Nearly 50 years after he sounded “Chimes of Freedom” on one of his earliest folk-rock albums, Bob Dylan, the mercurial pop troubadour, will be rewarded with a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor given by the United States, alongside such noteworthy figures as Toni Morrison, Madeleine Albright, John Glenn and John Paul Stevens.
The White House said in a statement that President Obama had named 13 recipients of the medal, which is granted to “individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”
Mr. Dylan, a former winner of the National Medal of Arts, was praised in the White House’s statement as being among “the most influential American musicians of the 20th century,” for “his rich and poetic lyrics” and for work that has “had considerable influence on the civil rights movement of the 1960s and has had significant impact on American culture over the past five decade.”
Full story: Bob Dylan and Toni Morrison to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom