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 33
... melody with a harmonica reproduction of " My warehouse eyes , my Arabian drums . " This melody can easily be identified , even though the five renderings of the " warehouse " line differ . In the first three stanzas , Dylan sings each ...
... melody with a harmonica reproduction of " My warehouse eyes , my Arabian drums . " This melody can easily be identified , even though the five renderings of the " warehouse " line differ . In the first three stanzas , Dylan sings each ...
Page 106
... melody as published for the ABCB and DEFE segments . ( And far be it from me to do what musicologists have never done , to attach discursive meaning to melodic variations . ) For the last verse line and refrain , however , all six do ...
... melody as published for the ABCB and DEFE segments . ( And far be it from me to do what musicologists have never done , to attach discursive meaning to melodic variations . ) For the last verse line and refrain , however , all six do ...
Page 119
... melodic profile— “ It ain't me that you're looking for . " And the melody of these refrains , again , is one of very few elements in common with the five earlier performances . This version may strike one first as a parody of the studio ...
... melodic profile— “ It ain't me that you're looking for . " And the melody of these refrains , again , is one of very few elements in common with the five earlier performances . This version may strike one first as a parody of the studio ...
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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