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 109
... closing can be a literal , physical action ; heart closing cannot . Furthermore , each phrase itself has two unresolved metaphorical implications . " Close his eyes for you " suggests a movie - star kiss , ethereal unsullied romance ...
... closing can be a literal , physical action ; heart closing cannot . Furthermore , each phrase itself has two unresolved metaphorical implications . " Close his eyes for you " suggests a movie - star kiss , ethereal unsullied romance ...
Page 117
... closing . The organ , regaining instrumental dignity after some of its earlier acrobatics , coordinates tightly with the dense percussion that has structured the song . The pattern of descending organ chords concludes in a drumroll ...
... closing . The organ , regaining instrumental dignity after some of its earlier acrobatics , coordinates tightly with the dense percussion that has structured the song . The pattern of descending organ chords concludes in a drumroll ...
Page 132
... closing " pump " lines would normally be spoken out loud as proverbial advice or chanted like a slogan ( “ 2 , 4 , 6 , 8 , organize and smash the state " ) . Lines from rock songs , heard over and over , need not be repeated aloud to ...
... closing " pump " lines would normally be spoken out loud as proverbial advice or chanted like a slogan ( “ 2 , 4 , 6 , 8 , organize and smash the state " ) . Lines from rock songs , heard over and over , need not be repeated aloud to ...
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Common terms and phrases
ABCB aesthetic ain't Al Kooper album artistic audience aural Babe Baby Ballad bass Beatles becomes Blonde on Blonde Bob Dylan chord change concert version couplet culture drums Dylan's songs Dylan's voice effect electric guitar emotional feel female Ferry's Folklore four fourth stanza Freewheelin Hard Rain harmonica Highway 61 Highway 61 Revisited Idiot Wind Idiot wind Blowing imagery imitate instrumental break Isis John Wesley Harding listener listener's melody meter Miss Lonely musical beat musicians narrative narrator narrator's Newport 65 oral organ chords outtake Oxford Town performance phrase piano pitch plays poetic recorded refrain released rhyme word riff rock Rolling Stone Sad-Eyed Lady scene second stanza Shelter shift singers sings someone song's sound stanza studio version Subterranean Homesick Blues suggests sung lines sweet lady syllables tambourine tape textual third stanza throughout the song Univ unresolved verse vowel woman Woody Guthrie words and music York