Bob Dylan favored to win Nobel prize for literature

Bob Dylan performs onstage during The 53rd Annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 13, 2011, in Los Angeles.

/ Kevin Winter/Getty Images

(CBS) Bob Dylan: Singer. Songwriter. Activist. Nobel laureate?

The music legend has surged to the top of betting agency Ladbrokes' list, and is now the odds-on favorite to win the Nobel prize for literature, Britain's The Guardian reports.

The paper reported Tuesday night that Dylan's odds tumbled from 100/1 to 10/1. On Wednesday, Ladbrokes announced his odds were now 5/1, putting Dylan ahead of Syraian poet Adonis (6/1), Japanese writer Haruki Murakami (8/1) and Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer (10/1).

Eighty percent of bets made in a 12-hour period went to Dylan, according to the Guardian.

Dylan won a Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power," and has also won 11 Grammys, a Golden Globe and an Academy Award. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.

The winner of the Nobel prize for literature will be announced Thursday. Check back here to see who won

Tell us: Do you think Dylan should be given the honor?

[AJWeberman]

Down by the river judge Simpson's walking around
Nothing shocks me more than that old clown

"Down by the river" in the area of great literature "judge Simpson" "judge" to act as one appointed to decide the winners of - judge a poetry contest such as the Nobel Prize Committee does "Nothing shocks me" "shock wave" a large-amplitude compression wave, as that produced by an explosion of dynamite invented by Nobel "more than that old clown" more than those antiquated idiot judges because they have not awarded me a Nobel Prize for Literature.

[wolfscottage]

"Everybody must get stoned" was about Dylan being publicly executed day after day in the press and elsewhere. It was a good hearted lament. His former friends/supporters had turned on him because he said he was an artist and NOT a "spokesman for a generation". Stoning was an ancient form of execution. No one took any other pop figures seriously so they didn't bother to "stone" them. Hence the "I would not feel so all alone" part of the chorus. The laughing in the song is him acknowledging that the uninformed would, no doubt, misinterpret this song just as they had his other songs. The dude is brilliant.

[PourpaixPourpaix]

I will always thank Bob Dylan for giving me insight into life when I was growing up in an entirely confusing time. Something like "Blowing in the Wind" clearly sets right from wrong in a highly literary way, and such songs make him highly deserving of such an honor.

Now, Rainy Day Women (Everybody must get stoned) is another example of what life in those times brought oneself to. And that characterization of life is a valuable in literature as anything Dickens did to characterize Victorian England, or Mark Twain did to characterize the post-colonial mid-West. The song is about someone who is trying to accomplish something, but is constantly sidetracked by others with less than desirable intent. Dylan is not telling people that they must get stoned. He is reflecting upon the attitudes of women that he knows, begging him to get stoned rather than doing something worthwhile and significant. I've always felt the song is a warning born from his experience. Original ..... perhaps, perhaps not. As it is almost straight from Greek mythology. The man-God Dyonysius, who learned the penalties of excessive consumption with the wild women of the forest before realizing the merits of moderate socialization.

[Arviebird]

Absolutely! His words were those of a true genius. He had his finger on the pulse of life in general and inspired many many folks in his generation and others. I think the guy has sides he's never even explored. I only wish he'd come out with some new ideas for all of us to ponder.

[andrewjsacks]

He deserves it. Odd for a songwriter, and some will find it inappropriate if he wins. Yet there is much poetry there, and genuine poetry, not merely good lyrics.

[PourpaixPourpaix]

It is odd, but it struck me as a surprisingly appropriate choice that was entirely unexpected.

[Jaylah54]

About time!

(To "Peachtrees": As if, "Everybody must get stoned" was the sum total of Dylan's poetry.)

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

[rubberrezi]

What an idiot. Dylan was a poet a for a generation, my generation. No one better put in words the angst and anguish of the 60's and 70's.

[peachtrees]

Everybody must get stoned....


I am sorry but this is ridiculous. Joan Baez is another thing she deserves recognition But Bob Dylan deserves credit for increasing drug usage.

Everybody must get stoned.....

[wolfmagic2012]

Ditto to rubberrezi: Evidently you haven't read or listened to his lyrics, or if you have, then you are incapable of understanding the words you read or listen to. Your critique is a pathetic slight to one of the greatest, if not The Greatest, lyricists of all time. Bob Dylan is a great choice for the Nobel in literature.

[siberian99]

You're an idiot - I wouldn't be surprised to find that you're unable to dress and bathe yourself... or walk. Why don't you do some more research before spouting off?