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 50
... suggests for " Sad - Eyed Lady " the alternative understandings " My warehouse eyes / hides my Arabian drums / drugs . ” 24 The futile / feudal horn in " Shelter from the Storm " is yet another example . " Futile " enriches that song's ...
... suggests for " Sad - Eyed Lady " the alternative understandings " My warehouse eyes / hides my Arabian drums / drugs . ” 24 The futile / feudal horn in " Shelter from the Storm " is yet another example . " Futile " enriches that song's ...
Page 87
... suggests both outright rape and coldhearted seduction . The two uses of " it " in the couplet reinforce sexual overtones : " ain't it hard " refers to the theft but also suggests an erect penis , and " where it's at " suggests the ...
... suggests both outright rape and coldhearted seduction . The two uses of " it " in the couplet reinforce sexual overtones : " ain't it hard " refers to the theft but also suggests an erect penis , and " where it's at " suggests the ...
Page 109
... suggests weakness and wanting suggests strength . And appropriately , backed by ominous minor chords , the next image in this first stanza forms a double opposition , “ never weak but always strong , " rhymed with the clearly polarized ...
... suggests weakness and wanting suggests strength . And appropriately , backed by ominous minor chords , the next image in this first stanza forms a double opposition , “ never weak but always strong , " rhymed with the clearly polarized ...
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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