“Come writers and critics who prophesy 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.” So wrote Robert Allen Zimmerman — better known as Bob Dylan, in The Times They Are a-Changing. And indeed the times changed once again as Dylan just got the nod to receive this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature. His lyrics are poetic to be sure. But, perhaps it’s even more important that his words were political; especially during an American moment that calls for protest singers — but when most contemporary songwriters have left us blowin’ in the wind.

+ While there’s some controversy over the pick, New Yorker editor David Remnick argues we should embrace the moment: The wheel turns and sometimes it stops right on the nose. (It’s about time a rock star won a prize. Novelists have been getting all the fame, money, groupies and sex for long enough…)

+ CNN: A few Bob Dylan songs that changed the course of history. And from USA Today, seven (of the many) literary Bob Dylan songs.

+ Rolling Stone: 100 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs. (When it’s hard to narrow down your setlist to the top 100, you know it’s been a pretty good career.)