'If a song moves you, that's all that's important': Bob Dylan says even HE doesn't know what everything 'means' in his songs as he delivers Nobel lecture to claim the £700,000 prize

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Music icon Bob Dylan has delivered his long-awaited Nobel lecture, citing Buddy Holly and 'The Odyssey' among his inspirations, a relief for the Swedish Academy after it honoured the songwriter with its prestigious literature prize for the first time. 

The Nobel prizewinner said on Monday that unlike literature his songs were meant to be sung not read and that they only needed to move people, not to make sense.

The Swedish Academy's decision to award last year's prize for literature to Dylan, who had 'created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition', was seen by some as slap in the face by some mainstream writers of poetry and prose.

In his Nobel lecture, the notoriously media-shy Dylan said: 'Our songs are alive in the land of the living. But songs are unlike literature. They're meant to be sung, not read.'

'If a song moves you, that's all that's important. I don't have to know what a song means. I've written all kinds of things into my songs. And I'm not going to worry about it - what it all means,' he said in the speech posted on the Academy's website.

Bob Dylan delivered his speech to the Nobel prize committee to claim his £700,000 award 

Dylan, the first singer-songwriter to win the prize, was silent about the award for weeks after it was announced and he did not attend the prize ceremony and banquet.

Nobel laureates need to give a lecture within six months from the December 10 award ceremony in order to receive a £700,000 ($900,000) prize sum. It does not necessarily need to be delivered in Stockholm.

In his lecture, Dylan tells how Buddy Holly and a Leadbelly record transported him as a teenager into an unknown world, and he discusses three of his favourite books: Moby Dick, All Quiet on the Western Front and The Odyssey.

'The speech is extraordinary and, as one might expect, eloquent. Now that the lecture has been delivered, the Dylan adventure is coming to a close,' Swedish Academy secretary Sara Danius said of the 27-minute long submission.  

Normally, recipients of the prize will deliver the speech at a special ceremony in Stockholm, although the notoriously publicity-shy Dylan, 76, decided on another method.  

The veteran singer, pictured, apologised for failing to show up to the Nobel Prize banquet in Stockholm in December last year claiming he already had prior commitments 

In order to receive the prize and the £700,000 fund, Dylan had to deliver his lecture within six months of December 10. 

With the deadline rapidly approaching, the singer-songwriter delivered his message electronically. 

Dylan sent a message in December to the Nobel committee thanking him for the prize claiming he thought his chances of receiving it were as likely as 'standing on the moon. 

US ambassador to Sweden Azita Raji delivered the message. He said: 'I'm sorry I can't be with you in person, but please know that I am most definitely with you in spirit and honored to be receiving such a prestigious prize.' 

In the speech, sent to the Academy with an audio link in which Dylan reads it aloud, the enigmatic rock star reflects on the possible links between his lyrics and literature.

He said: 'When I first received this Nobel Prize for Literature, I got to wondering exactly how my songs related to literature.' 

He then cited musicians who inspired him - including Buddy Holly, whose music 'changed my life' and made him want to write songs when he was a teenager - and the classic novels that made a big impression on him, including 'Moby Dick', 'All Quiet on the Western Front' and 'The Odyssey'.

Dylan is the first songwriter to win the prestigious Nobel Literature Prize.

The lecture can take nearly any form, including a short speech, a performance, a video broadcast or even a song, and must be held within six months of December 10, the date of the Nobel prize ceremony and the anniversary of the death of the prize's founder Alfred Nobel.

He was honoured 'for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition', the Academy said when it announced Dylan as the winner in October.