“Bob Dylan, Príncep d’Astúries de les Arts” by Shht! is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Berklee College of Music has bestowed Bob Dylan with an honorary Doctor of Music degree, in recognition of his lifetime achievements as a songwriter and figurehead in the modern development of the craft. The honoris causa comes six decades into Dylan’s career, touching folk, blues, gospel, country, and rock while coursing tales of American living, and putting a magnifying glass up to the feelings and sensations derived from poetic truth-telling.
With lyrics as a tool for analysis, Dylan has fruitfully assembled a songbook that speaks to the realities of the American experience: economic hardships, historical discrimination and injustice, pastoral practices versus big city ambitions, and particular attention to the heart’s desire, with descriptions of feminine allure. With a catalog of over 40 studio albums, his prolific output also includes books—the latest of which, The Philosophy of Modern Song, emphasizes the new accolade—and poetry.
“Thank you, Berklee College of Music, for bestowing on me this prestigious honor. What a pleasant surprise,” Dylan said. “Who knows what path my career might have taken if I’d been fortunate enough to learn from some of the great musicians who taught at Berklee. It’s something to think about.”
While presenting the award, Berklee President Jim Lucchese said, “This is an incredible moment for this institution. Bob Dylan’s music has shaped how the world hears itself. He’s an artist who has never stopped evolving, who keeps chasing truth through sound and language. That’s the spirit we try to cultivate here every day. Honoring him feels like a reaffirmation of the creative impulse that built this place.”
Matt Glaser, artistic director of Berklee’s American Roots Music Program, comments, “Bob Dylan has spent a lifetime learning, absorbing, and transforming every American song tradition, and Berklee strives to teach all the music that Dylan loves. His deep immersion in African American blues parallels much of Berklee’s curriculum, which is rooted in the distinctly American variants of the music of the African diaspora.”
He continues, “As anyone who has read his books or listened to his hundred-plus radio programs can attest, Dylan is also a great teacher and learner. “He shows us how to keep learning about music and the arts our whole lives through, and to embrace it all as one thing. I love the anecdote Dylan himself tells: he once went up to Thelonious Monk at the Five Spot in Greenwich Village, introduced himself, and said, ‘I play folk music down the street.’ Monk replied, ‘We all play folk music.’”
Before receiving the educational accreditation from one of music’s most well-respected institutions, Dylan had garnered 10 Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe. His musical distinction has also been recognized with Kennedy Center Honors, the National Medal of Arts, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He is also a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Nashville Songwriters, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and received a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation in 2008 and a Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016.
Dylan joins a list that includes previous recipients of the Doctor of Music from Berklee College of Music, including Duke Ellington, Aretha Franklin, Quincy Jones, Joni Mitchell, B.B. King, Ringo Starr, Tito Puente, Roberta Flack, Juan Luis Guerra, Loretta Lynn, and other national treasures known for their creative output.
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