Patti Smith performs Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" - Nobel Prize Award Ceremony 2016

She will never know how much this performance helped me in life, and what it taught me about dignity & recovery from my own anxious errors in life.

Smith said of her performance: "I hadn’t forgotten the words that were now a part of me. I was simply unable to draw them out. This strange phenomenon did not diminish or pass but stayed cruelly with me. I was obliged to stop and ask pardon and then attempt again while in this state and sang with all my being, yet still stumbling. It was not lost on me that the narrative of the song begins with the words “I stumbled alongside of twelve misty mountains,” and ends with the line “And I’ll know my song well before I start singing.” As I took my seat, I felt the humiliating sting of failure, but also the strange realization that I had somehow entered and truly lived the world of the lyrics."

This is how to honor your art while recognizing your own imperfection. Start, humbly apologize, and start again. And that itself is perfection.

When she apologised with such genuine, child-like humility I burst into tears. Such an incredible performance made even more so by her incredible vulnerability and raw emotion. Wow...I LOVE YOU PATTI!!

In that apology she became the song, she embodied every word that flows through its verses, in her humility she lay bare and naked its humble lyrics, she couldn’t have been better

It was at the point at which she forgot the words, apologised with such beauty and humility, and began to sing again, that I really started to listen. Patti, you carry in your voice and in your heart the agonising insight into the depth and terror of those who feel. Wonderful, sexy, original and mesmerising, but above all, breathtakingly brave. Break the rules! Make mistakes! Begin again! You are the heart of light. Thank you.

“Sorry, I’m so nervous”. Her humbleness made me choke. It takes more power to remain humble and human than to fight for fame. God bless you Patti.

One of the greatest and most moving performances ever.

All pretense was sucked out of that room. We are vulnerable children wandering in an often brutal wilderness and Patti Smith reminded us - using Dylan's words - of that.

Jesus she’s so real. I love the way she presents herself. No artifice, just human. So beautiful.

>who is able to stay calm when the audience is the exact kind of people who make the hard rain fall

suddenly everybody became human. that's the power of patti smith.

One of the purest, honest and beautiful performances I have seen.

Dear, dear Patti Smith, this is the version that made me cry. How much we need this song, now.

Patti Smith is clearly transcendent here, but just want to add a shout out to whomever put together this beautiful arrangement. Stunning. The steel guitar is perfect and so brilliantly played. The guitar player is passionately perfect. The whole arrangement is nigh unto sublime.

Her stumble in the delivery gave even more life to Dylan's incredible song!

You know what makes me feel good? Everybody commenting on this video. Beautiful people. May God bless all of you.

The grandmother of the punk movement was nervous to sing, human like all of us

Only a true legend like Patti Smith could turn a mistake into something even more beautiful than what was intended. Now it's both an iconic performance, and also a life lesson on how to respond to our own slip-ups.

This performance is absolutely beautiful. It makes us realise that the perfection that we seek is unnatural. There is beauty in simplicity and honesty. Simply accepting that you have made a mistake really makes it okay.