Robert Zimmerman's Nobel - here come Bolan and Stewart

The award of the Nobel prize for literature to Robert Zimmerman is likely just the start of a string of Nobel's for the great pop lyricists. Ramon Saldarriaga, popular music critic for the Chicago Tribune, enthuses: 'This is the start of something big. If they think the poetry in Zimmerman's Idiot Wind, The Early Roman Kings and The Times Are A-Changing is classic, then a whole world opens up for the Nobel Committee.' Speculation is rife about which pop poet will next be elevated to Nobel status. Two towering, timeless pop scribes that immediately leap to mind are Marc Bolan and Rod Stewart. Bolan's Bang A Gong is Shakespearean in ambit, with echoes of Samuel Taylor Coleridge while Rod Stewart's All Right Now, immortalised by rock band Free, just goes unerringly to the heart of the human condition. These great lyrics capture the zeitgeist of the 60s and 70s but are also universal and echo down the passages of time. 'Everyone knows that to be really effective, poetry must be read, or preferably sung, out loud,' says critic James Manson of the Times Literary Supplement. 'Look at Homer - his poems were performed, with the lyre playing the role the guitar does today. The ancient Greeks showed us the way and today's pop lyricists have picked up the thread. Words are meant to be spoken and only the mouth can give them shape.' The Nobel Committee has finally twigged this under Peter Englund, appointed permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy in 2013. After all, who ever reads Nadime Gordimerle or Jaroslav Seifertov, previous winners of the prize, today? Zimmerman, Bolan and Stewart are still wildly popular. Bolan will probably not be considered as he died in 1977, although there have been reports that, like Elvis, he is just taking a break.

Bang a gong

Well you’re dirty and sweet, clad in black

Don’t look back and I love you

You’re dirty and sweet, oh yeah

Well you’re slim and you’re weak

You’ve got the teeth of a hydra upon you

You’re dirty sweet and you’re my girl.

Chorus:

Get it on, bang the gong , get it on

Get it on, bang the gong, get it on

You’re built like a car, you’ve got a hub cap diamond star halo

You’re built like a car, oh yeah

You’re an untamed youth that’s the truth with your cloak full of eagles

You’re dirty sweet and you’re my girl.

All Right Now

There she stood in the street
Smiling from her head to her feet
I said hey what is this
Now maybe baby
Maybe you're in need for a kiss
I said hey what's your name
Maybe we can see things the same
Now don't you wait or hesitate
Let's move before they raise the parking rate

I took her home to my place
Watching every move on her face
She said look what's your game
Are you trying to put me in shame
I said slow don't talk so fast
Don't you think that love can last
She said love Lord above
Now you're trying to trick me in love

All right now
Baby it's all right now
All right now
Baby it's all right now

Who's that girl, watch that girl

Look at that girl
She lives down my street
Who's that girl, w-w-w-watch that girl
Well look at that girl
She lives down my street