Last month the Nobel Prize Committee announced that, to no one’s surprise, Bob Dylan won’t attend the awards ceremony coming up on Dec. 10. Today, they disclosed that Dylan at least provided a speech for someone else to read at the event.
Prediction: it’ll just be the lyrics of “I’m Not There.”
Congratulations, Dylan, on successfully doing the bare minimum required to not completely spurn the Swedish Academy. Oh, and on the Nobel Prize, too. (For his part, Dylan did say of his win, “Amazing, incredible. Whoever dreams about something like that?”)
It seems punk legend Patti Smith will be picking up Dylan’s slack. The committee announced that she’ll perform “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” at the ceremony, as well as give a lecture on “the importance of role models” the day before. Dylan himself is required to do a lecture within six months in order to qualify for the prize; the committee seemed to be giving him a nudge in their recent statement that “it is the only requirement.” Well, Smith’s will suffice until he deigns to do his; she’s probably a more dynamic lecturer anyway.
Listen to Dylan continue to go his way via the Paste Cloud player below.