarded the prize did not surprise her.

She said: “The award of a prize for literature to a singer and songwriter won’t shock anyone who is familiar with the poetic tradition that goes all the way back to Homer, through the medieval troubadours and poets - like Dante - who composed ballads and lyrics for music and singing.”

Professor Boldrini went on to add that as a student at the University of Pisa in the 1980s “one of the courses in American literature was on Bob Dylan’s lyrics”.

“Some of the other literature professors were sceptical, but none of the students were, and I guess the tutor will feel vindicated,” she added.