Performed Literature: Words and Music by Bob DylanBob Dylan is not a poet. He is a singer-songwriter, a performing artist. The unit of his art, as collected and documented by his intended audience, is the live performance. Right now, no existing technological tool can give researchers ready access to his entire corpus of work. Revised from the author's Ph.D. dissertation (UC Berkeley, 1978) and again from its first edition (Indiana UP, 1982), Performed Literature develops a methodology for close analysis of verbal art that is heard, not seen, using as comparative examples 24 performances of 11 songs by Bob Dylan. The second edition adds a preface, two major appendices and one minor one, and a detailed index. |
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Page 13
... Hard Rain's A - Gonna Fall " springs even further , for the incident disappears completely . ( See Appendix A for text . ) The listener learns neither what happened nor what she ought to feel . Instead , she is led through a series of ...
... Hard Rain's A - Gonna Fall " springs even further , for the incident disappears completely . ( See Appendix A for text . ) The listener learns neither what happened nor what she ought to feel . Instead , she is led through a series of ...
Page 20
... hard ! " on a high note each time Ferry sings " it's a hard , " and they harmonize with him on " hard rain's gonna fall . " In each refrain somewhat differently , Ferry and the backup vocalists bring out the harsh consonance in the phrase " ...
... hard ! " on a high note each time Ferry sings " it's a hard , " and they harmonize with him on " hard rain's gonna fall . " In each refrain somewhat differently , Ferry and the backup vocalists bring out the harsh consonance in the phrase " ...
Page 180
... hard , it's a hard , and it's a hard [ And it's a hard , and it's a hard , and it's a hard , ha - hard , hard ] It's a hard rain's a - gonna fall [ And it's a hard rain's a - gonna fall . ] And what did you hear , my blue - eyed son ...
... hard , it's a hard , and it's a hard [ And it's a hard , and it's a hard , and it's a hard , ha - hard , hard ] It's a hard rain's a - gonna fall [ And it's a hard rain's a - gonna fall . ] And what did you hear , my blue - eyed son ...
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Common terms and phrases
aesthetic ain't album alliteration appear artistic audience Babe Baby beat becomes begins Blues Bob Dylan breaks chords closing comes concert continues contrast couplet create culture drums Dylan's voice effect emotional example express eyes fall feel female final follow four fourth give guitar hard harmonica Idiot Wind imagery instrumental Isis it's Italy John lady lead leave less listener live Lonely looking mark meaning measures Miss move narrator narrator's never notes opening oppositions organ outtake patterns performance phrase pitch plays poetic rain recorded refer refrain released repeated response rhyme rock Rolling Stone sad-eyed scene seems sense shift Side sings song song's sound stands stanza structure studio suggests sung tell third throughout tradition understand verse vocal voice Warner Bros woman words York