Bob Dylan has been presented with an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Boston's Berklee College of Music.
In accepting the degree he said, "Thank you, Berklee College of Music, for bestowing on me this prestigious honor. What a pleasant surprise. 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.”
Dylan has no plans to appear at any event commemorating the honorary degree, but students, faculty, alumni and visiting artists will take part in a concert this Wednesday in his honor, Watching the River Flow: A Roots Salute to Bob Dylan.
This is Dylan's first honorary degree from an American college or university since Princeton presented him one in 1970. He accepted one from Scotland’s University of St. Andrews in 2004.
In his 2004 memoir Chronicles, he wrote about the Princeton honor: “I was glad to get the degree, though. I could use it. The very look and touch and scent of it spelled respectability and had something of the spirit of the universe in it. After whispering and mumbling my way through the ceremony, I was handed the scroll. We piled back into the big Buick and drove away.”
Dylan is on tour in Europe with shows in Amsterdam tonight (Tuesday) and Wednesday.