In today's "Oh, that's weird" news, Bob Dylan has been awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature, beating out acclaimed Japanese writer Haruki Murakami and thrilling dads everywhere. In response, Simon & Schuster has announced they are pushing up the release date for Bob Dylan's "The Lyrics" compendium. Today, it seems, is a very good day to be Bob Dylan.
"The Lyrics: 1961-2012" was initially scheduled for a November 8 release date; in their announcement, Simon & Schuster did not provide a new publication deadline, though they did congratulate Dylan, noting, "For decades, he has fused poetry and music with extraordinary artistry." In their Nobel announcement earlier today, the Swedish Academy compared Dylan to the ancient Greek poetry tradition, drawing parallels between his work and the likes of Sappho and Homer. Meanwhile, Twitter was mostly just relieved that Bob Dylan was not dead.
"The Lyrics," a compendium of Dylan's work featuring his own commentary and lyric edits (some never-before-seen), will actually be a revised edition of the original 2014 large-format hardcover, which, at 960 pages and $299, was out of reach for many of Dylan's long-time fans. The new version, coming in at 688 pages and $60, has already garnered a Best Seller title from Amazon based purely on pre-orders.
People love Dylan, man.
"The Lyrics" is not the first published work of Dylan's. "Chronicles: Volume I" was released in 2004, also by Simon & Schuster, and in 1985, Knopf published a collection of his lyrics and drawings. If that is still Not Enough Dylan for you, in a 2012 Rolling Stone interview, Dylan noted that he was working on another memoir, and Simon & Schuster (who also, it should be noted, published Bruce Springsteen's memoir last month, thus solidifying their position as "#1 Cool Baby Boomer Approved Publisher") have mentioned that he is currently under contract for more written work. There haven't been any additional comments in terms of what Dylan is working on, or when, but don't think twice, it's coming, oh my God that absolutely didn't work I'm very sorry I should have ended on a higher note HA okay okay okay I'm done with music puns forever good bye.
Images: Giphy; Amazon
